I found your article while researching how to send a Christmas greeting for a new acquaintance from Liberia. I do not know if he is Christian or Muslim and wanted to make an attempt to get it right.

Very interesting. Thank you for making me one of the Westerners who now knows more about the UAE.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Before buying generic viagra read this.
I've got new info about generic viagra and share with you.

Beautiful site!

good site

Do you want to know who are the several most famous swindlers NPCs in the CWOW ?
http://www.wowgold-web.com

Even though I am not a Christian I have more positive feelings towards hearing Merry Christmas than the other seasonal greetings. I am offended when someone tries to turn the greeting into a conversion with expressions such as "Jesus is the Reason for the Season." Winter Holidays (holy-days) were celebrated a long time before Jesus and it was the ancient holy days that were corrupted to Christmas to make conversion easier. In the end, Merry Christmas is a joke on the Christians.

Thank you everyone for discussing this.

Hau'oli Lanui!
gs

Give you the big amount gold for free!The activity starts now!Experience it together now!
http://www.lucky-wow-gold.com

Even though the real Jesus was nothing like what the churches deceitfully proclaim, Merry Christmas is traditional and ok.

To maintain that 'Season's Greetings' might have gained popularity as the result of trendy or politically correct instincts strikes me as ridiculous. The greeing was already in common usage among people of all religions during my childhood in New Jersey some 60 years ago. It is especially suited to, of course,people who are not Christians. I don't understand how anyone can really regard such a trivial matter as worthy of discussion and examination. As if there aren't more important issues to contend with.

Bashir, Many thanks for this posting! What a pleasure to have negative stereotypes undermined and to hear that values of mutual tolerance are alive and practiced in some parts of the world of Islam as they are in some parts of Christendom. Now if we can only spread that notion in both worlds.
"Merry" Christmas is the best greeting of all for me precisely because it hearkens back to both ancient traditions: the solstice revels of the dark north where the return of the sun really really mattered, and the yearly joy and mystery of the humble arrival of the Christ Child. I happily accept seasonal greetings from Muslims, Jews, and non-believers in whatever format pleases them, so long as they are given in friendship. I trust they give me the same respect.
Thanks again.
And Merry Christmas!

Bashir, Many thanks for this posting! What a pleasure to have negative stereotypes undermined and to hear that values of mutual tolerance are alive and practiced in some parts of the world of Islam as they are in some parts of Christendom. Now if we can only spread that notion in both worlds.
"Merry" Christmas is the best greeting of all for me precisely because it hearkens back to both ancient traditions: the solstice revels of the dark north where the return of the sun really really mattered, and the yearly joy and mystery of the humble arrival of the Christ Child. I happily accept seasonal greetings from Muslims and from non-believers in whatever format pleases them, so long as they are given in friendship. I trust they give me the same respect.
Thanks again.
And Merry Christmas!

Player friend:come here to experience the pouring , thrilling and lightsome online game, please register the following website ,they will provide the high-speed game agency to every player, the speed and service must be the top-grade absolutely .
http://www.price-wow-gold.com

Dear Bashir,
The expression "Merry Christmas" is easily associated with the merry making typical of a pagan festival rather than with the celebration of an important religious feast. For this reason, I would suggest that "Happy Christmas" or "A Christmas full of joy and peace" as is commonly used in Portugal (but of course in Portuguese language)would be the more appropriate Christmas greeting. For an importamnt religious feast like Christmas, to have joy is a more appropriate feeling than "to be merry".

under the ideal tolerance of Islam?????????

Huh!

Merry Solstice-mas?

Last year, the American Family Association, a conservative religious group, organized a weekend boycott against Target stores. The reason? Target disallowed Salvation Army Christmas kettles or, allegedly, the use of "Merry Christmas" greetings in its advertising campaigns. Another group, led by Jerry Falwell, was also involved in the "Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign," an effort to aggressively reclaim Christmas for Christ through lawsuits and threats of legal action. Claims about an assault on Christmas are not new, of course, but every year they are heavily promoted and publicized by several right-wing religious leaders and news anchors.

