Category: Liturgical Year

No, I’m not wishing you "Season’s Greetings" instead of a "Merry Christmas." It turns out that the season’s greeting that many Americans prefer is "Merry Christmas." Imagine that!

"In the cultural battle over whether to use the seasonal greeting ‘Happy holidays’ or ‘Merry Christmas,’ the latter appears to be winning, according to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll released Tuesday.

"In the poll, which surveyed 1,003 adult Americans by phone, 69 percent said they prefer ‘Merry Christmas’ over ‘Happy holidays,’ which garnered 29 percent.

"Compared with the 2004 Christmas — or holiday — season, the number of people who said they use ‘Happy holidays’ has dropped 12 percentage points, from 41 percent to 29 percent."

GET THE STORY.

Michelle here.

A local radio station has been playing round-the-clock Christmas music for the past week, and one of my favorites is "A Soldier’s Silent Night," performed by Fr. Ted Berndt, a Catholic priest, former Marine, and Purple Heart recipient. Curious about the origins of the song, I did some searching on Google. There must have been some controversy over the poem’s authorship because the urban-legend debunker Snopes took on the case and verified the claim that it was written by a U.S. serviceman. The author is another former Marine, James M. Schmidt.

This part of the poem always makes me puddle up:

"I didn’t want to leave him so quiet in the night,
this guardian of honor so willing to fight.
But half asleep he rolled over, and in a voice clean and pure,
said ‘Carry on, Santa, it’s Christmas Day, all secure.’
One look at my watch and I knew he was right,
Merry Christmas my friend, Semper Fi and goodnight."

GET THE STORY.

NOTE: I couldn’t find a recording of the performance for sale online. If you find it, please post a link in the combox. Thanks!

When I saw the following news story on a Santa contest turned ugly, I thought I had clicked on the satire news site The Onion by mistake. No such luck. There actually are people out there who take Santa contests so seriously that they darkly suspect fellow competitors of dirty play.

"The British Father Christmas who lost his Santa of the Year world crown has lashed out, citing a suspected campaign to stop him from winning again that has damaged ‘Santa morale.’

"Ron Horniblew, 70, has been authorised by the Master Santa in Greenland and is part of the elite international Santa circuit who compete at the Santa Winter Games, where up to 50 Father Christmases compete for the world title.

"Estonian accordionist Aare Rebban grabbed the crown ‘amid dark mutterings of political voting, professional jealousy and backbiting,’ The Mail on Sunday newspaper said."

GET THE STORY.

I don’t know about you, but if one of these bickering Santas is assigned to visit my home on Christmas Eve, he’s going to find set out for him a lump of coal rather than a glass of milk and a plate of cookies.

Christmas has evolved a great deal over the centuries. It gone from being a sacred holiday to a secular vacation to a political football. What is the next logical step? Perhaps what we might call a winter Halloween. Halloween has long been a time for satirizing popular culture, but one New York couple has decided to move that Halloween custom to Christmas by decking their halls with a Serial Killer Santa, all in the name of decrying the commercialization of the holiday.

"Joel Krupnik and Mildred Castellanos decked the front of their Manhattan mansion this year with a scene that includes a knife-wielding 5-foot-tall St. Nick and a tree full of decapitated Barbie dolls. Hidden partly behind a tree, the merry old elf grasps a disembodied doll’s head with fake blood streaming from its eye sockets.

"In a telephone interview Wednesday, Krupnik explained that his family thought it would be a fun way to make a comment about the commercialization and secularization of Christmas.

"’It is a religious holiday, but they have turned it into a business. And it shouldn’t be,’ he said. ‘We didn’t put it up to offend anybody. It was just something that came out of our imagination.’

[…]

"Walter Garofalo, a musician from Brooklyn who wandered by wearing a black bandanna covered in skulls, was awe-struck.

"’I wonder if these people would let me use this as our next album cover,’ he said. ‘It’s perfect!’"

GET THE STORY.

I can the album now. Coming soon to a music store near you: "The Silence of the Elves."

That does it. I’ve had about enough of the cultural Christmas spirit for one year, thank you very much.

A reader e-mails this press release from The Catholic League:

December 9, 2005

HOLIDAY CAROLS

In keeping with the spirit of political correctness, the Catholic League recommends the adoption of the following songs at Holidaytime:

“I’m Dreaming of a White Holiday”; “O Holiday Tree”; “All I Want for The Holiday Is My Two Front Teeth; “We Wish You a Merry Holiday”; “The Twelve Days of the Holiday”; “The Holiday Song”; “Rockin’ Around The Holiday Tree”; “You’re All I Want For The Holiday”; “Baby’s First Holiday”; “Do They Know It’s The Holiday”; “Merry Holiday Darling”; “I’ll Be Home For The Holiday”; “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like The Holiday”; “Blue Holiday”; “The Holiday Waltz”; “Holly Jolly Holiday”; “So This Is The Holiday”; “Merry, Merry Holiday Baby”; “Have Yourself a Merry Little Holiday”; “Twas the Night Before The Holiday”; “Holiday Serenade”; “Feliz Vacaciones.”

SOURCE.

Can you think up any more holiday songs that the Catholic League might ought to add to their list?

I’ve had a number of requests for lists of stores that are and aren’t honoring the holidayChristmas season by calling it "Christmas."

Now I’ve found one!

Concerned Women for America has developed a list of stores that are honoring the Christmas spirit by referring to Christmas–as well as stores that are hypocritically trying to get your Christmas money out of your Christmas pocket without ackowledging the Christmas that you are celebrating.

In other words: The Politically Correct Commercializers.

My own philosophy is that if any business wants my Christmas dollars then they can darn well ackowledge that they ARE Christmas dollars–either by sending me a CHRISMAS catalogue or by wishing me "Merry CHRISTMAS" or what have you.

