10 December 2010

Don't blame other faiths for Christmas ban

| Graham Cooke
Join the conversation
23

The Canberra Multicultural Community Association wishes to disassociate itself from any moves to ‘ban’ Christmas from schools, offices or other workplaces, CMCF Chair Sam Wong said today.

“I have just read about a Victorian kindergarten that has decided to exclude Christmas from its end-of-year party and these reports are becoming increasingly common,” Mr Wong said.

“Of course, these organisations can do what they like, but what concerns me is that the reasons often given are that we are a multicultural society and we must not risk offending or alienating people of other faiths.

“This is absolute rubbish. I have yet to meet a Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Jew or person of any other religion that claims to be offended because the majority of Australians celebrate the Christian festival of Christmas,” Mr Wong said.

“Indeed, if there is any reaction at all, it is of interest in the various facets of Christmas, religious and secular, and a wish to participate, if only as observers.

“In Canberra I have been to celebrations of Divali, Hanukkah, Eid-Ul-Fitr and Vesah. I would hope that in one of the great multicultural cities of the world, followers of every religion would feel free to celebrate their important days openly, rather than having them swept under the carpet.

“I wish all members of the Canberra multicultural community, and indeed all Canberrans, a merry Christmas and a safe and prosperous New Year.”

Join the conversation

23
All Comments
  • All Comments
  • Website Comments
LatestOldest

“And now, Montessori Marvels Preschool presents the happy, non-offensive, non-denominational Christmas Play, with music and lyrics by New York minimalist composer, Philip Glass!”

If we don’t teach our children about Christianity, how will they ever be able to do cryptic crosswords? Or play trivia???

Hi There,

This one does bug me on 2 fronts. Firstly on the grounds others have responded to above, that if we are multicultural we should be celebrating and exposed to all cultures, religions –not all except christianity.
Secondly – this country was founded on christian values and this is a main contributer to the quality of life we all enjoy in this country. Around the world in countries where individuals are valued you find they too were founded on christian principles. Whilst we are becoming more and more secular, christian values are embedded in our culture. I am not a practicing christian, however I do think we would be a much poorer culture without these values as a foundation and eroding them leads to lack of valuing individuals, their freedoms, rights and resposibilities.

DTC (above) provides a perfect example of the ideological nonsense that’s behind these sorts of idiotic bans.

Learning a nativity play at school is not “being forced to participate” in any way shape or form – it’s part of the educational experience: our society and our laws are informed by our society’s christian background, so deliberately excluding our christian background is a way of foisting ignorance on children, a form of child abuse every bit as bad as those who bring their children up in dopey religious sects.

There was a 12-year-old girl on last night’s 2CN kid’s quiz phone-in who had never heard of the pope – obviously another victim of DTC’s idiotic political correctness.

JessicaNumber4:33 am 11 Dec 10

We should all be learning about each other. Why can’t schools work with parents to make sure everyone’s stories are told?

I don’t have a problem with schools teaching little Buddhist kids about Christmas, but don’t let the minority religions be the “have nots” when it would be so great for the mainstream kids to learn some traditions of cultural minorities!

I’m sick of this politically correct madness.

Australia is trying so hard to be a multicultural place but when it comes to being multicultural, everybody segregates and tip toes around everybody else.

Wouldn’t this be a good time for people from foreign cultures to learn about what we celebrate/believe?

Bosworth said :

It’s probably the fault of all those dirty immoral baby-eating Atheists.

*spits on the ground*

That’s me! I’m a baby-eating athiest. In my family we’ve got some spiritualists (if that’s a religious stance), some Buddhists and a bunch of athiests, but I don’t think we have any Christians among us. Still, we merrily celebrate Christmas every year, although not in a Christian sense, it must be said. No carols or church-going. Lots of food, family and fun, though.

We need to be like Shri Lanka where they have 15 public holidays a year.

the best place is HK, because you get all the chinese holidays (chinese new year, old persons day, “Ninth day of the ninth moon in the Chinese lunar calendar “, other stuff that I can’t recall) AND many english holidays (Christmas, Easter, labour day). Chinese New Year running into Easter is always fun. I think they manage 16 or 17 holdiays

Although some European countries have 30 days statutory leave plus about 10 – 12 days public holiday.

Here we go again. How far off stoning Christians, or feeding them to lions do you think we are?

“Homeless”, I disagree with your point on religious and racial acceptance – as it relates to the OP. Not celebrating (in whatever form that takes) Christmas in a country founded on Christian traditions is ridiculous.

Does anyone know of any non-Christian nation that does not celebrate it’s traditions for fear of offending Christian beliefs or values?

