{"id":6751,"date":"2017-11-30T19:48:22","date_gmt":"2017-12-01T03:48:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wou.edu\/westernjournal\/?p=6751"},"modified":"2017-12-15T15:03:24","modified_gmt":"2017-12-15T23:03:24","slug":"effects-word-choice-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/effects-word-choice-season\/","title":{"rendered":"The effects of word choice this season"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Caity Healy | Lifestyle Editor<\/span><\/p>\n

Pop quiz, which of the following would be the least offensive for the majority? A, \u201cmerry Christmas,\u201d B, \u201chappy Christmas\u201d or C, \u201chappy holidays.\u201d If you answered A or B, you\u2019re likely not thinking of others and what they might celebrate this winter season. If you answered C, then congratulations, you clearly care about others and their cultures.<\/span><\/p>\n

While it may seem easy to just say \u201cmerry Christmas,\u201d as many of you probably have for years and already have the tendency to do, you need to realize that you\u2019re excluding several different cultures and religions. And while many who experience this may not speak up about it, they may just not feel comfortable enough to say that what you\u2019re doing is wrong or potentially offensive to them.<\/span><\/p>\n

December is a month of multicultural holiday celebrations. The variety of different holidays celebrated ranges widely between Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, St. Lucia Day, Boxing Day, Yule, Omisoka and the list goes on. So to simply say \u201cmerry Christmas\u201d means you\u2019re actually leaving out a plethora of different minorities simply because you were unaware, or you\u2019re simply being ignorant. <\/span><\/p>\n

Doing this is in no way okay. If it\u2019s something you\u2019ve done in the past because you don\u2019t know any better, then now is the time to start changing your speech. Just switch to \u201chappy holidays,\u201d as it includes everyone who celebrates anything, not just the ones who celebrate this one holiday. <\/span><\/p>\n

However, if you have been saying \u201cmerry Christmas\u201d to everyone simply to make a point or to avoid the so-called \u201cwar on Christmas,\u201d then you are undoubtedly in the wrong. Choosing to ignore groups of people and discredit everything they believe in and celebrate is offensive and just plain rude. <\/span><\/p>\n

How anyone can be so careless and inconsiderate of other cultures honestly blows my mind. When it comes down to it, saying \u201chappy holidays\u201d requires essentially the same amount of effort as saying \u201cmerry Christmas\u201d does. And guess what? It still includes Christmas. It\u2019s a win-win. You aren\u2019t offending anyone, and you still get to include the holiday that you choose to celebrate. <\/span><\/p>\n

If you still want to continue saying \u201cmerry Christmas\u201d in 2017, then you also need to accept the fact that you are someone who chooses to be offensive on purpose. Accept the fact that you are someone who disregards other cultures or looks at them as less-than. Accept the fact that if someone chooses to say \u201chappy Hanukkah\u201d to you, then you have zero right to be offended. Are you willing to accept all of these things about yourself?<\/span><\/p>\n

Rather than looking at saying \u201chappy holidays\u201d as an inconvenience, look at it as an opportunity to be appreciative and respectful of all cultures. It\u2019s honestly amazing to look at other cultures and see everything they believe in and stand for <\/span>\u2014 a<\/span>ppreciate the differences that make us who we are. December is a month for us to grow culturally and be accepting of others. Choose to be on the right side of this shift; when the opportunity arises, choose \u201chappy holidays.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Contact the author at chealy16@wou.edu<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Caity Healy | Lifestyle Editor Pop quiz, which of the following would be the least offensive for the majority? A, \u201cmerry Christmas,\u201d B, \u201chappy Christmas\u201d or C, \u201chappy holidays.\u201d If you answered A or B, you\u2019re likely not thinking of others and what they might celebrate this winter season. If you answered C, then congratulations, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1030,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1030"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6751\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}