If there is separation of church and state in America, why are schools closed for religious holidays?

Answer 1

Excellent!

Very good. I suppose they don't think of Christmas as a religious holiday any more, but Santa riding through the night.

Excellent question. I love it.

Answer 2

Most of the 'religious' holidays are based on natural events (that some would call 'pagan' practices) that predate religions.

For example, the winter solstice (in the northern hemisphere) is the time when the longer nights finally stop getting longer and the newly lenghtening days give hope that there may be a new cycle of seasons. It was a time of rejoicing for thousands of years.

When the tradition arrived into Roman culture, it was known as the Saturnalia, a whole week of parties, gift giving, lighting lights in windows to 'chase away' the darkness of the long nights, and a time of 'Peace on Earth' as the end of December marked the return of the Roman armies from a year (March to December) of waging wars.

The 'holidays', vacation, partying, etc., all existed before the Church tried to appropriate it for its own religions reasons in the 4th century.

Ditto for almost all major holidays: Easter is the rebirth of nature and the promise of new food for another year. Also celebrated well before it became 'religious'.

You can trace most of the major holidays to the four main astronomical event (two equinoces and two solstices) and the four intermediate points (halfway between each).

In North America's imported (from Europe) cultures, we associate these hodidays with religion because our history is so short, compared to civilized countries, that we do not know better.

Answer 3

Ah, c'mon now! They took away religious Christmas carols in school, and any reference to the "reason for the season".

No more prayers, no meaningfful celebrations. This year, they even removed Santa from a lot of districts. Now, it's just a "winter holiday" with a bunch of snowflakes and snowmen.

Political correctness gone awry. And that's so sad. All the things I so fondly remember are gone, and my kids can't enjoy them. all because some grinches decided the season should not be.

And now you talk about not even having the schools close so that the kids can't go see Grandma and celebrate their holiday at home? Business as usual. Might as well take away the snowmen, and snowflakes, too. After all, not all schools are located in snow country, and may get jealous.

Bah Humbug!

They've already taken away far too much from our kids.

Answer 4

because the founding fathers did not want a separation of church and state that is preached today. otherwise the first right given would not be the freedom of religion.furthermore it was the founding fathers that started the practice of religious holidays. even The 4th of July was considered a religious holiday by some founders.

Answer 5

One of the many confusing aspects of separation of church and state. As long as the holidays are given to everyone, then the state is not sponsoring the religion and the real purpose of separation is to keep government from forcing the aspects of a religion down our throats by refusing to allow other religions or preventing office holders of other religions. The consequences of the decision, like taxes being used to oppress churches, thus no taxation of taxes, thus abuse of the privilege, get more complicated. Of course, the rampant claim that dominant Christianity is being "oppressed" when they don't get their way in everything has driven the complications to silly extremes.

Answer 6

Well if you remember from history class that we were founded in the pursuit of freedom from discrimination and wanted the right to practice our own beliefs. The reason for that in the constitution was never to completely seperate church and state but to seperate whether or not you are a patriot just because you don't practice the same beliefs as the government decides to be "the one". It was to give us freedom to practice as we please whether it is the president leading in prayer at a press confidence or under god in our pledge. Our country has become so sue happy that we are taking everything so literally just to avoid any unwanted backlash by anyone. It is sad that we have lost the reason for our constitution and declaration of independence and what they really stood for. Ironically it is much like the bible.....not to be taken literally.
I hope that helps.

Answer 7

What you are referring to is separation of government from church and state, which has nothing to do with holiday celebrations. Furthermore I don't believe that you are an atheist, I would however believe you are an agnostic! he he he, do you know the difference?

Answer 8

The only "religious' holiday I remember being out of school for was Christmas, and nobody would have been there anyway because of the Santa and presents part of it.

Answer 9

Church and state in America are not separated. This goes for a lot of things -- not just school. Perhaps the most famous of all is the "Scopes Monkey Trial." I wrote a 12-page paper on that issue for my high school "exit" thesis paper.

Answer 10

I don't believe there is a separation of church and state. If there was, there wouldn't be an alarmingly high number of exquisite churches and hardly any temples or mosques. Incidentally, I don't know of any schools that close specifically for Christmas, Easter, etc. The breaks where I live are referred to as "Spring Break" and "Winter Break."