I've already complained to Yarra Trams about public announcements and now I will complain about our ABC national broadcaster, tv, radio and the internet about the use of Happy Holidays instead of of Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
There is the blindingly obvious that many people are not on holiday, as you who are are served by someone in a restaurant or pay at a petrol station for your fuel. Happy Holidays is such a middle class wish, taking no account of those who serve you and collect your rubbish while you are having Happy Holidays. Lordy, in Australia there are poor and or lonely people who have a miserable Christmas and certainly no happy holidays.
After forty years of workplace Christmas parties with Buddhists, Jews, Muslims and Hindus and their children, I don't think any had an objection to the Australian cultural celebration of Christmas. Most Australians are not religious and Christmas fun is just our culture.
Yet ABC with the political correctness (I hate using that term) of Happy Holidays, the ABC also has dinosaurs like McNamara who see no future for electric cars and questions whether electric storage batteries actually work.
Jesus effing christ. It does my head in. Maybe I need to change to ABC Classic (music). Perhaps there I will be wished Seasons Greetings, which I will be quite happy with.
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Christmas is the happiest time of year. Except for the myriad of people for whom it isn't. The phone lines at Lifeline are already ringing hot. And yes, Season's Greetings works for me.
ReplyDeleteThat is sad to learn EC. People have such high expectations, and then there are those who have none.
DeletePoliticians or ideologists can only play around with words. I remember I was meant to use the word "client" to "consumer" for everyone I provide a service to. Now the word "consumer" is now offensive to many.
ReplyDeleteRoentare, I went through the same where passengers became customers. Load of nonsense.
DeleteThe term "Holidays" has always signified going away sonewhere to me ( as in, where are you going this year for your holidays?) so I get confused when it is used to refer to the Christmas and New Year festive season.
ReplyDeletePrecisely JayCee, and do have happy holidays in wherever you going. Italy is it?
DeleteStalker
ReplyDeleteAndrew have just come back from a week in Melbourne. Lllly pond in the gardens is in full bloom it’s a lovely place to sit for a while.
The challenge of choosing your audience for the language you use for Christmas
is interesting . Do you go woke or go broke? Stonnington Councill dropped Christmas from its message so now it’s merry something or other
Trams as always are running frequently and are a great reminder of the network it captures
If I lived in Melbourne I would do an Andrew and ride every route
Old habits die hard , like prawns for Christmas Day we hope everyone has a happy Christmas with the usual family fights full bellies mince tarts and an afternoon sleep
In the big lake Stalker?
DeleteI am definitely woke, but I also respect our culture.
I've not taken a decent public transport for weeks. There is always a reason I can find but I do enjoy taking them.
No family fights for us on Christmas Day, ever.
Trams are running appalling late at the moment. Every year Yarra Trams doesn't prepare for pre Christmas traffic.
Can you believe at last night's Christmas party for our building residents, there were left over prawns. I had eaten five.
Too many Americanisms - they annoy me. We wish people Happy Diwali and Happy Hannukah so what's so offensive about Happy Christmas? Wokery has gone mad and common sense has left the building.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good point JB. In Sydney people are wished Happy Mardi Gras when it happens in March. I consider I am woke, that is recognising how things were wrong in the past, but I have no time for this cancel culture. The lack of common sense is just daily and I despair.
DeleteOn my blog I wished people a happy holiday period. You're allowed to dislike it :)
ReplyDeleteI have a cousin who calls the ABC with complaints so regularly they know him. Thats something for you to aspire to :)
Kylie, slightly modified by adding 'period' to happy holiday, I can almost wear that. I don't call ABC talk back but I am sure I am known as a serial complainer. I have 1980s typed letters from the ABC, responding to my complaints in our filing cabinet.
DeleteYou know, it doesn't matter to me. If someone greets me, I will greet them back in the same spirit. I don't give a rat's behind about what greeting they use.
ReplyDeleteIn the spirit of that, may I wish you a happy duckbilled platypus day!
I will greet people similarly too Debby on a personal level. I am just fighting against the Americanisation of our culture. It is a loosing battle and probably not worth fighting for. It's happening. Your tv and film moving pictures are omnipresent.
