Happy Holy Days

Somewhere along the way, we, as a North American society, have stopped saying “Merry Christmas!” and are now to greet each other with the ubiquitous “Happy Holidays!” And honestly, this is a shift in our culture I actually like. I worked at a mall during the holiday season throughout college, and my boss required that we say, “Merry Christmas!” to our customers. And this made me uncomfortable. What if the customer did not profess the Christian faith? What if they had no intention of celebrating the birth of the Christian Savior? And it didn’t help that one of my co-workers was Hindu and another practiced Wicca. So I welcome the change.

And for me, it is not just a matter of being politically correct. I see this change as a way to reclaim a day sacred to my tradition. It is a chance to take the day back from commercialism and consumerism run amuck. It is an opportunity to make the day holy once again. (Seriously, I don’t understand why so many people who call themselves Christian are in such a tizzy about this; do they really want the words “Christ mass” attached to the worship of the almighty dollar?)

Yes, I am all for letting the culture have its holidays. And letting people of faith once again have our Holy Days. It’s not just Christians who are celebrating this time of year. Where I live, we have folks lighting menorahs for Hanukah (and today is the seventh day of the Festival of Lights), and others burning candles for the Solstice (today, the shortest day of the year, marks the return of the sun), and some who will be setting ablaze the kinara for Kwanzaa in the week following Christmas, and others, like me, who look to the flames of the Advent wreath to light the path as we journey toward Christmas. These are our Holy Days. And here, we jokingly wish each other, “Happy Hanukwansolstimas”. And while that’s fun to say, and it makes me laugh that we can’t get it right, somehow it doesn’t capture all that is beautiful, unique and distinct about our individual traditions. So you know what, I’ll just say this:

Happy Holy Days, friends. Peace be with you all.