Don’t want to endorse Christianity necessarily but hard to get around saying the word Christmas or Xmas, so is Xmas more rebellious? Is there an even more rebellious or irreverent name for it?
Also, should I not even celebrate Christmas? What’s an alternative that features the presents-giving at the same time of year but in a way that isn’t tied in any way to religion (and ideally doesn’t involve killing turkeys)?
Apparently saying “happy holidays” is rebellious enough to send some folks into unhinged rants about “the war on Christmas” lol
Despite what crazy right wing pundits say, “Xmas” is Christian. Chi (Χ) is the first letter of “Christ” written in the Greek alphabet. (Χριστός)
For me it will always be synonymous to extreme sports, i’m always picturing Jesus and Santa Claus doing sick snowboard tricks
Yule.
Yeah this. Most Nordic countries at least call it some variation of Yule still, Joulu in Finnish for example
Yule is kinda religious though.
At least it’s pagan though. A bit of an F you to the mainstream religions.
Saturnalia
That’s still religious.
Just go back to first principles and celebrate the actual solstice.
Winter solstice.
Xmas was never intended to be a more secular alternative, it was originally created by scribes wanting to save space so they used the first letter of Christ in Greek, “Χριστός”.
Christmas has been secularized for decades, really don’t need to be Christian to celebrate it. Especially since Jesus was probably born in the summer, the early church adopted Dec 25 to make it easier to convert people used to celebrating Saturnalia.
Festivus is maybe the best known totally non-religious December holiday. Or new years.
Do you know where the summer estimate came from? I don’t think it’s unlikely Christmas was moved. But I thought from when the division of abijah was on duty the 6 months plus 9 months put it either in either December or June. (The division of abijah was on duty twice a year) But that’s just from a conversation I had with someone, I don’t have great source for it either.
Fuckmas
I can’t give you finger guns over this medium, but just imagine me doing that while I say “nice!”
Why does it need to be rebellious? Sounds a little childish. Just roll with “happy holidays” or whatever and celebrate and let others celebrate whatever they want. Celebrating at this time of year has nothing to do with Christianity really, it’s much older tradition.
No offense, but you really don’t need to try so hard.
In some countries Christmas is a national holiday. It’s simply the name of a holiday that affects everyone in my country (USandA). Because of that, it’s both a secular and religious holiday. So do what you want with that. Celebrate by worship, by spending money, by seeing family, or do nothing and enjoy the quietest day of the year (in my city, at least).
And not to mention that Christmas isn’t even a real holiday; the Christians just co-opted and modified all the solstice holidays of every culture they conquered. The only “reason for the season” is to indoctrinate. Merry Christmas!
Kinda my take on it.
The only aspect of Christmas that’s inherently Christian is the fact that it has ‘Christ’ in the name.
When I was young it was a bit different- we’d pray on Christmas, have a themed tree, a little nativity scene setup. That sort of thing. I don’t do that anymore. Christmas is as religious to me as Valentines day, my birthday, Saint Patrick’s day, and Thanksgiving. It’s more a cultural event than a religious one, is what I’m getting at.
If anyone wants a further example of “Christmas but not even slightly Christian”, try watching a few Christmas movies. A lot of them aren’t particularly religious. I recently saw Violent Night, it’s an excellent example lol.
if you want to make it clear you’re participating under duress… “merry Fuckmass” works.
If you actually like them, “happy holidays”
If you can barely toleratate them, make it “hoppy holidays”.It’s not that hard to get around saying it when everyone is non-religious. I don’t think it was mentioned last year at all and it’s not like we tried.
We basically just celebrate that we all have time-off at the same time, so we all meet at my brothers house and and eat, drink and be lazy for a couple of days. The religious or traditional aspects don’t really come into play at all.
The X in Xmas is supposed to be the Greek letter Chi, and stands for Christ, so I wouldn’t call Xmas secular. But also a lot of Christmas traditions are in fact pagan, as a lot of European pagan religions, both historical and modern, have some kind of midwinter celebration. If you want to celebrate without the Christian stuff, you can celebrate winter solstice in whatever way you want.