“How do you pronounce your last name?” The clerk at the corner store I was checking out of had a comically intent look on her face that shouted “my manager wants me to go through this routine with all the customers to make them feel like family so, even though it's corny, would you please just comply?”
Without hesitation, I said the first thing that came to my mind. “Yerziklewsky.” Even upside down, my name doesn't look anything like that, but “Yerziklewsky” vaguely reminded me of an LLFCN member's name.
“Happy Holidays Mr. Wurzuklouskee,” the clerk said with a pasted smile, butchering my made up name.
It wasn't until I was out of the store and fifty feet in the parking lot that I realized the clerk wasn't wearing a name tag. A few seconds later, her closing words came echoing back to my ears, pushing out any thoughts of her uniform violation: “Happy Holidays.”
Understand, I don't have any problem with a holiday, I take a good many of them myself and believe the calender is much too limiting on that account, but I am beginning to wonder just what exactly “Happy Holidays” really means.
My keen sense of observation tells me that this phrase comes into vogue after Thanksgiving and leaves after New Years. It also tells me that it has nothing to do with Pearl Harbor Day. Or does it?
My datebook, yes I have a datebook, lists many December “Holidays.” December 6th is St. Nicholas Day (read Santa Claus Appeasement Day), the 7th is Pearl Harbor Day, the 8th is Bodhi Day (a time set aside to celebrate Buddha's enlightenment), the 7th is Virgin of Guadalupe Day (that's pretty much self-explanatory), the 13th is Santa Lucia Day, the 22nd is Winter Solstice (an important day in Alaska), the 16th the beginning of Hanukkah, the 25th Christmas, the 26th Kwanzaa and the 31st is both Eid al-adha (a Muslim celebration concluding a pilgrimage to Mecca) and New Year's Eve. The entire month of December is also the Universal Human Rights Month.
In light of the above list, I really appreciated the clerk's effort to recognize the biggest socio-economic and religious groups in the world by utilizing such a broad greeting. To think, had she wished me an “Exciting Solstice”! Imagine how angry all those folks who quietly ignore the peak of winter would be! Similarly, how insensitive it would have been to simply wish me a “Merry Christmas” or the more undisputed “Happy New Year?”
When people say “Happy Holidays,” they are communicating that they wish the listener well, whatever holiday the listener is celebrating. Most often, in America anyway, that's assumed to be Christmas. The trouble is that smaller, lesser known holidays can get lost in the confusion.
Take Kwanzaa, for instance. Kwanzaa is an important cultural and heritage celebration that has grown extensively in America since its introduction in the late 1960s. As I learned from a webpage titled endarkenment.com, Kwanzaa is a very important historical celebration. It is a time for African Americans celebrate and reflect on who they are as well as promote virtue. Whereas the Christmas celebration uses a tree and holly to communicate its festivity, Kwanzaa incorporates the Mkeka (Kwanzaa mat), Muindi (Kwanzaa corn) and Kikombe Cha Umoja (Unity Cup).
If you find that the number of Ks incorporated unnecessarily in the Kwanzaa celebration is reminiscent of the Klu Klux Klan, you just had a very offensive and politically incorrect thought that you had better keep quiet about.
If anything, holiday neutral greetings may actually end up hurting Kwanzaa. All the big celebrations (Hanukkah anyone?) are automatically assumed to be the topic of the well wishing. A day like Kwanzaa needs more support.
So I am celebrating Kwanzaa this year. Like Christmas, it's a day of gift giving that brings family and friends together. Besides the name and the cultural icons that accompany the two days, is there difference? Maybe that's why people say “Happy Holidays,” because they don't see any.
I almost want to go back to that corner store and check out with the same clerk. When she wishes me (or Mr. Yerziklewsky as the case might be) a Happy Holiday, I will look her in the eye and say "Kwanzaa Yenu Iwe Na Heri!" (kwahn-ZAH YEH-noo EE-weh nah heh-REE!) or “May your Kwanzaa be happy!”
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