I cop a lot of flack for not being 'into' Xmas. I get called a grinch, a spoil sport, and get scoffed at. How can one not be into Xmas you ask? Easy.
Why do we celebrate Xmas? Well that depends on your belief system. If you are Christian you probably toe the party line and parrot that Xmas is about the birth of Jesus, despite evidence to the fact that this is not a 'fact' (dont get me started on the greatest selling fictional story of all time). You probably havent looked at why December 25 was chosen. Yes, chosen. It had nothing to do with the bible and everything to do with assimilating with existing Pagan holiday of Saturnalia in 4CE, and telling Pagans they could continue their Saturnalia traditions, and the final day of Saturnalia was declared Jesus Birthday in order to add a 'Christian' aspect to the Pagan tradition. In return for ensuring massive observance of the anniversary of the Savior’s birth by assigning it to this resonant date, the Church for its part tacitly agreed to allow the holiday to be celebrated more or less the way it had always been. The earliest Christmas holidays were celebrated by drinking, sexual indulgence, singing naked in the streets (a precursor of modern caroling), etc.
So, do I believe in the story of Jesus and feel the need to celebrate a fictitious birth? No! Do I identify as Pagan and feel the need to celebrate Saturnalia? No! So we can safely say there is no religious reason for me to treat the day any differently to any other day.
Oh but what about the children, wont someone please think of the children, I hear you cry. If we look at the REAL history of Christmas, it is not a day that we would want to celebrate at all!
· Christmas has always been a holiday celebrated carelessly. For millennia, pagans, Christians, and even Jews have been swept away in the season’s festivities, and very few people ever pause to consider the celebration’s intrinsic meaning, history, or origins.
· Christmas celebrates the birth of the Christian god who came to rescue mankind from the “curse of the Torah.” It is a 24-hour declaration that Judaism is no longer valid.
· Christmas is a lie. There is no Christian church with a tradition that Jesus was really born on December 25th.
· December 25 is a day on which Jews have been shamed, tortured, and murdered.
· Many of the most popular Christmas customs – including Christmas trees, mistletoe, Christmas presents, and Santa Claus – are modern incarnations of the most depraved pagan rituals ever practiced on earth.
'Santa Claus' or Saint Nick was was born in Parara, Turkey in 270 CE and later became Bishop of Myra. He died in 345 CE on December 6th. He was only named a saint in the 19th century. Nicholas was among the most senior bishops who convened the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE and created the New Testament. The text they produced portrayed Jews as “the children of the devil” who sentenced Jesus to death.
In 1087, a group of sailors who idolized Nicholas moved his bones from Turkey to a sanctuary in Bari, Italy. There Nicholas supplanted a female boon-giving deity called The Grandmother, or Pasqua Epiphania, who used to fill the children's stockings with her gifts. The Grandmother was ousted from her shrine at Bari, which became the center of the Nicholas cult. Members of this group gave each other gifts during a pageant they conducted annually on the anniversary of Nicholas’ death, December 6.
The Nicholas cult spread north until it was adopted by German and Celtic pagans. These groups worshipped a pantheon led by Woden –their chief god and the father of Thor, Balder, and Tiw. Woden had a long, white beard and rode a horse through the heavens one evening each Autumn. When Nicholas merged with Woden, he shed his Mediterranean appearance, grew a beard, mounted a flying horse, rescheduled his flight for December, and donned heavy winter clothing. In a bid for pagan adherents in Northern Europe, the Catholic Church adopted the Nicholas cult and taught that he did (and they should) distribute gifts on December 25th instead of December 6th.
In 1809, the novelist Washington Irving (most famous his The Legend of Sleepy Hollow andRip Van Winkle) wrote a satire of Dutch culture entitled Knickerbocker History. The satire refers several times to the white bearded, flying-horse riding Saint Nicholas using his Dutch name, Santa Claus. Dr. Clement Moore, a professor at Union Seminary, read Knickerbocker History, and in 1822 he published a poem based on the character Santa Claus: “Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in the hope that Saint Nicholas soon would be there…” Moore innovated by portraying a Santa with eight reindeer who descended through chimneys.
The Bavarian illustrator Thomas Nast almost completed the modern picture of Santa Claus. From 1862 through 1886, based on Moore’s poem, Nast drew more than 2,200 cartoon images of Santa for Harper’s Weekly. Before Nast, Saint Nicholas had been pictured as everything from a stern looking bishop to a gnome-like figure in a frock. Nast also gave Santa a home at the North Pole, his workshop filled with elves, and his list of the good and bad children of the world. All Santa was missing was his red outfit.
In 1931, the Coca Cola Corporation contracted the Swedish commercial artist Haddon Sundblom to create a coke-drinking Santa. Sundblom modeled his Santa on his friend Lou Prentice, chosen for his cheerful, chubby face. The corporation insisted that Santa’s fur-trimmed suit be bright, Coca Cola red. And Santa was born – a blend of Christian crusader, pagan god, and commercial idol.
So does any of this make me more inclined to think December 25 is different to any other day? You guessed it, NOPE! All this hubub and fuss over one day. Forcing people to feel like they have to socialise with people they wouldnt otherwise be around, awkward family get togethers and then the fighting over Christmas customs, the over indulging of food, spending copious amounts of money on things you probably dont need. I just dont see the point. There is absolutely NO reason for me to 'celebrate' December 25! I honestly see no reason to buy into any of the Christmas propaganda. But hey, if you want to lie to your kids about a fat man who breaks and enters, encourage your kids to sit on a strangers lap and take presents/lollies from them go for it. Nothing to do with me! But for me, I have no desire to perpetuate the theatrics.
