Why do people freak out about "Happy holidays"?

aimeeandbeatles

watermelon
Joined
Apr 5, 2007
Messages
20,112
I often read articles where people saying the world is doomed and kittens will die because people say "Happy holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas."

Personally, I don't see how it really matters?

Also, why the "happy" or "merry"? Because for a lot of people its a sad time because it's a sad time. Isn't it sorta rubbing it in to tell them to be happy? And isn't
 
Because Xmas is a Christian holiday. Making it something else changes the whole concept of this celebration.
 
This whole "happy/merry _________" stuff has, for the most part, become mere social noise like "have a nice day." I am starting to really hate it, because somebody wishing me a "Merry Christmas" right after an unresolved argument or telling me to "have a nice day" right after I've just signed the paperwork to have my cat euthanised is disgusting.

I don't care if people want to wish me a Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays - as long as they sincerely mean it.
 
"And isn't" what?


My dad makes a big deal out of it. I really don't care.

I don't care much for the whole "War on Christmas" thing. If anything it pushes me towards the more conservative Christian (especially Puritan) position of opposing the holiday.

Generally though I don't care what holidays people celebrate so long as they don't get upset when others do differently . That seems the appropriate biblical (Roman 14-based) position.
 
I don't care much for the whole "War on Christmas" thing. If anything it pushes me towards the more conservative Christian (especially Puritan) position of opposing the holiday.

That's not "conservative", that's "protestant", which is a novelty and thus cannot be conservative.
 
I like saying Happy Holidays just to piss off people like Bill O'Reilly:


Link to video.

It starts getting good about 3:00 in...

Isn't that fascism?
:lol:

O'Reilly seems a bit toned down over previous years:


Link to video.



And here is some choice irony.

Minutes ago, Fox News wished its viewers "Happy Holidays," thus joining the secularist politically-correct card-carrying ACLU members who have for years waged a "War on Christmas."

With the might of News Corp. onboard, surely a nationwide crackdown on crèches is already underway, and no doubt Santa and his elves will be rounded up before Christmas.

Oh, how the tides have turned.

It was only two years ago that Bill O'Reilly was declaring victory, claiming to have "won this war" against the "very effective movement underway to wipe out, in the public square, all vestiges of Christmas." He decried how "Stores were ordering employees not to say 'Merry Christmas,'" and said that "If I had not done the campaign, then the forces of darkness would have won. There's no question about that."

O'Reilly proclaimed at the time: "We were able to convince the major retailers to not order their employees to not say 'Merry Christmas,' to stop that nonsense. We won that." But now, O'Reilly is unable to convince even his own employer not to use the vicious, hateful "Happy Holidays."

Oh, there have been chinks in the armor before. Even back in 2005, no doubt due to the machinations of some infiltrator, Fox News' online store was selling "Holiday" ornaments, and even exhorting O'Reilly's audience to "Put your holiday tree in 'The No Spin Zone' with this silver glass 'O'Reilly Factor' ornament." The day after this perfidy was noted, the references to "holiday" were changed to "Christmas."

Earlier this year, it became clear that this treason against Christmas was spreading through the Fox family. First, White House correspondent Major Garrett wished President Obama - on behalf of Fox news! - "a very happy and joyous 2009 holiday season." Garrett could have been written off as a mere Benedict Arnold in the War on Christmas... but Fox & Friends host Steve Doocy also appeared to slip the next month, referring to his program's "holiday party" before properly correcting himself.

And even O'Reilly himself told Dick Morris that Morris' new book "makes a great Christmas/holiday/Chanukah book, gift, whatever."

Once Christmas' commander-in-chief defected, it was only a matter of time.

Jon Stewart and the rest of the self-described "liberal secular fags" at Comedy Central and across the country have won.
 
Because Xmas is a Christian holiday. Making it something else changes the whole concept of this celebration.

Christmas is a Pagan holiday... just like Easter.

CHRISTMAS

Christmas was celebrated by pagan sun-worshippers for thousands of years before the Messiah was even born. It all started during the building of the tower of Babel. Nimrod supervised the operation and was called the sun-god and worshipped as such. To end this worship, Nimrod's uncle Shem, Noah's eldest son, killed Nimrod and cut his body into small pieces then scattered his body parts across the land.