By removing Christmas from it’s celebrations this Victorian kindergarten has, by definition, ceased to be a multi-cultural institution and in my opinion is poorer for it. That being the case, I hope for their sake they have not celebrated a single religious or cultural event of any faith or race this year lest they be completely hypocritical. Unfortunately, the bi-product would be children who do not get the benefit of experiencing religions and cultures – both their own and those of other people.

dtc said :

So as long as your school etc does not require you to participate in a nativity play or act according to the religious elements, but instead requires you to participate in the cultural elements (family/present giving/getting drunk at the end of the year etc), it cannot be an issue.

exactly, what we need is more kids getting drunk at end of term celebrations – there can never be too much schoolies action going on…

😉

but really, having kids taught the origins of these festivities can’t hurt, especially if, in the spirit of multiculturalism, they are also taught about ramadan, and hannukah, and the ascent of the flying spaghetti monster and yoda’s name day, etc…

We need to be like Shri Lanka where they have 15 public holidays a year. That’s more than 1 a month! You never see any problems with ethnic minoarties complaining in that country do you? Ever since the government there introduced their wonderfly effective and efficent multicultural policy there has been a marked decrease in racial and religious complaints in that country, well except for in some nice camps where the northerners go for long extended holidays.

Count your lucky stars Australia, while we have a long way to go on racial and religious acceptance, we’re a lot better off than almost every other country out there.

Whatever happened to ‘Bah! Humbug!’?

I think Sam Wong’s comment is welcome.

Although…it’s unrealistic to assume that there are NO whingers in the non-anglo communities who complain about their children being involved in Xmas activities. Why should they be any different to the rest of us non-multiculturals? We have anti-xmas types in our own community, don’t we? Some of whom are riding on the back of this alleged discriminatory activity to push their own barrows.

Any child who doesn’t want to be involved, shouldn’t have to, regardless of their cultural background, but schools and other public institutions should never be allowed to decide on their own that something as much a part of our cultural and religious history as Xmas (no matter how commercially degraded it may have become) can be excised from their little corner of the public sphere. And I speak as an atheist, but also as a parent.

If we were truly a multicultural nation, we’d celebrate far more festivals and get far more public holidays.

eyeLikeCarrots12:33 pm 10 Dec 10

Deano said :

Typical, religion is trying to muscle in on all of our great festivals. What will they be after next, Easter?

I lol’d.

The Disciples we all like, “lol, pwned” and Jesus on the pole was all like, “Stay away from my easter eggs you dudez, I’ll be back in 3 days”

It’s probably the fault of all those dirty immoral baby-eating Atheists.

*spits on the ground*

+ 1

All fanatics should be killed!

“I have yet to meet a Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Jew or person of any other religion that claims to be offended because the majority of Australians celebrate the Christian festival of Christmas,”

If you haven’t met one then they must not exist.

Case closed.

It’s probably the fault of all those dirty immoral baby-eating Atheists.

*spits on the ground*

Mr Gillespie11:40 am 10 Dec 10

Whether or not Christmas is a religious festival, or a time for spending huge amounts of money buy gifts for just about everyone you know, there is only one thing in common with the 2 main views, and that is Christmas itself, and the big deal made about it EVERY YEAR.

RELIGIOUS ZEALOUTS:
• Shops are shut because of them
• Endless preaching (eg. about “goodwill” and about someone called Jesus Christ) because of them
• EVERYTHING SHUTS DOWN FOR THE “HOLIDAYS”
etc.

COMMERCIAL ZEALOUS:
• Spend, spend, spend, all for the sake of “gift-giving”, while the kiddies are duped by men dressed up as Santa Claus so they keep nagging their mummy & daddy “I WANT MORE PRESENTS!!!”
• Crap drags on for months
• EVERYTHING SHUTS DOWN FOR THE “HOLIDAYS”
etc.

And did you know,…..
“I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year” is really a nice way of saying “I’m sorry, but I’m going away for the holidays, I won’t be contactable for this period, and I won’t be back again till next year sometime (if at all)”

There is a difference, however, between choosing to go to a festival/religious occasion not of your religion, and being forced to go/participate in such an occasion (as may be the case in school). No one is suggesting that churches stop holding Christmas services, but there is an issue with requiring school pupils to participate in what is a Christian festival (as a possibly stretched analogy, imagine if all school pupils were required to fast for Ramadan, even if not Muslim.

That said, Christmas is now so clearly not a religious festival for a great many people (including the non religious) but is nonetheless widely celebrated in Australia – thus I think its fair to call it predominately a cultural celebration rather than a religious one.

So as long as your school etc does not require you to participate in a nativity play or act according to the religious elements, but instead requires you to participate in the cultural elements (family/present giving/getting drunk at the end of the year etc), it cannot be an issue.

georgesgenitals11:37 am 10 Dec 10

What we need is more festivals for everyone to participate in and enjoy, not less!

Wait… What? Christmas is a religious festival? When did this happen? None of the ton of junk mail catalogues I received lately ever mentioned this. I don’t ever recall seeing any religious icons at any of the great Westfield festival celebration centres.

Typical, religion is trying to muscle in on all of our great festivals. What will they be after next, Easter?

Well said. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of the people that are supposedly being catered to by this practice find the whole thing incredibly patronising.

Daily Digest

Want the best Canberra news delivered daily? Every day we package the most popular Riotact stories and send them straight to your inbox. Sign-up now for trusted local news that will never be behind a paywall.

By submitting your email address you are agreeing to Region Group's terms and conditions and privacy policy.