JOEY MARMAUD Every year, millions of Americans celebrate Christmas. As a federally recognized holiday, Christmas is one of ten in an exclusive group of holidays, and is the only one of that group to have a religious meaning at its core. So why does the government recognize Christmas but not Hanukkah? What about Kwanzaa--why don’t we get a week off then? The answer--contrary to what most Americans would think--has nothing to do with Christian-American dominance or a cynical Coca-Cola marketing scheme: it has to do with labor unions.
Prior to 1870 (when Christmas became federally recognized), the Industrial Revolution swept the metros of America. As a result of this cultural change, many came to work in derelict conditions in factories and sweatshops, for long, grueling hours. Labors unions formed, and felt that America’s workers needed a break. They started at the state levels: think back to 1833. Massachusetts--a Mecca for industrial growth--saw burnout rates at an all-time high, with workers literally killing themselves over their tragic working conditions. One state legislator argued that the lack of free time was ultimately contributing to this. For the first time in our country’s history, people were given a day off from work, every single year (if the holiday fell on Sunday, the following Monday would be taken off). Similar trends carried on in other states until Ulysses S. Grant signed a bill on June 28, 1870 designating Christmas as an unpaid holiday for federal employees in D.C. New Year’s and The Fourth of July were also deemed federal holidays in the bill, which would be expanded to the rest of America in following years. Despite this day off from work, there was no legal requirement for businesses to pay their workers for the day off until 1938. This leads many to ask: what about the separation between church and state, as guaranteed under the first amendment? The truth is that there was no notable debate from the bill’s committee on the issue. Douglas Ambrose, a professor of history at Hamilton College and expert in Christianity in early American history, claims that “One could argue that giving federal workers the day off, which is all the federal holiday does, does not ‘support’ any religion — it doesn’t require anyone to do anything religious, it just says the office won’t be open.” As the U.S. was and is dominated by the Christian faith, there have been no serious inquiries into the legality of the holiday being federally recognized. Combined with the associated commercialism and secular traditions surrounding Christmas, many Americans--Christian and non-Christian--celebrate the holiday, and see it more as a national holiday as opposed to a religious one (data estimates there to be upwards of 90% of Americans celebrating Christmas). The holiday was also instigated for important political reasons at the time: Christmas encouraged a sense of community in the whirlwind of industrialization and urbanization, and helped close the stinging wound still open from the Civil War. As for non-Christian holidays during wintertime (such as Hanukkah and Kwanzaa), their status has yet to be elevated to federal recognition because of demographics. As mentioned before, America is overwhelmingly Christian: Pew Research Center estimates 70.6% of Americans to follow the Christian faith, compared to the 1.9% of Americans who follow Judaism. Christmas also expands beyond a base of solely Christian followers; as mentioned before, more than 90% of American celebrate Christmas. This is due to the secularization of the holiday, and the lack of religious emphasis it has among non-Christian families who celebrate it (Hanukkah is much more religious in nature; Kwanza is a relatively young holiday, and lacks a broad celebrating base). As we can glean from multiple sources, we can see that Christmas evolved from the hard working conditions of the Industrial Revolution, which necessitated its federal recognition. Many people were already celebrating the holiday, and its legalization was convenient at the time. If a bill was in Congress now to officiate the holiday, then our conversation regarding its legality might come forward; in the high-Jesus time of the nineteenth century, there was no such debate. Millions of Americans now--Christians and non-Christians alike--enjoy stocking trinkets made in Chinese sweatshops, in conditions not too different from those which brought about the holiday. So no, it wasn’t Corporate Santa which granted us the official recognition of the holiday, or evangelical lobbyists who coerced President Grant to sign the 1870 bill; it was labor unions. The context was not the same for holidays like Hanukkah or Kwanza; that is why they never became federally recognized, while Christmas did.
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The Eagle's EyeBest of the Nest since 1981 Archives
January 2018
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