Happy Birthday to me! I hope that did not offend anyone who does not believe in celebrating birthdays...

Recently I have been reading about the trend nowadays to say “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas”. From what I have gathered this is to be politically correct and to not offend anyone of another religion who may not celebrate Christmas. I find this strange. Sometimes I wonder if people in this country have not completely lost it upstairs.

In Tanzania the major religions are Islam and Christianity and Hinduism and “traditional beliefs” are also found. It would not be uncommon at the end of Ramadan to hear “Eid Mbaruk”. Do not ask me what the means really – I think it is probably more than likely roughly translated as “Happy Eid” (Eid al-Fitr). Not a single person – from Christian to Hindu to the local witchdoctor would take offense to the greeting. Most people celebrated most holidays. I celebrated Id. So did everyone I knew no matter what religion they were. I might not have been celebrating the real meaning behind Id but I (as many others) saw it as a good excuse to get together and drink Konyagi and eat nyama choma. And if someone was to come up to me here in the good ‘ol US and say Happy Kwanzaa or a Merry Hanukah to you I would be fine with that.

They would be only trying to wish me a happy whatever day they are celebrating. Is it wrong to include someone of another belief system? I guess most people think so.

If there was a holiday that celebrated something bad – say human sacrifice from back in the day and they were remembering that day and said “Happy Human Sacrifice Day”. Ya, I think I would take offense to that.

And I wonder if the people who are mad about "Merry Christmas" are the non-religious or other religious who are just pissed off that their holidays are not nationally recognized. Check out my quote on the side of my page. I used to be an atheist but them gave it up because they do not have any holidays.

For a country that is so diverse and relatively liberal in its ways I do not understand why we cannot tolerate a simple holiday greeting.

fpm