Happy Holidays

Fall semester 2011, I had this soft-spoken Muslim student, a refugee from Iraq.  Didn't speak much.  I asked her idly one December day, during a workshop, if there was a Muslim equivalent to Christmas; she said yes, the Day of Ashura, which in 2011 fell on that very day, December 5th.  Everyone in class immediately felt bad that she was in class (though we were also kinda impressed).  I told her that had I known about it, I would have totally excused her absence.  She just shrugged in that inimitable way that I'm pretty sure only war refugees can do.

In any case, to any and all Muslims out there, for what it's worth, I hope you had a Happy Day of Ashura.

Moreover, to all of my various Jewish friends out there, including those of you who've kindly invited me over to light the Menorah, I hope you are having a Happy Hanukkah right now.

And of course, to the super-majority of my friends who either self-identify as Christian or are of Christian decent, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas.

And to my Orthodox, Catholic, and/or Latin-American friends, I hope that that Merry Christmas extends through the Enunciation, as well.

Tis the season when some otherwise-well-intentioned folks I know demand indignantly of those who say Happy Holidays, "What's wrong with saying 'Merry Christmas,' huh?!"

Nothing's wrong with it.  It's just that I want to include the rest of this breath-taking mass of humanity too.

Happy Holidays.