OPINION: Christ is the reason for the season

Here is the official announcement from the city’s web site: “Downtown Parade of Lights on Dec. 3: The annual Athens-Clarke County Downtown Parade of Lights is scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 3, starting at 7 p.m. This year’s theme is ‘A gift from the heart.’”

Notice the absence of any reference to Christmas.

Contrast this with the recent decision of The Patchogue, N.Y., Riverfront Committee to return Christmas to their parade. They had dropped Christmas from the name of their festival a year ago, but when attendance dropped dramatically, they quickly decided to return to the original title of "Christmas Holiday Boat Parade."

Note also the move by a number of national retailers to return Christmas to their stores. They include Target, Sears and Lowe’s.

If you are unhappy with Athens-Clarke about this decision, I have a recommendation for you. You will be welcome at the 2009 Comer Christmas Parade to be held at 2 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 5. This year’s theme is: “Christmas in Comer, The Old Made New.”

I think I can safely say that Christmas will be very visible in the Comer parade. Among the units in the parade will be a number of church and civic floats depicting both religions and secular Christmas themes. You will very probably hear carols about Bethlehem and the baby Jesus. There will be Christmas trees, of course, and reindeer, and Santa will likely be the last float in the parade. He has held that position in every Comer parade I have ever seen.

Now I realize that the season represents many things to many different people. Many religions have celebrations at this time of year. The spirit of giving is not limited to Christians. And they all will be able to celebrate the season in accordance to their beliefs and traditions. But for the vast majority of Americans, especially in the South, the predominant reason for the season is the birth of Jesus Christ and any event that fails to keep Christ in Christmas is a slap in the face of the millions of Christians who make up the majority of our population.

So, enjoy the season. Visit those stores that keep Christmas in their displays. Attend events that put the birth of Christ at the center of their programs. And, perhaps, you might want to ignore any event that chooses to ignore Christmas and stage a strictly secular celebration. They deserve to be ignored.

Frank Gillispie is founder of The Madison County Journal. His e-mail address is frank@frankgillispie.com. His website can be accessed at http://www.frankgillispie.com/gillispieonline.