Clearly, the issue has provoked strong emotions. Some see this as a battle for the country's religious -- specifically Christian -- heritage. But is it?

At Thanksgiving, we rehearse the well-known story of the Pilgrims who gave thanks for their survival in their harsh new world 400 years ago. Less well-known is the fact that many of the colonists who settled Massachusetts -- primarily Puritans and their descendants -- eschewed the celebration of Christmas for two and a half centuries. They went so far as to outlaw its celebration, subjecting Christmas-keepers to fines. Perhaps Mr. Falwell and the AFA should revisit the history books and label the Puritans as non-Christians for their assault on Christmas.

Just why did these Puritans reject Christmas? For the simple reason that the Bible nowhere hints at its celebration. The words "Christmas" or "Nativity" do not appear. Neither Jesus nor his disciples ever said a word about celebrating his birthday -- the date of which is not even known.

So how did Christmas come to even be considered a Christian holiday in the first place? To greatly condense the story, we must move from the first century to the fourth, to the time of Constantine, the Roman emperor who made Christianity the official religion of the empire. At that point, Christianity became not only fashionable -- you had to belong if you wanted to get ahead. More recent parallels might be membership in the Communist Party during the Soviet Union's existence, or membership in the Nazi Party during Hitler's regime. Some members were undoubtedly true believers but most joined for the benefits and to avoid trouble.

For centuries, the Romans and other cultures throughout the Northern Hemisphere celebrated the winter solstice in late December, the time of year when the sun had reached its lowest point. The darkness brought on by short days was counteracted by lighting fires, and the absence of green vegetation was challenged by giving evergreens a place of prominence. The sun's yearly rebirth led to widespread popular celebration. The Roman custom included partying and gift-giving. Even though Constantine's conversion meant that every Roman was now nominally a Christian, church leaders knew that the traditional winter solstice celebrations would not disappear. So they changed the name and encouraged revelers to change their focus from the "invincible sun" to the incarnate Son.

The Christmas holiday, then, is akin to a palimpsest. In ancient times, before mass production made paper inexpensive and widely available, scribes would frequently resort to recycling an old manuscript by erasing the old, to the best of their ability, and writing over it. Sometimes this was done repeatedly. Naturally, the erasure was always incomplete, for which modern scholars are thankful, since it permits them to study the original. This recycled copy is called a palimpsest.

The winter holiday we now call Christmas originally celebrated the hibernal solstice. From the time of Constantine, Western Christendom sought to superimpose a Christian veneer, but the original text is still visible -- the original customs are still evident for they never completely disappeared. So, the whole concept of an assault on Christmas as an anti-Christian tactic is utterly fallacious. In fact, if Mr. Falwell and the AFA truly believe there's an assault on Christmas, they should carry out an experiment: try not keeping it. They would immediately face enormous social, commercial, and religious pressure -- an assault, if you will -- that would quickly force them to keep it. After all, who wants to be labeled a Scrooge or a Grinch?

You're right, the US is incredibly intolerant of religious differences. That's why we have banned mosques and synagogues, and won't allow Muslims or Jews entering the country to bring their religious books. And we've made conversion to Islam illegal.

What a load of crap.

The real debate in the US is about how hypersensitive we need to be to avoid offending people with unusual religious beliefs. But I don't see anyone being stoned to death for saying Merry Christmas, or happy Kwanzaa, or whatever.

In my opinion, Christians should have no problem with the standard Merry Christmas or (if they are fans of the poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" aka "'Twas the Night Before Christmas") Happy Christmas.
It is the non-Christian, like me, who would prefer the use of Season's Greetings, leaving me to determine the "season" that it applies to. (Chanukah? Kwanza? Winter Solstice? the New Year?) You know, "Something for everyone, ...."

This article is really true. I went to Dubai during Christmas years ago to visit some trainees who had studied in our plant and was surprised about all the Christmas decorations, etc., and the trainees (all Muslim) wishing me a Merry Christmas. However, when they were here, in Georgia, during Thanksgiving and went to American families for dinner, some of them were asked to read the Bible or were served ham. I wish all the strong Christians in Georgia would travel to Dubai and see how real tolerant people act.