Religious Holidays & Religious Symbols

Christmas Symbols & Holidays

The latter part of the year in the United States is affectionately known as the "holiday season" and less affectionately known as the "silly season." This is the time of year when we experience a cluster of holidays - it starts off slowly with Halloween, picks up speed with Thanksgiving, and as we approach the end of the year, we move quickly with Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa, New Year's, and sometimes Ramadan. This holiday season is heavily structured with tradition: trick-or-treating, family dinners, Christmas shopping, and of course rancorous lawsuits. What would American holidays be without church/state lawsuits?

Government Observances of Good Friday & Easter

Although making Christian holy days like Good Friday an official government holiday is a practice often accepted as a matter of course in the past, recently more and more people have begun to object to what they perceive as unfair favoritism being shown towards Christianity and Christian beliefs. Because of this, they are challenging the practice of accommodating Christian beliefs in ways not generally accepted for the beliefs of other religions — but with mixed results.

American Blue Laws Past & Present

Should the government try to keep certain businesses and activities "off limits" on the sabbath of any particular religion? Is there a "secular purpose" to mandating one particular day off which just "happens" to be the sabbath of the country's dominant religion?