Don't forget that St. Nicholas also famously slapped heretics!
I don't get the negative connotation around cultural reappropriation of rituals. To take the most obvious Christian example, the cross - the crucifix - was a pagan torture device. Looked at from a deliberately obtuse historical perspective, you could write an explainer saying that the cross has no Christian roots whatsoever, it was invented years and years before Jesus ever lived, by people who had never heard of Him. Christians "appropriated" it for their religion. Christians would reply, well, duh. What man intended for evil, God used for good, so that today this ancient Roman torture device has been appropriated into a symbol of our eternal salvation. Pretty cool use of some random pagan device, no?
It goes both ways, too. One of the most ancient symbols of the Christian and Jewish faith, going all the way back to the book of Genesis, is the rainbow. But let me assure you, when you see the rainbow symbol at your local corporation these days, its meaning is as far removed from Genesis as it is possible to be. America's new religion, a religion in which pride is something to be celebrated, has quite thoroughly replaced America's old religion, in which pride was considered sinful. We still have remnants of the old faith, like the existence of rights:
Yet for the most part the old faith is gone, and soon the rights will be too. You can only culturally appropriate so much, I suppose.
So it goes. Perhaps in a hundred years, an enterprising young reporter will write an expose for her peers revealing the true origins of the beloved trans flag, and detail how some historians controversially believe it was culturally appropriated from ancient Jewish tribesmen.
Don't forget the Christmas tree, an ancient Germanic pagan ritual worshiping the tree because it stayed green during the winter, therefore representing eternal life.
Regarding the why's and wherefores' of early Christianity, only the ancients knew for sure - and they're not talking. That, and the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls and the gnostic scriptures at Nag Hammadi have completely altered what had been previously thought to be settled historical fact. So too, with other archaeological finds in the twentieth century.
So too, with all of recorded history - religious, or otherwise - when you think about it. What matters more is who wrote it, for what reason, and which particular axe they had to grind.
I love everything you wrote (to include your 'you don't have rights' article).
However, a different perspective is that the cross wasn't culturally re-appropriated. It is the symbol of Christ because it was used to torture and kill him as opposed to a new movement taking symbols and applying them unrelatedly (or mildly related) to mean something significant in the new movement. Had He been tortured and killed another way and then followers of Christ adopted the cross as a symbol because Christ had mentioned it in a sermon, that would be cultural re-appropriation.
But....if you were driving along on this frigid Christmas Eve and you saw descending from the sky, a sleigh drawn by eight reindeer and a jolly man in red suit and white beard would you really be that shocked? Would you?
The message and wonder of Christmas is all that really matters in the end. I wish the love and joy of this beautiful season to all my friends here.
Most of the Christian holidays are layered over existing pagan ones. Christmas, according to many, cooped the Roman Saturnalia.
In my view, all the precepts of all the religions are scientific questions. Do we survive death? Is there any value in prayer? Is ESP a thing?
Most people are clumsy thinkers. They think in either/or terms. A good example would be people like Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins. Both think both that if neurophysiology has validity, then materialist explanations of consciousness must be valid. They also believe that if Christianity or Judaism or Islam or any other religion makes no sense theologically, then religion as a whole must be false.
Well over a hundred years ago William James pointed out that, then as now, the problems in locating consciousness itself in the physical brain were substantial, and in my view in his time as well as our own, insuperable. That Consciousness does not reside in the brain is a formally scientific hypothesis.
In this view, the brain is a sort of radio which receives frequencies from a variety of sources, and if the radio breaks, the transmission diminishes. Thus, for example, neurotraumatic speech aphasia is both easy to explain, and also not in the least incompatible with the existence of a soul.
And quantum physics, according to most interpretations of the actual theory as validated by countless practical uses of it, posits that THERE IS NO REALITY prior to consciousness. This is the conclusion that John von Neuman reached, and the underpinning of the so-called Copenhagen Interpretation.
So, to me, our current most interesting task is evaluating all religions based on two criteria: their emotional and social usefulness; and secondly, the actual truth value of their claims as seen through the lens of science.
This is a tad off topic, but at the end of the day our metaphysics informs everything we say, do, and believe.
I believe it was David Hume who said we could never know what was reality. There is truth in that. We all perceive things differently. My reality is not your reality. Even though Hume was an empiricist, your empirical view is different from mine.
I think this gave way the existential movement. Which, as I perceive it is you can never know is what real so you create your own reality.
