[Vision2020] On the season

[whayman at adelphia.net]

I must agree with chasuk's assertion that Christmas is not necessarily an American (US of A, I assume) holiday. Blame it on the Brits, perhaps, but I remember one Christmas Eve in Ernakulum, a city on the southern Malabar (spice) coast of India wherein I entered a less than high class restaurant for dinner and was greeted with turkey (uh, sure! of course it was!) and the sounds of Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" (quite sure) over the speakers. Hard to describe the mixture of of how it felt-- cognitive and emotional dissonance may come close.

Warren Hayman

---- Chasuk <chasuk at gmail.com> wrote: 
> On 12/17/05, Phil Nisbet <pcnisbet1 at hotmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > Christmas is an American Holiday.
> 
> I've lived in a few places in the world, and this is no longer
> particularly true.  First, I assure you that Christmas is celebrated
> in most of Europe, though they manage to celebrate it without quite as
> much obnoxiousness, nor does it seem to be as interminable.  Second,
> I've listened to Christmas jingles in both Korea and Japan, and seen
> Santa Claus there.  We can't really even call Christmas an American
> invention, as we can thank Charles Dickens for that.  Yes, Santa Claus
> in his current guise and popularity we owe to the Coca Cola Company,
> and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer we owe to Montgomery Wards.  But
> Christmas itself is now definitely international.
> 
> > there is a lot to be said for a season when we first remember good will toward our fellow man
> 
> I don't see that Christmas as actually existing.  I am not a
> Christian, so I am happy for the secularization of Christmas, but
> Christmas goodwill seems to me about as sincere as Barbi's smile.
> 
> > Its good to be an American, regardless of our politics or of our religion.
> 
> I couldn't disagree more.  I do enjoy being an American, but I would
> also enjoy being Canadian, or Swiss, or Belgian, or [insert a list of
> about 50 other nationalities].  Patriotism itself makes me queasy,
> especially when it is attached to sentiments such as "regardless of
> our politics or of our religion."  I wouldn't voluntarily reside in a
> country which was a theocracy, for example.
> 
> > I hope I am not stirring up any more controversy so soon after settling the
> last one,
> 
> Controversy is fun, as long as we all remember that disagreement is
> supposed to be educative, and not about the sharpening of daggers.  At
> least, that's what civilized controversy is about TO ME, and that is
> the only type of controversy in which I am interested in engaging. 
> Leave the cuts and scrapes to little kids and politicians.
> 
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