Christmas is racism?
COMMENTARY
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By Petri Salmén
Every Finn has much the same image of Christmas and how it is spent: snow, the tree, the groaning dinner-table, peace & goodwill, and of course Santa Claus!
There is a desire to preserve the illusion, even if snow is no longer a given in Southern Finland.
Christmas is a sense of a familiar and safe continuum; even if the year to date has been a heavy one, Christmas is like coming home again.
Now holes have been made in the veils of illusion through a fanatical sense of political correctness, in other words the thinking that celebrating Christmas offends the sensibilities of some minorities living in Finland.
I find it sad that already in the kindergartens and in the lower forms of elementary schools people have to consider new ways of celebrating the Yuletide season, in order not to offend the parents of immigrant children.
I naturally understand the importance of taking account of the feelings of others and respecting minorities.
But I do not understand that we go so far in arrangements by which the ways of celebrating Christmas that have already been dinned into children at home are invalidated in the name of political correctness. Are five million Finns somehow celebrating Christmas "in the wrong way"?
Although I am an atheist, I have no wish to limit the Christian message of the season in any shape or form. The marking of the birthday of Christ is as well suited as a theme for Christmas as the fact that I choose to celebrate the darkest time of the year by lights and candles. I even attend a school concert when and if it is held in a church.
Let us consider the matter from the opposite perspective. Who is the brave soul who would suggest to the Muslims that the celebration of the fasting month of Ramadan should be brought to an end?
And is there someone out there who would deny the Jewish community the right to burn candles during Hanukkah on the grounds that it constitutes a fire-risk?
We haven't come to that, surely?
At the risk of my being labelled as hopelessly un-PC, I wish you all a Merry and Peaceful Christmas, and understanding and patience one towards another!
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 10.12.2005
Helsingin Sanomat graphic artist Petri Salmén has designed an international online Christmas card that can be accessed at the link below. Instructions in English can be had from our own article on the subject from 2003.
More on this subject:
 Christian tradition disappearing from school Christmas celebrations
Previously in HS International Edition:
English-language instructions on sending an online card (22.12.2003)
Links:
International Christmas Card (15 countries represented)
PETRI SALMÉN / Helsingin Sanomat
petri.salmen@hs.fi
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