War On Christmas Valerie Tarico Summary

In Valerie Tarico’s article, “Christianity’s own ‘War on Christmas,’” she states that Christianity takes part in a practice called “syncretism.” Syncretism is when local traditions and religions are absorbed into Christianity. In fact, Tarico claims that Pagan temples became churches, indigenous gods became saints and pagan festival days were turned into Christian holy days. To further this idea of syncretism, Tarico goes on to say that the earliest documentation of Christmas comes from the fourth century; it seems to be related with the union of Christianity and Rome. But, the glorification of Christmas teeters back as it was outlawed and condemned on various occasions. Not many people know the history of Christmas or seem to care, seeing as it is still widely celebrated. Despite it being regarded the biggest holiday of the year, Christians are still not happy with how the rest of the world goes about celebrating their holiday. In Tarico’s article, she offers up one of her favorite alternative views of Christmas. This view …show more content…
Christmas Day is recognized as a federal holiday by the United States government. Some say that this goes against the First Amendment, which prohibits the establishment of a national religion; but here we are with government-funded displays of Christmas imagery and traditions (Wikipedia). In 1984, the Supreme Court ruled that there can be religious, government-funded Christmas themes that have “legitimate secular purposes” (Wikipedia). But why is the government allowed to clearly advocate for one religious holiday, when there are so many others happening within the same time period? When the New York City public school system wanted less overtly religious symbols such as Christmas trees, Hanukkah menorahs and even the Muslim star and crescent, they received a lot of backlash over this decision