If you live in North America, it’s hard to not know that this coming weekend is Christmas.
Many of us have been bombarded with decorations, commercials, Santas in shopping malls, and Christmas carols on the radio and in stores for the last month – sometimes more! If you’re Christian, or if you’re celebrating the secular Santa Claus tradition, all of these things are a lead-up to the Big Day.
But what if you’re not?
Let’s pause for a moment and consider… Do you know when Hanukkah is? Kwanzaa? Eid? Diwali? (to name a few?) Kwanzaa always runs Dec. 26 – Jan. 1. This year, Hanukkah is celebrated from Dec. 24 – Dec. 31.
How many menorahs have you seen kicking around in the fray of decorations and Christmas trees? How about a Kinara? Do you know what those are?
I’m not being a Grinch here. Holidays are festive occasions. But it’s interesting to me that in Canada (a country that celebrates diversity), we have major holidays that go unnoticed – and unacknowledged by the mainstream.
That doesn’t feel like inclusion (nor, actually, does it feel like diversity).
As you go about your business this week – with the lead-up to Christmas – if you celebrate Christmas, consider what the week may be like for people who don’t celebrate it. And if you don’t celebrate Christmas, consider what it might be like to be surrounded by holiday cheer for holidays you do celebrate.
Maybe one day we’ll get there.
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