December Partitioned

Along with the concept of multi-culture comes the push to bring the customs of minority communities into public awareness. It has fostered the assumption that there are many who celebrate holidays other than Christmas in December, and there is encouragement for people to observe other holidays. So thorough has this indoctrination been carried out that reports are not uncommon of children from Christmas-celebrating homes asking their parents why they don't celebrate Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. They know about Christmas but are concerned that they are missing something since the holidays they hear about outside the home are absent from family celebrations. This is a small dose of what Jewish children have experienced for decades as the result of being a minority, and reflects a simple numerical reality. In a country where the majority do celebrate Christmas, for a non-Jewish child to ask "where's our Hanukkah?" doesn't reflect a numerical reality but a concerted effort to drive signs of Christmas out of public places. There's an anticipation that if Christmas is downsized in whatever way possible, this will allow a cornucopia of other suppressed festive traditions that have been waiting in the wings of December's stage to spill forth and fill in the void where Christmas has been removed. With Christmas no longer monopolizing December, "Holiday" with it's precept of inclusion, is touted as promising a richer December as a celebration of diversity. It's as though a compartmentalizing grid has been applied to December with plans to fill the slots with as many observances as possible.

The Jewish Anti- Defamation League recommends that Bodi Day and Bill of Rights Day be added to the festive diversity of holidays recognized in public schools.The Tree Lighting chair of Amherst, New Hampshire states this year, November 28, 2005, in a letter to the editor of the local paper, that their festival is inclusive and ties in with seven holidays, including two I've never heard of, "First Snow" and "Las Posadas" (the latter isn't a free standing holiday, but a Mexican Christmas caroling custom. She states " My committee agreed to trot out all the holidays and celebrate them all for anyone who wants to join in. Did you know that tomorrow is Sangamitta Day in Sri Lanka? Next year we may add on more December holidays.

An even more ridiculous example of digging up, repeating and inventing holidays to fill up December was found in December, 2007 on the neighborhood internet listserve ,"Glenfriends". A careful look at the holidays listed shows that some are repeated , some don't occur in December, some are part of the Christmas celebration, while others are very obscure or perhaps don't even existent. It reads a follows:"Lighting up Glenview is a wonderful idea! However, I would like to remind ALL of us that December does not only mean Christmas. Observances in December include and are limited to Festival of Lights, Dia De Le Virgen, Ramadan, Hannukah, Kwanza, Winter Solstice, St. Lucia, , Las Posadas, Advent, Quena del Diablo, Juleferie, Boxing Day et al.. Let us "Light up Glenview" for ALL residents and neighbors!" Diwali, the Hindu holiday bearing some similarity to Christmas is now also considered eligible for being added to the roster of December holidays, but here the calendar would have to be compressed or disregarded because Diwali comes in October and November. In December of 2004, The San Francisco Chronicle ran an article "What children have to say about the holidays". I was surprised when I read that it wasn't about December or North America, but holidays year 'round and world-wide. Perhaps the idea that the calendar itself and geography are suppressing a fully liberated acknowledgement of diversity in the holiday experience will be the next step in holidayization: "Global, Non-Calendric Holiday!" Mixing everything up like this while masking Christmas makes inclusion look like "exclusion", "diversity" look like "conformity", and "multi-culture" look like "anti-culture."

For the observance-impaired or December-bewildered there is even "Multi-cultural Tree", described in 2001 in the "Winnipeg Sun". "You get to hang emblems and ornaments on it's branches from as many different observances as you can think of." After this fashion, Christmas is being presented as merely one of an ever-growing list of seemingly equal and interchangeable holidays. There is considerable force-feeding of this plan, all in the spirit of political correctness and cultural sensitivity, and all supposedly for the common good.

Where do we get the idea that December is the most festive "Holiday Season" time of year? Do all religions have major holidays in December? How does Christmas compare to them? Does the dominance of Christmas prevent anyone from celebrating different holidays? It's important to answer these questions