By Euro Weekly News Media • Published: 22 Dec 2016 • 12:42
DIWALI LANTERNS: Embracing every culture except our own.
Parents have been told by academics to stop pretending Father Christmas is real in case the ‘lie’ damages relations with their children who might then question what else mum and dad are lying about.
What! First, no Father Christmas; next they’ll be telling us politicians tell the truth and do their ‘underpaid’ job for the love of serving their country!
Why do academics want to sweep away the myths and legends which are part of our cultural heritage? All part of childhood and growing up. How boring and unimaginative life would be without Father Christmas, the tooth fairy and fairy stories. What would children do without them? Obsess about video games, sexting, selfies?
There are more obvious ways to get children adjusted to the harsh realities of life than to take away their Christmas ‘magic.’ Why not start reintroducing a sense of competition in schools, competition they’ll face soon enough in business and job applications?
I’m also reminded here of a recent report that political correctness is crippling British culture to the extent that Christmas itself is at risk. Christmas trees have already been renamed ‘festive trees’ by some and Christmas itself ‘the winter holidays.’ Way back in 1998, Birmingham City Council already called it ‘Winterval.’
When my friend’s daughter was at primary school 10 years ago, she never painted a fireworks picture in November, made Halloween lanterns, took in a contribution for harvest festival or acted in a nativity play. All things I did at school. She did make a lantern for Diwali, fine in itself, but not as an alternative to Britain’s own traditions. All these years we’ve been exhorted to celebrate diversity by embracing every culture except our own. Such a shame.
Ah, with all this talk of political correctness, it’s already beginning to feel like Christmas. And a sure sign Santa’s already having his sleigh valeted at Kwik Fit. As for me, not exactly a hard ‘BrXmas’ here but definitely no free movement of loads of in-laws – I’m too busy writing my latest thriller! HAPPY CHRISTMAS!
Nora Johnson’s psychological/suspense crime thrillers ‘No Way Back,’ ‘Landscape of Lies,’ ‘Retribution,’ ‘Soul Stealer,’ ‘The De Clerambault Code’ (www.nora-johnson.com) available from Amazon in paperback/eBook (€0.99; £0.99) and iBookstore. All profits to Costa del Sol Cudeca cancer charity.
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I think a law should be passed in the UK where the Christmas period must be referred to as Christmas, any reference to it as a holiday period should be as Christmas then anyone who doesn’t or refuses to is fined… that’s all pie in the sky of course as that will never happen as the snowflakes and PC brigade have fairly much scared the government to bits 🙂 I guess this is what we get for being a welcoming and caring people, we get our culture wiped away by idiots who take advantage of that but then we are the idiots for letting this happen 🙂
Well said Mike!
You mention that Winterval was introduced by Birmingham City Council in 1998. Presumably you found the specific date from research. The same research would have revealed that Winterval was a promotion by BCC of a range of events over winter; Bonfire Night, Diwali Christmas and New Year, it was so successful it was repeated the year after. I suspect it was dropped as they were fed up with explaining they were NOT trying to rebrand Christmas. Birmingham’s Christmas lights are just that, [b]Christmas[/b] lights. I know because I was there a few days ago. There’s plenty to criticise about BCC but this isn’t one of them.
OK, I copied this from a post I was trying to make and the form kept returning error, in the confusion I ended up posting it to this “Christmas is falling victim to politically correct obsession” by mistake, so sorry for the off topic post 🙂
Spot on…If people can’t see that calling Christmas Christmas is quite OK, one has to wonder if they have had a reality transplant. Calling the festivals of other faiths, and nations, by their proper name is never wrong. However, I agree with the view that this situation is mainly driven by idiotic hyper-sensitivity, hyper-political correctness.:(
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