’Tis the Season for “Happy Holidays”
<p>Before I go any further, I would like to clarify that there is no war on Christmas and I am not here to wage one. The fact that people feel threatened by the mere acknowledgment that Christmas isn’t a universal holiday is pathetic. This is an unfounded complaint from people who have never experienced persecution or marginalization so they instead translate their discomfort into a moral panic for Fox News to amplify as a threat to their dominant societal group. Something that challenges your positionality and privilege is not a threat, it is an opportunity.</p>
<p>To me, someone who was raised in an American conservative Jewish home, “the holidays” meant the High Holidays, Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, and other Fall harvest holidays. Hanukkah begins on the 25th of Kislev, which usually takes place in late fall or early winter. This holiday was never that significant in my family because it’s more culturally-signficiant story than a holiday of religious importance. Hanukkah’s recent misrepresentation as the Jewish Christmas is perpetuated by greeting card capitalism and umbrella terms like “happy holidays”. This broad phrasing assumes that other non-Christmas holidays are being celebreated around the same time as Christmas, which is sometimes true, by chance, and sometimes not.</p>
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