Happy Holy Days

   Happy Holidays! Yes, all of them. Christmas, St. Stephen’s Day (Monday,) St. John’s Day (yesterday,) Feast of the Holy Innocents (today), Our Lord’s Circumcision (January 1), and Epiphany (January 6). As a Christian, I have no problem with people saying “Happy holidays,” since “holiday” is an abbreviated form of “holy day” and we have lots of them.

   Now that that’s settled, let’s get on to some more politically correct incorrectness.

   Like the so-called Christmas colors of red and green. Liturgically, red and green have nothing to do with Christmas. Those are the colors of Pentecost and the Pentecost Season, respectively. 

   But some schools ban children from wearing red and green during the month of December and even some Gwinnett County government offices disallow employees to wear “holiday colors” until the week before Christmas. 

   Of course, it should come as no surprise that anyone who’s really into political correctness knows nothing about religion, because if they did, they would ban red and green during Pentecost, not during what they incorrectly think is Christmas. The period during which they do all their ballyhooing about what people can wear or do or say is not even Christmas to begin with.

   OK. Let’s start from the very beginning. The first day of Advent, usually the Sunday after Thanksgiving, is the first day of the Christian year, or New Years Day. The following weeks when people Christmas shop, attend office parties, wear Santa ties or jingle bell earrings is not Christmas. It is Advent. It is the time of “going toward” or preparing for the Season of Christmas. For liturgical Protestants, the color for Advent is blue and for Catholics, it is purple.

   The Christmas Season doesn’t exist before Christmas Day, nor does it end at midnight December 25. The Christmas Season begins on Christmas Day. It lasts twelve days—just like the song— and ends on Epiphany, January 6. When celebrated correctly, Christians have an extended holiday—or holy day—just like Jews have with their eight days of Hanukkah and African Americans with their eight days of Kwaanza.

   AND, the Christmas Season has its own liturgically correct color, which is white.

   Now, back to the incorrectness of the politically correct who think they are correctly protesting religion with their insistence that everyone express secular good wishes with an abbreviated form of “holy day” and their protest against people wearing the liturgically incorrect seasonal colors of red and green.

   Next year, why don’t we Christians throw everyone for a loop? Let’s all greet each other with “Happy Holy Days.” And let’s observe the Season of Advent by wearing only the liturgically correct colors of blue or purple. And then during the Season of Christmas, let’s turn the secular song “White Christmas” into a religious experience. Let’s all see what all the PC police do about that!


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