New Yorkers have their Macy's parade on Thanksgiving. Torontonians have their Santa Claus parade around the same time. And there are countless small-town versions of these festive holiday events.
We seem to be in danger of forgetting that the parades are related to Christian celebrations. Thanksgiving was instituted by Protestant Christians to thank God for His bounty. And of course Christmas is -- or should be -- a joyous celebration of the coming of the Son of God, the Saviour of mankind.
Sadly, in today's post-secular age, the religious connotations of the events are all but forgotten. Except by the non-Christians. The minorities seem to resent the majority celebrating special events in the Christian calendar. So we have the campaign -- and it is a campaign, not just a spontaneous movement -- to take God out of Thanksgiving and Christ out of Christmas. Hey, why not abolish the words "Thanksgiving" and "Christmas" altogether? The politically correct thing, now, is to have a "Winter Holiday Parade"!
I was reminded of this while watching the TV coverage of a Santa Claus parade the other day. The commentators, ever so politically correct, kept using the phrase "happy holidays" instead of "merry Christmas". As in, "And here's Santa, waving at the crowd, wishing everyone a happy holiday."
It's enough to make you puke. God forbid that we should be anything less than inclusive. Sorry, but Santa says, "Ho ho ho, Merry Christmas!"
If African-Americans want to celebrate Kwanzaa (which real Africans have never heard of) or Muslims want to celebrate Eid, or Hindus want to celebrate Diwali, let them organize their own damn parades! Instead of Santa Claus they could have actors portraying Idi Amin (he was a Muslim, supposedly) or Yassir Arafat or Mahatma Gandhi...nice jolly characters that epitomize their cultures.
Parades for every culture and every religion. Another great idea from Walt!
No comments:
Post a Comment