On a crêche course
Today on Salon.com, Garrison Keillor says “Bah, humbug” to Christmas naysayers:
There are people who feel “excluded” by Christian symbolism and are offended by the manger and the angels and the Child . . . To which one can only say: Get a life. When you go to France, you don’t expect a stack of buckwheat pancakes for breakfast or Le Monde to print box scores. You’re in France. Now you’re in America. It’s a Christian culture. Work with it.
Ah, oui, the French. They hew to their Christian roots in a manner that may be difficult for many Americans to comprehend. Of the eleven public holidays in France, the majority are tied to dates on the Christian calendar.
There’s Christmas, and there’s the Monday after Easter. That much Americans can follow, what with the New York Stock Exchange continuing to close on Good Friday long after most public schools and private employers no longer recognize the holiday. But in France there’s also public observance of Ascension, Assumption, the Monday following Pentecost, and Toussaint (All Saints) on November 1st.
When you watch the French kicking the holiday season into high gear on St. Nicholas Day each December 6th, or carrying the festivities straight through till the last crumbs of the galettes des rois for the Epiphany disappear in early January, you realize just how deracinated the Christmas season in America has become. In the land of stinky cheese, it’s fine to put out a crêche or wish someone “Joyeux Noël!” After all, you’re in France. “It’s a Christian culture,” the calendar itself proclaims.
Keillor has always been a great humorist; this time he has truly exceeded himself. Emulate the cultural sensibilities of the French? That’s a riot!
