Sleighbells ring, snow is glistening. I now pronounce today, 27th October, the first official day of Christmas. It gets earlier and earlier every year, and isn't it fantastic?
Our work Christmas do is already booked. I've started thinking about what presents to buy for people. The complicated 'whose parents this year' debacle seems to have been sorted out. I'm full of the joys of Christmas and am this close to wearing antlers to work.
Who'd have thought I'd have anything to be grateful to Jesus for?
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8 comments:
You don't. Its because of him that people like Mr. Neal thought it was ok to walk about in Mothercare-esque sandals.
No! Not you too! SME-EGG! Can us other religions get our seasonal festivals for autumn done before we decide it's winter solstice?
Actually you are grateful to pagans for christmas, given what you like about it. We were eating too much, getting shitfaced and shagging in inappropriate places at that time of year CENTURIES BC. it's only a matter of time before archaeologists discover a chache of viking arse parchments, I bet you. We're also responsible for the holly and ivy and mistletoe, and therefore yuletide decorations in general. Oh, and the date of christmas, which is the 'birthday' of about four dying-and-rising gods internationally, and the birth of the oak king, who along with the holly king die and rise every year. Take that christianity! We have TWO D-A-R gods and they do it every year, not just once ever! Ha!
Are you some kind of pagan then, IOTM? Intriguing.
I was going to leave a comment but my Stigmata is itching again. Maybe later. I'm off for cream.
Why yes, Linz. The 'keep away from fire' kind!
Linz - so you didn't read IOTM's comment on my blog which began with 'Speaking as this blogring's resident witch...." Please refer to
http://wherelondonends.blogspot.com/2005/07/what-really-is-message-of-islam.html
for more info!!
Megan - doesn't the superficial comsumerist nonsense not get you down then? Christmas getting earlier each year has always depressed me even when I was an athiest!
IOTM - Without going into detail and aside from whether it is true or not, as you so rightly point out there are significant differences between what Christianity teaches about the resurrection of Jesus and pagan mythology about dying and rising gods. You can't really compare the two although of course people often do in an attempt to discredit the claims made by Christians but on close examination it just doesn't stand up. The Christian claim that God became incarnate, suffered on the cross, died for our sins and rose again is outrageous!! Whether it is true or not I have not yet decided but that the claim is unique I am in no doubt of.
I wouldn't want to discredit what the christians say about jesus, cos it doesn't really bother me as such! The thing is, so true, there are such differences. The main one as i see it is that whereas in pagan mythologies it is
a)generally accepted that pagans in the olden days did understand their mythology as being metaphor rather than thinking actual Zeus had it away with an actual swan etc and
b)the dying and rising is not a central or even very important myth in most pagan mythological systems.
The concept of the dying and rising god being the one who takes on the sins of humanity and enabling the resurrection to eternal life is as far as i know totally unique, as is the belief in the literal truth of what to the rest of the world appears to be metaphorical/mythological. also you don't tend to get a concept of sin in pagan mythology so much as pissing off a specific god. What isn't unique that may often be presented as being so is the idea of a being of some kind coming back from the dead or 'overcoming' death.
Nice class of debate you get round here!
And look at Buddhism which propounds that everyone sort of 'rises' again from death, inasmuch that they are reborn in another form dependent on their karmic state at the time of death in their previous form, and where the whole idea is not to be reborn at all but to achieve nirvana. All without gods! THEN add to the mix Shinto, which is a pagan/shamanistic religion where there are MILLIONS of gods and your ancestors become mini-deities themselves. Wierdly, both seem to sit comfortably side by side in Japan. Personally, I've always found it easier to do the Shinto stuff rather than the Buddhist stuff, although I seem to remember it freaked Katrina out a bit when she saw me praying to the Spring gods and my dead Grandfather...
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