Merry Christmas 2024. Can't we let politics and backbiting go, for just one day ??
POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Saturday, December 28, 2024 04:06
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I remember being 6 years old, lying in my mom's bed next to her and just talking about things. It was after Christmas, probably during Christmas break. This would have been about a year after the divorce, and before my mom started a career and became a miserable person for most of the rest of her life.
I said, "Santa isn't real, is he?". And looking back on my entire childhood, her reply was probably the best parenting that either of mine accidentally stumbled into over 18 years of mistakes. She said "No. Santa isn't real. But I'd like to think that there's a little bit of Santa in all of us."
Kinda Hallmarky and trite, I know, but I can't think of a better response to that question from a 6 year old, and I've always given her credit for that one.
I'd already figured out at 6 years old on my own that Santa was bullshit. I don't think that had anything to do with intelligence, because I think even extremely intelligent children could go well into their teen years without questioning it if their family life were copacetic and nobody ruined that at school for them. It's because the veil over all of that just got lifted by being forced to endure all of that unexplainable fallout of a divorce when you're too young to even understand why or how any of it could have happened, because you're still too young to question how Santa got into your house when you have no chimney and the windows are locked, or how he delivers presents to every boy and girl in one night, or why santa's elves were working for Atari and Parker Brothers and Mattel.
To me, Santa was just another betrayal. The first betrayal.
What a great lie to tell your children during their formative years. I think subconsciously the damage done to the kids who had good memories and a healthy family life was even greater than the messed up kids like me, just by virtue of the fact they had a much more solid foundation to undermine.
Yeah... It's all cute, and parents love the whole idea of Christmas and how excited their kids get knowing that Santa is coming tonight to give you what you wanted for being a good boy or girl... And those kids grow up to be parents of their own and do the exact same thing with their kids...
But it's all a lie. A huge lie that's all around us every year. Most of us don't even notice it because it's what we grew up with and it's what our kids and grandkids grew up with. We all just assume it's what our parents grew up with, and their parents before them too.
Every kid at some time is going to figure out Santa was a lie their parents told them. Some will figure this out on their own and either disregard their mother's pleas and tell all the other kids at school that Santa wasn't real. Some, like I was, will follow their mother's wishes and not ruin that for everyone else and just sit there alone with the knowledge that Santa isn't real, not even discussing it with their best friend at sleepovers, or their two younger brothers who they spend most of their non-school time with.
I always thought I was one of the lucky ones to figure it out as early as I did and I wasn't like the poor kids who figured it out last in some big dramatic way. Some long-forgotten-by-everyone-else memory of being ridiculed for still believing in that lie, although they never forgot that incident no matter how hard they tried to never think of it again.
But I dunno about that anymore. In what world should a 6 year old kid with knowledge of the truth be told to hide that truth from everyone else? That's not a formative year lesson I'd be wanting to teach any child of mine.
For all I know with how stupid our monkey brain chemistry works, my preference for being alone most of the time might actually have stemmed directly from the isolation I felt by keeping that secret.
I couldn't even tell you what I thought the ideal way to figure it out, or the ideal time to finally be told the tru
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Santa was never an issue for me. It was always just a cute story that we heard about, but my folks clued us in early and without stress when we started picking out gifts for other people. I just liked the general ambience and beauty.
What threw me for a loop was Catholicism. I grew up with the kinder, gentler, Pope John XXIII version ("and the greatest of these was love"), not the strict punishment version. Sure, there were things about catechism I went "huh"? about, but there were parts that really resonated. Being kind to people worse off than you. A guardian angel watching over me. Baby Jesus. It matched my personality. But at some point ... again, I was pretty young ... I realized it was all untrue, or at least not provable. And once I started questioning things I had previously believed, I started questioning EVERYTHING, including the nature of reality. Until I had to just accept what I now know is an "a priori' assumption and just act AS IF everything around me was real.
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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA
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in some places they don't celebrate
and Some guy with a Hindu Nepal Sanskrit name arrived in SKorea and tried to make sense of it all
for the rest its Buddhism, Atheists and a strange Pagan Asia Folk religion
and its in the Indian Sub Continent
Worship song
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Quote:
I realized it was all untrue, or at least not provable. And once I started questioning things I had previously believed, I started questioning EVERYTHING, including the nature of reality. Until I had to just accept what I now know is an "a priori' assumption and just act AS IF everything around me was real.
This is why I kinda laugh when THUGR keeps assuming I "believe" my sources. I don't. He does, tho. He can't imagine NOT believing.
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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA
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I've had a love/hate relationship with the season ever since my dad died when I was 13. Before that Christmas was just something that came around once a year. My mom liked Christmas music and we always had a tree up and presents. My dad would cook a turkey or ham with the usual trimmings.
I stopped believing Santa when I heard my mum and dad getting the presents out of their hiding place to put under the tree. Think I was around 8. Had to keep quiet about it because of my brother.
There was no big religious goings on. My mum put up a nativity scene. Very small that sat on a dresser top.
As I got into my teenage years it just became a bother because my friends had their fathers, so that was depressing.
You would think I would start enjoying Christmas after almost dying but it had no affect on me. Had one year where I thought yes, maybe I can enjoy it again but then Blair died 3 weeks before my birthday and that took the wind out of my sails.
My mum started really enjoying Christmas in her later years and all I want to do is rip the wiring out of sound systems when I hear carols. Can't stand them.
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Can't blame you with that back story, Brenda.
I think this might have been the first Christmas season I've had where I haven't heard one song or seen 1 minute of footage of any TV show or movie.