Delete*sigh* I sincerely apologize for that, Andrew. Our nation is in a mess.
DeleteYou seem angry today Andrew and I like that. The day that you stop being angry about stupidity, thoughtlessness or injustice is the day that your life effectively ends.
ReplyDeleteYP, just when I think I am done complaining, a new injustice or outrage arises.
DeleteHappy holidays is a definite American import. Seasons greetings is far more dignified and gentle.
ReplyDeleteMerlot, Seasons Greetings is the best, it covers everything.
DeleteI'm not a fan of Happy Holidays either. We should just say Merry Christmas or whatever and others who say a different greeting according to race or religion can say whatever they usually say. Same with Easter.
ReplyDeleteI'm in two minds about storage batteries, they are a good idea, I have a small one to recharge my phone when I am away from home too long, and bigger ones for houses seem like a good idea, but batteries eventually die and then what do we do with them? We can't be dumping them in landfill surely!
River, your thoughts about greetings are appreciated. There are already battery recycling plants in Australia for both small and large batteries.
DeleteTo be fair, in America "holiday' isn't a vacation, it's a day to celebrate a special event or day, like Christmas, Thanksgiving , July 4th, or whatever holiday it might be.
ReplyDeleteI say Happy Holiday because it fits every need, and if someone responds with Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, or Happy Kwanzaa or Winter Solstice or whatever, I'm good with that too.
Bob, I just don't get it. Compared to most countries, yours is quite a Christian religious country, yet these vehement Christians don't fight for the religious Merry Christmas and accept Happy Holidays. Yet here in a very irreligious country, many of us want to keep the greeting Merry Christmas and not use Happy Holidays.
DeleteI'm prepared to bet that in the USA it's out of consideration for the Jews. (Unlikely to be an adjustment for atheists, muslims, or other religions.)
DeleteOurs is only a Christian religious nation in the eyes of rightwingnuts which is why they fight the so-call "War on Christmas." We have all kinds of faiths and non-faiths no matter what the right tries to say. I have never had a person get annoyed with me when i say happy Holidays; those who believe in Christ and Christmas respond Merry Christmas.
DeleteMC, that is perhaps quite true. I don't think Jews like Christmas very much.
DeleteBob, our respective countries are quite different in a number of ways. As I originally said, it is about our culture, generally not religion, although it is obviously based on Christianity. Most don't give a thought to religion when celebrating Christmas and are happy to include anyone.
DeleteAnother Happy Holidays non fan here. No idea why, it just sounds like an inclusive cop out.
ReplyDeleteMind you if I mention ‘have a great holiday season’ on the blog I’m usually referring to the Christmas holidays. . which are our summer holidays. . which fall at the same time as Christmas and New Year. Clear - as mud 😊
Cathy, it may sound inclusive but I feel alienated by the expression. I am not a dinosaur but it seems like the enforcement of a foreign culture to me. Holiday season is kind of ok.
DeleteSeconding what Bob said. Holiday is not a synonym for vacation here in the U.S. However, happy and merry ARE synonyms. If someone genuinely wants me to achieve that emotional state, I won't complain about whatever they follow it with.
ReplyDeleteI forgot about the distinction between holiday and vacation Kirk.
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ReplyDeleteMy first comment was a bit glib, so here's another, hopefully more insightful one:
Here in the U.S. there's been a decades-long raging debate as to what extent we regard Christmas as a religious holiday or a cultural holiday. People over here who get upset over "Happy Holidays" really DO want, with all its religious ramifications intact, the Christ part in Christmas emphasized. Obviously, I have no idea why your country's television network is using "Happy Holidays" if Christmas is only considered a cultural holiday, and not a religious one. You have every right to complain if you feel it somehow insults your sensibility. It just to American ears, complaints about HH instead of MC is really a debate on secularism. That your complaint doesn't concern such a debate threw me for a loop. We speak the same language and yet we don't.
Thanks for the detail Kirk. I've never heard a practising Christian here complain about Happy Holidays...yet. Most who complain will be old white people like me who want to keep our culture to sit alongside and merge with other cultures. Maybe I come across as racist in some way, wanting to protect white Australian culture but that isn't how I feel and not in my life experience. Money rules the world and American media is all powerful and I do not like the loss of our culture to the American media world empire.
