OT: happy Holidays or Happy Christmas? OT

[Guest guest]

Hi,

 

Although Christmas was declared a holiday

on Dec 25 in 325 or 350 AD or somesuch year

wide spread Christmas celebration is only

fairly recent, like the 1800's or sometime

around then. English Puritans and

Reformed Protestants also banned Christmas

festivities in the 1600's, I think because

of its pagan origins. The Winter Solstice

celebrations or observances started quite

a bit earlier. There is a " tumulus at

Newgrange in the Boyne River Valley in

Ireland. It was built in approximately

4500 B.C.E. On the morning of the winter

solstice, a shaft of sunlight enters the

mound, travels down a stone corridor, and illuminates

the spiral designs on the back

wall of the cave. "

 

I was entertained (okay, in a dark sort of

way) by:

" ANCIENT GREECE: The winter solstice ritual was called

Lenaea, the Festival of the Wild Women. In very

ancient times, a man representing the harvest god

Dionysos was torn to pieces and eaten by a gang of

women on this day. Later in the ritual, Dionysos would

be reborn as a baby. "

 

Anyway, I'm not advocating anything one

way or another, other than people shouldn't

get angry or upset because no matter what

you may or may not be celebrating, getting

angry or upset isn't really a good thing.

Personally I basically do the same thing

that I do with email I don't want to see,

hit the mental delete button and continue

with my life. (Let me add this relates

to those things where people & animals

aren't being physically hurt or mentally

abused (although where the line for that

starts is something about which people

will disagree) or hurt. Where those things

occur, I try to not hit the mental delete

button.)

 

Some web pages for those interested:

 

http://www.didyouknow.org/xmas/xmashistory.htm

http://www.kencollins.com/Holy-02t.htm

http://www.corsinet.com/braincandy/xmastrivia.html

http://chi.gospelcom.net/GLIMPSEF/Glimpses/glmps084.shtml

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/2/story_264_1.html

http://www.spelwerx.com/yulehistory.html

http://www.religioustolerance.org/xmas_tree.htm

http://www.religioustolerance.org/winter_solstice.htm

 

Gary