Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by erik112358 on October 29, 2011 at 7:53am

You are completely misunderstanding the discussion.  Completely.

 

No, no-one here is bitching about religious (or any other) holidays.  What we're doing is discussing whether or not holidays can be secular.  Seems like you've come to this forum with some kind of anti-atheist/anti-American agenda that is clouding your reading comprehension.

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Permalink Reply by Danny Sanchez on October 29, 2011 at 8:26am

I think Godfried Huxley is upset because he found out there is no Santa Claus so he's taking it out on Atheists.

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Permalink Reply by Bruce Williams on October 29, 2011 at 12:30pm

Right, like Europe is on a 60hr work week like me.  And for most people that's 40 to 50hrs per week and 2 people in the family doing those hours each, while the kids are in the care of someone else.  We have it sooooo easy.

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Permalink Reply by Rick on October 29, 2011 at 3:56pm

They’re called National Holidays. Since you’re in school a quick look at the academic calendar should point out several non-religious holidays. Erik listed several. There are also Civic Holidays which may be specific to individual states. Here is a description of the civic holiday:

 

A civil holiday, civic holiday, legal holiday, or work holiday is a day that is legally recognized and celebrated as a holiday in a particular sovereign state or jurisdictional subdivision of such, e.g., a state or a province and may be known as a public holiday. It is usually a day that the legislature, parliament, congress, or sovereign has declared by statute, edict, or decree as a non-working day when the official arms of government such as the court system are closed.

 

“Patriots Day” is such a holiday and is only celebrated in New England.

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Permalink Reply by John Kelly on October 29, 2011 at 6:27pm

Holiday does derive from Holy Day, and Halloween derives from All Hallows Eve the day before All Saints Day, in its present form with a tip of the hat to Samhain.

However, any linguist will tell you that the meaning of words change over time.  Consider the word "suffer" used to mean "allow".

That institution is using a grossly outdated definition of holiday.  The meaning of holiday means vacation in the UK and means a day of great significance in American English.  It doesn't mean merely religious days anymore.  It hasn't meant this for a while.

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Permalink Reply by rhonda blankenship on November 1, 2011 at 6:11pm

your peace sign created by roman catholic's ... wikipedia :)

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Permalink Reply by rhonda blankenship on November 1, 2011 at 6:22pm

the power of symbols, words ... religion has created so many "holiday's" now ... turning the torcherious death of a human being into divine gift, this is repulsive, simply madnness. p.s. research "holiday" "the peace sign" both created by catholicism ... 

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