Stephanie Briggs - Handmade Knitting My Way Through Chronic Pain

Knitting by hand, owned by three cats and a manbeast

We Must Not Offend Anyone! – Political Correctness and “Merry Christmas”

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Some people at this time of year prefer to say “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas”, because they’re afraid it will offend non-Christians.

I’m not Christian. And I don’t really give a crap about what religion people are trying to tiptoe around when they do stuff like this. More often than not, they seem to end up tripping over their own feet in the process.

But what I am interested in is what the concept is about. I don’t think it’s about political correctness at all. I think that once again, most people have unwittingly assigned the wrong word to this problem.

Is it political correctness or is it a simple acknowledgment of multiculturalism? (BTW, I don’t do political correctness, either. I think some people take it way too far. Get hobbies – knitting is a worthy one.)

Not everyone’s Christian, Jewish, Muslim, atheist, agnostic, wiccan, stop me any time… holiday seasons vary according to the country people live in. In countries where the population is predominantly Muslim, a traditional greeting during Ramadan is

  • “Ramadan Mubarak!” (“Blessed Ramadan!”)

Other greetings include:

  • “Ramadan Kareem!”
    (“Noble (or Generous) Ramadan!”), and
  • “Kul ‘am wa enta bi-khair!”
    (“May every year find you in good health!”)
As far as I know, there is relatively little argument beyond this about how to greet people during this holy time.  (If I’m wrong, please use my contact page to get in touch, and I’ll be happy to correct the error. I minored in Religion in my undergrad degree, and so learned received a very basic education regarding Islam. I’ve since done some informal reading on it. Very interesting, with a rich history.)
The third example of greeting could even be held up as non-denominational, in my opinion – since when do you have to be of any particular belief persuasion to wish someone else a year of good health? Plus, if you learn the Arabic form, you’ll impress all your friends at pub quizzes.

A question for my readers:

Is the United States the only country in which people publicly tie themselves into knots, year after year, over what to say to each other depending on where the Earth is in relation to the Sun, particularly as November slides into December?

 

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