RELIGIOUS HOLIDAYS
RECOGNIZED BY
U.S. GOVERNMENTS
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Quote:
"To evaluate (this) claim ... we must venture into the often-dreaded
and certainly murky area of Establishment Clause jurisprudence..." 4th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Koenick vs. Felton.
Overview:
The Establishment Clause of the 1st
Amendment of the U.S. constitution, as interpreted by the U.S. Supreme
Court, requires a wall of separation between church and state. This means
that federal, state and local governments cannot establish an
official religion; they cannot impede religious expression; they cannot
promote religion as superior to secularism or vice-versa. However, one of
the functions of the
federal, state and local governments and the public school systems is to declare holidays. Three of them have
significant religious connotations: Easter,
Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Although Thanksgiving has been essentially
secularized, Christmas and Easter have retained much of their religious
meaning. Thus, we find the term "C & E Christian" in common
use. It refers to a
person who attends church only on Christmas and Easter.
Some attempts have
been made to have the declaration of these holidays declared
unconstitutional. So far, results have been mixed.
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Origins of the timing of Christmas and Easter:
Christmas: The name is an
abbreviation of "Christ's Mass."
Numerous religions within the
Roman Empire honored their gods' birth or rebirth on or about DEC-25. Their
deities were typically called: Son of Man, Light of the World, Sun of
Righteousness, Bridegroom, and Savior. Some examples within Pagan
religions were the Roman god Attis, the Greek god Dionysus, the Egyptian god
Osiris, and the Persian god Mithra. The Roman Emperor Aurelian blended the
religious celebration of Saturnalia with a number of birth celebrations of
savior Gods from other religions, into a single holy day: DEC-25. After much
argument, the developing Christian church adopted this date as the birthday of
their savior, Jesus. The people of the Roman Empire were accustomed to
celebrating the birth of a God on that day. So, it was easy for the church to
divert people's attention away from Pagan celebration and to the Jesus'
birth.
The Gospel of Luke 1:5 refers to
a time when Zacharias' was on duty in the Temple. From this reference, one can
compute that Jesus was born in the early fall. But Luke 2:8 seems to imply that
Jesus was born in the springtime when the sheep were giving birth and the
shepherds were "in the field keeping watch over their flocks by night."
Since nobody at the time of Aurelian still remembered when Jesus was born,
DEC-25 was as good as any other day to celebrate Jesus' birth. More
details.
Easter was named after
Eostre (a.k.a. Eastre). She was the Great Mother Goddess of the Saxon people in
Northern Europe. Similar "Teutonic dawn goddess of fertility
[were] known variously as Ostare, Ostara, Ostern, Eostra, Eostre, Eostur, Eastra,
Eastur, Austron and Ausos." 3 Her name was, in turn,
derived from an ancient word for spring: "eastre." The timing of the
Christian Easter is linked to the Jewish celebration of the Passover. Passover
and the Feast of Unleavened Bread which were observed by the ancient
Israelites early in each new year. (The Jewish people followed the Pagan
Persian/Babylonian calendar and started each year with the Spring Equinox circa
MAR-21). Passover was the most important feast of the Jewish calendar. It was
originally based on Pagan sun and moon worship. This determined its timing. It
is celebrated at the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox. More
details.
How Santa saved Christmas vacation for federal
employees:
The United States Code, section 5 USC 6103 declares ten
national, legal, public holidays, one of which is Christmas. Cincinnati attorney Richard Ganulin filed a
lawsuit on 1998-AUG-4 in U.S. district court, 1 asking
that the federal government be required to stop declaring future DEC-25
holidays. His goal was not to terminate Christmas. He wants Federal
Employees to be given an extra vacation day which they could take on DEC-25,
or on any other day if they wished. He feels that "Christmas is a religious holiday and the
Congress of the United States is not constitutionally permitted to endorse
or aid any religion, purposefully or otherwise, or [promote] entanglement
between our government and religious beliefs." Judge Susan
Dlott dismissed the suit. According to ReligionToday for
1999-DEC-8, Judge Dlott decided "that Christmas can be observed as
a federal holiday because non-Christians also mark the holiday by
celebrating the arrival of Santa Claus. Since nonreligious people also
observe the holiday, giving federal workers a day off for Christmas does
not elevate one religion over another." Ganulin has
promised to appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Santa Claus has at least temporarily saved Christmas, both for
Christians and for others!
How travel plans, "shop 'till you drop" (and perhaps the Easter
Bunny) saved Easter:
According to American Atheists, in 2000-JAN, 12 states (DE, FL, HI, IL, IN, LA,
MD, NJ, NC, ND, PA, and TN) have a law that deals with a Good Friday holiday in
public schools, and state offices. But the constitutionality of
religiously-based holidays remains unclear.
Some recent court decisions are:
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