With the coming "holiday season," there's a feeling of electricity in the air. It could be from all the school-aged students anticipating the beginning of break. It could be from the anxious and stressed adults trying to make sure to buy their children the right presents from Santa. It could simply be from the lack of humididty in the air. Nonetheless, we can all feel it.
We all looked forward to it as children. No matter what religion or lack of religion, we all anticipated the winter break. Back then, for me, it was called Christmas break. But times have changed, and that's no longer socially acceptable/politically correct. It's now called "holiday break" or just "winter break." And I find that ridiculous.
The first reason is this: IT HAPPENS FOR CHRISTMAS. No matter what, the 25th is always smack dab in the middle of it. There are no other holidays during that break except for New Year, which is simply celebration of a new year arriving, no religious strings attatched. But it's not called, has never been called, and will never be called "New Year break."
"But wait!" you shout. "What about Hanukkah?" I respond by telling you to sit down and shut up, it's story time. Not really. I suppose it's more of a history lesson. Does anyone who is not of the Jewish faith here know the story of Hanukkah? I suppose some might. It is a celebration festival for a miricle that occurred a long, long time ago. After rebuilding their temple, the Jewish needed olive oil to light their menorah. But they only had enough oil to burn for one day. Miraculously, the candles burned for eight days, until a new supply of oil was able to arrive. The Jewish religious leaders declared it a miracle and created Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, to celebrate it. Pretty cool history, huh? Too bad it's not that big of a deal in Jewish culture. It's not that significant of a holiday. In basic Christianity, we don't have a holiday like that because we don't really celebrate the minor(ish) miracles. I'm not saying it's bad to do so, I'm just saying this: Hanukkah's not that big of a deal. It's mostly so well known because it falls relatively close to Christmas some years. This year, not so much. Hanukkah this year is from December 8th to December 14th. Little off. If we really cared that much about valuing Jewish holidays, why don't we celebrate Passover? It's one of the most widely observed Jewish holiday. But let's be honest. We really only like Hanukkah because gives us a way to seem like "holiday break" is for everyone.
"Okay, but what about Kwanzaa? I remember Kwanzaa from elementary school," you might say. And that's cool and all. But what is Kwanzaa? Pugetsound.edu describes Kwanzaa, saying it's "An African American and Pan-African holiday celebrating family, community and culture, Kwanzaa is a secular observance with some religious participation." It's essentially a holiday simply created around the time that Christmas was to let others feel included (and once again, I'm not bashing it, I'm just sayin' it as I sees it.) It was created because of Christmas.
"Well, isn't there some Islamic holiday around there?" you question. Not really. There's Eid al-Adha, which occurs around October this year. The last time it occurred around Christmas was in 2006, when it was celebrated between December 30th and 31st. This is largely due to the difference in the Islamic calendar and the Gregorian calendar that most of the English speaking world uses. So sure, every once in a blue moon Eid will occur around Christmas.
So let's face the facts. It's Christmas break. Stop with the fake equality thing. You know you don't give a damn about any of the other holidays.
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