To think Christmas should not be treated differently from Eid and Diwali?

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We are hearing the government could allow a few days meeting during Christmas. While I understand this may be necessary, this could lead to spikes of COVID again and put pressure on the NHS (nearly 600 deaths yesterday) we aren't out of the woods yet.

When it was Eid in May Muslims were warned not to congregate and meet other households. A similar message was said in Diwali to have a stay at home Diwali.

Totally agree op
Also yet again this sucks mega cheesy balls for divorced parents and bigger families. Who gets the window? How do you organise which siblings to see and which not?
Its all ridiculous in my opinion but yes, totally unreasonable to have one rule for Christian celebrations and one for other religions in a largely secular country

We were in full lockdown at Easter remember.

I have every sympathy for people who have had their religious festivals curtailed, particularly with such little notice for eid - that seemed very unfair.
I'm upset I can't take my son to Sunday school and we won't get to have our usual church service at Christmas Eve. I don't think we'll be allowed in house socialising in my part of Scotland at Christmas anyway tbh.

However for many people in this country Christmas is a secular activity and indeed celebrated by people or different or no religion. It is celebrated by a higher proportion of the country. It would be purely an economical decision by governments.

You make a good point but I think the reasonings etc behind this are multi layered and probably based on the fact that traditionally Christmas is a bigger holiday nationally.

The queen is head of the church. We’re not a secular country. And Easter also didn’t go ahead, Christians haven’t been free to celebrate or congregate while the other faiths have suffered.

Yabu. For one i like how you casually omit that easter was also cancelled and thats the most important christian holiday of the year as if you are implying the government is favouring christians. And two christmas is a very british cultural thing rather than strictly religious and as christmas is celebrated by the majority and wid and diwali are celebrated by the minority they are not the same thing at all.

Eid*

It's the biggest celebration for the vast majority of the country and the state religion.

I don't give a monkeys about religious celebrations including my own (pagan), they can all wait until we've got a vaccine.
We are not going to die without one year of festivities. People are behaving as if its the end of the world. Get your priorities right for goodness sake.
I'm spending pagan Yule on the sofa with my cat alone and the usual revellery can wait until next year.

Totally agree.

I celebrate Christmas and not the other 2 but I do not want everyones' hard work to potentially be put at risk for the sake of Christmas day dinner.

Aren't we meant to be following the science? If so, what is the scientific justification for allowing Christmas to go ahead without restrictions?

Agreed but knew this would happen.

Same as Easter. That is the biggest event in the catholic / Christian calendar and takes place over a week. All cancelled.

I agree. Even though I want to celebrate Christmas and didn't celebrate the others.
I dont believe we're a white Christian country anymore.
But there are more people who celebrate christmas so they could use it as an incentive to get people to bring the numbers down

I’m a devout, practicing Christian.

If we get to similar or worse figures than when Eid celebrations were banned and public Christmas celebrations and private celebrations in homes are not treated similarly to how other religions were treated then there are no two ways about it - it’s religious discrimination against Muslims and Hindus.

Christmas is different I think to Easter, eid etc as it is also hugely commercial and has financial implications too ( more than say Easter does)
A lot of businesses etc do most of their trading over Christmas. It sustains them the rest of the year so I think it is more important for that reason as much as any other.

Yes, if these more minor (population wise) events weren't allowed due to the risks of spreading the virus, then letting the entire country do what they like for Christmas is madness. The problem is they know full well that if they put rules in place, noone will follow them.

Christmas is much more of a cultural event than religious a lot of people however the UK is overwhelmingly a white Christian country (despite what a PP ‘believes’) so I actually don’t think that the other religious events are comparable. I’m not saying we should go against science to all meet up and do what we want but I don’t think you can compare festivals and say just because they didn’t happen, it’s not fair for Christmas to.

I agree with you but selfishly it’s because I wanted a Christmas without the pressure of having to entertain.

Most Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus I know who live in the UK celebrate Christmas (albeit slightly differently in most cases).

Most Christians I know who live in the UK don't celebrate Eid, Vaisakhi or Diwali.

I would've thought that was obvious.

YABVU. We are a Christian country.

YABU

It’s very sad that Eid and Diwali have had restrictions, I really feel for those who couldn’t celebrate how they usually would. But remember that Easter was also “cancelled” at the beginning of the first lockdown. So Christians have also shared the pain.

Statistically a far bigger proportion of the UK celebrate Christmas compared to Eid or Diwali. We have public holidays for Christmas but not celebrations of other faiths. The UK is a broadly Christian country, “god save the Queen” is the English national anthem after all.

Personally I don’t think abandoning all restrictions for Christmas is sensible. I think there should be just enough leeway so nobody is forced to spend Christmas alone if they don’t want to. But not massive parties or huge extended family gatherings like normal. I think they should bear in mind significant number of selfish people will “bend” (break) whatever rules are in force. So if you allow gatherings of up to six, people will feel justified in having seven or eight. If you have gatherings of 12, people will have fifteen

My sympathy is with people who will be alone, not with people who can’t have all 20 of their extended family for Christmas dinner

@Freixene What you're describing is textbook discrimination. "You're not as big a group as us, so your wants and needs do not matter."

Christianity is the state religion of the UK. It makes sense the government would make exceptions for the state religion that weren’t made for other religions.

In total agreement, if the science says it can't happen then it can't happen. We can't have different rules for different religions.