Etymology is source, folks, not definiton

Arnold Zwicky at Language Log tackles the latest installment of the "War on Christmas" - radio host "Inga somebody" and her appeal to etymology. (Sigh).

But, no - she's not insisting that Christmas is "Christ + mass" and therefore religious. She's weirder - and sneakier - than that. She

argued that a Christmas tree is "definitely a secular symbol" because "I couldn't find any references to a Christmas tree in the Bible." Therefore the secular governor should have stayed strictly secular by calling the tree a "Christmas tree." Follow me so far?

Inga then revealed that the governor was, in fact, illicitly mingling church and state by using the "PC" terminology "holiday tree." Why? So obvious! "Because 'holiday' means 'holy day,' she stated. Thus the governor was trying to sneak her own (unidentified but possibly "Secular Humanist") religious beliefs into the lighting ceremony by declaring Christmas a "Holy Day."

So ... "Christmas tree" is a secular term, but "holiday" is religious? Way to set up a win-win, Inga whoever!

Check out the whole post, but I'll quote Zwicky's final point here:

I'll content myself with noting that the United States currently has ten "federal legal holidays" (when federal offices are closed, and your bank probably is too):

New Year's Day
Martin Luther King Day
Presidents Day*
Memorial Day
Independence Day
Labor Day
Columbus Day
Veterans' Day
Thanksgiving Day
Christmas Day

Exactly one of these, Christmas Day, is in any sense a "holy day", for Christians or anyone else. Meanwhile, people in the U.K. can use holiday where people in the U.S. use vacation ("go on holiday", the old "holiday camps", etc.). The holy in holiday is at best the whiff of a ghostly presence these days, and it can't be revived by people who stamp their feet and insist that etymology is destiny.

(And yes, I know: for some people Thanksgiving Day has religious overtones, too. But that only makes two.)

*(or George Washington's Birthday - me)