Just when you thought college campus behavior couldn’t get any more ridiculous, a group of students at the University of Virginia have shown that it can.
These students recently expressed enthusiasm about signing a petition that banned Christmas on their campus.
A new video by the website College Reform, a conservative research group, shows reporters dressed as the “hipsters who stole Christmas” approaching UV students and asking them to sign a fake petition titled “Students for an inclusive Holiday Season.”
The petition advocated for banning the celebration of Christmas on the campus because of the holiday’s “triggering” and “oppressive” nature.
Campus Reform enlisted support from 20 students in less than two hours.
Guess these students, and other misguided folks, didn’t get the memo that the war on Christmas was fought a long time ago — and Christmas won.
The war began in the 17th century, when Christmas was flatly outlawed in many places within Puritan America.
Religiously legalistic leaders believed that Christmas lacked biblical validation since there was no specific mention of Dec. 25. The celebration was seen as pageantry and idolatry endorsed by Catholics, whom the Puritans abhorred.
The holiday season was viewed as a time of debauchery, with people overindulging in food and spirits.
At that time, class and gender roles were discarded during the Christmas celebration, with the lowest-ranking members of society imitating gentlemen in the competition for “Lord of Misrule.”
In England, the Lord of Misrule, known in Scotland as the “Abbot of Unreason” and in France as the “Peince Des Sots,” was appointed by lot to preside over the Feast of Fools. The person given that role, generally a peasant, was in charge of Christmas revelries that often included wild partying in the pagan tradition of Saturnalia.
Each year, the Romans would celebrate with a sacrifice at the Temple of Saturn, followed by a public banquet and gift-giving.
The day was supposed to be a holiday from all forms of work. Schools were closed, and exercise regimens were suspended. Courts were not in session, so no justice was administered, and no declaration of war could be made.
The carnival environment included gambling and masters provided table service for their slaves.
Because of these traditions, Puritans, who had no tolerance for licentiousness, referred to Christmas as “Foolstide.” Congregationalists, Methodists and Quakers, among others, also wanted to eliminate the observance of Christmas.
In 1681, the Massachusetts law forbidding Christmas was repealed, although the day remained an object of contempt for many.
Decades later, Presbyterian minister Samuel Davies denounced Christmas as a day of “sinning, sexuality, luxury and various forms of extravagance, as those men were not celebrating the birth of the holy Jesus, but of Venus, or Bacchus, who most sacred rites were mysteries of iniquity and debauchery.”
However, in other areas of the New World, Christmas cheer remained and even included celebratory gunfire in the South. Eventually, legal restrictions relaxed but in no state did Christmas become an official holiday until the 1830s.
By that time, there was a Christmas renaissance, which grew in popularity after the Civil War, when it was seen as one way to unify a divided nation. In 1870, Christmas became a federal holiday.
It is ironic that in modern times, the war on Christmas is being fought because of its religious reference to the birth of Christ by many who would prefer a more pagan celebration.
Stores have made it a point since controversy arose over the issue in 2005 to wish customers “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas.” That has promoted a social media war and led to boycotts of businesses pushing this agenda.
A Public Religion Research Institute poll this month found that Republicans and Democrats are completely divided on how businesses should address the issue.
Two-thirds of Democrats (66 percent) said stores and businesses should greet people with “Happy Holidays” or “Season’s Greetings” out of respect for people of different faiths.
Two-thirds of Republicans (67 percent) said stores and businesses should not go along with religion-neutral sayings.
The divide also cuts across age groups and religious backgrounds. Two-thirds of young adults (ages 18-29) are in favor of “Happy Holidays” while 54 percent of seniors favor “Merry Christmas.”
The poll found white evangelical Protestants (65 percent) and Catholics (58 percent) as the strongest supporters of “Merry Christmas.” Non-white Protestants (56 percent) and religiously unaffiliated (58 percent) favored “Happy Holidays.”
Overall Americans were split on the issue, with 47 percent saying stores should use “Happy Holidays” and 46 percent wanting “Merry Christmas.”
In a time when so many of America’s traditions and values seem under attack by secularists, it is nice to know that the First Amendment guarantees our right to observe Christmas. And our right, if we choose, not to.
— RR
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