Ishtar or Easter, also known by her biblical name Semiramis was the widow of Nimrod. She was called the "Queen of heaven" and claimed to have been impregnated by Nimrod through the rays of the sun and later had a son by the name of Tammuz who had a miraculous birth on December 25th. Pagans believed that Nimrod was reincarnated as Tammuz and so Easter married her son Tammuz. Pagan sun-worshippers celebrated the birthday of the reincarnate sun-god on December 25th. Scripture is very clear that we are not to celebrate this particular holiday.

The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough, to make cakes to the Queen of Heaven, and to pour out drink offerings to other deities, that they may provoke Me to anger. (HIM Jeremiah 7:18)

The passage above is obviously referring to making Christmas cookies and leaving those cookies and a glass of milk for Nimrod's widow Easter who was called the queen of heaven. The only difference is now those offerings are left for Santa (Satan) himself. Let's move on and read another passage from Scripture.

Thus says YaHuWaH, "Do not learn the way of the gentiles, and do not be dismayed at the signs of the heaven; for the gentiles are dismayed at them. For the customs of the peoples are vanity; for one cuts a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it not move. (HIM Jeremiah 10:2-4)

This passage is obviously referring to cutting down the Christmas tree, putting it on some sort of tree stand, and decorating it. Once you learn why it had become customary to use an erect evergreen tree that has a pointed end decorate it with big red balls you will realize the extent of the perversion in this holiday. The erect tree symbolizes Nimrod's erect masculinity. The tree was evergreen because evergreen trees are full of life year round, like Nimrod's penis. The tree was pointed at the end just like Nimrod's pecker. The big red balls that dangle off the tree, well you get the picture. This holiday is perversion at its best.

Every sun-god was born on December 25th. Amun-Ra, Horus, Mithra, Tammuz, and Zeus were born on December 25th. If there was one day that the Messiah was not born, it was December 25th. In fact the Scripture is quite clear that Messiah was born late September or early October on the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles.

EASTER SUNDAY

Easter or Ishtar, also known by her biblical name Semiramis and later called the "Queen of heaven" was the widow of Nimrod and mother of Tammuz. Easter is the bare breasted pagan fertility goddess of the east. Legend has it that she came out of heaven in a giant egg, landing in the Euphrates river at sunrise on the first Sunday after the vernal equinox, busted out, and turned a bird into an egg laying rabbit.

To honor this event, pagan sun-worshippers would go out early in the morning and face to the east to watch their sun-god arise over the horizon before having a mass (sacrifice) in which the priest of Easter would sacrifice three month old human infants and take the eggs of Easter and die them in the blood of the sacrificed infants. The blood-red colored Easter eggs would later hatch on December 25th, the same day her son Tammuz the reincarnate sun-god would be born...how convenient!

Easter married her son Tammuz who was by legend the reincarnate sun-god. Tammuz went pig hunting and was gored to death by a wild boar and that is why pagans eat ham on Easter. Because Tammuz was killed when he was forty years old, pagans fast one day for each of the years that he lived leading into Easter. This practice is known as Weeping for Tammuz by pagans but called Lent by Catholics.
 
Merry [beep] Christmas and a happy [beep] Festivus!
 
Because Xmas is a Christian holiday. Making it something else changes the whole concept of this celebration.

almost every religion has a holiday around this time of year and buying gifts for friends and family isn't exactly a Christian only behavior. So using happy holidays is an attempt to be inclusive to everyone without being overly presumptuous about their personal religious beliefs.
 
Because they want something to freak out about.

Cleo
 
Because Xmas is a Christian holiday. Making it something else changes the whole concept of this celebration.

People celebrate more than just Christmas during the "Government mandated Winter break that occurs in the 2 weeks leading up to the new year"

Saying "Merry Christmas" is good if you know that the other person is somebody who celebrates Christmas. If it's just some guy you don't know - maybe he's celebrating something else during the break? You don't know.

"Happy Holidays" covers everyone.
 
