School have banned the word "christmas"!!!

kitschkitty

Cat501 wrote: »

hear hear! I expect to see a lot more of this nonsense over the next couple of weeks, still, it's a good opportunity to trim my FB friends list! Like the time England shirts were "banned"....*rolls eyes*

I've already noticed one of my facebook friends posted the blah blah blah about how they won't be banned from saying Christmas etc, and it really makes me sad, as already mentioned I've never encountered any anti Christmasness anywhere. The faceless "they/them" don't exist - it's the ghost of Christmas Dailymail.

rachbc

margaretclare wrote: »

So what IS the right way?

Is Christmas not about the birth of Christ? If not, then what is it about, and why is it called 'Christ-mas' i.e. the Mass of Christ?

I have friends who have gone back to the old gods, Woden et al, and they have a winter celebration. I have no problem with that, because they do not call it Christmas, they call it Yule.

It seems to me that the month of December - if you leave Christ's birth out of it - is based on the worship of some bloke in a red suit with a long white beard, whose totem animal is an unlikely apparition, a reindeer with a red nose. The requirements of this deity are that everyone rushes around worshipping him by means of spending money they can't afford on things they wouldn't otherwise buy, and eating and drinking things they wouldn't otherwise in company with people they avoid for most of the rest of the year and don't like much anyway.

sounds fabulous-were do I sign up? Don't forget your church co-opted an already existing pagan festival - so you can hardly complain when someone else does the same to yours.

onlyroz

kitschkitty wrote: »

I've already noticed one of my facebook friends posted the blah blah blah about how they won't be banned from saying Christmas etc, and it really makes me sad, as already mentioned I've never encountered any anti Christmasness anywhere. The faceless "they/them" don't exist - it's the ghost of Christmas Dailymail.

To everybody I know who has reposted this sh*t, I have asked "exactly who has told you that you can't say 'Christmas'". Not one person has yet responded.

Cat501

onlyroz wrote: »

To everybody I know who has reposted this sh*t, I have asked "exactly who has told you that you can't say 'Christmas'". Not one person has yet responded.

I find most claim to "know" someone who has been told this, or even claim to have been told themselves. Like the England football shirts thing - when challenged, a couple of people told me they had been stopped by the police and told to take their shirts off because they could cause offence. Now they knew, and I knew, that they were talking !!!!. But they'll continue to perpetuate their myths because it suits their nasty little agenda, and the gullible bigots are only too happy to latch on to them.

Drives you nuts doesn't it:mad:

KiKi

margaretclare wrote: »

So what IS the right way?

Is Christmas not about the birth of Christ? If not, then what is it about, and why is it called 'Christ-mas' i.e. the Mass of Christ?

No, not for everyone.

('Mas' in Christmas comes from 'maesse' which can refer to 'mass', but also means 'festival' and other feasting type activities! Lots of joy in that. And whilst Mass is very solemn in a Roman Catholic church, communion in other churches can be much more celebratory.)

For the record, I'm a Christian, evangelical at that (think happy clappy, drum and bass worship playing type Christian). Christmas is made up of two elements for me. One *is* commercial. It's the general celebration and holiday that we celebrate as a general non-Christian society. I enjoy it!

The second is a time of absolute joy and celebration. I don't want to reflect quietly. Jesus was born, and because he was born he lived on earth then died to save me. That's amazing to me! (I appreciate not everyone takes this view!)

So whilst I appreciate your view, it isn't the only view, nor THE Christian view. It works for you, and that's great, but saying that Christmas is about that as a factual statement is wrong - it certainly used to be but it has changed.

KiKi

onlyroz

KiKi wrote: »

For the record, I'm a Christian, evangelical at that (think happy clappy, drum and bass worship playing type Christian). Christmas is made up of two elements for me. One *is* commercial. It's the general celebration and holiday that we celebrate as a general non-Christian society. I enjoy it!

Wow, I think you must be the first sensible evangelical I've come across - well done for a very sensible post :T

Torry_Quine

KiKi wrote: »

No, not for everyone.

('Mas' in Christmas comes from 'maesse' which can refer to 'mass', but also means 'festival' and other feasting type activities! Lots of joy in that. And whilst Mass is very solemn in a Roman Catholic church, communion in other churches can be much more celebratory.)

For the record, I'm a Christian, evangelical at that (think happy clappy, drum and bass worship playing type Christian). Christmas is made up of two elements for me. One *is* commercial. It's the general celebration and holiday that we celebrate as a general non-Christian society. I enjoy it!

The second is a time of absolute joy and celebration. I don't want to reflect quietly. Jesus was born, and because he was born he lived on earth then died to save me. That's amazing to me! (I appreciate not everyone takes this view!)

So whilst I appreciate your view, it isn't the only view, nor THE Christian view. It works for you, and that's great, but saying that Christmas is about that as a factual statement is wrong - it certainly used to be but it has changed.

KiKi

Couldn't have put it better. It is very much a celebration, to me the watchnight service is very much in that vein.

KiKi

onlyroz wrote: »

Wow, I think you must be the first sensible evangelical I've come across - well done for a very sensible post :T

I'm one of the normal ones; we have our own secret society and rebel by meeting on Wednesdays.


Sorry OP, totally off topic. Would love an update if you managed to speak to the headteacher today, though! Whilst I can see why they want kids to understand the difference between Advent and Christmas Day (after all, it is a Catholic School), refusing to allow kids - who are influenced by all sorts of aspects of society - not to use the word Christmas is crazy. You can bet that in twenty years time that although they may know what Advent is, the thing they'll remember is not being able to use the word 'Christmas'.

(Of course, it might have all been a confused misunderstanding...do tell!)

KiKi

Oldernotwiser

margaretclare wrote: »

IFor people who follow other religions, I think that they see the 'Christian' way of 'celebrating' Christmas weeks ahead and omitting the essential preceding preparation, as very strange.

And many of us who are Christians would agree with them!

rachelhen

Kiki dont think of a pink elephant type effect...?