Behind The Big E

Hooray, it’s that time of year again, and I truly have never been this happy for Christmas time. Now that I’m out at UBC, it just means so much more to me than before; I’m done term one, as opposed to coming back to another month plus exams, and I get to go home and visit my family and friends for a whole two weeks!

Notice I didn’t put “Christmas” in the title? Well, this is Canada, so you probably couldn’t care less, but it was on purpose, I swear. Recently, I’ve been following all the hubub in the US media, mostly on Fox, and it cracks me up. Like this one. Over the past couple of years, Fox has been using the holidays to claim an attack on Christmas, and by association Christianity, by the secular community because people are not recognizing Christmas as the most important winter holiday. Of course, this is such a ridiculous issue that Jon Stewart had to get in on the fun too, and did a pretty good job at making it look even sillier than it already does.

This is from a couple years ago, but still illustrates fairly well the craziness around the subject.

Of course this is only representative of the right wing Christians, who are all obsessed with tradition and whatnot. I’m pretty sure that most people, at least around here in Vancouver, really wouldn’t care and respect that other people have different traditions, and that the government should not be responsible for providing funding for any religious holiday.

Personally, given the choice to change the winter holiday I celebrate, I’d keep Christmas anyways. It’s one day, there’re presents, and I don’t feel like the odd one out. I didn’t even associate it with religion till I was probably 4 or 5. Up till then, Santa might as well have been my god. Lots of non-believers celebrate Festivus, which is pretty cool, but I don’t think I could ever do it. I never really watched Seinfeld enough to be crazy about it, and seriously, I don’t want a metal pole in my living room. Not very aesthetically pleasing.

So, if you follow the american media a bit more this month, I’m sure you’ll get a laugh or two if they bring it up again.

Happy holidays! Let’s all come back fresh for term 2.