Being a Christian I was taught to be very much offended when I ran across the words “Happy Holidays” as that somehow diminished the real meaning of the season. But after I came across a blog post recently I have changed my opinion on those words. I wish I had kept the explanation as I’m sure the original author explained it much better then I can but since I can no longer find it I will have to do the best I can in justifying his idea.

I know that there are many holidays that have been celebrated around this time of year. Of course there is Hanukah and Christmas but there is also an African holiday (can’t remember the name right now)  and I’m pretty sure there is one of the Hindi and American Indian variety. Since December 21 is the winter solstice, that is it is the shortest day of the year, people in very ancient times celebrated after as they noticed the days were getting longer as they believed that God was not taking them into total darkness this time around. So due to ancient customs this is just naturally a season for holidays.

While I am at it I will also go against another thing I learned as a Christian and that is believing in God.  I was taught that only Christians prayed to the “true” God; everyone else worshipped false gods.  Just as I am sure that there is the “light of God” within all of us as taught to me by my Quaker friends I am also sure that we all are praying to the same God. Due to our different life experiences and our heritage we just approach him from different directions.  I am not going to trash others beliefs simply because they are different from mine as I was taught to do in a fundamentalist Christian church I once belonged to.

So I wish all of you Happy Holidays, no matter what your version of spirituality is. May God bless you and your families. And yes I am talking about the same God for all of you….

God is God, he knows who he is….

But for all you followers of Jesus out there I will also wish you a Merry Christmas….

May we all take the lessons of Jesus into our hearts on this and every other day of the year….