Can you tell me which of these is religiously oriented? or have religious connotations?

Question

1. Santa Claus
2. Christmas Tree
3. Gifts
4. Gingerbread Man
5. Red & Green colored lights


they're very sensitive at work to these things and I'm just wondering what would be acceptable

Answer 1

1. Santa Claus was originally a Catholic Saint, but has basically become a non-religious symbol of giving (some say commercialism)

2. - Pagan originally

3. - Practice started, supposedly with the 3 wise men of the New Testament.

4. Gingerbread Man - unknown, don't think there is any significance there

5. Red and Green colored lights...red and green are the traditional christmas colors, but have no religious connotations or significance.

The Christmas tree would probably in your worse offender, as it is synoamous these days with the christian celebration of christmas even though it is actually an old germanic pagan symbol of life in the midst of the death of winter.

Answer 2

If you do your research, you will find out that each one of these are associated with a particular religious belief system at some time in their past. Just give them the gift, or are we, A society sooooo paranoid now days that it might send the wrong impression, and black ball us from all the company functions, and talked about around the drinking fountain! Forget it man. It's your gift to them, if they have a problem with your GIFT then screw them, after all it's a gift! Besides it's the Christ in Christmas that they really have problems with. And look what humanity does with the gift He gave us. So I will say it any ways

Have a very Merry CHRISTmas

Answer 3

Santa Claus was based on a saint in Europe(santa-saint) The Christmas tree would be more of a pagan symbol (which is not satanism, it's worshipping nature), gifts I guess would be from the wise men. The other 2 I have no clue about.

Answer 4

Christmas tree has religious connotations. Santa Claus was also derived from a saint, St. Nicholas....so it's origins are religious.

Answer 5

All of the above, to varying degrees:

1. Santa Claus = "Saint Nicholas" (note the similarity to the German name "Klaus"!), who was a real person, not "Catholic" per se as he lived prior to the Protestant Reformation, but the Roman Catholic Church does recognize him as a saint. He is known, among other things, for gathering and bringing gifts to poor and orphaned children in response to religious festivals, which also partly answers your #3 -- although the biblical "magi" (the Bible, incidentally, does not say that there were three, although early church tradition does) also have something to do with tying it to Christmas in particular.

2. The tree is, as others have noted, a pagan symbol -- actually one of fertility, constancy, renewal, and everlasting life -- as it is "ever-green" and thus not affected by the "death" that occurs to other trees in winter. Incidentally, the fact that Christmas is celebrated in winter at all (in the northern hemisphere anyway!) has to do with the Roman festival of Saturnalia, which took place toward the end of December. Back in the days when the Romans were persecuting Christians, declining to celebrate during what the rest of the Empire considered a major festival was an easy way to identify yourself as lion fodder -- so, to avoid betraying their faith, the early Christians chose instead to celebrate one of their own festivals, the birth of Christ, during that time, so as to "blend in" better with the surrounding culture. (To the best estimation of most modern scholarly research, Jesus was probably actually born sometime in August, in either 4 or 6 BC -- but that's another matter. ;)

3. was pretty much covered above, under 1...

4., I believe, is essentially a subset of 3 -- candy and cookies are exchanged as part of the "gifting" process to highlight the festive nature of the occasion -- but nothing religious about a gingerbread person per se, so far as I know. (Someone please correct me, though, if you know otherwise!)

5. Red and green I *think* are derived from Saturnalia as well, though the exact etymology I'm not sure of -- although green symbolizes fertility and life (as in the evergreen tree), and red often stands for love, blood, fire, passion or sacrifice (use your own imagination there!). Again, please correct me if anyone knows I'm wrong... :)

As far as work, though -- you're probably fine with all of the above; "Christmas tree" is probably the most sensitive, but just refer to it as a "holiday tree" and you'll probably be fine, save perhaps some minor backlash at the hands of evangelical Christians in your workplace who will be offended at the fact that you actually recognize the existence of religions other than Christianity in the world. ;) (They're not really bad people, though, so please take this with a grain of salt!) If there's any doubt, though, it's probably better to assume that co-workers (or clients) of different faiths may not appreciate any of the above symbols, so I wouldn't suggest playing any of them up too much -- but if you're just talking about decorating your own personal workspace, you'll probably be fine.

Good luck navigating the office bureaucracy, and enjoy the holiday season in whatever form you choose to celebrate! :)

Answer 6

People are going to complain about whatever they want anyway, so why worry? All of these seem to be pretty secular, so I wouldn't worry about any religious connotation with any of them.

Answer 7

3 encompasses basically everything in the world, doesn't it?

I'd stick with the gingerbread man if I were you.

Answer 8

Puhleeeze, perhaps you should ask those "sensitive" folks that you work with. I feel sorry for you.