How political correctness has messed up people's heads
An email from a reader below:
The other morning I was listening to WBBM-AM radio (www.wbbm780.com), in Chicago. The radio station has been playing "Holiday Greetings" from various persons in their management. But one in particular caught my attention.
The manager of whatever came on with "Happy Holidays and Season's Greetings. The management of WBBM wish all our listeners a Feliz Navidad and Propero Ano Nuevo, Happy Holidays and Season's Greetings to all." The (English) word "Christmas" was never mentioned.
Apparently saying Merry Christmas is only unacceptable if you say it in English. Saying it in Spanish is perfectly acceptable.
11 comments:
"Political correctness is a far greater danger to our freedom than is terrorism."
There's a good chance the manager of whatever didn't realize what he was saying.
Or maybe he was just tweaking the PC people who wouldn't realize what he was saying.
Either way, Merry Christmas everyone.
Dean
Two trains of thought here: One English speakers have two holidays at this time of year, Christmas and Hanukkah. Since I don't know of any Spanish Jews, Merry Christmas would be the only season's greeting one could give. Second thought, the announcer is just PC. Either way, I don't think thisone is a big deal. I could be wrong about there not being any Spanish Jews though, don't claim to be an expert. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!
Is it really any different from considering "Bugger off!" to be acceptable and "Fuck off!" unacceptable?
Is there a PC alternative for Christmas in Spanish? In Finnish it's either merry Christmas or nothing at all. We don't use any alternatives although in some schools they now have a 'spruce party' instead of a Christmas party. But that's just what they call the party because of Muslims or something. Nobody in their right mind would wish "Merry spruce day" to one another.
Hyvää joulua!
the Finnish "joulua" corresponds to the English "yule", and thus to the pagan winter festival rather than the christian "christmas". Danes say "glædelig jul"(= glad yule) or "god jul" (= good yule). Swedes and Norwegians also say "god jul".
Happy Chermershalmas!
The Finnish word joulu has no meaning beyond Christmas. Finnish is not related to Scandinavian languages and Swedish wasn't introduced to Finland until after Christianity had spread from the east. Thus the Finnish word joulu has always meant Christmas and it has never had any pagan meaning even though it's etymology in old Norse is pagan. Original Finnish pagan terminology was different from Germanic languages as we are in a whole different language family (Finno-Ugric languages).
It was the etymological connection of the "Yule" words to which I was referring which includes the Finnish word for "Christmas", "joulu" being a loan-word derived from scandinavian/germanic, even if it arrived after Finland was christianized, and even if Finnish is basically unrelated to the scandinavian/germanic languages.
I know what you meant but my point is still valid. In Finland and in Finnish the word doesn't have any pagan connotation. To a Finn it means Christmas and cannot be interpreted any other way. There is no other option for Christmas that is derived from the word Kristus (=Christ) for example. And neither is there any politically correct or non Christian alternative to joulu.
So when you write "the Finnish "joulua" corresponds to the English "yule", and thus to the pagan winter festival rather than the christian "christmas"" you are incorrect in a way. The Finnish word that corresponds (=means roughly the same thing) to the pagan winter festival that was called 'Yule' in old Norse is 'Kekri'. The word 'joulu' was introduced to replace the pagan word 'kekri' by Catholic Swedes in the 13th century.
But you are correct about the etymology of the word.
Atleast they're saying it
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