Merry Christmas! Happy Chanukah!
Are you offended yet?
Our society has become so overly
sensitive with political correctness that a simple holiday greeting can be a
tragedy. This week we had a conversation in the office about saying “Happy
Chanukah” to people who worship the Jewish faith, if we don’t celebrate
Chanukah (which also can be spelled Hanukkah, Hanukah or Chanukkah depending on
who you ask or where you look.).
After an Internet search and a visit to
a local synagogue’s webpage, it was decided that yes, it’s okay to wish Jewish
people Happy Hanukkah. It’s a greeting that says, I recognize that you don’t
celebrate the same holiday as I do and I hope that what you get out of your
holiday makes you as happy as what I get out of mine.
That’s it. Nothing more. It’s not a
slight to those who light a Menorah rather than a tree, or that get eight
nights of presents, instead of one day. We believe what we believe and if we
are tolerant then that’s the right thing.
I feel like this is the same and
traveling to a foreign country. When I went to Mexico and attempted to speak to
my waiter in Spanish, he was happy to tolerate my butchering of his language
because I was trying…trying to communicate to him in his native language on his
soil. I wasn’t saying that I was better because I was an American, who lives
somewhere north of Boston (Maine doesn’t show up on maps in Mexico), I was
saying that I recognized that I am a visitor and could at least try to
assimilate into his culture.
I am not Jewish, but I can at least
recognize that all people are different. My godmother and her sister were
Jewish and every year we visited them at Christmas time. We would bring them
baked goods and flowers, but never with a red bow. I knew they had a different
religion and that was fine. We still got to bring them gifts.
Celebrate what you’d like, but don’t get
offended if I say “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Hanukkah” I’m just trying to be
nice.
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