Is Christmas inclusive of nonchristians?
WILLIAM GOULD
Although not my favourite holiday or feast, Christmas makes my shortlist of days that I look forward to with eager anticipation. By the commercials and lights on the streets, I have a sincere hunch that I am not a lone soldier. As our city, nation and world prepares for Dec. 25, there seems to be something unifying and inclusive about Christmas.
In Canada and the greater part of the world, Christmas is inescapable. I am sure there are countries overseas where Christmas is negligible; immediately the Middle East comes to mind, but for the Canadian that is not the norm. Christmas becomes pre-eminent.
However, in a society as multicultural and diverse as Canada, a problem immediately arises. The problem is not the day of Christmas being celebrated on Dec. 25 as in past moons, but rather a modern dilemma. Not all of Canada is Christian. We are a mosaic of Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, and many other faiths. As a result, there are those among us who have sought to change Christmas itself in an attempt to solve a paradox: how to celebrate the feast of Jesus Christ’s birth, without mentioning the Saviour himself.
The Christian, however, must remember that they do not have a monopoly on religious feasts and holidays during the months preceding and proceeding Christmas. Members of the Jewish faith celebrate Hanukkah and often Ramadan is celebrated relatively near to Christmas by Muslims. It is a time littered with feasts, festivals, and ceremony across the religions of the world, Christianity being one of them.
It is not my intention to degrade or question the validity of these other feasts, festivals and celebrations, but rather raise awareness to an interesting reality. It is a reality that I find odd, and it is a reality everywhere this Christmastide: that by omitting the words to “God rest ye merry gentlemen” in a café as the melody plays on or selling reindeers but not creches it is hardly suggesting a season of all faiths. For better or worse, these images of reindeers, snowmen, and Santa Clause have become so intrinsic to the Christian feast that it is nearly impossible to separate them. The problem is not with Christmas, the problem is with Christ. Rather then making an effort to be pluralistic, it has become easier to cop out and suggest the lie that this is a season of no faith of any religion. This becomes an affront not to the Christian solely, but men and women of all faiths of all creeds who celebrate this season. When society has censored itself in an attempt to please people of all faiths, it appears rather crass and ignorant to all beliefs.
I have never been offended by an orthodox Jew offering me a blessing or a Muslim offering me a prayer, or a Catholic offering the sacrifice of the mass. In each case, I have felt honoured that they feel my soul worthy to be prayed for, celebrated, and saved. If a Jew was to wish me a happy Hanukkah or a Muslim a successful Ramadan, how would I feel excluded, when they have made an effort to include me in their lives and their traditions? To celebrate one’s religion publicly is hardly exclusive; the problem occurs when it begins to make people uncomfortable. Rarely do people of faith get uncomfortably hostile with other people’s religions. It is almost always people who avoid faith and religion altogether that see Christianity as a relic and its feasts as nonsense, but yet for some reason they continue to celebrate them. All of this bears a striking resemblance to the first Christmas in the small town of Bethlehem, and something strikingly odd about that first holy night. At the first Christmas, not a Christian was in sight but only a handful of poor and rugged Jewish shepherds and three learned pagans who had travelled from a far-away land; there seems to be something oddly inclusive about that.
William Gould is a first-year science student at the University of Winnipeg.
