School have banned the word "christmas"!!!

babymoo

At my catholic secondary school advent was always more celebrated than christmas but neither was ever banned. I'm sorry but it's ridiculous and i would be demanding an explanation.

Wickedkitten

ska_lover wrote: »

Political correctness gone mad.

This country is not aimed at being a homestead for the original inhabitants these days. We are made to feel unwelcome. They should ban the word Diwali as well - But they won't!

You should take the advice of your own sig and get a grip

GracieP

margaretclare wrote: »

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?

Not really. According to the descriptions in the New Testament Jesus was most certainly not born in December. There are different reasons for assuming it was in either April or October but it was certainly between those two months, between spring and the end of the summer. As numerous things which happened according to the bible would not ever have happened in the winter months, in that region, in that time period.

Besides that Jesus himself did not want his birth celebrated. It was not custom in Jewish society at that time and he would never have celebrated it himself. Instead he urged his followers to celebrate his death and rebirth, passages of The Corinthians even go so far as to state that celebrating his birth is unholy.

The mid-winter period was co-opted by the Christian church after the Roman Emperors converted and decided to convert their empire along with them. Co-option of local celebrations to Roman ones was a long standing method employed throughout the expansion of the empire, so much of Roman culture was basically Greek with a Latin twist, and it's not surprising that they used a method that had worked for them for centuries when they wanted to spread Christianity. Nearly all of the major Christian holidays are based on pre-existing festivals, Christmas is Yule, Mithrasmas and Saturnalia, Easter is Passover and Ostara, All Souls Day is Samhain, etc. Even local Christian festivals, such as celebrations of native saints very often have their roots in the celebrations of native gods, such as the Irish St. Bridgid's Day falling at the same time as the previous celebration to the fire goddess Br!d.

Realistically Christmas is just the latest name for the mid-winter celebration which has been held in Europe and the Middle-East for nearly as far back as there have been human tribes. It's a time for eating our fill and celebrating with our loved ones. It's about getting us through a grim winter and providing a little light and warmth during a dark and cold time. If people also want to add to this time a worship of their gods, then that's awesome for them and it's also a very old human tradition, for all believers in all sorts of gods. But the fact remains that the "real" meaning of Christmas is today what it has always been; a celebration of life and the people we love, a time to delight in having our loved ones to celebrate with and to remember those who we've lost, and to hope that we will all still be here to do it again next year.

onlyroz

GracieP wrote: »

Realistically Christmas is just the latest name for the mid-winter celebration which has been held in Europe and the Middle-East for nearly as far back as there have been human tribes. It's a time for eating our fill and celebrating with our loved ones. It's about getting us through a grim winter and providing a little light and warmth during a dark and cold time. If people also want to add to this time a worship of their gods, then that's awesome for them and it's also a very old human tradition, for all believers in all sorts of gods. But the fact remains that the "real" meaning of Christmas is today what it has always been; a celebration of life and the people we love, a time to delight in having our loved ones to celebrate with and to remember those who we've lost, and to hope that we will all still be here to do it again next year.

Well put, and thanks for an informative post.

GobbledyGook

A few of the schools I work in have 'banned' Christmas at the moment. By 'banned' it means no Christmas post boxes yet, no chattering about Christmas presents in class and just a general calming down from all the hype. Unchecked it can just distract the children so much that the first couple of weeks in December can be added to the almost lost weeks at the end of the month.

I work with individual children and in December you do have to be a bit stricter with them otherwise they'd just get nothing done. It might be a bit party pooperish, but I estimate that I lose a weeks worth of sessions with kids in the last two weeks of school before Christmas with Assemblies, Church visits, Pantomines, School shows etc that they can't afford to lose the beginning of December too.

Kimberley

If they have banned the word Christmas what will they do if a child says it and refuses to stop saying it? No way would I let a school tell a child of mine that they cannot say the word Christmas.

GobbledyGook

At the schools I work in it's dealt with in the same way as chattering in class or distracting your classmates any other time of the year.

It's not really any different to the teacher's having to ban talk of the world cup in their class in the summer. It's not banned completely - just during lessons. I can't see how anyone would object to a child being told they are not allowed to chat and distract their classmates during lessons. They have playtimes and lunchtimes to get hyper and excited and discuss what Santa is bringing them.

Padstow

GobbledyGook wrote: »

At the schools I work in it's dealt with in the same way as chattering in class or distracting your classmates any other time of the year.

It's not really any different to the teacher's having to ban talk of the world cup in their class in the summer. It's not banned completely - just during lessons. I can't see how anyone would object to a child being told they are not allowed to chat and distract their classmates during lessons. They have playtimes and lunchtimes to get hyper and excited and discuss what Santa is bringing them.

For someone with such a user name GG, you speak a great deal of sense. That is exactly how it is. In fact the thread is defunct as the head said no such thing.

GobbledyGook

Padstow wrote: »

For someone with such a user name GG, you speak a great deal of sense. That is exactly how it is. In fact the thread is defunct as the head said no such thing.

I'm not surprised the head said no such thing. It's amazing how things go with chinese whispers and the interpretation of children.

One of the schools I work at had a HUGE hoo-ha last year when the parents were up in arms that the "Muslim parents of one child had stopped the Christmas assembly". As you can imagine there was a queue of irate parents going ballistic the next morning at the office. It was chaos.

What actually happened was that some children asked about the Christmas assembly which they thought was the following week. They were told "No, the Christmas Assembly is not next week. Next week Mr X is coming in to talk to you about the new Mosque and Islam."

Countless people ranted even after they knew they were in the wrong about how it's hardly surprising given the banning of Christmas etc etc etc even though they couldn't actually point out any time or place where they'd ever been banned from celebrating or mentioning Christmas.

liana_y2kuk

Padstow wrote: »

In fact the thread is defunct as the head said no such thing.

Im not quite sure where you got that idea as the head DID say this. This thread is not now defunct.