Hey Jennie. I'm not sure what it will take... I think it might be more likely to change in Australasia before it changes in the US. I say that because there are higher rates of atheism / agnosticism... But then... I guess the atheists and agnostics don't really have such a problem with santa anymore than they have a problem with the tooth fairy...

> there are some faiths that believe celebrating anything but their god (or their god's or religion's holidays) is forbidden.

Well then. If you get two of those (and their god or religious holidays are different) then someone lucks out. People don't have to be forced to celebrate, of course... I guess I was just thinking that it would be nice if the stat days were neutral with respect to religion. Part of fostering a spirit of tolerance and awareness that different people think differently etc...

> I doubt there is such a thing as a neutral statutary holiday. (I'm thinking about the U.S. statutary holidays of Columbus Day and Thanksgiving. Those are two holidays that honor shameful historical events of genocide of the native, non-Christians.)

Ah. I don't know about those (I'm from Australasia). Lets see... What do we have... We celebrate the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi (the founding document of NZ). England needed them to hurry up and sign because some of the tribes had already started signing treaties with France and the US and England didn't want to lose the country to them. So they wrote up the treaty of Waitangi (in English and Maori) and they got by far the majority of chiefs of the majority of tribes to sign it. I think... They signed it at Waitangi. Jeepers, my knowledge of history is atrocious.

But then... After signing a document where it was clear that Maori retained 'soverignty' (You wouldn't believe the number of people writing theses on that word in NZ) they were treated as second class citizens. Forced to go to school, caned for speaking Maori, the Europeans almost ran the language into extinction. The missionaries used to invite communities to church. They would then proceed to bolt the door and set the church on fire. Most of the fighting was over land...

Some people wonder why Maori have higher rates of substance abuse and unemployment and crime etc. When you consider what was done to their grandparents and their greatgrandparents etc then it is much easier to see why they don't have a particularly happy view of life, however. And don't even get me started on the Aborigines. At one point in Australian history they gave them cars in reperation. Cars. Where are desert wanderers going to go to fill the tank? The majority had never seen a car before. They slept in them. They thought they were strange european tents.

I've met a couple people since my solstice suggestion and they don't celebrate anything until March. One (sorry I can't remember where he is from) has the water festival where everyone throws water on each other because it is so hot. But that is in March.

I dunno... I guess I was just thinking that the official holidays of the country... Well... Am I hopelessly idealistic in suggesting that they be as neutral (as possible) between religions and as to whether they are religious or not?

I guess Santa does some of that... But it is still hard for people of different faiths I think.