Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Or, Happy Holidays (Sorry Rick Perry)

[Rick]

I hope eveyone has a great holiday season.  If you are Muslim, Jewish, or just don't celebrate a holiday, you will understand.  Don't make a mock cry of foul and act like I'm trying to crush Chistianity if you are of the Rick Perry ilk. Happy Holidays simply combines Christmas, New Years, and other's holidays into one greeting.   I miss all the discussions we used to have on this board...everyone makes their football picks and stays away otherwise.  I wish for the old days.  Anyway, Happy Holidays to everyone.

[Blutarsky]

I hope eveyone has a great holiday season.  If you are Muslim, Jewish, or just don't celebrate a holiday, you will understand.  Don't make a mock cry of foul and act like I'm trying to crush Chistianity if you are of the Rick Perry ilk. Happy Holidays simply combines Christmas, New Years, and other's holidays into one greeting.   I miss all the discussions we used to have on this board...everyone makes their football picks and stays away otherwise.  I wish for the old days.  Anyway, Happy Holidays to everyone.

And Merry Christmas to you, Rick, and everyone else.  I'm not religious, but I've found there are other reasons to celebrate, such as family, loved one's (notice how I separated the two), and, of course, food and GIFTS.   

[catman]

Merry Christmas, Rick.  As you know, I am a Christian.  I have no problem with people combining all the holidays together, as they are close.
I hope everyone is happy and healthy this season.

[catman]

By the way, I really don't like Rick Perry.  I'd be afraid of him as president.

[Rick]

By the way, I really don't like Rick Perry.  I'd be afraid of him as president.

You are a wise man, catman.  I hope your health is good and you are doing well.

Merry Christmas everyone!

[Poe]

I'm sure Christians are ok with combining the holidays as they stole this one from the Druids to begin with.

So have a happy Yule festival everyone!

[Rick]

I'm sure Christians are ok with combining the holidays as they stole this one from the Druids to begin with.

So have a happy Yule festival everyone!

Whatever happened to our resident Druid-Navigator?  Hope he is ok!

[catman]

Christ was likely born in March anyway.  This is just a way to break up the long, cold winter in the Northern Hemisphere.

[Poe]

Whatever happened to our resident Druid-Navigator?  Hope he is ok!

I exchanged emails with him a while ago, after he had not been posting for a while.  He was ok then, just focusing on doing more outdoor things.  I'll shoot him an email and see if he responds.

[Poe]

[Santa]

Christ was likely born in March anyway.  This is just a way to break up the long, cold winter in the Northern Hemisphere.

I respect your opinion, Catman, as well as everyone's right to believe what they choose to believe.  My belief is that Christ was born in the imagination of Emperor Constantine and his Gnostic panel at the Council of Nicea.  The story is based on an actual radical Rabbi named Yeshua (not ben Josef) who lived about 100 years before the alleged man-god Yeshua.  The main differences between the two is the earlier never claimed to be a god or the son of a god and there is empirical, documental evidence of his existence.  The similarities are the name, the 12 disciples (two of whom were named Mark and Matthew) and the breaking of all the traditional Hebrew rituals such as Passover, eating in the synagog and abandoning the usual rules for joining the Hebrew faith.

So when Constantine and the Gnostics went looking for a state religion to pull together a quickly and dangerously dissolving Roman empire they turned to a story of this radical Rabbi who welcomed everyone into his flock.  But to make him acceptable as the leader of the new world religion they made him God himself.

------------------

Some Christmas facts I find amusing:

Santa - Nicholas is the Modern English transliteration of the Middle English name Nikolaas or Old English (i.e. German) name Neeklaas.  Nick is short for Nicholas but Klaus is short for Neeklaas so Saint Nick in Old English was Sinterklass (i.e. Santa Clause).  In Norway they tried to turn the Sinterklaas legend more Christian and began calling him Christkindl (i.e. Chris Kringle) which means Christ child.

In Druidic and Norse tradition, the Yule festival came immediately after the wild hunt.  The wild hunt was the last hunt before the battening down for winter which began the day after the harvest festival celebration feast which aslo contained the Wassail festival.  This is why the first day of dear season comes the day after Thanksgiving.  On the last day of the wild hunt when the men are returning home with their quarry, Wodin (pronounced Weedon but almost always misspoken as Odin) would lead a wild hunt through the sky.  This was mostly to occupy the Fae so they would not be tempted to bother and torment the hunters returning home.

Back in the great halls with the men out for days on a hunt, the great fire in each hall would have died down to almost nothing, this is typically the coldest night in each hall.  As a tribute to Wodin for protecting their fathers from the Fae, the children would take off not only their boots but also their stockings to sleep this night and they would fill both with carrots, lettuce and other goodies for Wodin's great horse.  Wodin, on his great horse, would lead the Fae through the sky by jumping from rooftop to rooftop.  The horse would reach down through the chimney and eat the goodies from the boots and stockings.  Wodin, as a measure of thanks, would fill the emptied boots and stockings with candy for the children.  This is the root of the legend of Santa Clause.

Yule - After the wild hunt (the last day is December 5th, still celebrated in Europe by placing candy in a boot by the fireplace) came the Yule log.  A group of men from each hall would be sent out to find the largest and most unique dead tree.  They would pull down the dead tree and clean the dirt off the roots.  Then they would drag it back and into the hall, placing the root section into the great fireplace.  The fire would always be kindle by remnants of last year's Yule log.  The end of the tree would stick out into the hall and would be decorated by the women and children, often with the most important of the Druidic symbols, the 5 pointed star.  This is the root of both the Yule log burning and the decorating of 'Christmas' trees.  The Druids would have no part of cutting down a live tree for decoration.

And thus began the 12 days of the Yule festival ending on the winter solstice.  This was never the main celebration of the year for the Druids, that was Samhuinn (pronounced So-ween which when combined with All Hallow's Eve came to be known as Halloween).  The Druids acknowledged the extremes (like the Solstices) but their reverence was for balance (like the Equinoxes, the balance of the seasons).  The balance of night and day, of man and animal, of man and nature, of living and dead: these balances were what the Druids worshiped.  That is why when those who carried on the old ways snuck in their most important god as as one of the days of the week, they didn't choose the first or the last day of the week.  They chose the middle day of the week to be Wodin's day (Wednesday).

[Ballhawk]

I hope eveyone has a great holiday season.  If you are Muslim, Jewish, or just don't celebrate a holiday, you will understand.  Don't make a mock cry of foul and act like I'm trying to crush Chistianity if you are of the Rick Perry ilk. Happy Holidays simply combines Christmas, New Years, and other's holidays into one greeting.   I miss all the discussions we used to have on this board...everyone makes their football picks and stays away otherwise.  I wish for the old days.  Anyway, Happy Holidays to everyone.

 

[501]

I'm sexy and I know it   
 

[Rick]

I'm sexy and I know it   
 

It's good to know that!

Happy whichever Holiday you claim- I'm Christian, but don't really believe in the commercialized season beginning Halloween, bypassing Thanksgiving, etc....
Nice write up of some of the customs origins, Poe!
To all here, best wishes throughout the holidays (except in the fantasy playoffs!), and especially thru next year!

Catman, how'd your health issues work out? haven't heard in a while how you're doing...
PS, I may be moving back to Iowa- had a job interview at ethanol plant in Ft Dodge yesterday!

Yes, for everyone else, I'm retiring from the Navy- 20 yrs, Senior Chief, I've given enough; not my all, but all I had for that time frame!