Christmas should be 'downgraded' to help race relations says Labour think tank
Christmas should be downgraded in favour of festivals from other religions to improve race relations, says an explosive report.
Labour's favourite think-tank says that because it would be hard to "expunge" Christmas from the national calendar, 'even-handedness' means public organisations must start giving other religions equal footing.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23418970-details/Christmas+should+be+%27downgraded%27+to+help+race+relations+says+Labour+think+tank/article.do
I dont think this will be a vote winner, but we could all, save a lot of money that we would otherwise spend on useless presents and too much food
Just for the record Christmas has been banned before, when Oliver Cromwell Banned Christmas
When Oliver Cromwell established the Protectorate in England in 1653, it was a much a religious revolution as it was political. Cromwell and the victorious Parliamentarians belonged to the protestant religous sect known as the Puritans.The Puritans were so named becuase of their attempts to "purify" the Christian church by adopting more basic forms of worship. And among their chief targets was anything that could be tied to the practices of the Roman Catholic Church -- and, by extension the Anglican, or Church of England.Including the celebration of Christmas.Driven by Puritan notions of religious purity, in 1647 Parliament banned the celebration of Christmas. Gone were such pagan ideas as Christmas Trees, feasting, caroling, and decorations (and, indeed, they were borrowed from Pagan winter celebrations) . Nativity scenes were banned as the worship of idols. Indeed, even the word Christmas was frowned upon as taking the Lord's name in vain.One thing that the Puritans objected to in particular was the idea of Wassailing, in which the underclass would go from house to house, begging for treats in exchange for drinking a toast to the family. The drink, wassail, was a hot spiced wine. The result of the wassailing sometimes was an out of control drunken revelry, which is why the Puritans objected so strenuously.The ban was lifted in 1660, after Cromwell was ousted. But the Puritans were not the first to discourage Christmas celebrations. In 1583, the Scotch Presybterians decided that there were no bibical foundations for a Christmas celebration. Christmas remained a normal working day for Scots until 1958.The anti-Christmas movement made its appearance in the New World when the Pilgrims (known then as the Separatists) banned Christmas celebrations in 1659. They, too, thought that it had too many pagan overtones. It also apparently reminded them of the Church of England, which they had left behind.The ban in Massachusetts lasted for 22 years.Today, Christmas celebrations still are banned by some religious groups, including the Jehovah's Witnesses.
Baa humbug :-)
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So...
ReplyDeleteIt's as if people insist of celebrating a man's birthday, though that man has never given any indication he would like such a thing. Furthermore, they choose, not his own day of birth, but that of someone he can't stand. [Saturnalia] And they lace the celebration with customs and goings on of which he would never approve. [Jesus lived simply; Xmas is the uber materialistic holiday of the year, not to mention the pagan trappings you highlighted] That's why we (Jehovah's Witnesses) don't celebrate Christmas.
All the same, we have nothing against other people celebrating it, and I agree with you, it's won't be popular trying to downplay the holiday. The anti-PC types are real touchy about that sort of thing.
Besides what you've pointed out, I've also read that Xmas was a somewhat obscure holiday, not in the same league as, say, Easter, until Charles Dickens popularized it with his story A Christmas Carol.