old man liver

also known as Bitch'n Mona

a post in which to bitch about Old Man. who I shall credit for some of the damage to my liver. and psyche.

I think I don’t know how to deal with a man who’s not evil. Like, he’s not abusive or selling drugs or alcoholic or severely narcissistic or 15 years old or married or. . . .oh fuck. K, technically, legally, he’s still married. So. there’s that. Otherwise? just an old man that I’m ’bout tired of.

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A Befuddled Christmas Challenge

I am in the most creative and aware state of mind, floating above and waving at my cats. Ambien, yay! I really am getting to enjoy too much the fun that ensues after it kicks in. I see things all around me, almost close enough that I swear I could feel things around me. But I look around and it’s just me and sleeping cats.

Can we get some birds? Just for effect.

Holiday discussion:

Are there any religious holidays celebrated here in the US that actually began as anything remotely christian? Hell, I’ll amend that to theist, all comers welcome.

the 2 big ones, Christmas and Easter, are, at their roots, the winter solstice and the spring equinox. Celebrated in many ways by many people in many different places, thousands of years ago. Anything that could be polished up or used for their purposes was kept, incorporated into Christianity. ok, before I start rambling…

So, My Question IS: Are there any Christian holidays that are truly christian in origin?

I’ll bet $5 no one can come up with one, not even one.

Let’s keep this to the US, just for simplicity.I should probably think of more qualifying statements but my fingers aren’t obeying my brain very well. I’ll have to finish this typing with a pencil in my mouth. damn fingers

Atheist X-mas

I tend to attribute people with more common sense and intelligence than they actually have. I assume that most people are aware of the real origins of Christmas traditions. I just guess that they know, but they celebrate each tradition in the spirit of the holiday, it’s the thought that counts, doesn’t matter how it started, this is how it is now, blah blah.

I mean, everybody knows that all this christmas stuff isn’t Christian, right? They’re just good at denial and sugar-coating and brainwashing, so everybody thinks it is. Right?

Early Christians didn’t have the hordes of following sheep and twitchy zealots that we see everywhere today. No, they couldn’t make demands, confident that the size of their flock would ensure that they would be pandered to. Indeed, the voting and spending habits of the sheep are an extremely important factor for anyone who has, or wishes to have, power.

So, these early Christians made some compromises, like:

“This Bible thing doesn’t really say a specific date for the birthday. We really don’t like how you pagans insist on celebrating Saturnalia – it’s a pretty raucous party sometimes, guys – but how about if we all decide to celebrate the birth of Christ on the day the Saturnalia ends! See, you still get your party, singing in the streets, drinking, lots of sex, all that stuff. And then on that last day, we’ll teach you some different songs and you can see a nice play with a baby in it and we’ll have cookies and punch after. k?”

In the 4^th century CE, Christianity imported the Saturnalia festival hoping to take the pagan masses in with it.  Christian leaders succeeded in converting to Christianity large numbers of pagans by promising them that they could continue to celebrate the Saturnalia as Christians.(1)

It totally worked, too.

(Because of its known pagan origin, Christmas was banned by the Puritans and its observance was illegal in Massachusetts between 1659 and 1681. Hey, if the Puritans banned it, sounds like a good party to me!)

So…christmas isn’t a christian holiday, it isn’t a ‘white’ holiday, it doesn’t belong to anybody! The Winter Solstice is the Reason for the Season, people!

Modern Christmas customs include: gift-giving and merrymaking from Roman Saturnalia; greenery, lights, and charity from the Roman New Year; and Yule logs and various foods from Germanic feasts.^[50] Pagan Scandinavia celebrated a winter festival called Yule, held in the late December to early January period.(2)

That’s just a smidgen. Mistletoe was sacred to the Druids, who believed it to effect fertility – hence, the kissing. Caroling was part of Saturnalia, but it was done in the nude. Didja know, the Santa we all think of, with the bright red suit, was a sales tool of the Coca Cola company. (they just changed the suit color.)

I know that most people don’t have the inclination and won’t take the time to learn any of this stuff. A whole lotta people are too brainwashed to even listen to it. Can’t help them. But the facts are always good to know. I know that I can celebrate Christmas any way I damn well want to and still be 100% atheist. (totally not going caroling naked. it’s cold out there!)

1- (http://www.simpletoremember.com/vitals/Christmas_TheRealStory.htm)

2- (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas#cite_note-49)