[J_Joseph]

Quote kisito

I see your point Mark and it makes perfect sense, but it is kind of hard for those of us who were brought up in a deep Catholic faith to see that all the Christian aspect is lost. I would never force my faith on someone else, but seeing the original meaning of Christmas usurped by a pagan concept makes is a bit sad and especially if there is not even a single mention of it. Although the number of profound Christians in the western world is dwindling, it still remains the basis of a lot of our western cultures even if we don't admit it. I am talking about our moral educaton having a lot of semblance to teachings in the Bible.
As for Halloween I had difficulties teaching it at first but finally stuck to the fun aspect of it for the kids. That said Halloween is kind of different though. It is not really a religious festival, is it?
It is good to know how others view the subject.

Sorry for rezzing this thread but I am new here and have been reading many posts on this forum both old and new and this is one where I feel I must chime in.

First of all, I do not believe you understand the history behind Christmas and many of the other so called Christian holidays. Jesus was not born on Dec. 25th and the current incarnation of Christmas is not being usurped by a pagan concept. In fact, the holiday is a pagan holiday which was twisted by the Christians to match their beliefs while keeping a day already important to those they were attempting to exert influence over. Christmas falling on Dec 25 is nothing more then an attempt to assimilate pagans into a christian belief structure.

This type of assimilation is not isolated to the Christians or Christmas by any means. It has been used throughout history in order to make a new belief system easier to accept by those who were conquered. The rationale being that if a group of people is going to be celebrating something on a specific day, those in power can put their own holiday on the same date to take much of the power and cache of the old belief system away. Its quite brilliant actually and considering how many of our current holidays fall on the days they do as a result of this assimilation with the vast majority of current believers being unaware is proof of its effectiveness.


Just so you understand, I am not attempting to start a religious debate here, please do your own research and the validity of my statements will become clear.

..More on topic again, there is no reason ever to mention Jesus in any teaching environment outside of "Catholic Schools" and similar institutions where it has been approved for the curriculum. I stress again that I do not want to kick off a debate here, however I do want to point out it would be absurd for any teacher to make mention of the Flying Spaghetti Monster's birthday or when L. Ron Hubbard's marklars first landed on Earth or whatever so why make an exception for Christian beliefs?

Granted, I am new here and new at teaching ESL in general but depending on the country you are teaching in, this kind of thing may be frowned upon to varying degrees or flat out not permitted by the coutry you are a guest of. Why risk upsetting the apple cart simply to make mention that your make believe deity of choice was born on suchandsuch a day?