quickies

I’m told that I’m a mean drunk. would like to get a second opinion.

I rather feel like work is a hamster wheel and I’m just trotting along all clueless.

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)

Sentimental & Pissy, Pouty & Bitchy

(Previously posted with the Atheist Christmas post. I’m giving this rant its own spot in the interests of keeping things tidy.)

Oprah of course is the queen of sentimental. I’m watching her now, a duet show with a bunch of artists from different genres singing together. Andrea Bocelli and Mary J Blige. How awesome is that? Advert for Oprah at the White House, Christmas special. They don’t have to decide between paying the water bill and buying Christmas. I’ll beg and plead with the water company, buy some Christmas. My kids are so good, they have gotten so much less than other kids, and deserved it more, and they know it, and they are so good about it. They don’t ask for too much, they don’t complain. They are so happy about what they get. They deserve more than I can give them. But I do my damndest and that’s a lot more than some kids get. But that’s not something I can wrap and put under the tree. They are so good. They have never complained. And they had every right to.

Atheist Christmas

I think there are a million ways that atheists deal with the holidays. Depends on how you grew up, how you came to atheism, how sappy you happen to be. I grew up Christian, Mormon, so I’m used to a traditional Nativity-full Christmas. I learned to play the piano on Christmas songs. I can’t help it if the most beautiful songs are about a fictional baby. They are still beautiful. I would no more deny that, than I’d deny the fact that Michelangelo’s works are miraculous. The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel is not made uglier by the fact that it is a religious building or it’s art is composed of religious subjects. We can view artworks of Native Americans, African and Australian aborigines, cave paintings in France, with an artistic and secular eye, why not Christian Christmas stuff?

I love Christmas. I love the decorations, the lights, the songs, the cards, the goodwill, the celebrations. I know that most holiday traditions are adopted from Pagan ritual, that there is only a veneer of Christianity on the whole holiday. Mistletoe, the tree, the wreath, the gifts, are all pagan in origin. Still religious, but easier for an atheist to deal with because we’re not surrounded by and shit upon by pagans.

more to come…