The likes of USA, Canada, UK, Australia, South Africa etc are not Christian states but all have official holidays for both or either of Easter and Christmas. What does this mean? What about other religions?
2007-03-21 23:34:38 · 5 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
I agree with you--the US didn't celebrate Christmas until after the Dickens story made it popular in a secular way. Congress convened on Dec. 25.
All religious holidays should be taken out of the government calendar, in my opinion. Otherwise, there'd be a religious holiday for some group or other every day of the year.
2007-03-21 23:38:23 · answer #1 · answered by nora22000 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I think it's a matter of tradition; most people agree that the government shouldn't be endorsing holidays of one particular religion, but even many secular people celebrate them due to tradition, and having no alternatives.
Personally, I'd like to see Christmas renamed to the Winter Solstice and Easter renamed to the Spring Celebration, so we can keep on with our Santas and Easter Bunnies minus the religious doctrine. Didn't the Christian church pick those dates to interfere with preexisting pagan holidays? Let's just rename them and continue to get time off work to spend with our families (which is the important thing anyway, imo).
2007-03-22 06:44:49 · answer #2 · answered by skatc 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
because these celebrations are deeply rooted into the Western world's customs and culture.
for example: we still get married, still have the ceremony, even though the roots of this custom are dated back into the middle ages (if i'm right, if it was in an other era, pls let me know, i always sucked at history).
the other thing is that groups, ppl do need traditions, rituals and customs that keep them together, that bonds them. without these things we would be just plain individuals with no background.
oh and norah: holidays are good, you can stay at home with your family,i dont care wheter it is a chatolic hol or not, i enjoy not going to the office;)))
2007-03-22 06:39:22 · answer #3 · answered by VeronicaB 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
In the USA, there is only one Christian holiday that is a legal public holiday -- Christmas. So many people want that day off that it is only practical to make it a legal public holiday.
2007-03-22 06:46:10 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
I've been working on getting rid of them but no body wants to break their comfortable little habits for the sake of humanity.
2007-03-22 06:37:23 · answer #5 · answered by Invisible_Flags 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