Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Walmart & Christmas

Over the weekend a friend mentioned a controversy going on with Walmart. It seems that the Catholic League has a couple of objections to Walmart's policy of referring to Christmas as "the holidays". They instruct employees to wish customers "Happy Holidays" and if you do a search on "Christmas" on their web site it tells you that you are being re-directed to their holiday page. This does not happen if you search on Hanukkah or Kwanzaa. They complained and got this email reply.
Walmart is a world wide organization and must remain conscious of this. The majority of the world still has different practices other than "Christmas" which is an ancient tradition that has its roots in Siberian shamanism. The colors associated with "Christmas" red and white are actually a representation of the aminita mascera mushroom. Santa is also borrowed from the Caucuses, mistletoe from the Celts, yule log from the Goths, the time from the Visigoth and the tree from the worship of Baal. It is a wide wide world.
When they complained to Walmart headquarters, they got this reply from someone named Kirby:
"As a retailer, we recognize some of our customers may be shopping for Chanukah or Kwanza gifts during this time of year and we certainly want these customers in our stores and to feel welcome, just as we do those buying for Christmas. As an employer, we recognize the significance of the Christmas holiday among our family of associates and close our stores in observance, the only day during the year that we are closed."
The Catholic League called for a boycott. This has been resolved. Kirby was fired and the Walmart web site no longer re-directs you.

My friend was upset at the treatment that Kirby received since she felt that he was fired for telling the truth.

There are several issues here. First, should Kirby have been fired? Yes. Low level employees are never allowed to make up their own press releases on behalf of the company. The fact that this led to a boycott shows why.

Second point - is Walmart's "holiday" policy a good one? No, for several reasons. This is a company whose owners have made a selling point of their own Christianity. They refuse to carry some magazines and CDs and dictate a milder content for others on the basis of their faith. Customers know that they are dealing with a Christian company and should have come to terms with that.

Also, to most Christians, Christmas and Easter are the big two holidays. Hanukkah is a minor holiday. Kwanzaa is not a religious holiday at all. There is no reason that an African-American cannot celebrate both. Something like 99% of American-born blacks are Christian so even those who celebrate Kwanzaa should not be offended by a clerk wishing them a merry Christmas.

At the same time, Walmart is already pushing Christmas down our throats. The displays have been up since late October. There is no reason for an employee to be wishing anyone anything in November when all of the holidays in question are in late December.

My recommendation would be to give the regular "Thank you for shopping at Walmart" to anyone who was not specifically buying holiday-related merchandise and even then, wait until December.

Third Point - was the Catholic League justified in being upset? Yes. You just don't tell a religious leader that one of his major holidays is a bunch of pagan rituals.

Final Point - how much Kirby's history of Christmas was true? Not much. The date of Christmas came directly from the Roman Saturnalia. Any relationship with Siberia would be pretty strained. The main Christmas colors are red and green, not red and white. Red and green have roots in druidic beliefs but were incorporated into Christian symbolism as referring to Jesus and Mary by the middle ages. Red and white as Christmas colors come from candy canes. These were white until the 20th century when technology allowed them to be painted like a barber's pole The red there goes back to when barbers were also surgeons.

Santa is an American invention although he was inspired by St. Nicholas, the patron saint of children and Holland (so Dutch children got treats on St. Nicholas Day). Mistletoe and yule logs are pagan but are also very tiny parts of Christmas. When was the last time you burned a true yule log - one big enough to burn for twelve days?

The funny thing is that in relating all of this, Kirby was making a case for how universal Christmas is.

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