Christmas has been so deromanticized.

The magic of it, the dark snowy night before christmas- the wind blowing mysteriously into the crevasses of the house, the slight, delicate sound of bells in the distance and snowflakes hitting the window.

Where has that gone?


The feeling of love, the warmth radiating from the church candles, the sun slipping into the sky with wink- a sort of promise of the future it brings- the mystery of Santa- some wonderful, daring stranger that no one has quite glimpsed- but leaves his trail behind in the tangible gifts that somehow are underneath the tree the next morning

The excitement, the not being able to sleep- Waking up at 5:12 in the morning and running into the parents' room, who sleepily say to go back to sleep and wait until 8:00.

It's been replaced by the last minute rush of gift buying, the slow and steady decline of the society; plastic santa's in the yards, ugly and gawdy decorations strewn about neighborhoods- the lie of Santa Claus, that there is no magic in the season, the realization that it's all just a big commercial ploy for people to buy things-


No wonder it's the most stressful season of the year.

I'm not in the Christmas spirit. Are you? I can't be. It's impossible, now- the magic has gone, stealing with it the promise and the joy. Now it's a day revolving around supporting the economy, frantically buying things for others, sending cards two weeks late, and the occasional sign reading "Jesus is the reason for the season!"


Which leads to the second point.


Christmas is not a Christian holiday.

That's right, my kiddies.


In fact, the only thing Christian about it is the fact that it's the celebration of the birth of the christian savior- who, in fact, was probably actually born in April or so.


Most Christmas symbols are in fact of Pagan origin.

not only that, but they are, in fact, stolen from Pagan holidays and used as "original" Christmas customs.

I am not necesarily a christian or a pagan, I just find the blunt ignorance of the world extremely amusing. Not that most people would care, but there are certain fundamentalists out there who would be shocked to have anything to do with paganism.


Firstly, the most obvious symbol of christmas- the tree, and the colors red, green and gold. The concept of a christmas tree originally came from the pagan "yule tree", Yule being the celebration of the winter solstice. In fact, the entire concept of christmas comes from Yule- the celebration, the tree, the log, the gift-giving- even the date. Coincidence that Christmas lies several days after the winter solstice?

I think not.

The idea of the birth of the son of God being at the solstace, or the "birth" of the sun's incline into longer days- was an idea conveniently arranged by the early church (not that I'm denying the religious importance of Christ, I am simply stating that his "date of birth" is inaccurate). The symbolism that came with Yule was the idea of rebirth, introspect, and a change for the future- something that modern-day Christmas mirrors.

Even Kriss Kringle- (Santa Claus's other name)- was the Germanic Pagan God of Yule.

So, with this short explanation, we realize that almost all traditional Christmas celebrations are not original. It's sort of funny how few people in the world realize this, but the more open eyes there are to the world, the better the world ultimately will be.


Anyway, I have a source or two to cite:

[link]
5/12/09/Pasco/Christmas_sy
mbols_hav.shtml

[link]
c/akasha/yule.htm





Happy Christian/ american-commercialized/pagan solstace celebration!