School cancels Christmas
2006-12-05 11:49
Madrid - A school in traditionally
Catholic Spain has cancelled Christmas celebrations so as not to
offend children who are not Christians, ABC newspaper reported
on Wednesday.
The Hilarion Gimeno school in Zaragoza said teachers had put
forward various reasons for not celebrating Christmas, but ABC
said the worry was that Muslim children might be upset.
The school will not put on a nativity play or hand out
presents, but pupils will be free to decorate the halls and sing
carols.
"We are educators and we want our school programme to
advance the personal development of our students as much as
possible," the school said.
Christmas celebrations usually last for about a month in
Spain, with parties starting in December and running through to
January 6 for "Los Reyes" - a huge fiesta to celebrate the visit of
the three wise men to the new-born Jesus in Bethlehem.