The European Commission has come under fire for producing more than three million copies of an EU diary for secondary schools which contains no reference to Christmas but includes Jewish, Hindu, Sikh and Muslim festivities.
-- From "European Commission criticised for omitting Christmas on EU school diary" by Bruno Waterfield, The London Telegraph 12/17/10
More than 330,000 copies of the diaries, accompanied by 51 pages of glossy information about the EU, have been delivered to British schools as a "sought after" Christmas gift to pupils from the commission.
But Christians have been angered because the diary section for December 25 is blank and the bottom of the page with Christmas Day is marked only with the secular message: "A true friend is someone who shares your concerns and will double your joy".
While the euro calendar marks Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Jewish and Chinese festivities as well as Europe Day and other key EU anniversaries, there are no Christian festivals marked, despite the fact Christianity is Europe's majority religion.
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From "Italy calls on EU to withdraw schools diary that leaves out Christmas" by John Hooper in Rome, Guardian (U.K.) 12/23/10
Italy has demanded that the European Commission recall millions of diaries that are being distributed to schoolchildren throughout the EU because they do not mention Christmas but they do give the dates of other religions' festivals, such as Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting, and Sikh, Hindu and Chinese feast days.
A Commission spokeswoman said it had "realised the absence of some important European religious holidays, in particular Christmas". She added: "The Commission understands the sensitivity of the issue and regrets this incident. This oversight will be rectified in future editions of the diary."
Some 3 million copies of the latest edition of the Europe Diary have been sent to schools. The commission's spokeswoman said its main purpose was "inform young Europeans as consumers and citizens on issues like rights, choices as consumers [and] climate change".
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