Is Wishing People a “Merry Christmas” a Form of Discrimination?
New York City's Rockefeller Center at Christmas
The majority of Millennial Americans consider it discriminatory to say “Merry Christmas” according to a survey conducted between November 28 and December 4, 2018, on a representative sample of 1,000 people.
Millennials – or Generation Y – represent the age group of those born between 1980 and 2000; they are the ones who have grown up with the arrival and spread of digital technology.
According to the survey initiated by the Marist Institute for National Public Radio, 53% of Millennials believe we should say “Happy Holidays” and not “Merry Christmas” on December 25, to avoid discriminating against non-Christians.
Jewish journalist Julia Ioffe echoed this position, with an article in the Washington Post on December 21, 2018, entitled “Please don’t wish me ‘Merry Christmas.’” “It’s lonely to be reminded a thousand times every winter that the dominant American cultural event occurs without me,” she said.
The American president does not quite agree; he reviles the use of the expression “Happy Holidays” for December 25. “People are proud to be saying Merry Christmas again. I am proud to have led the charge against the assault of our cherished and beautiful phrase. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!” Donald Trump tweeted on December 24, 2017.
A sad world, the world of Millennials! The more it opens young adults up to new technology, the more it disconnects them from the simplicity of the essential: the mystery of the Divine Child in the manger.
Sources: AFP / The Washington Post / FSSPX.News – 1/3/2018
