Been blog-crawling tonight and came across this great post on Andrew Hamm's blog. You people seem determined to force me out of my Scrooge-funk!
Oh, and do check out the "Marmaduke explained" site that Andrew links to. I almost peed my pants -- from laughing, not age-related incontinence as my smart-ass daughter might assert...
6 comments:
Wow, Dave, that's some remarkable timing with your response to Mary's blog and Ben Stein's two-year-old post resurfacing. Someone's trying to tell you something? Or maybe the internet is just big and weird.
ben stein lives in a place where other holidays besides christmas are far more recognized and respected than here in rva though. in ny, christmas mania didn't bother me like it does here, where people refer to it as an american holiday, not a christian holiday. having had both experiences, i can understand where ben stein comes from, but i also find it far less applicable here. at least for me.
Is Christmas even a "Christian" holiday?
Many Christians forget - or do not even know - that many of the traditions kept at Christmas has nothing to do with the birth of Christ at all. In fact, most evidence (scriptural and secular) points to the notion that Christ was not born at Christmastime. The customs were adopted more to make it "easier" to convert the pagans to Christianity. It's probably one of the main reasons Christmas is celebrated when it is - to coincide with the Pagan Winter Solstice celebrations. Those included Yule Logs (to honor the sun), Mistletoe (fertility), Holly berries (food of the gods), and worshiping large evergreen trees. Even caroling can be traced to Ancient Rome.
I went to 'Sunday School' as a small child - I busted my way to the front in the Christmas Pageant (if you know my dad, he loves to tell the story. in my defense, I knew my blocking!) - but then somewhere along the way, mom and the kids weren't going anymore. Oddly enough, I wound up working for that exact church as a singer. I'm not baptized, and, for the sake of labels, probably consider myself agnostic. Out of respect for ceremony that I wasn't sure I wanted to be a part of, I sang the songs I was hired to sing, and politely (most of the time) sat out the rest...
It wasn't so much the Christmas sales that started in October, or the Holiday music blaring over the radio at work for three months that bothered me. It was those 2 days at Church where people came out of the woodwork - people proudly announcing they were members of the church, not just in town visiting family - in their Red and Green and big Church Hats. I sang 2 services every Sunday, and never saw those people.
I mean, everyone has their own relationship with their god, but I think my Grinch comes out when I see people deciding to take part in their religion only twice a year - while proudly announcing their membership to anyone who walks by.
Robin: Word. I hear you. I'm in music ministry and Christmas and Easter surely do see their share of new faces. But I would much rather see those people twice a year than not at all.
yes, the christmas traditions surely have their roots in pagan winter solstice, but the holiday still professes to celebrate the birth of christ, therefore, yes, it is a christian holiday and not a secular one.
I think that's sort of the point of all the grinches and scrooges - whatever you want to call them. The Holiday "professes" to celebrate to birth of Christ. Yet it seems to celebrate dollars more.
I brought up the pagan roots more to show that Christmas is not even considered, liturgically, to be that "important" of a holiday...whatever important means. Compare it to Easter, which is basically the cornerstone of the faith, and Christmas is just a blip on the time line.
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