(no subject)

[mamadeb]

Why are people wishing "Happy Ramadan"? It was back in October!

Comments

[tpau]

becasue peopel are morons, do nto understand that Ramadan is not muslim christmas...

[ginamariewade.livejournal.com]

Because people are ignorant.

Because last year they coincided, I think, and people just can't wrap their minds over a lunar calendar that doesn't have a "correction" in the way that the Hebrew calendar does.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Ah.

That makes sense. It goes along with thinking that Chanukah is Jewish Christmas and Kwanzaa is black Christmas.

I do understand about being inclusive and culturally sensitive. However, isn't part of that noticing when a holiday is celebrated/observed?

[kassrachel.livejournal.com]

People are wishing "happy Ramadan"?! Oy. *g*

[tpau]

if htat was the case, my supermarket would nto put out matzah for yom kippur.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Actually, they coincided about three-four years ago. It moves backwards by two weeks each year in relation to the Gregorian calendar.

[psu-jedi.livejournal.com]

You're kidding!

Wow. Icon says it all!

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Yep. I've seen it. By someone who should know better, too.

It's a double "oy", isn't it?

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

The problem is, they either mean well or think they're being cute. Or both.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Blink. Blink. Blink.

Well, yeah. But isn't matzah the only Jewish food? That and Reubens.

[cara-chapel.livejournal.com]

Why do people start decorating for Christmas in September?

*shrug*

[rosehiptea.livejournal.com]

Does one wish "Happy Ramadan" anyway? I mean, I thought it was pretty solemn, and the happy part was at the end? Then again, I honestly don't know for sure.

[ckd]

Or eVite's "reasons to party" email that listed... Yom Kippur. As a reason. To party.

[sdelmonte]

Some years back, Krusty the Clown, hosting a holdiay special, wishes his viewers "a merry Christmas,a happy Hanukkah, a Kwazy Kwanzaa, a tip-top Tet and a an appropriately somber Ramadan." While it's likely that this was a year when Ramadan overlapped with the Decembere holidays, this was simly meant as a joke abut multiculturalism.

Alas, it could ahve made some think that Ramadan is indeed part of the season. The writers on The Simpsons are smarter than their viewers.

[norabombay.livejournal.com]

So, I can't decide if I should be happy that this person at least realized that Ramadan was a very big deal of a holiday, celebrated/observed by millions. Or should be appalled, as it's a month long.

And took place months ago.

Can I get a happy Diwali?

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

So how could they have missed Tet? The Vietnamese Lunar New Year?

(Yes, I had to google for it. It's already happened, of course. In August.)

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

I think sdelmonte and ginamariewade have it right.

They're trying to be inclusive, and a few years ago, Ramadan and December more or less coincided and was mentioned a lot.

I do believe it was meant with the best of intentions.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Happy Diwali!

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Nope. Gefilte fish. And tongue.

Which are put out for post-Yom Kippur, eh?

[dglenn.livejournal.com]

I haven't heard much of that, thank goodness, but the two or three times I have heard it I've found it extremely jarring. "WTF?! Did I screw up my calendar? I thought Eid was like a month or so ago! Oh wait, they're confused. *whew*"

Then again, I wonder how many of them think Chanukah always overlaps Christmas instead of just being near Christmas. In past years I've overheard folks "trying to be culturally sensitive" wishing others a happy Chanukah when Chanukah had ended more than a week earlier.

I guess some folks will be really confused when Ramadan slides around to July.

[dglenn.livejournal.com]

One wishes them "a blessed month", IIRC. And yeah, the party is at the end.

[ginamariewade.livejournal.com]

Time runs together for me.

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

Because they're running on Jewish Time!

[fernwithy.livejournal.com]

But where do they put the Ben and Jerry's ice cream? I was informed (by Jews, no less) that it was all right to eat B&J's on Yom Kippur, since it's Jewish food.

[fernwithy.livejournal.com]

Sure! Happy Diwali!