I think he was speaking to the limits of what we can speak to with certainty. But the fact that we are all subjective in our sense of the world does not imply there is no objective truth. His main aim, I think, was destroying irrational dogma, which in many ways transitioned from the properly religious to what is called Science, but is often just a set of biased and inaccurate judgments protected by habit and the armor of money.
These aren’t really two competing theories about Santa’s origins, because almost nobody has heard of the one about psychedelic mushrooms and reindeer urine. I’ll put this down as satire, but it’s become more common that something outlandish is being taken seriously. Next, we’ll hear that Santa’s at the North Pole giving birth to elves.
If you're talking about the specifically *American* version of Saint Nicolas, it seems a heck of a lot more likely that the WASPs who defined American culture in the 1800s probably borrowed the traditions of northern European immigrants to the US than latched onto stories about Finnish medicine men. Most of these Just So stories about 'pagan' origins do the same kind of hopscotch between moden secular bastardization of Christian practice and what can actually be tracked through history.
Interesting article, but maybe not optimally timed.
I'd have enjoyed it more a week or so ago.
Short shrift given to the holiday ethos of generosity, versus psychidelically-induced wisdom, on Christmas Eve, made me a little sad. Pass the reindeer pee!
In this case, yes. I think the 'may God have mercy on you all' was a dead giveaway that the commentator leaned more heavily towards religion than intellect' in this context.
However, historically religion is often based on both academic and spiritual pursuit so no I don't see a dichotomy generally. Every case is individual.
I don't know Nancy so I cannot be sure of her thinking in that short post, but I have my suspicions.
First, somewhere between 10% and 20% of people alive today are professing Christians. Christmas is the second most important point in the Christian calendar and the most visible. While I prefer my hearty meal of ultimate truth served with a side of humor, I can understand the desire for a more substantial essay on Christmas Eve. The repost today of last year's Christmas essay is quite substantial.
Second, I sense irony and hyperbole in the, "May God have mercy on you all" statement. It uses something very close to a final statement of a judge to a prisoner convicted to death to chide the "power structure" of the Free Press for an essay perceived as weak. Hyperbole when used sparingly is an excellent way to get a point across. Many rabbis use it to great effect - including the rabbi whose birth we celebrate today.
Merry Christmas! And may God have mercy on my soul!
I must have struck a nerve to have invited this. I assure you, I was not insulting religion if that is what is worrying you. I was simply pointing out that there are more appropriate substacks if you wish to dictate the focus for a more religious subject during the holidays. It's also quite myopic to insist a certain 'holiday spirit' infuse an article which people of multiple religions, as well as those actively opposed to religion, are reading. It speaks to an entitlement that things go one's way and that everyone see the holiday period as you do, when one expresses disappointment or anger over an article not written according to a specific focus, and with your own demographic in mind.
I never thought this would turn into a bigger thread, however, since it has, I must also point out that what you have written above is not only quite a stretch, but also off-topic. I am guessing you did not like my response regarding a dichotomy between intellect and religion, and so you have introduced a distraction as if you need to justify the 'intellect' in the original poster's comment suggesting their 'May G-d have mercy on us all' was hyperbolic. But no matter which way you spin it, it still comes across as a demand for a specific type of focus, rather than a tolerance for multiple viewpoints and approaches to the holiday season. Bari's substack posts some pretty heavy and intense content throughout the year. Perhaps the holiday season is a perfect time for a little informative trivia.
Having attended multiple synagogues over decades I can assure you that I have never heard a rabbi say 'May G-d have mercy on your soul.' Your perspective is a very Christian one, and the original comment was definitely self-centered. This self-centeredness and self-importance when it comes to dictating how a subject is managed, is because you have enjoyed the privilege of being considered the norm and status quo. When you are Jewish, and you are reading a substack about Hannukah that is read by a diversity of people, you would never demand it be more indicative of the spirit of Hannukah - because being a minority you realize that many people reading this aren't necessarily going to care for the spirit of Hannukah, but rather that what unites us here, which is the spirit of thinking.
I hope that explains my position further, and Merry Christmas to you!
Thanks for your generosity shown by eloquently explaining your point. On reading my responses again, and especially since you have say how being Jewish informs your viewpoint, I can readily understand how you see an air of presumption on my part. I feel I have touched a nerve too, for which I am sorry.
