![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
More from the "I Don't Get It" files...
Nov. 14th, 2010 08:13 pmSome of you may remember the "Christian Seder" debacle from a few months back...where a mailing list of mothers I'm on was discussing spring holiday stuff and a few people mentioned wanting to attend, or attending a "Christian seder" leaving me offended and dumbfounded.
So it's now November and of course the winter holiday discussions are coming. Someone asked what families who don't want to "do Santa" say about Santa. Seeing how Santa is not a part of our Chanukah celebrations at all, I mentioned that the way we talk about it is that it's just not our tradition and we do other things instead-we make it value neutral as much as we can.
So you're wondering what I don't get are you?
A couple of the devout Christians on the list have gotten involved in the discussion-and certainly, it's worth hearing their perspective on Santa, right? Until my talk about Chanukah spurs a comment from one of them about how Christmas was originally a pagan holiday and so they make Christ a central part of their Christmas celebration and they "...do this with the menorah on our table and the nativity scene in our living room where our Christmas tree used to go before we were convicted about bringing a Christmas tree into the house. We do all 8 days of celebration with presents for each day and a nightly reading of the Bible and Jesus being our light as we light each candle."
Excuse me?
Now I will point out that the person who said the above is not someone I have a lot of respect for to begin with. But the whole thing got worse when someone I know is a head covering, devout Christian and who I do respect started talking about how her family got the guide to Biblical Holidays book and is looking forward to celebrating Chanukah this year.
I'm distraught. I can't even write a coherent response about cultural appropriation vs. exploring and understanding other cultures without it delving into rude and personally insulting to these two women. (Both families are homeschoolers, which makes me want even more to discuss the importance of doing the latter without the former, because if they're doing this, I wonder what else they're doing.)
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ladysmith and I are thinking about creating an actual seder in the spring for the group. One that will showcase the real traditions and rituals, and not twist the ceremony into something Christ-centric. I'm just so blindsided by the Chanukah thing that I don't know what to say.
So it's now November and of course the winter holiday discussions are coming. Someone asked what families who don't want to "do Santa" say about Santa. Seeing how Santa is not a part of our Chanukah celebrations at all, I mentioned that the way we talk about it is that it's just not our tradition and we do other things instead-we make it value neutral as much as we can.
So you're wondering what I don't get are you?
A couple of the devout Christians on the list have gotten involved in the discussion-and certainly, it's worth hearing their perspective on Santa, right? Until my talk about Chanukah spurs a comment from one of them about how Christmas was originally a pagan holiday and so they make Christ a central part of their Christmas celebration and they "...do this with the menorah on our table and the nativity scene in our living room where our Christmas tree used to go before we were convicted about bringing a Christmas tree into the house. We do all 8 days of celebration with presents for each day and a nightly reading of the Bible and Jesus being our light as we light each candle."
Excuse me?
Now I will point out that the person who said the above is not someone I have a lot of respect for to begin with. But the whole thing got worse when someone I know is a head covering, devout Christian and who I do respect started talking about how her family got the guide to Biblical Holidays book and is looking forward to celebrating Chanukah this year.
I'm distraught. I can't even write a coherent response about cultural appropriation vs. exploring and understanding other cultures without it delving into rude and personally insulting to these two women. (Both families are homeschoolers, which makes me want even more to discuss the importance of doing the latter without the former, because if they're doing this, I wonder what else they're doing.)
ladysmith and I are thinking about creating an actual seder in the spring for the group. One that will showcase the real traditions and rituals, and not twist the ceremony into something Christ-centric. I'm just so blindsided by the Chanukah thing that I don't know what to say.
