Weekly Poll: Should Christmas Be a Government Holiday?
Christmas has long been a popular holiday in America — largely due to the predominance of Christianity. Should it, however, remain an official government holiday? After all, the religious holidays of other faiths are not declared official holidays, so isn't this a form of favoritism towards Christianity? What this comes down to is a question over whether Christmas can/should be treated as a secular holiday (alongside whatever religious meaning which individuals might invest in it personally).
If Christmas is necessarily and inherently a religious holiday, then the government can't really get entangled in it — which means the government cannot make it an official holiday with time off. If, however, Christmas is also a secular holiday without any necessary religious aspects, then the government is free to treat it like other secular holidays such as Memorial Day or the Fourth of July.
If Christmas were treated as a religious holiday, then some Christians would get uptight over the idea of not automatically having Christmas off from work, faced now with the prospect of actually having to use one of their own vacation or personal days in order to be home with their families. I can sympathize with this reaction, but what they fail to realize is that this is exactly the situation which has always faced the members of other religions. I wonder how many Christians have given any thought to how they can expect to have their major holidays automatically off while others have to use personal or vacation days — assuming they can get off at all.
The status quo has traditionally been one of privileging Christians at the expense of other religions — and since that privileging has persisted for so long, too many Christians have come to expect it as their right. They expect their holidays to be given priority over any other religion's holy days. A disturbingly similar situation has existed with every other case of Christianity losing its special, officially sanctioned status: school prayer, bible reading in school, etc. If our government treats Christian holidays like it treats other religious holidays, I won't be upset.
On the other hand, if Christmas is treated as a secular holiday, then Christians would be happy that they could continue to benefit, but wouldn’t that be something of a pyrrhic victory? Christians who are most invested in the so-called "War on Christmas" would not be pleased, nor would any Christians who dislike how secular and commercialized Christmas has become. They can either preserve the practical aspect of a traditional privilege (days off from work) or they can preserve what they perceive as the Christian nature of Christmas. Which they choose will say a lot about what they really value.
Comments
I must admit, I’m a christian at heart, but we do not celebrate Christmas as Jesus’s birth. We celebrate it as a day of giving. Doesn’t everyone? I believe that it should remain a national holiday. Sure most Christians celebrate it that way, but let them celebrate it the way they want to. Other people do all sorts of things on that holiday and to take that away, there would be no christmas break for kids from school or no special gatherings of freinds and family once a year. It’s just something to think about, “what if there was no christmas?”
Excuse me, Austin, but I need to send you this message on a mostly unrelated subject. Some theists have argued that it is mathematically unlikely that we would come to exist without divine intervention (we are “mathematical improbabilites). I was pretty sure you had a page responding to this which I read and want to read again, but I can’t find it now. How do I get to it?
411314,
Try:
http://atheism.about.com/library/weekly/aa021799.htm
I am an atheist but I believe Christmas should be a government holiday. Why? Because most Americans are Christians. Government is run by paid citizens, appointed, hired, and elected. Government agencies could not compete with the private world if a requirement of working for the government would be to work on Christmas. Market forces and common sense say employees are off on Christmas, not necessarily because the businesses or government agencies are respecting the religious meaning of Christmas, but simply because the vast majority of employees want to be off that day. Comparing the act of closing government offices on Christmas to school prayer is invalid. The former is a matter of good business sense; the latter is resepcting the establishment of religion and is not accetpable. Indeed, courthouses are closed on Christmas day, but they don’t display Christmas trees or nativity scenes.
I think the question should be put differently. It’s not a matter of whether Christmas is or can be secular, but rather, are there enough secular elements to Christmas to justify making it a public holiday independently of its religious elements. If it can’t clear that threshold without its religious elements, it’s out. If it can, it’s in.
Solution: Abolish all the federal days off and give everyone that many days of extra annual leave. So instead of the standard 14 days off you get 20. If you want to take off on Talk Like a Pirate Day, you can!
I believe we should rename it the winter soltice and continue as a holiday.Also in spring it should be the
spring solstice;summer,fall,etc.
Many non-Chrisitans celebrate Christmas. It is likely given off because most people would ask for the day off and thus most places would not be able to function properly and close for the day.
One thing bugs me about all these polls: if you don’t know/don’t care, don’t vote. Why waste time voting if you really don’t care?
The way I look at it is, “the annual tradition of giving gifts”,,, mostly for children.
I like Todd’s idea: If we eliminate Christmas from the list of federal holidays, we should still get a day off at some point… I wouldn’t want to give up a day away from work…
I say we go back to the traditional form of celebrating Christmas in America: by attacking Hessian troops encamped at Trenton, New Jersey!
Voted ‘don’t know,’ but meant ‘don’t care.’
You make an interesting point. But why limit it to Christmas. After all, aren’t Saturday and Sunday the sabbath days of various religions, e.g.,Jewish and Seventh Day Adventists on Saturday and most Christians on Sunday? I suppose that we could also consider observation of them as tributes to Saturn and the Sun. I think maybe I’d rather honor Wodin and Thor.
On a related issue WTOP News in Washington DC reports: “Starting next week, Metro will roll out a set of advertisements on its buses sponsored by the American Humanist Association (AHA), a non-theist group. The ads will show a picture of a fake Santa Claus and read: ‘Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness’ sake.’” http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=30&sid=1515427