Yes, I am overly sensitive to claims that religious belief cannot be held by intelligent people. Your second post clarified that you were not claiming that.
Your last post clarified your specific objection with hammer-strength- fitting for the season I suppose.
I would like to clarify one thing,
however. I have heard rabbis use hyperbole, but (like you) not the statement about G-d having mercy on souls. This includes the rabbi who spoke so eloquently at my niece’s funeral. May her memory be a blessing.
I pray that you prosper in love and understanding. Thank you for your gift to me. Happy Hanukkah!
I prefer to concentrate not on St Nick but on the spirit of generosity and celebration. For that we can thank Charles Dickens. His Christmas Carol got the Brits to begin traditions we continue today. We always watch the Alister SIMM version of Scrooge and the Man Who Invented Christmas ( the book is good too). You can grow out of Santa but generosity is something we all need to practice.
A minor correction. Woodhouse writes, "St. Nick was immortalized in the poem “Twas the Night Before Christmas”—and, in 1931, Coca-Cola turned him into a fat, bearded man who has been firmly lodged in the popular consciousness ever since." That's dead wrong! "'Twas the Night Before" was written by Clement Clarke Moore (although there was a rival claimant) and published in 1823. Moore saw St. Nick as big-bellied, white-bearded, and jolly--the same Santa Claus I grew up with in the forties. My Santa was not created by Coca Cola (Horror and the Great Mother Forbid). Coke may have given us both watered down Cola (no more coca leaf extract) and an image of Santa--but Coke's only addition was a red suit. Moore had him dressed all in fur and covered in ashes from his descent down the chimney. Jessie Wilcox Smith in 1912 gave us illustrations to fit the quote below (see https://americanliterature.com/childrens-stories/twas-the-night-before-christmas ):
He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot.
A bundle of Toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler, just opening his pack.
illustration for Twas The Night Before Christmas
His eyes-how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow.
illustration for Twas The Night Before Christmas
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly!
That's what I love about the over educated synical young... They take magical ancient traditions with deep histories and symbolic patterns that bring joy to Millions an bind us all together...strip them of mystery and offer simplistic, materialistic explanations that de-enchant them and toss them into a cardboard box that we all then get to live in ...under a bridge of course...but not like trolls because those are the product of wine fungus common to the middle ages or something...
Can't wait to see what you guys have in store for the next 50 years once you run out of the past to deconsruct... Merry Christmas!
The women bite their nuts off. I'm not making this up. Now when you die you can do so knowing you are fully enlightened and your education is complete.
This is what happens with sheep here in the US, kind of. People that use knives rather than rubber bands to castrate lambs will generally hold the scrotum in their teeth while they cut it open and pull the huevos out.
I've always wondered this sorts of things too. But a little deeper, Amanita isn't toxic when dried and reconsituted (it actually isn't toxic at all, it just makes you naseous. They also have evidence that the Shamans would eat it, then pee and then they'd drink. So maybe when they figured that out, Reindeer wasn't so bad?
I believe that the roots of Christmas and all things Christmas, are in ancient Persia. The Magi (wise men) traveled from Persia and brought gifts to Mary for the baby Jesus, and had predicted his birth. In Persia, the Magi was a person who brought gifts for children and hope at the beginning of the Nowruz celebration. In Iran, he is called Father Nowruz, Uncle Nowruz, or Baba Nowruz. It is believed that this concept spread west to the Christian world, and the Baba Nowruz or Magi concept was converted to Santa Claus. Santa wears the same cape and robe that Baba Nowruz wears.
There are many links from the ancient Zoroastrians to Christmas that we celebrate today. Beginning with the Yuletide or Yalda, (night of December 20th), December 21 is the beginning of the Yalda season in Persia ending with Nowruz (end of the winter solstice), which is still celebrated today. The ancient Persians decorated a Yalda tree, an evergreen cypress tree to represent the solar system. On the top of the tree was the sun, and around the tree were decorations of the stars and planets. Persians also put two silver/gold ribbons around the tree, representing galactic dust. While the Yalda tree was a part of Yalda celebration in Iran, the Christmas tree became a tradition in Germany during the reformation. In ancient Persia, in both Yalda and Nowruz celebrations, family gathered together and gave gifts, especially to children. December 25th, the birthday of Mehr/Mithra/Messiah was celebrated by Iranians going back as early as 5,000 bc. Even the word Sunday, goes back to Yalda birth of the Sun, with Day. Yule, Yalda, Juldag also means birth of the Day and light.
