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The meaning of Christmas is changing in Canada
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by Barry ORegan | December 25, 2007 at 05:41 am
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Barry Artiste, Now Public Contributor,
Is it any wonder with some Canadians, Media, Bureaucrats and Politicians are taking the Politically Correct High Road such as taking School Christmas pagents and renaming them Festive Pagents, Bureaucrats renaming Holiday Trees instead of Christmas trees, Christmas songs especially in schools being butchered to eliminate any reference to Christmas and Jesus. Some question why? Well other cultures find it blasphemous that some self serving Politically Correct Canadians feel we need to change our culture so as not to offend other cultures.
Other Cultures would not dare change one word of their long held traditions to suit anyone. Culture is just that an identifing trait which sets Multicultural peoples apart. After all isn't that what makes us unique as a people. No one culture is superior over the other, which Festivals just helping us remember our roots.
My Final Thought
Communist Russia, Communist North Korea, Communist China's mandate was to anestithise culture and it's traditions to develop a one tradition and culture,"A Communist Pary Line". It seems these Politically Correct Morons in Canada are doing the same to our own, but within. Is this any different? The only difference is, we are doing it to ourselves, without bloodshed.
It's high time to stand up and be counted and tell them where to go! If we don't then these people in Canada will eventually succeed, and recent polls show they are gaining ground, will other cultures be next on their Hit Parade?
That's entirely up to you! Merry Christmas everyone.
The meaning of Christmas is changing in CanadaMisty Harris, CanWest News Service
Published: Sunday, December 23, 2007
While most Canadians find cause to celebrate this time of year - whether it's the birth of the Saviour or the arrival of eggnog in grocery stores - a new national survey shows we're a long way from agreeing on the true reason for the season.
While 94 per cent of the 1,000 people polled said they celebrate Christmas, their motivations for doing so varied widely according to religious background, upbringing and values.
Sixty per cent of adult Canadians said Christmas is best described as "a time for family," nearly unchanged from 1995 when 57 per cent believed the same. Less than a quarter (23 per cent) said the holiday is best expressed as "a time to reflect on the birth of Jesus Christ." And for others, Christmas is simply a "time for sharing and gift-giving" (10 per cent) or a "nice festive season in the middle of winter" (seven per cent).
Patricia Stone Blomme, a registered nurse from Calgary, embraced a Christian philosophy for a short time but admits the religious aspect of the season has diminished for her over the years.
Nevertheless, the 43-year-old and her children always look forward to celebrating Christmas and its universal message of good will.
"Regardless of your religious stance, the 'naughty and nice' list still holds, and the rewards you reap in life are just, according to which list you are on," says Blomme. She says she sees Christmas as a way to spend quality time with her kids and teach them the value of "thinking of others, not just buying stuff."
"I'm taking the magic my mom taught me and passing it on," says Blomme. "Her secret was not to give a person what they wanted, but it was to know enough about a person that (she) gave them something they would love and would warm their heart."
For Crystal Gook, Christmas hasn't been the same since she lost her grandmother in 2001. Making the season even more difficult, the 23-year-old lost her father last year just two days before Christmas.
But, "given faith and hope," she hopes they both will be with her in spirit Christmas morning, which has special meaning to the Winnipegger.
"For me, Christmas is about spending time with my family and being able to take time off to enjoy (it)," says Gook, mother to a three-year-old girl. "Gifts are a wonderful thing to receive but they are not the true reason we have Christmas."
Noting that Dec. 25 is first and foremost for her a day to celebrate the birth of Jesus, Gook's regrets how the holiday has changed.
"It's all about sales and selling things," she laments. "I was watching a program the other night and I was crying - I mean crying - to hear that people are wanting to take Christ out of Christmas."
Kevin Muir, a Buddhist from Toronto, says that while "Jesus was a groovy guy who had a lot of interesting ideas," he can't help but feel the message of Christianity has been both exploited and distorted over time.
But because of his family's strong religious beliefs - Muir jokes that if his relatives every truly accepted he'd converted to Buddhism, they'd "probably kidnap me in the night and take me to get baptized again" - he plans to celebrate Christmas the traditional way.
"The packages come, and I volunteer to help my mum decorate. I buy things for my loved ones and wrap them in fancy coloured paper," says Muir, 24.
"But in the end, I still have this feeling that Christmas has been taken from Jesus and given to the retail industry anyway. And why resist? Look at how happy it makes everyone else."
The survey, conducted by Ipsos Reid on behalf of CanWest News Service and Global Television, is considered accurate within 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
A Brief backgound for Now Public Readers on what defines Political Correctness;
political correctness n. Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
"The declared rational of the tyranny of Political Correctness is to prevent people being offended; to compel everyone to avoid using words or behavior that may upset homosexuals, women, none-whites, the crippled, the mentally impaired, the fat or the ugly."
PC'ism was developed at the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt, Germany, which was founded in 1923 and came to be known as the "Frankfurt School." It was a group of thinkers who pulled together to find a solution to the biggest problem facing the implementers of communism
in Russia.
The problem? Why wasn't communism spreading?
Their answer?
Because Western Civilization was in its way. What was the problem with Western Civilization? Its belief in the individual, that an individual could develop valid ideas. At the root of communism was the theory that all valid ideas come from the effect of the social group of the masses.
The individual is nothing. And they believed that the only way for communism to advance was to help (or force, if necessary) Western Civilization to destroy itself. How to do that? Undermine its foundations by chipping away at the rights of those annoying individuals. One way to do that?
Change their speech and thought patterns by spreading the idea that vocalizing your beliefs is disrespectful to others and must be avoided to make up for past inequities and injustices. And call it something that sounds positive: "Political Correctness."
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Barry ORegan
Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (4)
at 08:10 on December 25th, 2007
Barry,
This should be labeled as Opinion (as you do with most of your stories).
As an individual who does not celebrate Christmas for both cultural and religious reasons my perspective on the matter is a little different. Personally, I couldn't care less how what people call their festivals or special events - Christmas party or Holiday party what's the difference as long as there is sufficient elixir to get through it. Nevertheless, there is a tendency for public, cross cultural events, to remain neutral and allow for the individuals to define their specific practices.
That is THE ultimate difference - we are doing it ourselves. That is the difference between a free society and an oppressive one.
By calling for one cultural reference to the exclusion of the diversity of many Canadians that exact individualism, which is the root of our society, is quashed.
at 09:20 on December 25th, 2007
Thanks for the comment Ryan
You comment states THE ultimate difference - we are doing it ourselves. That is
the difference between a free society and an oppressive one. Certainly when Teachers as Communists do to masses (Authourity figures in the eyes of children) dictate a change in cultural traditions of Christmas Carols, shows some Teachers, Bureaucrats, Politicians trying to influence and change (Brainwash) what children and of people traditionally celebrated in their own families. Thankfully parents learning of what these Self serving Politically Correct educator assholes were doing and complained to the School Boards, it has now reached political proportions in Ottawa with Outrage by parents and Public alike. If I were in a position of power in the School Board in that area , I know some teachers who would soon find themselves unemployed, Unions be damed.
at 08:11 on December 25th, 2007
Barry Artiste, oh yeah - good stuff, thought provoking.
at 08:25 on December 25th, 2007
Merry Christmas Barry.