By Chelsea Titus
Round Table editor
Separating church and state is very difficult to do nowadays. There is always conflict. It’s hard to take other people’s feeling into effect; especially when it conflicts one’s own personal views, to make sure no one is offended.
For example, schools have renamed the classic “Christmas Break” to “Winter Break.” Other religious holidays have also come in to effect. Frederick County also gives school days off for Jewish holidays such as Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur to balance out the Christian holidays given off.
In a broad sense, around the country, little changes have been made to “make everyone happy.”
For most Americans, the holiday season is thought of as a combination of holidays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s, and all the days in between. These holidays are now being viewed as secular and have been celebrated non-religiously by the American public.
In today’s society, many symbols have been court ruled as secular; such as Santa Claus and Christmas trees, in order to modernize views.
But what about holiday greetings?
There seems to be a renewed debate this holiday season about saying the phrase “Merry Christmas” versus “Happy Holidays.” The main concern for this dilemma is religion.
Those against saying “Merry Christmas” say that it’s a phrase used only by Christians. They argue that it offends non-Christian religions.
On the other hand, Christians believe that saying “Happy Holidays” takes away from their point of Christmas, Jesus’ birth.
When somebody says “Happy Holidays” to me, I feel that that they are wishing me well on all of the November/December holidays that I celebrate, and I appreciate it.
On the other hand, when I was younger and somebody said “Happy Holidays,” to me, I took it as “Have a Merry Christmas.” Now that I’m older and I understand the difference, I’m saddened of how fewer people actually say “Merry Christmas.” Because I feel that it loses the real value of how Christmas was started.
I know “Happy Holidays” is used so no one is offended, but saying two words one month of the year isn’t that big of a deal.
As a Christian, I wish someone would be willing to say “merry Christmas” for a change without having to be religious.
Don’t get me wrong, it is fine to say “Happy Holidays,” but I love saying “Merry Christmas.” I have just been used to saying it growing up.
To me, saying “Happy Holidays” is too commercial, too generic. If one were to see “Happy Holidays” at a mall or in an advertisement, then it seems like it’s just for business.
It’s like businesses are saying “Have a happy holiday and come buy our products.” There aren’t many businesses nowadays that say, “Have a merry Christmas and buy our products.”
These businesses use the “Happy Holidays” phrase to secularize the winter greeting and still advertise their products.
Secularizing and modernizing products, greetings, or symbols maintain the broad views of society.
By saying “Merry Christmas,” one is not only establishing the meaning of Christmas as a holiday, but reinforcing how Christmas came to be.
Have a merry Christmas… or a happy holiday.