It is believed that the three 'wise men' in Persia who were priests (Magi) from the Zoroastrian religion predicted the birth of Jesus and according to their belief, he would be the messiah, or the Mithra of the time, and will become the King of the Jews and the Son of God.
Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah! Blessings to All.
Don't forget that St. Nicholas also famously slapped heretics!
I don't get the negative connotation around cultural reappropriation of rituals. To take the most obvious Christian example, the cross - the crucifix - was a pagan torture device. Looked at from a deliberately obtuse historical perspective, you could write an explainer saying that the cross has no Christian roots whatsoever, it was invented years and years before Jesus ever lived, by people who had never heard of Him. Christians "appropriated" it for their religion. Christians would reply, well, duh. What man intended for evil, God used for good, so that today this ancient Roman torture device has been appropriated into a symbol of our eternal salvation. Pretty cool use of some random pagan device, no?
It goes both ways, too. One of the most ancient symbols of the Christian and Jewish faith, going all the way back to the book of Genesis, is the rainbow. But let me assure you, when you see the rainbow symbol at your local corporation these days, its meaning is as far removed from Genesis as it is possible to be. America's new religion, a religion in which pride is something to be celebrated, has quite thoroughly replaced America's old religion, in which pride was considered sinful. We still have remnants of the old faith, like the existence of rights:
https://gaty.substack.com/p/you-dont-have-rights
Yet for the most part the old faith is gone, and soon the rights will be too. You can only culturally appropriate so much, I suppose.
So it goes. Perhaps in a hundred years, an enterprising young reporter will write an expose for her peers revealing the true origins of the beloved trans flag, and detail how some historians controversially believe it was culturally appropriated from ancient Jewish tribesmen.
On that optimistic note, Merry Christmas!
>> “I don't get the negative connotation around cultural reappropriation of rituals.”
It is baffling. To say you cannot do something because another culture invented and nurtured it is puerile.
I never said anything about not educating people.
You're right! I misread your post. I just deleted it.
Haha.
Don't forget the Christmas tree, an ancient Germanic pagan ritual worshiping the tree because it stayed green during the winter, therefore representing eternal life.
Everything is appropriated from somewhere. But that's what makes it fun!
https://polymathicbeing.substack.com/p/who-is-santa-claus
I agree. It is the neat little threads tying us all together which fascinate!
Just subscribed to your substack. You are a vital voice in dark times. Thank you for keeping the Faith.
Thank you!
Regarding the why's and wherefores' of early Christianity, only the ancients knew for sure - and they're not talking. That, and the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls and the gnostic scriptures at Nag Hammadi have completely altered what had been previously thought to be settled historical fact. So too, with other archaeological finds in the twentieth century.
So too, with all of recorded history - religious, or otherwise - when you think about it. What matters more is who wrote it, for what reason, and which particular axe they had to grind.
Cynical take. At the end of the day, you will need hope in your heart to keep you going.
The best-kept secret in Christianity is that the more you learn about it, the more sense it makes... If only the churches taught it that way!
Adrian,
I love everything you wrote (to include your 'you don't have rights' article).
However, a different perspective is that the cross wasn't culturally re-appropriated. It is the symbol of Christ because it was used to torture and kill him as opposed to a new movement taking symbols and applying them unrelatedly (or mildly related) to mean something significant in the new movement. Had He been tortured and killed another way and then followers of Christ adopted the cross as a symbol because Christ had mentioned it in a sermon, that would be cultural re-appropriation.
Interesting Thanks for that.
But....if you were driving along on this frigid Christmas Eve and you saw descending from the sky, a sleigh drawn by eight reindeer and a jolly man in red suit and white beard would you really be that shocked? Would you?
The message and wonder of Christmas is all that really matters in the end. I wish the love and joy of this beautiful season to all my friends here.
Whose the first person to try reindeer pee? Was it a bet? Humans are funny
Undoubtedly two Sami teenagers in a pissing contest.
I’m sure it started with “Hold my beer” and the rest is history.
Well, that is not too farfetched. That is exactly how bull riding started.
Yeah that was a tough one getting one's mind around.
But, then as kids, we wondered who thought that lobster would be a delicacy. A food that looks fit only for adherents of Herr Schwab's mad musings.
I'm with you...always thought lobsters and crabs looked like some prehistoric insect crawling around in the muck. Who thought to put that on a plate?
