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VATICAN CITY - The traditional Christian values once feted at Christmas have evaporated, with some countries - especially England - waging a veritable "war against Christmas", the Vatican paper Osservatore Romano said today.
The paper said the strongest sign of the changing face of Christmas is "the disappearance of all religious reference on stamps specially printed for Christmas, which now feature snowmen and deer and no longer the three wise men or the star" of Bethlehem.
In Europe, "and more particularly in England, there is a real 'war against Christmas', which has been denounced by the daily The Sun. A war that tends to erase all the traditions of Christmas," the paper added in an article signed by journalist Mario Gabriele Giordano.
New Zealand Post defended its stamps. Spokesman Ivor Masters said this year's stamps are a result of a children's competition.
He said they include some traditional images as well as a variety of scenes about what Christmas means to them. Nnext year they will be back with more traditional Christmas images.
Osservatore Romano said people today want Christmas to be no more that "a simple festivity of easy pleasure" instead of it being, as it should, a time of "meditation by authentic believers".
- AFP, NEWSTALK ZB
