From what I've gathered, they've never really "doodled" anything that could remotely resemble a religion in the event that it looks like they endorse or favor it over others. Cesar Chavez was a civil rights activist akin to MLK or Gandhi so it seems pretty apt that they'd honor him in a doodle.

EDIT: Looks like I was wrong about religious-based doodles. But it still stands that they don't have to pander to a certain segment of the population (especially a major one) on an annual basis. Personally, I feel the doodles are more about educating and informing. I often come across doodles that represent some person or thing that I had no idea about before and find myself clicking on the doodle and the subsequent links it pulls up as part of the search. Seems like it's not always about celebrating the most commonly known ideas/people.

    "From what I've gathered, they've never really 'doodled' 
     anything that could remotely resemble a religion..."

In fact, having already done Easter was part of their response to this "controversy" -- there were two subjects for the same day, so they picked the one they hadn't already featured.

http://www.google.com/doodles/search?query=christmas

Insofar as it matters, Google did have an Easter doodle back in 2000: http://www.google.com/doodles/happy-easter-2000

So you can't even say they've ignored the holiday, just that they prefer to highlight different ones from year to year (with exceptions presumably due to internal popularity or artists' personal predilections).

(Sorry for wasting thread space on this old, off-topic, manufactured controversy.)

Is that a thing outside the US ? I've never heard of it outside of US news.

I'm pretty sure they are people who beleives that in other countries. But do they get media attention like in the US ?

If the country in question is, I don't know, Cambodia, perhaps that is true (no idea if it is or not). But if the American christian fundamentalists are claiming that there is a war on christianity in England or France, then they are without doubt full of shit.

It seems like there is a certain brand of christian fundamentalist in America that really wants to think that the Romans are still tossing them to lions or something. They find that idea vindicating perhaps, I don't know. I don't get it.

You know what would be inclusive? Acknowledging that not everybody is for Gay Marriage, and being OK with the Google home page celebrating something other than your pro-Gay Marriage ruling.

Personally I am barely a "believer" and don't oppose gay marriage but your argument made no sense. No doubt you can find people opposing Mandela, Mother Teresa and even Einstein, so no doodles for them to be inclusive?

I'd prefer mega corporations staying out of social issues. Produce social value by making great products, not political advocacy.

This is an issue of direct relevance to many of those that work at Google. I think it's fine for corporations to take a stand on social issues that directly affect their employees.

Einstein: https://www.google.com/doodles/albert-einsteins-124th-birthd...

You seem to be creating a mountain out of molehill. The design they have is targeted at certain searches - not on their main landing page.

During the holidays a holiday UI sometimes shows for [christmas] that has appropriate Christmas decorations

This was already on HN at the time: There is no agreement on a date for Easter.

Sure there is.

In fact, there are several agreements among different subsets of Christianity.

Christianity has over 2 billion "members" worldwide and Easter is a major holiday.

In short: not everything is about Jesus. Hopefully, this trend will continue.

I'm a Christian and I think it's cool when I see a religious and non-Christian theme. It helps to make me more aware of other religions and their holidays. You may think that's strange for a Christian, but it isn't actually. Just strange for the ones you hear from in the media.

Not sure if they are any doodles for Mohammed or Ramadan in Arabic and largely Muslim countries but I don't see why they should be any in countries where Islam barely registers. That applies to any other religion of course. Google would be insane to put a Christmas doodle in Pakistan, Indonesia or Saudi Arabia for example. Local sensitivities should apply.

>>In short: not everything is about Jesus. Hopefully, this trend will continue.

Like I said, this is Google's page but simply because they did it doesn't mean it's the right thing to do. Google surely loves to take boatload of adwords money for Easter and Christmas. Why do they respect local sensitivities when it comes to making money?

OTOH, why not? Spreading knowledge is usually a good thing...

As long as <non-local-religious/cultural-event X> doesn't conflict with something local, and isn't the sort of thing that raises local hackles (a few things do; most things, not really), why not show it, and teach some people a little thing about another culture...?

Of course, most people don't bother even if they aren't actually religious, so the Church still claims 80% of us are Catholic, even though many don't even get married in a religious ceremony anymore, much less attend mass.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostasy#International_law