DeleteThe census says that 56% of Melburnians claim to be Christian, 24% claim astheism and 12% other religions like Buddhism or Judaism (The rest don't respond).
ReplyDeleteSo if you say Happy Christmas, you have a better than even chance of being correct. If you say Happy Holidays, you don't offend anyone :)
Hels, I saw a figure of about 45% of Australians being Christian.
DeleteI just don't get Happy Holidays for Christmas. Tradie Brother and his ex wife are both working on Christmas Day. Happy bloody holidays to them.
Ummm, holy days. (Old English hāligdæg ‘holy day’.)
DeleteI find this argument interesting. Clearly some people (including conservative Christians) are offended by the "happy holidays" that essentially denies the existence of the second-most-important holiday in the Christian calendar. I am very liberal but I am still not keen on it. Then there are the millions of people (of lapsed or no faith) who enjoy the secular aspects of Christmas too. Their potential offence is not worth anything?
DeleteI know many in migrant non-Christian communities who also object, because this "happy holidays" business is done paternalistically in their name and hence they cop the backlash for something they never asked for.
I think we can all recognise the difference between the voluntary civic recognition of a highly significant religious festival (and traditional cultural event) and a compulsory participation in worship. The latter would be abhorrent, but that's clearly not going to happen, is it?
That's a good point MC. It is hardly an irreligious Christian term.
DeleteAdam, while recognising the history of Christmas, I've completely disassociated myself from the greeting to be any thing to do with religion. I will continue to use the phrase Marry Christmas but if I know someone isn't, or possibly isn't Christian, I say nothing, unless they wish me Merry Christmas, and while it may not be correct to wish them Merry Christmas in return, it is almost an automatic reaction.
DeleteI agree. Season's greeting works for me. A good friend worked on the distress lines in Toronto over this season and the calls were through the roof. Happiness doesn't appear for far too many. And being to blind to this solid fact is anathema to most.
ReplyDeleteXO
WWW
WWW, as EC also said about Christmas being a not so great time for many. Also as I heard this morning, the worst day of the year for domestic violence.
DeleteHmmmm. It sounds like what you most object to is the word "holiday," because they aren't actually holidays for a lot of working people, and not the absence of the word Christmas. Am I reading that right?
ReplyDeleteIn any case, I think they're just trying to be as inclusive as possible, respecting people whose holidays aren't necessarily Christmas. Doesn't bother me.
Steve, I don't like using the word holidays but it is about our culture for me, now with Christmas being part of Australian culture rather than having a religious connection and that goes for the majority of our population.
DeleteWhy shouldn't I wish a happy Christmas to somebody who works ? It's just as saying "good morning" even if your morning is not good at all. Here too we all wish a merry Christmas to everybody. In French and German you don't say "happy Holidays" Even if the person has no religion at all. I think all people take it like a fairy tale, with the Coca Cola Father Christmas, just like Easter with its Bunny. The only thing which disturbs me is the "too much"decoration, it's overdone in all cities ! Especially this year it seems to me.
ReplyDeleteGattina, you understand. It almost is just a greeting involving a fairy tale. Too much decoration will only become even more decoration in years ahead.
DeleteThis annoys me as well. Like you, I have worked with non-Christian people for years and never once heard a person object to the mention of Christmas. Ever. And why would a reasonable person complain? It's a kindly wish, not a compulsion to attend Mass.
ReplyDeleteWould I be offended if someone said "Happy Hanukkah" or celebrated Eid-ul-Fitr with me? No, in fact it would be a bit unhinged if I was offended.
I'd rather we celebrate everything than nothing. For some reason, so many in our community seem frightened to say "Christmas" in an official context. The Puritans would be delighted!
Adam, I'd actually feel quite honoured to be given a Hanukkah or Eid greeting. I'd feel very welcomed if a person thought highly enough of me to offer me such a greeting.
DeleteAs we know, there are far worse ways to shove Christianity down someone's throat than wishing them Merry Christmas.