Don't forget oysters. Who slurped the first one of those?
I know. And I always seem to forget what months are safe to eat them and which ones aren't.......
Oysters in months with an R in them. Crabs in the rest. (I'm from Maryland!)
Perhaps a punishment gone good 😵💫.
And how'd they get the reindeer to pee in a cup? :)
That’s what the yellow snow is about!
Oh so THAT is why eating yellow snow appeared in cave drawings!! (Made that up of course)
👀😂😂😂
🤣🤣
It just occurred to me that that could become a TikTok challenge. If they’ll eat Tide Pods the pee and psychedelic trip would really be attractive.
Most of the Christian holidays are layered over existing pagan ones. Christmas, according to many, cooped the Roman Saturnalia.
In my view, all the precepts of all the religions are scientific questions. Do we survive death? Is there any value in prayer? Is ESP a thing?
Most people are clumsy thinkers. They think in either/or terms. A good example would be people like Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins. Both think both that if neurophysiology has validity, then materialist explanations of consciousness must be valid. They also believe that if Christianity or Judaism or Islam or any other religion makes no sense theologically, then religion as a whole must be false.
Well over a hundred years ago William James pointed out that, then as now, the problems in locating consciousness itself in the physical brain were substantial, and in my view in his time as well as our own, insuperable. That Consciousness does not reside in the brain is a formally scientific hypothesis.
In this view, the brain is a sort of radio which receives frequencies from a variety of sources, and if the radio breaks, the transmission diminishes. Thus, for example, neurotraumatic speech aphasia is both easy to explain, and also not in the least incompatible with the existence of a soul.
And quantum physics, according to most interpretations of the actual theory as validated by countless practical uses of it, posits that THERE IS NO REALITY prior to consciousness. This is the conclusion that John von Neuman reached, and the underpinning of the so-called Copenhagen Interpretation.
So, to me, our current most interesting task is evaluating all religions based on two criteria: their emotional and social usefulness; and secondly, the actual truth value of their claims as seen through the lens of science.
This is a tad off topic, but at the end of the day our metaphysics informs everything we say, do, and believe.
I believe it was David Hume who said we could never know what was reality. There is truth in that. We all perceive things differently. My reality is not your reality. Even though Hume was an empiricist, your empirical view is different from mine.
I think this gave way the existential movement. Which, as I perceive it is you can never know is what real so you create your own reality.
I think he was speaking to the limits of what we can speak to with certainty. But the fact that we are all subjective in our sense of the world does not imply there is no objective truth. His main aim, I think, was destroying irrational dogma, which in many ways transitioned from the properly religious to what is called Science, but is often just a set of biased and inaccurate judgments protected by habit and the armor of money.
Wow. Thank you for sharing this. Truly fascinating.
These aren’t really two competing theories about Santa’s origins, because almost nobody has heard of the one about psychedelic mushrooms and reindeer urine. I’ll put this down as satire, but it’s become more common that something outlandish is being taken seriously. Next, we’ll hear that Santa’s at the North Pole giving birth to elves.
Ho, ho, ho!
Or that Santa now identifies as a reindeer 🤯.
If you're talking about the specifically *American* version of Saint Nicolas, it seems a heck of a lot more likely that the WASPs who defined American culture in the 1800s probably borrowed the traditions of northern European immigrants to the US than latched onto stories about Finnish medicine men. Most of these Just So stories about 'pagan' origins do the same kind of hopscotch between moden secular bastardization of Christian practice and what can actually be tracked through history.
Interesting article, but maybe not optimally timed.
I'd have enjoyed it more a week or so ago.
Short shrift given to the holiday ethos of generosity, versus psychidelically-induced wisdom, on Christmas Eve, made me a little sad. Pass the reindeer pee!
Seriously? This is your feature article on Christmas Eve? May God have mercy on you all.
Well, this is a thinkers' substack. There are plenty out there that cater purely to the religiously observant.
N & C, your comment implies that you see a dichotomy between thinkers and the religiously observant. Did you intend that?
In this case, yes. I think the 'may God have mercy on you all' was a dead giveaway that the commentator leaned more heavily towards religion than intellect' in this context.
However, historically religion is often based on both academic and spiritual pursuit so no I don't see a dichotomy generally. Every case is individual.
I don't know Nancy so I cannot be sure of her thinking in that short post, but I have my suspicions.
