Saturday, December 24, 2005

Happy Birthday Jesus!!!

For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:5-7
And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.
Luke 1:34-36
Its hard to answer what Christmas means to me. On the face of it, it's more like a religious festival where I come from and a entertainment industry where I am at now. December 23rd and 24th happen to be the highest grossing days in the US, a phenomenon catching up now in India.

Its funny what blatant commercialism can do to anything. Just like the phenomenon called Valentine's day ... come to think of it I guess most of the media made holidays!!

To add some spice into the proceedings, its always good to put in some left verus right politicisation of the topic at hand. Taking political correctness to a new level, the liberal left decided to replace 'merry Christmas' with 'happy holidays'. I am yet to figure out the political wrongness of 'merry Christmas'!! Would it be wrong for people to wish me happy birthday just because my neighbour doesn't celebrate my birthday?? The Christian right was not far behind, they called for a boycott of any store that followed the left's 'liberal theology'. And now we know how wars start!

What more can I say ... and now on to some fun quotes
"Christmas is a time when kids tell Santa what they want and adults pay for it. Deficits are when adults tell the government what they want and their kids pay for it." Richard Lamm


"How many observe Christ's birthday! How few, his precepts! O! 'tis easier to keep holidays than commandments." Benjamin Franklin

"From a commercial point of view, if Christmas did not exist it would be necessary to invent it."

"In the old days, it was not called the Holiday Season; the Christians called it 'Christmas' and went to church; the Jews called it 'Hanukka' and went to synagogue; the atheists went to parties and drank. People passing each other on the street would say 'Merry Christmas!' or 'Happy Hanukka!' or (to the atheists) 'Look out for the wall!'"

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey, liked ur article.....I wonder too why nowadays I hear more ppl wishing me 'happy holidays' than 'merry christmas'....I think I would go with the religious greeting...coz the day represents Christ's birth!

-Susmitha

NoViCe said...

My first convert :)