Pet Peeve of the Day

Every person is entitled to the right to call holidays as they see fit. Yet in this time, they should try to be politically correct and not to stomp all over other people's rights. They can refer to December holidays as Christmakwanzaka, the holiday season, etc, etc. In schools, Easter is some times cleverly incorporated in "Spring break" or "April break." What bothers me is when people call my second New Year of the year "Chinese New Year." For awhile, I used to correct people: Lunar New Year, please. Then someone corrected me – some religions also use lunar calendars and lunar years. After first realizing that my personal campaign was vague and confusing, I realized that I too was imposing my own views on others. Insisting on “Lunar New Year” stomps all over people’s rights to say “Chinese New Year,” no matter how irritating to me. It is one thing to say it yourself, but to interrupt a person by interjecting your own personal opinion? It is a situation much like certain awkward moments in the winter holidays. If one says “Merry Christmas” to a Jewish person, the best thing for the Jew to do may be merely to smile and wave and wish them happy holidays. There is no need to kill the celebratory buzz - they were, after all, just trying to be nice. Since being nice doesn’t always get you where you want to go, I might suggest that everyone be aware of political correctness and say "happy lunar new year as celebrated like the Chinese persons or similar cultures." But adjusting for only one holiday is unacceptable; you'd then have to say "happy days falling around the widely celebrated day of the birth of Jesus." The problem with going one hundred percent P.C. is you end up making people even more uncomfortable. In the end, I strive for an attitude of indifference, while secretly seething, smiling, not paying attention to a word you’re saying, or thinking about what to eat for dinner. So while you say whatever you want, I say "I’m celebrating the New Year - I’m going to a New Year party!" I get to say it twice a year - it's up to you and your calendar savvy to know whether or not I’m trying not to offend myself. Jessica wonders why "peeve" is hardly ever used without a "pet." She suspects that the mysterious April Break on her school calendar only happens once every four years - to get rid of that pesky 366th day of the year. She likes penguins.