First, somewhere between 10% and 20% of people alive today are professing Christians. Christmas is the second most important point in the Christian calendar and the most visible. While I prefer my hearty meal of ultimate truth served with a side of humor, I can understand the desire for a more substantial essay on Christmas Eve. The repost today of last year's Christmas essay is quite substantial.
Second, I sense irony and hyperbole in the, "May God have mercy on you all" statement. It uses something very close to a final statement of a judge to a prisoner convicted to death to chide the "power structure" of the Free Press for an essay perceived as weak. Hyperbole when used sparingly is an excellent way to get a point across. Many rabbis use it to great effect - including the rabbi whose birth we celebrate today.
Merry Christmas! And may God have mercy on my soul!
I must have struck a nerve to have invited this. I assure you, I was not insulting religion if that is what is worrying you. I was simply pointing out that there are more appropriate substacks if you wish to dictate the focus for a more religious subject during the holidays. It's also quite myopic to insist a certain 'holiday spirit' infuse an article which people of multiple religions, as well as those actively opposed to religion, are reading. It speaks to an entitlement that things go one's way and that everyone see the holiday period as you do, when one expresses disappointment or anger over an article not written according to a specific focus, and with your own demographic in mind.
I never thought this would turn into a bigger thread, however, since it has, I must also point out that what you have written above is not only quite a stretch, but also off-topic. I am guessing you did not like my response regarding a dichotomy between intellect and religion, and so you have introduced a distraction as if you need to justify the 'intellect' in the original poster's comment suggesting their 'May G-d have mercy on us all' was hyperbolic. But no matter which way you spin it, it still comes across as a demand for a specific type of focus, rather than a tolerance for multiple viewpoints and approaches to the holiday season. Bari's substack posts some pretty heavy and intense content throughout the year. Perhaps the holiday season is a perfect time for a little informative trivia.
Having attended multiple synagogues over decades I can assure you that I have never heard a rabbi say 'May G-d have mercy on your soul.' Your perspective is a very Christian one, and the original comment was definitely self-centered. This self-centeredness and self-importance when it comes to dictating how a subject is managed, is because you have enjoyed the privilege of being considered the norm and status quo. When you are Jewish, and you are reading a substack about Hannukah that is read by a diversity of people, you would never demand it be more indicative of the spirit of Hannukah - because being a minority you realize that many people reading this aren't necessarily going to care for the spirit of Hannukah, but rather that what unites us here, which is the spirit of thinking.
I hope that explains my position further, and Merry Christmas to you!
Thanks for your generosity shown by eloquently explaining your point. On reading my responses again, and especially since you have say how being Jewish informs your viewpoint, I can readily understand how you see an air of presumption on my part. I feel I have touched a nerve too, for which I am sorry.
Yes, I am overly sensitive to claims that religious belief cannot be held by intelligent people. Your second post clarified that you were not claiming that.
Your last post clarified your specific objection with hammer-strength- fitting for the season I suppose.
I would like to clarify one thing,
however. I have heard rabbis use hyperbole, but (like you) not the statement about G-d having mercy on souls. This includes the rabbi who spoke so eloquently at my niece’s funeral. May her memory be a blessing.
I pray that you prosper in love and understanding. Thank you for your gift to me. Happy Hanukkah!
Seriously ?
I prefer to concentrate not on St Nick but on the spirit of generosity and celebration. For that we can thank Charles Dickens. His Christmas Carol got the Brits to begin traditions we continue today. We always watch the Alister SIMM version of Scrooge and the Man Who Invented Christmas ( the book is good too). You can grow out of Santa but generosity is something we all need to practice.
🤣🤣🤣🤣 I’m married to a Finn, 35 years now! It explains everything lolololololol but what the Sauna? Does SC take it before he leaves for work or after?
Awesome.
Thanks for a great morning laugh!!!
A minor correction. Woodhouse writes, "St. Nick was immortalized in the poem “Twas the Night Before Christmas”—and, in 1931, Coca-Cola turned him into a fat, bearded man who has been firmly lodged in the popular consciousness ever since." That's dead wrong! "'Twas the Night Before" was written by Clement Clarke Moore (although there was a rival claimant) and published in 1823. Moore saw St. Nick as big-bellied, white-bearded, and jolly--the same Santa Claus I grew up with in the forties. My Santa was not created by Coca Cola (Horror and the Great Mother Forbid). Coke may have given us both watered down Cola (no more coca leaf extract) and an image of Santa--but Coke's only addition was a red suit. Moore had him dressed all in fur and covered in ashes from his descent down the chimney. Jessie Wilcox Smith in 1912 gave us illustrations to fit the quote below (see https://americanliterature.com/childrens-stories/twas-the-night-before-christmas ):
He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot.
