Andrew Boulton
The Adminator
It took being locked in a room for an hour with a brass band playing carols at me, but I'm *finally* starting to feel Christmassy...
Okay, I give in
- Thread starter Andrew Boulton
- Start date
Andrew,
The cards I mailed this year has a hand-tinted picture of a typically 1950s holiday scene with Granny placing a casserole on the table while Granpa beems with pride. Married Son and Wife are waiting happily to dig in, College Son (wearing his letter sweater) looks on hungrily, and Cute Daughter hovers off to one side.
In addition to this swell picture, the card's legend reads:
Happiness is having a large, close-knit family in another city.
I don't mind Christmas. I do mind having it rammed down my throat each year by increasingly self-deluded pinheads who are so fixated on everyone getting in the spirit of the season that they end driving both themselves and those around them absolutely insane.
There's a reason the suicide rate spikes this time of year.
"Happy" holidays,
Bill
The cards I mailed this year has a hand-tinted picture of a typically 1950s holiday scene with Granny placing a casserole on the table while Granpa beems with pride. Married Son and Wife are waiting happily to dig in, College Son (wearing his letter sweater) looks on hungrily, and Cute Daughter hovers off to one side.
In addition to this swell picture, the card's legend reads:
Happiness is having a large, close-knit family in another city.
I don't mind Christmas. I do mind having it rammed down my throat each year by increasingly self-deluded pinheads who are so fixated on everyone getting in the spirit of the season that they end driving both themselves and those around them absolutely insane.
There's a reason the suicide rate spikes this time of year.
"Happy" holidays,
Bill
Keklas Rekobah
SOC-14 1K
Bill, Bill, Bill... this just will not do...
Here's a link for you to get into the Spirit of the Season. I hope that it inspires you as much, and in the same way, as it has for me. Enjoy!
"A Visit From Saint Nicholson"
Here's a link for you to get into the Spirit of the Season. I hope that it inspires you as much, and in the same way, as it has for me. Enjoy!
"A Visit From Saint Nicholson"
The day is wrong, the trappings are borrowed or have lost their meaning, but the message of Christmas is eternal:
A little over 2000 years ago, God looked down on the human condition and did for Mankind, what no man could do for himself. As the ultimate demonstration of His infinite love, he set aside Immortality to clothe himself in humanity. The Creator became his own creation, in order that He alone, being fully God and fully man could die - once and for all men - in order that we might be restored into eternal fellowship with Him.
A dead man got up and walked, and he said that we could do the same. Nothing anyone can say has the power to add or subtract from what Jesus Christ did.
[It needed to be said.]
A little over 2000 years ago, God looked down on the human condition and did for Mankind, what no man could do for himself. As the ultimate demonstration of His infinite love, he set aside Immortality to clothe himself in humanity. The Creator became his own creation, in order that He alone, being fully God and fully man could die - once and for all men - in order that we might be restored into eternal fellowship with Him.
A dead man got up and walked, and he said that we could do the same. Nothing anyone can say has the power to add or subtract from what Jesus Christ did.
[It needed to be said.]
I have a magnetic placard on my car which reads "Keep Christ in Christmas"...
as far as I'm concerned, all the non-christians SHOULDN'T be saying merry christmas... which means, literally Christ-Mass, the mass of the nativity of christ. A specifically Catholic (and by extension, and by parallelism & scism, sometimes other eucharistic christian) term for a specific form of worship.
Likewise, I've had several Jews get upset that I said "Happy Channukka."
as far as I'm concerned, all the non-christians SHOULDN'T be saying merry christmas... which means, literally Christ-Mass, the mass of the nativity of christ. A specifically Catholic (and by extension, and by parallelism & scism, sometimes other eucharistic christian) term for a specific form of worship.
Likewise, I've had several Jews get upset that I said "Happy Channukka."
Aramis,
By the same token you shouldn't put up a tree (Germanic Pagan), Icons of St Nicolas (Greek Orthodox), or give gifts (Saturnalia in origin). Eating ham would also be off the list, as traditionally this is an offering to Freya.
You might as well ignore the mythic aspects of the festival, the sociological are far more important. The expectations of happy families, the disappointment at the reality, and the need for people to connect and failing are pretty hard on a lot of people. Suicides go up for a reason. They also go up in the southern hemisphere, so it isn't just the winter blues.
At least Melbourne will be having a white christmas this year.
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/shownh.php3?img_id=14019
BTW Christ-Mass would be January 6.
By the same token you shouldn't put up a tree (Germanic Pagan), Icons of St Nicolas (Greek Orthodox), or give gifts (Saturnalia in origin). Eating ham would also be off the list, as traditionally this is an offering to Freya.
You might as well ignore the mythic aspects of the festival, the sociological are far more important. The expectations of happy families, the disappointment at the reality, and the need for people to connect and failing are pretty hard on a lot of people. Suicides go up for a reason. They also go up in the southern hemisphere, so it isn't just the winter blues.
