Merry Shibboleth !

shib-bo-leth: a custom, principle, or belief distinguishing a particular class or group of people, especially a long-standing one regarded as outmoded or no longer important

For the record, there are a multitude of sacred and secular festivals celebrated world-wide from November through January.  There are dozens of Christian celebrations during December alone that are not specifically considered "Christmas." These festivities include St. Nicholas Day, St. Lucia's Day, Anastasia of Sirmium, St. Stephen's Day and others.

For several years it has been in vogue to castigate those who choose to welcome one another  with "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas".  The prevailing assumption from the religious center- right seems to be , "If you want to honor the birth of Jesus and the real meaning of the season, you will say 'Merry Christmas'.  If you want to be politically correct so as not to offend those who choose not to celebrate the real meaning of Christmas,then say 'Happy Holidays'. You just need to know that saying 'Happy Holidays' is a slap in the face to the baby Jesus, Santa, the Elf on the Shelf and everything else we hold sacred this time of year."

One of the strangest stories in all of scripture is found in Judges chapter 12.  The story went something like this:  The Ephraimites and the Gileadites were brothers, were kindred tribes of Israel with a common enemy the Ammonites. At least the Ammonites weren't brothers, they were more like first cousins.  Be that as it may, they didn't like the Ammonites.  As this chapter begins the Ephraimites are very angry that the Gileadites went to war against the Ammonites without their help.  They were so mad about it they threatened to destroy the Gileadites. The Gileadites took exception to this and said, "We asked for your help but you didn't help us, but for threatening us we are going to destroy you! And you called us ugly names!" So they attacked them. They then controlled the fords across the Jordan river.  The Ephraimites trying to escape back home had to cross at those fords.  Now this is when the story gets very bizarre.  Because of their dialect, the Ephraimites couldn't pronounce the "sh" syllable, it only came out "s".  So as a test of who's who when the escaping Ephraimites tried to disguise themselves as Gileadites to get back home, they were asked to say "shibboleth."  When it came out "sibboleth" the Gileadites immediately killed them.  The Bible says that the Gileadites killed 42,000 Ephraimites that day. Brothers killing brothers over who got to kill their cousins. It was a great victory.


At Christmastime aren't we all basically doing the same things?  We go shopping to buy gifts to exchange. We go to the homes of family and friends to eat good food, drink good drink and to wish each other well.  We go into houses of worship to celebrate the meaning of the season in our own unique ways with the people we love the most.  We tell again the stories that have been passed down for generations because they mean so much. We read the myths of the season to our children."Twas the night before Christmas..." We tell our children stories that contain no shred of truth simply because it's Christmas.

As we greet each other through this marvelous time, some of us say "Merry Christmas!" For some, including many Christians, who want to cast a larger net that includes the masses who are also celebrating, they say "Happy Holidays!"  It's semantics really.  We are  really all saying the same thing. No one that I know who says "Happy Holidays" is trying to exclude anyone who says "Merry Christmas." They are just aware of the fact that there is much more going on from November to January that Christmas doesn't include. The Christian saying "Happy Holidays" would prefer to include rather than take the chance to exclude. Being politically correct can sometimes be a good thing.

But I will say this.  If you are checking out at the mall and the clerk says, "Say 'Merry Shibboleth'".  Just to be safe, I would say " Merry Shibboleth."