Timeline for Do I have to attend a work Christmas party?
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17 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Oct 24, 2018 at 18:35 | comment | added | Pharap | @Max Then they should be able to chose to not attend the party on religious grounds, as should muslims who object to the consumption of large volumes of alcohol. Even if the party was renamed to "the winter office party", any other customs would remain (e.g. secret santa), so the name is the least of the hypothetical jews' worries. | |
| Oct 24, 2018 at 18:26 | comment | added | Pharap | @YvonneAburrow Christianity is seen as 'normal' for a very good reason - not all that long ago it was the norm. The number of Christians may be dwindling, but many Christian ideals and customs are now a part of British culture, and hence are still important to many people, regardless of religion. Rejecting the name 'Christmas' would be tantamount to rejecting a part of the national identity. The nature of the festival has changed, it is no longer inherantly religious, but the name has not changes and unless the public vote to rename it, it will still be Christmas, whatever form it takes. | |
| Oct 24, 2018 at 14:11 | comment | added | Max | @Pharap: There's the name. There's the religious figure of Santa Claus. There may be rituals such as gift giving. There may be ritual objects such as Christmas trees. You don't consider these religious and neither do I. They are not Christian, but may still have a religious character from the outside viewpoint. Jews, for example, are prohibited from practicing non-Jewish customs which are idolatrous or nonsensical; some Jews have (out of an abundance of caution) a broad definition of idolatry which may include Santa Claus, but in any case many Christmas customs fall under "nonsensical". | |
| Oct 24, 2018 at 13:41 | comment | added | Yvonne Aburrow | @Pharap it matters because of the assumption that the festival is called Christmas by default, because Christianity is seen as "normal", the default setting, even though it's actually practiced by an ever-shrinking minority. I forget the number of people in the census who identified as Christian, despite not going to church most of the time, but that default setting is why there are still Bishops in the House of Lords. | |
| Oct 24, 2018 at 12:25 | comment | added | Pharap | @Max There is absolutely nothing religious about a British Christmas office party. It's a piss-up with music and possibly a few poorly written speeches. The title is the only thing that even hints at religion. As I said before, the number of people who still attend Christmas mass and treat it as Jesus's birthday are dwindling by the year, to the majority of people it's just "santa claus" and presents - the only religions involved are the religions of commercialism and capitalism. | |
| Oct 24, 2018 at 11:13 | comment | added | Max | @Pharap: your religion and culture's definition of what events are "religious" may be very different from another's, and a "secular" Christmas party very possibly includes enough religious elements and rituals (whether of pre-Christian or Christian origin) to trigger some religion's bans on participating in the rituals of another religion. The name "Christmas" alone implies a celebration of Christ that may be enough to be forbidden as a worship of a different God. | |
| Oct 23, 2018 at 8:54 | comment | added | Toby Wilson | The vast majority of UK employees on a "work's Christmas do" will NOT be Christian. | |
| Oct 23, 2018 at 8:17 | comment | added | Agent_L | Calling it Yule or Koliada works just as well, with hipster appeal as a bonus : ) | |
| Oct 22, 2018 at 13:50 | comment | added | Pharap | @YvonneAburrow What possible difference would it make? Even if its official name was changed to "the winter season office party" people would still go around calling it "the office Christmas party". | |
| Oct 22, 2018 at 13:09 | comment | added | Yvonne Aburrow | @Pharap I am from the UK (I moved to Canada at the end of May), and completely disagree with your conclusion that it doesn't matter what the festival is called. Yes it is not religious any more, for most people, but it matters. | |
| Oct 22, 2018 at 9:20 | comment | added | Lightness Races in Orbit | @JdeBP And those people just don't drink, and have a good time chatting/eating/dancing without alcohol instead. Not rocket science! | |
| Oct 22, 2018 at 9:08 | comment | added | Pharap | @YvonneAburrow In Britain 'Christmas' isn't really a religious festival anymore, it's practically an aethiest festival. You still have the odd mention of Jesus and children still do nativity plays, but hardly anyone celebrating it is Christian, they just do it because it's tradition, it's more about presents and getting drunk. It might well have its roots in paganism and/or Christianity, but it's a mere shadow of that now. But in spite of all that it will still be called Christmas, because that's tradition. | |
| Oct 19, 2018 at 13:11 | comment | added | JdeBP | In contrast, some religious-but-non-Christian people do have religious objections to "piss ups". Religious prohibitions on alcohol do exist. | |
| Oct 19, 2018 at 9:18 | comment | added | Lightness Races in Orbit | That's what I'm saying - it's not a religion-based event. 50% of the time Christmas literally just means "December" and the work party is part of that 50%. A company I used to work for actually called it the "Winter party", but that was less about religion and more about holding it in January to cut costs 😄 | |
| Oct 19, 2018 at 9:06 | comment | added | th3no0b | @LightnessRacesinOrbit is right, I'm not religious at all, but I don't have a problem with attending a religion-based event. Christmas is pretty tightly engrained in English culture and can't exactly be avoided. My problem is the social event. | |
| Oct 18, 2018 at 12:45 | review | First posts | |||
| Oct 18, 2018 at 13:17 | |||||
| Oct 18, 2018 at 12:42 | history | answered | webwrx | CC BY-SA 4.0 |