Christians want to "put Christ back into Christmas"?

[Sorry for the blog neglect the last few months!]

Every year about this time the Christians start making a big thing about how "Christmas" is about Christ, because "Christ" is in the name of the holiday. "Put Christ back in Christmas!" they insist. It isn't good enough to wish someone "Happy holidays!" It has to be "Merry CHRISTmas!"

These members of the word-police want to force all of us to celebrate this universal holiday at the time of the winter solstice in their way, or no way. They overlook quite a few facts that really make their attitude ridiculous:

- The holiday was a pagan holiday long before the Christians adopted it. It celebrated the solstice (the sun turning in the sky, the days beginning to get longer rather than shorter) and the many pagan gods to whom the solstice was attributed, such as Mithras (also called "the Unconquered Sun").

- Many Christians condemned (and still condemn) the celebration of the holiday, including the early Christian settlers of New England, precisely because of its non-Christian (pagan) origin.

- Jesus was not born in December, but more likely in the spring, if shepherds really were watching their flocks by night. Mithras, however, was born on December 25, according to legend.

And what does the name of a day really have to do with the purpose or meaning of the day? If Christians insist that the name "Christmas" requires a particular interpretation, including memorializing their god on that day, then we heathens must also insist that Wednesday be acknowledged as what its name says: Woden's Day. Woden is, of course, the king of the gods in the original Norse and Germanic religions. And much of the rest of the week is in honor of the pagan gods as well. Tuesday honors Tiu, the Norse god of war. Thursday belongs to Thor, the god of thunder. And Friday is the day to honor the goddess Freia, goddess of beauty.

So I say, let the Christians have December 25 if they are willing to let us heathens have all the days that are named after the original gods.

They can still hold their Bible-study sessions on Woden's day, and at the end of the week express their thanks by saying "Thank god it's Freya's day!"

Let's put the gods back in the weekdays!