Merry Christmas
In an effort for many people or groups to remain “politically correct”, they are shying away from using the phrase merry Christmas for fear of offending someone who may not believe in this particular season.
Over the past decade or so, some major corporations opted to use the phrase happy holidays instead and suffered a serious backlash from their decision that they reverted back to using Merry Christmas in all of their greetings. For many people, the phrase is representative of their religious beliefs as well as the season of wishing everyone good will and hoping the previous year had been good to them.
The holiday of Christmas is celebrated to mark the widely Christian accepted date of the birth of Jesus. Although the origin of the Merry Christmas greeting is open for debate, it is often thought to have originated just a few years after his birth, making it one of the oldest and most often celebrated holiday.
Typically, greeting cards use the phrase Merry Christmas as an announcement of the card’s message as well as by individuals either upon greeting on when saying goodbye.
Although not all religions follow the traditional holiday among Christians, it is one of the most celebrated of holidays. While some may doubt its religious roots, they are vastly outnumbered by those that do. This explains why the use of the Merry Christmas greeting continues despite a few objections.
Wishes For A Merry Christmas Offer Peace And Reflection
The traditional greeting is often used to offer friends and families hope for a new year, especially with the New Year celebration coming a week after the holiday. The perception is that wishing someone a merry Christmas is also offering hope that they also have a happy New Year.
Christmas time is often used to express hope for a new beginning, marking the birth of Jesus, and is one of the most avidly celebrated of the religious holidays. Religious orders of Christian denomination use the holiday as a means of re-introducing their members to the reason for the season in hopes that a merry Christmas celebration will bring them back into an active membership status.
For many however, merry Christmas is simply a greeting used through the holiday season as a means of showing they belong to the group that believes in the season. However, for many, such as Ebenezer Scrooge, it is a time of overindulgence and a celebration practiced by those trying to show others their importance.