Happy Holidays, Holiday tree no problem but come on...

[Mackey Mouse]

I just wanted to post this site to enlighten some of us on what Kwanzaa is.. I thought it made a very interesting read..it is quite clearly a cultural holiday....whereas Chanukah and Christmas do have a religious affiliation, although I did read somewhere that Chanukah is not mentioned in scripture. Maybe someone can enlighten us on that..


http://www.officialkwanzaawebsite.org/

 

[JennyMominRI]

I am very tired of the whole PC thing. I work in a grocery store and we are told not to wish people Merry Christmas. It is Happy Holidays. Now I can see it if you have no idea what the perosn celebrates, but if I have a customer buying CHRISTMAS stuff, I am wishing them a Merry Christmas. Next thing we know, stores won't be closed on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, it will be closed on Holiday Eve and Holiday Day.

We sang very specific religious songs in chorus and concerts when I was in school. I know I sang "Silent Night" and I sang the Latin version of "O Come Let Us Adore Him", now they can't even sing "Oh Christmas Tree." I think if they are singing Kwanzaa songs and Hanukah (sp?) songs, then they should sing a Christmas one too. Our schools now do the other songs (Han. and Kwan.) but stick to songs like Let It Snow and Rudolph for their other songs.

My kids are singing Hannukah Songs a Kwanza song and a bunch of Christian based Christmas sons in their public school concert.And that is up here in liberal Rhode Island

 

[reeddi]

C.Ann - nah didn't read critism at all.
Belle McNally - I DO get your point and agree to some extent. If there had been just ONE with Christmas in it this post wouldn't be here. I do think there is Christian over-exposure in a lot of cases as well. But still cover one - cover all.
Mackey Mouse - thanks for the link. I will pass it onto my children as well. Although I am sure they know more about it than I do.

As for commericalism of Christmas - don't get me started. That wasn't the point though - equality was the point.

 

[BelleMcNally]

I just wanted to post this site to enlighten some of us on what Kwanzaa is.. I thought it made a very interesting read..it is quite clearly a cultural holiday....whereas Chanukah and Christmas do have a religious affiliation, although I did read somewhere that Chanukah is not mentioned in scripture. Maybe someone can enlighten us on that..


http://www.officialkwanzaawebsite.org/

Hanukkah is the eight day festival celebrating the victory of the Maccabees over Antiochus Epiphanes (as recounted in the book of Maccabees in the Bible) and the subsequent rededication of the Temple of Jerusalem.

 

[BelleMcNally]

C.Ann - nah didn't read critism at all.
Belle McNally - I DO get your point and agree to some extent. If there had been just ONE with Christmas in it this post wouldn't be here. I do think there is Christian over-exposure in a lot of cases as well. But still cover one - cover all.
Mackey Mouse - thanks for the link. I will pass it onto my children as well. Although I am sure they know more about it than I do.

As for commericalism of Christmas - don't get me started. That wasn't the point though - equality was the point.

And I agree with you, there should have been at LEAST one song about Christmas. If only because they are some of the most beautiful songs ever, IMO.

 

[Mackey Mouse]

Thanks Belle for letting us know where it was in scripture...

 

[JennyMominRI]

I just wanted to post this site to enlighten some of us on what Kwanzaa is.. I thought it made a very interesting read..it is quite clearly a cultural holiday....whereas Chanukah and Christmas do have a religious affiliation, although I did read somewhere that Chanukah is not mentioned in scripture. Maybe someone can enlighten us on that..


http://www.officialkwanzaawebsite.org/

CHanukah is a minor festival in Judaism.It celebrates the defeat of the Maccabees and is in the book of Maccabees,
http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/113-12042004-411170.html

 

[nativetxn]

Maccabees is not part of my King James Version of the Bible. This is getting really interesting.

Katholyn

 

[reeddi]

Now THIS is a good direction for this thread. I am loving the information sharing and not the bashing. Good deal.

Thank you to everyone for the info.

 

[BelleMcNally]

Maccabees is not part of my King James Version of the Bible. This is getting really interesting.

Katholyn

I didn't know that!! I've actually never read all of the King James version, as I'm Catholic. I've read some of it for the linguistic value, and I know that there are a lot of "books" that are different between the King James and New American (or whatever Catholic compliation you like), but I didn't know Maccabees was one of them...

Hmm...something new every day!

