Happy Holidays
I want to create good will this December.
If I know you are Jewish, I will wish you “Happy Hanukkah.”
If I know you are Christian, I will wish you “Merry Christmas.”
If I know you are African-American, and I know you celebrate Kwanzaa, I will wish you “Happy Kwanzaa.” If I know you are Christian, I may also wish you “Merry Christmas.”
If I know you are Pagan, I will wish you “A Cool Yule. Blessed be!”
If I know you are Buddhist, on December 8, I will wish you “Happy Bodhi Day”. (That’s the day when Siddhartha Gautama attained enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree and became the Buddha.)
If I know you are Muslim, I know that there are no Muslim holidays in December this year (2018). I looked it up. Your calendar is lunar, so you holidays are not fixed to the seasons like mine are.
If you are Hindu, I wished you a Happy Diwali on November 7th this year. Your holidays, like mine, do not fall on the same day of the secular calendar we use.
If you are someone I see casually in a store or on a street, I will wish you “Happy Holidays.” Because in America, a person has religious freedom.
If you are someone I care about, I will either wish you “Happy Holidays” or take the time to ask whether you celebrate Kwanzaa or Christmas or Hanukkah or Solstice/Yule or some other holiday or no holiday at all, this time of year.
In that way, I might learn more about you before the new year.