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LETTERS: Spreading the Christmas spirit

Editor: It is time to dispel the absurd notion that “Christmas” is a discriminatory word.

Editor:

It is time to dispel the absurd notion that “Christmas” is a discriminatory word.

Heaven forbid that we should wish someone of another culture a Merry Christmas! To refrain is multiculturalism gone berserk. Multiculturalism should be an embracing of other cultures, without the diminishment of our own.

So, in October we wish Americans a Happy Thanksgiving, even though it’s not theirs. We wish our Chinese friends a Happy New Year on Jan. 1, even though it’s not their New Year.

And with joy and sincerity, we wish all a Merry Christmas, even though the recipient of our wish celebrates other traditions.

So let’s not be satisfied with the euphemisms and substitutions. “Happy Holidays” and “Season’s Greetings” just don’t say it the way it is. Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Someone so important that our calendar is split by it: Before Christ (BC) or Before Common Era (BCE), as opposed to Anno Domini (AD) or Common Era (CE), if you prefer. The choice of terminology makes no difference; the calendar division remains because this birth has shaped our history.

A very Merry Christmas to all!

David C. Fearon, Surrey