Quote:
Originally Posted by hkobb7
I don't understand how anybody other than Christians can even celebrate Christmas!
The very name and history indicate that it is a celebration of Christ's birth, not a cheap, commercialized second birthday for greedy children. Presents are great, but they are given in honour of Christ, to celebrate His birthday.
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I give occasional historical presentations at a social club that I belong to. One of those presentations was on the history of Hanukah. Hanukah is a Jewish holiday with roots in the Jewish war against Hellenistic Syria in 167 BCE. Hence, it celebrates certain events in a war to maintain Jewish separatism and uniqueness. However, most Jews today live in largely ostensibly Christian countries. As Hanukah and Christmas are both December holidays, the way in which Hanukah has been celebrated has been somewhat influenced by the way the Christmas holiday is celebrated. While there is no Hanukah bush, the practice of Christmas gift-giving did give rise to the practice of giving gelt-money to young children at Hanukah. So, the lesson to be learned there is that there is the issue of cultural assimilation.
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Theodore Lamar Heiks
BA, History/Political Science, Western State College of Colorado, 1984
MBA, Entrepreneurship/Marketing, City University of Seattle, 1993
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