At work, the annual Secret Santa exchange is taking place today. Several staff get small gifts for a other staff members who have been chosen from a random draw and deposit the gifts for them in their office or work area. Later at the "Holiday" party next week, each will have the option to play a round-robin swap of their gift with others. Oh what fun, right? And you don't have to be Christian in order to participate...it's just friendly fun.
I stick out among most of the rest of the staff in that I never participate. And until recently, I've never been questioned about this choice. The same one I've made for four years. Now, it seems I'm getting sideways glances from people when I let them know that I am not participating. I haven't said exactly why other than to state that I don't celebrate the "holidays" and leave it at that.
I don't bother explaining because I already know that most people don't "get it" when it comes to being an atheist.
Workplace Secret Santa exchanges sound on the surface secular enough since the company is using "Santa" in the modern American sense as a supposedly secular icon of the "Holiday" season so as not to promote one religion over another. But all supposedly "good" intentions at inclusiveness aside, lets talk about the facts behind these "politically correct" traditions:
The Santa tradition may well hearken back to Germanic paganism and Odin's Yuletide but today's Kris Kringle is the jolly fat man in the red suit intrinsically tied to Christianity and the celebration of Jesus' birth.
When companies call the December get-together the "Holiday" party, supposedly they are including other "cultural" end-of-year celebrations. But really, they're not. It's Christmas. No matter how you say it. Even Chanukah is seen by most American Christians as a "Jewish Christmas."
This morning, a co-worker, Mary, who's a nice lady and seems genuine asks confused, "So, what do you celebrate?" with her face crunched up slightly. She's subtlety betrayed that she's quite afraid of the potential heresy of my answer. She wouldn't, of course "get it." So I simply, yet honestly say "I don't celebrate anything. I just try to ignore it."
Her look of pity and near-revulsion was just precious.
I would love to see her suddenly and unceremoniously dropped into some alternate universe Fundamentalist Muslim America where corporations have a slightly different version of "Holiday" traditions...
"So Mary, daughter of Allah, are you participating in the Secret Muhammad exchange?"
"Um, well, I'm Christian so I don't celebrate that."
"But we have named the celebration a "Holiday" party so infidels, er, I mean even non-believers feel welcome...and maybe you'll see our mutual joy in the glory of Allah and come to join us? No?"
"I think I'll just try and ignore it."
Wrong answer. Her co-workers just behead her, shriek "Allah Akbar!" and call it a day.
I stick out among most of the rest of the staff in that I never participate. And until recently, I've never been questioned about this choice. The same one I've made for four years. Now, it seems I'm getting sideways glances from people when I let them know that I am not participating. I haven't said exactly why other than to state that I don't celebrate the "holidays" and leave it at that.
I don't bother explaining because I already know that most people don't "get it" when it comes to being an atheist.
Workplace Secret Santa exchanges sound on the surface secular enough since the company is using "Santa" in the modern American sense as a supposedly secular icon of the "Holiday" season so as not to promote one religion over another. But all supposedly "good" intentions at inclusiveness aside, lets talk about the facts behind these "politically correct" traditions:
The Santa tradition may well hearken back to Germanic paganism and Odin's Yuletide but today's Kris Kringle is the jolly fat man in the red suit intrinsically tied to Christianity and the celebration of Jesus' birth.
When companies call the December get-together the "Holiday" party, supposedly they are including other "cultural" end-of-year celebrations. But really, they're not. It's Christmas. No matter how you say it. Even Chanukah is seen by most American Christians as a "Jewish Christmas."
This morning, a co-worker, Mary, who's a nice lady and seems genuine asks confused, "So, what do you celebrate?" with her face crunched up slightly. She's subtlety betrayed that she's quite afraid of the potential heresy of my answer. She wouldn't, of course "get it." So I simply, yet honestly say "I don't celebrate anything. I just try to ignore it."
Her look of pity and near-revulsion was just precious.
I would love to see her suddenly and unceremoniously dropped into some alternate universe Fundamentalist Muslim America where corporations have a slightly different version of "Holiday" traditions...
"So Mary, daughter of Allah, are you participating in the Secret Muhammad exchange?"
"Um, well, I'm Christian so I don't celebrate that."
"But we have named the celebration a "Holiday" party so infidels, er, I mean even non-believers feel welcome...and maybe you'll see our mutual joy in the glory of Allah and come to join us? No?"
"I think I'll just try and ignore it."
Wrong answer. Her co-workers just behead her, shriek "Allah Akbar!" and call it a day.