But none of this "Holiday catalogue" or "Happy holidays" crud.

Any business going that route will get NONE of my Christmas dollars.

And, since boycotts are no good unless you tell the person THAT and WHY they’re being boycotted, I plan on telling such business that’s what I’m doing.

I, for one, refuse to sit by and allow Christmas to be banished from public consciousness and be added to the social "taboo" list the way that Christian concepts have in so many areas in our society.

As bad as the commercialization of Christmas is (something we must also all fight), having it vanish from our culture in a fit of political correctness is not acceptable.

GET THE LIST.

Don’t forget to go to Mass if you didn’t go Monday evening.

If you’re a Latin rite Catholic in the United States, that is.

It’s the solemnity of All Saints, so be sure to either go to evening Mass today or make plans to go to Mass tomorrow.

HERE’S THE LAW ON THE SUBJECT.

Is Halloween too spooky for children? One Penn State psychologist thinks so.

"It is the adults who should be afraid this Halloween. Not of ghouls and goblins, but of permanently scarring their children.

"In a recent study of six- and seven-year-olds in the Philadelphia area, Penn State psychologist Cindy Dell Clark found that most parents underestimate just how terrifying the holiday can be for young kids.

[…]

"According to Clark, who interviewed parents and children after three Halloweens, younger children may be unwilling participants in the whole ritual.

"The key ingredient in the recipe of Halloween fright is, of course, death.

"’Intriguingly, Halloween is a holiday when adults assist children in behaviors taboo and out of bounds,’ Clark writes in the anthropological journal Ethos. ‘It is striking that on Halloween, death-related themes are intended as entertainment for the very children whom adults routinely protect.’"

GET THE STORY.

After reading through this story, I wondered why the results of so many scientific studies seem to point to the solution of simply using common sense. Basically, it boils down to parents making sure their children learn the difference between reality and make-believe, and that they be on guard against well-intentioned people who expose children to more Halloween fright than the kids can handle. Then again, these days common sense is all too often an uncommon commodity.

REINVENTING THE HALLOWEEN LIGHT.

Happy Halloween! (Or, have a happy All Hallows Even, if you prefer.)

JIMMY ADDS: My own theory on the spookiness of Halloween celebrations is that it’s part of the same psychological process that leads humans to watch drama (which always involves dramatic tension–if the drama is any good) and to "play fight" as children. It’s a way of exposing oneself to dangers in a simulated, safe manner and thus learning to cope wiht the emotion of fear that accompanies them so that you’ll be able to handle it when you face REAL dangers. Such simulated danger situations are part of life–and of growing up. That’s not to say that some kids may not find the whole experience too scary. I know that when I was a small boy I was quite scared of some Halloween stuff, though that didn’t stop me from wanting to stay up late every Friday night to watch monster movies on Boo Theater.

It’s that time of year again … when autumn leaves begin to crackle, scents of apple and cinnamon fill the kitchen, and howls of Christian indignation over Halloween split the silence. What’s a faithful Christian to do when his kid pleads to take part in the annual Free Candy Fest? Should he let his kid dress up in the Most Popular Costume of the Year and beg treats from the neighbors? Should he make the child dress up as a saint and go to an All Saints’ Eve Party? But what if he’s not a Catholic and doesn’t believe in letting his kid admire saints? Perhaps he should honor the Great Pumpkin by throwing a Celebration Of Autumn Day or honor Martin Luther on Protestant Reformation Day?

Personally, even before I became Catholic, I never saw why there was such confusion over Halloween. It was just a day for little kids to dress up and charm the neighbors into forking over miniature chocolate bars. For older kids and grownups, it was a time to indulge in a little black humor. A relative of mine, when she hit the age in between being too old for kiddie costumes and yet still young enough to enjoy trying to shock adults, dressed up as Jason from the Friday the 13th movies, wore a sign that said "Friday the 13th, Part 12: Jason Raids the Animal Shelter," and carried a stuffed-toy "Pound Puppy" tied to a length of rope. (You’ll be happy to know that she is now a well-adjusted wife, mother, and contributor to society.) After seeing that, I really could not get freaked out by kids dressing up as spooks and hobgoblins.

But now that I am a practicing Catholic, I do realize that not everyone, especially every Christian, is comfortable with allowing such, uh, dark creativity for their own children.  (To be clear, in retrospect, I too would be uncomfortable allowing children of mine to pick out costumes of the type my relative chose that year.)  Saints’ day parties, fall festivals, and, for Protestants, Reformation Day celebrations are perfectly reasonable alternatives to the traditional Halloween activities. One Christian company in New Zealand is even offering a "Light Party":

"When Halloween comes along, we face a tradition that encourages poor behaviour, ‘rewards on demand’ by trick or treating and celebrates evil by wearing scary masks or costumes.

"Many parents are not happy about this negative influence and are looking for a positive alternative …

"Are you looking for a celebration to bring your community together? Now you too can help to bring your church and community together to celebrate all that is good on October 31 with a Light Party™!"

THE LIGHT PARTY SITE.

I just wish that all of these people busily searching for alternatives to Halloween traditions that they feel are no longer appropriate for Christian families would realize that they are reinventing the light bulb. Halloween began as a Christian alternative to the prevailing pagan autumn holidays.  Halloween originally was a Christian light struck in the darkness; not the darkness itself.  Rather than eradicate Halloween, perhaps the job of Christians ought to be to reclaim it.

IS CATHOLICISM PAGAN?

CAN CATHOLICS CELEBRATE HALLOWEEN?

UPDATE: I goofed in naming the horror series that inspired my relative’s costume.  It was Friday the 13th, not Halloween.  I’ve fixed the post.  Nod and gratitude to the reader who caught my error.