2007/12/26

bogus christmas scene

Another holiday season almost over, thank Goddess

Yep, the wheel has completed yet another turn, having brought with it the usual complaints about how either 1) Christmas as a Christian holiday has been subverted by Political Correctness, or 2) Christmas sucks because it is a holiday only Christians are allowed to enjoy.

Both these assumptions are wrong, and for vastly different reasons.
As I have previously mentioned in this space, Christmas isn't a real "Christian" holiday, in the way that Easter or Michaelmas are (although both fall near the equinoxes, coincidentially).

Christmas, or Yuletide, as I like to call it, should be a time for *everyone* to try and enjoy, regardless of their beliefs. Most religions have some sort of holiday surrounding the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year, probably to cheer themselves up.

Take a gander at the graphic surmounting this post. The fire, the tree, the evergreen decorations, the slumbering pooch, the presents themselves. They have fuck all to do with Christianity.

They are pagan vestiges of the far more interesting occasion of Yuletide.

When good people bad-mouth Christmas as a bogus Christian holiday, it unsettles me because they are missing the point. Christmas is as much about Christ as my big toe.

Except for nativity scenes, of course. But that is pure dogan stuff, and isn't representative of Christianity in the larger sense.

So buck up, Sarah Silverman. Santa will give you toys, if you ask, even if you aren't a gentile.

Give the Jew Girl Toys


Furthermore, the lengths certain fictional characters go to avoiding Christmas celebrations smack of desperation and can only result in psychic damage to the little ones, as this compilation of Seinfeld Festivus moments will attest:

Festivus

5 comments:

laura k said...

Thanks for the link, but that's not why I was bad-mouthing Christmas.

I don't think "only Christians are allowed to enjoy" Christmas. Anyone is allowed to enjoy anything!

But to me Christmas is part of a Christian tradition that I do not wish to be part of. And I'm sick of being told Christmas is "for everyone" when it is most certainly not for me.

You're welcome to dislike Christmas for your own reasons, and I for mine, no?

Happy New Year to you.

PALGOLAK said...

Wise words, l-girl.

I had actually meant to flesh out the part of the posting linking to you but your quick clarification has rendered any "fiddling" with my wording unacceptable.

I guess people are reading this drivel, after all, despite what google analytics has to say.

laura k said...

Oh, fiddle away, who cares about my comment. :)

I noticed your URL in my Statcounter, that's what brought me over. You never know who might be reading! Plus, if it's useful for you to write, then it's worth it for that reason alone.

Thanks again. Bah Humbug to all! :)

PALGOLAK said...

Statcounter, eh? I will have to look into that.

I LOVE STATISTICS!

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