 

[JennyMominRI]

FTR Felice NAvidad says Merry Christmas in Spanish AND English
feliz navidad,feliz navidad, feliz navidad prospero año y felicidad

feliz navidad,feliz navidad,feliz navidad prospero anyo y felicidad

I wanna wish you a merry christmas,
I wanna wish you a merry christmas,
I wanna wish you a merry christmas from the bottom of my heart

I wanna wish you a merry christmas,
I wanna wish you a merry christmas,
I wanna wish you a merry christmas from the bottom of my heart
3x

feliz navidad,feliz navidad, feliz navidad prospero aanyo y felicidad

feliz navidad,feliz navidad,feliz navidad prospero anyo y felicidad

 

[Miss Jasmine]

I didn't know that!! I've actually never read all of the King James version, as I'm Catholic. I've read some of it for the linguistic value, and I know that there are a lot of "books" that are different between the King James and New American (or whatever Catholic compliation you like), but I didn't know Maccabees was one of them...

Hmm...something new every day!

Yeah Maccabees is included in the apocrapha, which normally only Catholics use.

 

[akhenaten]

No bashing was intended....
just trying to point out that one christmas song was sung and it seems like 2 chaunaka songs....

sorry if I offended....

Last year my DS school sang Christmas , Chaunaka, Kwanza, and even did a presentation on Rammadan...it was wonderful....

I think that it may have been fun when I was little and though everyone believed the same thing,...but it is much better to know about others as well....

 

[Mackey Mouse]

I knew the version of Feliz Navidad did say something about I want to wish you a Merry Christmas from the bottom of my heart, but the OP said it was not that one...

Oh well.......

 

[Miss Jasmine]

Last year my DS school sang Christmas , Chaunaka, Kwanza, and even did a presentation on Rammadan...it was wonderful....

I think that it may have been fun when I was little and though everyone believed the same thing,...but it is much better to know about others as well....

Now this sounds like a great program. I love the inclusion, instead of the watering down of all the individual holidays.

 

[Mackey Mouse]

I agree......I like inclusion and not watering down the others.. Amen to that Miss Jasmine....

 

[JennyMominRI]

Maccabees is not part of my King James Version of the Bible. This is getting really interesting.

Katholyn

The books of the Maccabees consist of four Jewish books named after Judas Maccabeus, the hero of the first two. The books do not appear in the Jewish Bible, but 1 and 2 Maccabees are included in the Greek and Latin canon and in the Protestant Apocrypha. Books 1 and 2 provide a vivid account of Jewish resistance to the religious suppression and Hellenistic cultural penetration of the Seleucid period (175 - 135 BC).

They also contain partial records of the Hasmonean (or Maccabean) dynasty, which achieved Jewish political independence during the resistance to the Seleucids and maintained it until 63 BC. Written about 110 BC, 1 Maccabees has more historical scope and detail than the others and displays Hasmonean sympathies. Dated prior to 63 BC, 2 Maccabees epitomizes an earlier work by Jason of Cyrene and has modest historical value. A historically dubious but edifying account of the persecution of Egyptian Jews by Ptolemy IV (r. 221 - 204 BC) constitutes 3 Maccabees, which was written about 50 BC. The last book, 4 Maccabees, originally written in Greek probably about AD 25, is primarily a philosophical discussion of the primacy of reason, governed by religious laws, over passion

 

[BelleMcNally]

I totally agree. The common thread in all of the holidays this time of year is about gathering together--celebrating family and home and peace.

People are often so giving with their pocketbooks this time of year, but the most heartwarming thing is when people are giving of their spirits.

And who can't get all soft and weepy over a bunch of kids singing songs?

 

[reeddi]

Yeah that was the Feliz Navidad I was expecting but that wasn't what was sung. It wasn't even the same beat. I am not totally sure where it came from.

Hate to say this again but none of the songs were christmas songs. (Feliz Navidad - explained above)

It wasn't that I didn't enjoy the program .. I did. And we talked with my daughter after it about some of the different things she learned.

 

[Mackey Mouse]

I would be curious how the school came up with the words that they sung for that song.

I did a search and found weird words to the song but nothing that could be sung by schoolchildren...I wonder if they have a book that they use to make lyrics more PC...I am thinking out loud here, but wouldn't it be interesting to find out where those lyrics came from if in fact they were not the "I want to wish a Merry Christmas from the bottom of my heart" ones as the OP stated...She said it was not that song, but it was entitled Feliz Navidad..

This is a very interesting discussion.