A bundle of Toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler, just opening his pack.
illustration for Twas The Night Before Christmas
His eyes-how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow.
illustration for Twas The Night Before Christmas
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly!
illustration for Twas The Night Before Christmas
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself!
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.
Interesting
That's what I love about the over educated synical young... They take magical ancient traditions with deep histories and symbolic patterns that bring joy to Millions an bind us all together...strip them of mystery and offer simplistic, materialistic explanations that de-enchant them and toss them into a cardboard box that we all then get to live in ...under a bridge of course...but not like trolls because those are the product of wine fungus common to the middle ages or something...
Can't wait to see what you guys have in store for the next 50 years once you run out of the past to deconsruct... Merry Christmas!
Trivia, the home of useless information:
Do you know how the Laplanders castrate reindeer?
The women bite their nuts off. I'm not making this up. Now when you die you can do so knowing you are fully enlightened and your education is complete.
I am a wealth of useless information.
Maybe that's what made Rudolph's nose so bright . . . the approach of Mrs. Laplander.
This is what happens with sheep here in the US, kind of. People that use knives rather than rubber bands to castrate lambs will generally hold the scrotum in their teeth while they cut it open and pull the huevos out.
Nothing says "Merry Christmas!" like a scrotum in one's teeth while slicing and dicing!
So that’s what I’ve been doing wrong in the kitchen...... 🤔
Haven't we all?!
Not gonna lie, I was not looking forward to reading about Santa…but the reindeer pee bit really made it worth it. Few questions though…
1) who was the one who said, “let’s get high off the reindeer pee”
2) how did they collect the reindeer urine?
I've always wondered this sorts of things too. But a little deeper, Amanita isn't toxic when dried and reconsituted (it actually isn't toxic at all, it just makes you naseous. They also have evidence that the Shamans would eat it, then pee and then they'd drink. So maybe when they figured that out, Reindeer wasn't so bad?
I believe that the roots of Christmas and all things Christmas, are in ancient Persia. The Magi (wise men) traveled from Persia and brought gifts to Mary for the baby Jesus, and had predicted his birth. In Persia, the Magi was a person who brought gifts for children and hope at the beginning of the Nowruz celebration. In Iran, he is called Father Nowruz, Uncle Nowruz, or Baba Nowruz. It is believed that this concept spread west to the Christian world, and the Baba Nowruz or Magi concept was converted to Santa Claus. Santa wears the same cape and robe that Baba Nowruz wears.
There are many links from the ancient Zoroastrians to Christmas that we celebrate today. Beginning with the Yuletide or Yalda, (night of December 20th), December 21 is the beginning of the Yalda season in Persia ending with Nowruz (end of the winter solstice), which is still celebrated today. The ancient Persians decorated a Yalda tree, an evergreen cypress tree to represent the solar system. On the top of the tree was the sun, and around the tree were decorations of the stars and planets. Persians also put two silver/gold ribbons around the tree, representing galactic dust. While the Yalda tree was a part of Yalda celebration in Iran, the Christmas tree became a tradition in Germany during the reformation. In ancient Persia, in both Yalda and Nowruz celebrations, family gathered together and gave gifts, especially to children. December 25th, the birthday of Mehr/Mithra/Messiah was celebrated by Iranians going back as early as 5,000 bc. Even the word Sunday, goes back to Yalda birth of the Sun, with Day. Yule, Yalda, Juldag also means birth of the Day and light.
It is believed that the three 'wise men' in Persia who were priests (Magi) from the Zoroastrian religion predicted the birth of Jesus and according to their belief, he would be the messiah, or the Mithra of the time, and will become the King of the Jews and the Son of God.
Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah! Blessings to All.
I can't wait for Kevin Durant to weigh in on this. Will be priceless.......................
(And of course, Comprof will use it as evidence of the insanity of......ta dum..... White "folks").
comprof won't be here today. He is in his back yard eating mushrooms. Either that or freezing his ass off.
Mind blowing! What a great article!
Merry Christmas to all, and God bless us every one!