Earlier today I couldn't help feeling a bit of holiday cheer rolling in like the smell of a hot pretzel on a Manhattan street.. At work we played a brief snippet of Alvin and the Chipmunks as a lark, and were quickly shouted down. "Turn it off, turn it off! I had to hear Christmas music over and over at Macy's on the weekend," said the tempestuous temp. I wanted to respond with something biting like, "Well, just because you got to hear music on your main job does not mean that I don't get to hear music on my main job ya know?" Or, and more condensed, "You do realize you are just a temp right?"
But I held my tongue.
Later at home I was on the American Express website checking out their assortment of gift cards. It's the ideal gift when one feels a bit lazy or when people are not cooperating by telling you want they like or want. Amex has a nice collection of cards, and you can customize them with your own images if you choose to do so. What caught my attention was the utter lack of cards with a basic Merry Christmas message.
Nor can I upload my own religious photo for a custom card because among the many restrictions on custom cards, religious imagery is one of them. Huh? American Express actively promoting other religious holidays while preventing me from promoting via a custom photo card my own holiday, here in, uhm, America? I thought perhaps that I was wrong and turned to Wikipedia, the great leveler that has made all of us into internet gurus and geniuses. Maybe there was no religious aspect to Diwali. Maybe I was getting all riled, all high horse, for no reason.
The first day of the festival, Naraka Chaturdasi, marks the vanquishing of the demon Naraka by Lord Krishna and his wife Satyabhama. Amavasya, the second day of Deepawali, marks the worship of Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth in her most benevolent mood, fulfilling the wishes of her devotees.(Wikipedia)
Hmm. So Diwali, or Deepavali, is a whole mess of myth and spiritualism rolled together, symbolizing light overcoming darkness. I can get with that, to a degree. I can get with that to the degree that I don't have my own actual holiday which symbolizes to me, here in the United States, light overcoming darkness, and good overcoming evil. Funnily enough I do have a holiday though, and it's called Christmas.
As for the card with the menorah, apparently American Express overlooked the fact that the designer of that symbol, beautiful as it is, is actually... wait for it... God. Not so familiar with Exodus, that Amex crowd. I have less problems with the menorah card, probably because I grew up in NYC where you got Jewish holidays off. Hanukkah growing up seemed like an extension of Christmas, much in the way that Christians (probably to Jewish annoyance) view Christianity as an extension of Judaism. That said, the menorah card poses the same problems as the flaming Diwali Amex card.
The real problem is not that other traditions are being celebrated, but that one original tradition celebrated by almost everyone in the United States is being shortchanged. If I can enthusiastically by a Diwali Amex card for my Hindu friends and wish them a Happy Diwali, I certainly should be able to find a card, secular or religious that expresses Merry Christmas. I am not content with increasingly secular, and now increasingly vague Christmas greetings. In the past you could be as vague (Seasons Greetings) or as religious (Jesus is the Reason for the Season) as you wanted to be, with everything in between. That choice is slipping away.
Given American Express's deep experience with Indian culture via outsourcing, perhaps it's not a surprise to see a Diwali card, but given the actual name of the company, they should remember their place and traditions too.
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