Holiday Celebration

Celebrating Di erences

Why people of di erent religions celebrate Christmas

Mia Brant brantmia000@hsestudents.org

December is a season when nine in ten Americans are putting up trees in living rooms and colorful lights on houses. According to Pew Research Center, 90% of Americans celebrate Christmas, but only 64% identify as Christian. With Christmas being a celebration of Jesus Christ’s birthday, it raises the question of why the 36% of Americans who are not Christian celebrate the traditionally Christian holiday. “I think people should be able to celebrate what they want,” Junior Sullivan Kolb said. Kolb’s family is not religious, but her family celebrates the holiday yearly. Typical Christmas traditions in the US include gi -giving, putting up lights, Christmas caroling and baking cookies. ese traditions are o en kept up even by people who do not identify as Christian. “We do nothing religious,” Kolb said. “[Christmas] is more of a fun celebration of being together.” Senior Bella Rapp celebrates Christmas as well, but for di erent reasons. Although her family believes in the Christian in uence of the holiday, she thinks that everyone should be able to celebrate holidays regardless of their origin. “I’ve grown up in a religious family, so naturally I’ve been religious my whole life,” Rapp said. “We believe that Christmas is the holiday to celebrate Jesus’ birth. Of course, religion and beliefs look di erent for everyone and not all people in a certain religious group feel the same about di erent things which I’ve experienced rsthand growing up in our generation.” Christmas in America has not only become a religious holiday but a cultural staple, with Christmas movies having their own genre on some streaming services. “Anyone should be able to celebrate any holiday whether you resonate with the religious background of it or not,” Rapp said. “Holidays like Christmas [and] Easter are times for family and friends and tradition.” Senior Deep Dhillon’s family practices the world’s h most popular religion, Sikhism. Sikhism is an Indian religion that originated in the Punjab state of India. “I don’t celebrate [Christmas] in the traditional sense, but I do celebrate it as I give presents the night before,” Dhillon said. Sikhism and Christianity share some characteristics which include both of the religions being monotheistic as well as both having holidays in December. “Just this month we had Gurupurb, and there’s Diwali. We celebrate that too, but we call it Bundhi chor diwas,” Dhillon said. Gurupurb is a celebration of the birth of the Sikh guru, Guru Nanak. Diwali is known as the “festival of lights” and celebrates the triumph of light over darkness. Despite these holidays being religious like Christmas, Dhillon does not know of anyone who celebrates them that does not practice Sikhism. “I think [Christmas] is a celebration of something and a celebration should be shared,” Dhillon said.