There I said it, MERRY CHRISTMAS, none of that appeasement “Happy holidays” nonsense.
I might not be a very good Christian, if at all, but I can see the word Christ does seem to be the fulcrum for the jist of this celebration. Whether or not a religious celebration oppresses another group I’m not sure, although logically if were secure in your religious convictions you’d be able to withstand the thought of another mind set as easily as a vegan withstands bacon.
I have no problem wishing people a happy Divali or Eid, when I lived in Hong Kong I didn’t complain when I got a day off work for Buddha’s birthday, but gadang it, why can’t we just give it up for Jesus? Tis the season to be jolly right and the reason for the season is, in Europe, the birth of our Lord and Saviour.
I did a bit of research for this, and it seems as if the timing for this festival is the Winter Solstice, it’s been fairly well established the birth of Christ was later, but December 25th is when the Sun is at its lowest point and this celestial fact has been noted way back in the time before time.
The Greco-Roman celebration of Saturnalia and Kalends were also solstice festivals and it was these that the early Christians nicked and renamed for their God, if the people were having a party anyway why not just reuse the invites?
It goes further, (C)Hanukah seems likely to be a solstice festival that even predates Saturnalia, and again the timing seems to do with grafting a new meaning onto an old festival, but dressing up the reason to distance it from the plagiarised event. For Hanukah the defeat of the Greeks by the Hashmonaim family is the given reason it coincides with the solstice revelries so exactly.
So there you have it, happy Winter Solstice, no matter what you call it.
Tags: didn, celebration of saturnalia, December, festivalNo related posts.
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Hi Fergus, nice to see you blogging away on SerreChe dot org… – has Rick got you up to this?? I might see if he will give me an account, I have some real juicy gossip from an insider at Les Grandes Bains at Monetier – watch this space!
BTW…I bet you are finding the climate a bit different to Hong Kong!
Jane, good to hear from you – yeah sure you can have an account, just don’t big up Canada too much! I hear you are over next week…let’s hook up at The Station in Chantemerle, it’s Clive’s new bar – a bit less grotty than the Grotte!