A carol at a winter festival!
A school choir was forced to withdraw from a Christmas event because organisers branded its carols 'too religious'. Around 60 children aged between seven and 11 had spent six weeks practising favourites including Once In Royal David's City and Silent Night for the Corringham Winter Festival. But they were let down at the last minute when their headteacher was informed their programme did not 'dovetail' with the festival's theme. [article]
How dare they use a religious reference like "dove" which can refer to the Holy Spirit! We need to go back to the French Enlightenment which renamed the days of the week and increased the number of them to avoid Sunday as a day of rest. In fact the word Festival which they are using is from the Latin Festivus (predates Seinfeld) referring to Feast which has historical Catholic overtones. Come on if they are going to wipe every religious significance they need to do a much better job. They need to have Spring, Summer, and Fall occasions also and not just celebrations of Winter which give a seasonal bias and seasonal exceptionalism and still point to the event they are trying to erase.
The culture is trying to bring about a case of cultural amnesia where celebrating the birth of Christ must be replaced by some vague amorphous feeling where for some unknown reason we are suppose to have nice comfy thoughts tied to a season of the year. We are to be given our pottage and we are to enjoy it! So what if the modern thought is a deprivation compared to what went before it. That the coming of Christ which was the biggest thing that ever happened is to be replaced in the name of multiculturalism that is to contain any culture but a Christian derived one. As G.K. Chesterton said "Paganism was the largest thing in the world and Christianity was larger; and everything else has been comparatively small." I say secularism is one of the smallest things in the world and it makes us smaller when we embrace it.
Known as 
England continues it's slide into the trashcan of history.
Daft, indeed.
I teach in a Catholic school. On Friday I tried to use the carol "Good King Wenceslas" to teach some character lessons to a group of girls who had not bothered to come into school because it was snowing.
*None* of the girls had ever heard the carol before!
It's just harassment. Religious discrimination against Christians.
And every time they use the word "multicultural" they proclaim the stupendous greatness of Rome. Even they are forced to acknowledge the gift of Latin or they could have neither "multi" nor "culture". Hee hee. The word "multicultural" is not multicultural.
Catholicism, of course, is omnicultural, or rather supercultural.
PS Just in case anyone wants to know, that Chesterton quote is from his 1927 book The Catholic Church and Conversion, CW3:109
A public school near me was reproached for using an "overtly religious" song in their "holiday program"- Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
It was allowed back in when some school official with common sense pointed out that it's a song about a flying reindeer, and flying reindeer were not, as far as he knew, religious symbols.
Now they're allowed to sing any religious song they want, as long as songs from other faiths are included.
Cultural amnesia is exactly what they are seeking. Our Christmas music has been a staple for years. I pray we don't let them ruin it too easily! They will certainly try:
http://salesianity.blogspot.com/2008/12/lets-keep-christ-in-christmas.html
Thinking of Christmas as a winter festival is remarkably parochial, leaving out half the world.
Here's a verse from an Australian carol:
CHRISTMAS DAY
The north wind is tossing the leaves,
The red dust is over the town;
The sparrows are under the eaves,
And the grass in the paddock is brown ,
As we lift up our voices and sing
To the Christ child, the heavenly King.
More here:
http://heathhill.blogspot.com/2007/12/australian-christmas-carols.html
At this rate, how long will it take for Dec. 25 to be changed officially to s'thing like "Winter Fun Day"?
multiculturalism secular defintion: anything not Christian is accepted.
Wikipedia defines a carol as:
"A carol is a festive song, generally religious but not necessarily connected with church worship, and often with a dance-like or popular character.
Today the carol is represented almost exclusively by the Christmas carol, the Advent carol, and to a much lesser extent by the Easter carol..."
I guess they're going to have to outlaw singing at the quad-annual seasonal occasions.