It's certainly meant with the best of intentions--people are trying to show inclusivity at a time of year when a major Christian holiday is being celebrated by an overwhelming majority of the population. Just saying "And Happy Hanukkah!" is enough to recognize the other religion that happens to be celebrating a holiday season just now (though not one with nearly the significance of Christmas for Christians), but then people panic and are thinking, "Oh, no! By adding one, doesn't that draw even more attention to the fact that we're aware that not everyone celebrates Christmas? We need to add something for everyone! Muslims are on the hot list for such sensitive treatment, so they get a hearty "Happy Ramadan... see, we remember you and wish you well! Honest!" Most Americans haven't a clue about Diwali or Tet because those hgolidays and communities haven't been especially visible, but you can bet that the minute we see Diwali in a blockbuster movie, Hindus will be wished Happy Diwali every Christmas.

It does show ignorance of people's calendars, but it really is a well-meaning attempt to share the joy of their season while recognizing that not everyone shares their beliefs. And the lunar calendar throws a lot of people off, because it puts things in unexpected seasons, and when you're used to judging what holiday is coming by what season it is, then it becomes confusing. It doesn't help that Diwali, in particular, is listed as one of the light-bringing holidays, which are associated strongly with Solstice time. I first discovered it clicking around Hanukkah links, and was surprised to find that in the year I needed it, it was in October!

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

It doesn't help that Diwali, in particular, is listed as one of the light-bringing holidays, which are associated strongly with Solstice time. I first discovered it clicking around Hanukkah links, and was surprised to find that in the year I needed it, it was in October!

See, that's one of my big pet peeves.

Every fantasy writer feels the need to create a winter festival, no matter how pagan their universe, because "every culture has one." And, by sheer coincidence, they all involve presents and family gathering and such, too.

Except, NOT.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Ahhhh.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Yep.

It's not like Christian holidays don't move, either.

Easter certainly does, and there are a raft of holy days that revolve around the timing of Easter.

(And, really, Jewish and Muslim holidays only move in respect to the Gregorian year. So far as I'm concerned, the Jewish holidays are on the same dates. Chanukah is always 25 Kislev. :))

[chaos-wrangler.livejournal.com]

But that means that one year recently they coincided, and since there is only one calendar for everyone's holidays, they must always coincide. Duh. Same thing with Chanukah always being at the end of December (even last year when it wasn't).

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

You are joking? Maybe not.

Oy.

As far as I know (having been raised Conservative, not currently practicing) and am concerned, the only exceptions for fasting on Yom Kippur are for health concerns. There may be a syndrome in which Ben & Jerry's is therapeutic, but I've never heard of it :-)

Proving once again (as if it needed it) that Judaism is as far from monolithic a culture as there is.

Not that anyone remembers when Easter is.

[hakainokami.livejournal.com]

I think just the movment confuses everyone. We live in a fairly Catholic area. Every single person we've talked to for the wedding, commented on how odd it was that April was very slow until the 22nd, when suddenly everyone wanted that date. Well. Its the first saturday after easter. Before that its Lent, where you can get married, but only if the priest is willing, and you have a very solem wedding, so everyone in our fairly Catholic area that wants get married, has to wait. Also, even when Easter is late, retailers break out the easter stuff at the same time. Its kinda funny when there's easter stuff before Lent starts. (Or its early and your hoping they'll break out the easter stuff before easter, though thats less of a thing now, since they start pretty early anyway. (All the funnier for the fact that the combined protestent forms and Catholicism are the two largest religions in the US)

[fernwithy.livejournal.com]

You are joking? Maybe not.

I wish. Though I think they didn't actually believe it was all right. A friend and I were coming back from Kol Nidrei at college and dropped in on two friends who hadn't been at service, to find them watching TV and eating ice cream. My friend said, "Uh... it's Yom Kippur." One of our other friends said, "Yeah, I know. It's Ben and Jerry's!"