At least Melbourne will be having a white christmas this year.
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/shownh.php3?img_id=14019
BTW Christ-Mass would be January 6.
Keklas Rekobah
SOC-14 1K
Aww... give it a rest, already!
What a person "should" or "should not" do about the winter holidays is his or her own flaming business!
You know ... freedom of speech, press, and worship...
What a person "should" or "should not" do about the winter holidays is his or her own flaming business!
You know ... freedom of speech, press, and worship...
B
Black Globe Generator
Guest
Seeing the shine in my daughter's eyes as she looks at the lights wrapped around the tree and hanging from the eaves is all it takes for me.
I do not see any problem with wishing a friend of mine a pleasant festive of his religion, even if I believe in completely different things. Religion, after all, is a personal (and by extension, community) thing. Likewise, as a Jew, I do not have any problem with anyone wishing me "happy Hanuka".
But, as a compromise, lets settle with a "Happy New Year".
And turkey is a north american bird.
I don't put up a tree. Haven't since I moved out.
The giving of gifts dates to early times. Read up on St. Nicholas of Myra.
BTW, ~40% of the catholics world-wide are members of the eastern rites, all of which DO use Icons; only the Roman doesn't, and even then, iconography in the Roman is, and has been, part of allowed practice since the 300's. In the roman rite (about 60% of the Catholic Church) the iconography exists mostly as windows of stained glass.
I've practiced in the Byzantine rite and Roman rite... 2 of the 22 rites. For an example of a Byzantine Rite Catholic Church, see http://www.ak-byz-cath.org/ and examine the architecture.
If one doesn't know about the panoply of rites in the Catholic church, such errors are often made. Most Roman Catholics don't know about the 21 other rites...
I've no problem with a generic mid-winter gift-giving festival. I've a problem with turning a major religious holy-day into the most base of commercial concerns.
Except that it was traditionally placed at 25 Dec, by synodal council ratification of imperial decree, and the calendar change (Pope Gregory's) shifted it, while the Russians, Turks and Greeks didn't shift. Based upon the historical data, the Census was taken in the summer... so its place in the church calendar is linked to the feast of Mithras (Roman Pagan) and the mythic cycle built into the church year. Going into more detail would lose some, confuse others, and not contribute to the ongoing discussion meaningfully, and we're already pushing board boundaries.
P
Pickles
Guest
Rabble rouser.
Andrew Boulton
The Adminator
There are some classic Xmas Twisted Tunes. My faves are The Restroom Door Said, "Gentlemen" and Walkin' 'Round in Women's Underwear...
http://www.bobrivers.com/audiovault/tunes/xmastunes.asp
http://www.bobrivers.com/audiovault/tunes/xmastunes.asp
God Rest Ye Buried Gentlemen
Potratz, McQueen & Hostman
God rest ye buried gentlemen do not arise this day!
Out cleric has a head-cold and he can not cast nor pray!
My Flaming sword has just got' wet, and will not light the way,
Oh fighting is such a bloody joy, bloody joy,
Oh fighting is such a bloody joy!
Our ranger is a thief you see, he can not track nor trail.
Some day his secret will get out and land us all in jail.
Until that day we keep him here to make that loot for sale...
Oh fighting is such a bloody joy, bloody joy,
Oh fighting is such a bloody joy!
Our Wizard is a wild mage, his spells all go astray.
His magic causes problems, true, each and every day,
Explosions are his trade and often light the way...
Oh fighting is such a bloody joy, bloody joy,
Oh fighting is such a bloody joy!
Potratz, McQueen & Hostman
God rest ye buried gentlemen do not arise this day!
Out cleric has a head-cold and he can not cast nor pray!
My Flaming sword has just got' wet, and will not light the way,
Oh fighting is such a bloody joy, bloody joy,
Oh fighting is such a bloody joy!
Our ranger is a thief you see, he can not track nor trail.
Some day his secret will get out and land us all in jail.
Until that day we keep him here to make that loot for sale...
Oh fighting is such a bloody joy, bloody joy,
Oh fighting is such a bloody joy!
Our Wizard is a wild mage, his spells all go astray.
His magic causes problems, true, each and every day,
Explosions are his trade and often light the way...
Oh fighting is such a bloody joy, bloody joy,
Oh fighting is such a bloody joy!
Quite right it does. My daughter went all googly last year, and this year she went bananas. She calls it a "'scuse me tree", capers about it, lays on her side silently contemplating it, and rearranges the low-lying ornaments, sometimes singing while making them "dance".Originally posted by Black Globe Generator:
Seeing the shine in my daughter's eyes as she looks at the lights wrapped around the tree and hanging from the eaves is all it takes for me.
She is the embodiment of some strange kind of proto-Germanic paganism.
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