Burp!
Yes, feeding, drinking glog, and being generally festive, over the barn birth of some kid in Judea around 2000 years ago.
But let's cut the carp. As the hours wind down on Xmas day let's look at raw facts.
Very few of us not in sackcloth and ashes celebrate much of anthing except that we survived one more year. And a tough year it was, if not for us personally than for a lot of our fellow countrymen.
That is, if we even acknowledge that anonymous shadows in soup lines are in fact our countrymen.
Long before a charismatic Jewish lad named Yeshua appeared (allegedly, the Gospels are the only evidence of his existence - tho religions always seem to be started up by charismatic individuals who have a powerful effect on their contemporaries) there were celebrations by many pagan cults at this time of year.
The winter solstice, the celebration of life in the midst of cold dark winter. It's where the decorated tree comes from - Germanic peasants for millenia celebrated a Tree of Life in mid-winter.
Internal evidence in the New Testament (according to the intelligent fundmentalits of the Armstorng radio empire, and publishers of The Plain Truth magazine) indicated that Yeshua was born in early October.
Later church fathers moved the date to co-incide with the winter solstice.
The virgin birth was nothing new. Anyone who was somebody in the ancient world claimed to be born of a virgin, or had the claim made for him.
Alexander the Great so claimed - it means a god impregnated Mom by magical means, not the usual dirty deed. Caesar also so claimed,or had the claim made for him.
It gave a cult or a leader a nice cachet.
And the RC Church is full of pagan symbolism - they had to adapt the new religion into the pageantry of the old ones.
So embrace your tree before you toss in in a few days, and down the hatch with the magic wine.
Merry Solstice!
Yes, feeding, drinking glog, and being generally festive, over the barn birth of some kid in Judea around 2000 years ago.
But let's cut the carp. As the hours wind down on Xmas day let's look at raw facts.
Very few of us not in sackcloth and ashes celebrate much of anthing except that we survived one more year. And a tough year it was, if not for us personally than for a lot of our fellow countrymen.
That is, if we even acknowledge that anonymous shadows in soup lines are in fact our countrymen.
Long before a charismatic Jewish lad named Yeshua appeared (allegedly, the Gospels are the only evidence of his existence - tho religions always seem to be started up by charismatic individuals who have a powerful effect on their contemporaries) there were celebrations by many pagan cults at this time of year.
The winter solstice, the celebration of life in the midst of cold dark winter. It's where the decorated tree comes from - Germanic peasants for millenia celebrated a Tree of Life in mid-winter.
Internal evidence in the New Testament (according to the intelligent fundmentalits of the Armstorng radio empire, and publishers of The Plain Truth magazine) indicated that Yeshua was born in early October.
Later church fathers moved the date to co-incide with the winter solstice.
The virgin birth was nothing new. Anyone who was somebody in the ancient world claimed to be born of a virgin, or had the claim made for him.
Alexander the Great so claimed - it means a god impregnated Mom by magical means, not the usual dirty deed. Caesar also so claimed,or had the claim made for him.
It gave a cult or a leader a nice cachet.
And the RC Church is full of pagan symbolism - they had to adapt the new religion into the pageantry of the old ones.
So embrace your tree before you toss in in a few days, and down the hatch with the magic wine.
Merry Solstice!