Because America (and Canada?) is a nation of many peoples and cultures, and we have to be respectful of this fact.
 
Because "holidays" is being used as a euphemism for Christmas... there's no point in destroying the language just to save the feelings of a few easily-offended people.
 
O'Reilly wants people to say Merry Christmas under the implied threat of boycott, but its fascism for business owners to want their employees to say happy holidays?
 
It's more than that though. How many celebrations do most people have during the holiday season? Two: whatever religious one floats your boat and New Year's. So 'Happy Holidays' is more complete and accurate regardless of who you're talking to. (Unless of course, you really want somebody to have a miserable New Year's Eve...)
 
Because "holidays" is being used as a euphemism for Christmas... there's no point in destroying the language just to save the feelings of a few easily-offended people.

No it's not.

Holidays means Christmas, new years eve, Hannukah, Saturnalia, Kwanzaa, or whatever people end up celebrating and/or doing over the break.

Muslims don't have a particular thing to celebrate during that time, but they think highly of Jesus anyway.. and like.. imagine you're a Muslim guy living in the U.S. It's cold outside, you get a couple days off, as do all your friends, family members, loved ones, etc. Not only that, but EVERYTHING CLOSES DOWN. You might as well get together with people you care about, socialize, have a meal, etc. Right? Cause that's what some muslims end up doing during the "Holidays"

They don't do it over Christmas, because they're not celebrating Christmas. Neither are Jews, some atheists, agnostics, Buddhists, and whoever else.

Some non-Christians DO celebrate what they call "Christmas".. for convenience's sake, if anything. I mean, there is a Christmas tree, you eat food with family, share gifts, get drunk, might as well call it Christmas, right?

Anyway, you are way wrong dude.
 
Christmas is a Pagan holiday... just like Easter.

While I don't deny Christmas has pagan roots, most of what is in those quotes is false.


I know of no justification for identifying those mortal biblical figures with pagan gods.

The name Easter (in English, but not any Romance languages) is pagan in origin, and popular celebrations of it include pagan elements, but neither the celebration of the resurrection nor its timing is pagan. It comes from the crucifixion happening around Passover.

Although the Germanic goddess Ēostre (for whom Easter is named) and Semitic goddess Ishtar may have both been associated with spring and fertility, I don't think they are really connected.


I don't think any of those sun gods were actually believed to be born on December 25. Those that were born at all were typically born in the spring, often in a cycle where they die every autumn and are reborn every spring. December 25 became an important date in the Roman worship of Mithras (or rather Sol Invictus, as I believe this came after he was merged with several other sun gods; Mithraic cults in the east knew nothing of this holiday), but it was not his birthday. If I recall he was born in August, and by born I meant he came forth fully formed from a solid rock without any parents. The December 25th celebration is likely a practice they borrowed from the cult of Bacchus, and may well have happened after Christians started celebrating Christmas on that date.


I believe the "Queen of Heaven" actually refers to Asherah, the wife of El, or Baal, or YHVH himself in some rather blasphemous folk beliefs of the Israelites. (Many modern scholars and archeologists believe that YHVH was once considered a male chief deity with this female consort and children like in other middle eastern pantheons. There is evidence that many in Ancient Israel believed this way too, but that was not their original belief a form of idolatry especially offensive to the Lord.)



While the Christmas tree likely does have a (Northern European) pagan origin, the trees decorated with silver and gold mentioned in the bible were not Christmas Trees but Canaanite/Philistine idols. While neighboring peoples idols were usually made of stone or solid metal, the natives of Canaan used wooden carvings that were often covered in gold or silver leaf. The "worked with an axe by the hands of a craftsman" part indicates that the trees are not just felled, but carved into images of false gods. The very next verse refers to them as idols that are like scarecrows in a cucumber field. I see no good reason why we should have a Christmas tree, but this verse is not a condemnation of the practice.



It is not really clear when Christ was born. Likely dates range from March to October. Practically the only thing that is clear from the bible is that it was probably not in the winter.

It is also clear that many early Christians considered birthday celebrations in general to be pagan and so did not care when Christ's birthday was.
 
Back
Top Bottom