Christmas has never been the same since Covid. What little stuff was still going on just got smashed with a wrecking ball, and now all of the sudden the few people in the family who are still alive and/or haven't moved out of state go out to the east coast to celebrate it.
I was out by my friend's family's place for Thanksgiving like we've done 3 years in a row now, but they had something going on both days for Christmas this year. I was invited to one of them, and I appreciate that, but I didn't want to be dragged along to some place where there's a ton of people I didn't know.
Plus, that's like their own thing. I don't want to intrude on that. I think it's great that their family seems to be getting over all that covid and partisan bullshit and they actually can get together again.
Who knows? Now that they're getting together again maybe I meet some of these people at parties they'd throw. They have one hell of a house to throw parties. If I got to know them beforehand maybe I would pop in one Christmas if they asked me again.
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"My only fear of death is coming back to this bitch reincarnated." ~Tupac Shakur
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Belated Merry Christmas to all.
Apparently this marks 100 years since the birth of Rod Serling.
I also didn't realize this is 40 years after the first Mannheim Steamroller Christmas Music (1984).
As a child, my paternal grandparents went to their Winter Home in Florida. So Thanksgiving was the family holiday, with all the Christmas stuff except snow. This was usually the one day of the year we got to see our cousins on that side. My father and his sister could not be in the same building without their parents present to moderate. a few days after that, they would drive to Florida.
My maternal grandparents were 300 miles north, on the shores of Lake Superior. For Christmas and New Year, we would go there. usually lots of snow, and snowmobiles. The week would be spent visiting all of the further relatives, continuing to live in the area.
Our favorite grandparent was maternal grandpa. He died a month after Christmas during my 9th grade.
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your present was delivered by a Flying Baby Jesus...or so the story goes in another part of the world.
They celebrate it on the Space Station but if they build colonies out there. Will they celebrate Christmas on Titan, Mars, Europa? Greek children would get their presents from Saint Basil on New Year's Eve, the eve of that saint's liturgical feast. In several Latin American countries such as Venezuela and Colombia holds that while Santa makes the toys, he then gives them to the Baby Jesus, who is the one who actually delivers them...Space the Mars year is about 687 Earth days almost 1.9 Earth years is one Mars year...would they develop their own festivals their own clocks based on their own cycles and celebrate their own winters and summer harvests, would they have their own types of Paganism celebrations on other alien worlds? Would the Roman Catholic church expand to Mars and other worlds seen that it expanded to almost every corner of the Earth with its preachers and bishops even putting Churches on the South Pole Antarctica?
After the Russian invasion Ukraine has passed legislation moving its official Christmas holiday to the 25th day of December. Russia celebrates Christmas on January 7th, During Soviet times, Christmas was forbidden, the Armenian Evangelical Church had a different opinion to Russia and said it is the 6th day of January, the 7th day. The Christians of the Indian Sub Continent mostly celebrate it on the 25th of December, in South Korea Christmas is recognized as a public holiday on 25th December but I'm not sure what day the Moonies mark and some parts of Asia it seems to be almost unmarked or ignored. Oriental Orthodox and part of the Eastern Orthodox churches but the 19th day of January is 'Christmas' for the Armenian Patriarchate East Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, Christians in general even though they historically fought among each other they generally agree that following the message of Jesus is more important than knowing Jesus's exact birth date.
Not every Christan group celebrates it the Seventh-day Adventists for example and 'Westboro Baptist' they lunatics who would go to funerals to harass family of dead soldiers and declare 'God Hates Fags' or sound like people from some 17th century witch trial screaming about idolatry
Muslims celebrate the birth of the pedophile madman jihadist moohammad at this time, the lunatic who forced people to give him booty pay tribute or who killed anyone who didn't worship his Moongod
and the Jews celebrate their revolt against the culture of Greeks, Jews are still waiting for their 'messiah' the Jews are waiting for zombie dead to walk the Earth and future Jewish king from the Davidic line so Jesus wasn't their guy, Barabbas a criminal who was chosen over Jesus by the crowd or so the accounts go of the time and tell that story.
Maybe it is just a date moved to match Yule, the Germanic, Celt, Yule time watching the sun get lower and lower and the winters almost become one long night, the Viking winter solstice celebration, has its roots in ancient pagan traditions, Yule goat or eating reindeer, Yule singing, and others may have connections to older pagan pre-Christian traditions, it has a revival with Modern paganism, Shaman Folklore, neo Witchcraft and contemporary paganism, rituals found in Egypt would be seen as Pagan or part of a Heathen shrine. There would have been old temples across Europe, Asia and the Americas, Mokosh for example Slavic was the goddess of earth, waters and fertility, the Greeks had a Pantheon of Gods. Some of the 'Contemporary Paganism' has been associated with the New Age hippie 60s, 1970s era counter culture movement.
Long ago the Roman Empire were fighting Germanics and Gauls, fighting Celts, they invade and occupy the island of Britain, La conquista romana della Britannia, the first invasion was by Julius Caesar in 55 and 54 BC, general Gnaeus Julius Agricola, Aulus Plautius, Emperor Vespasianus this is while other rebellion and uprising h
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Quote:I was raised by Jehovah’s Witnesses. They don’t celebrate Christmas and I have no regrets following this teaching. The branch of the family that became Witnesses has prospered with wealth, health, family stability, happiness, long life. What happened to the branch that mocked switching religions to being Witnesses? It would become Trumptards and went the opposite direction toward financial problems, divorce, infirmity, mental illness, and short lives. (Jehovah’s Witnesses also don’t go to war, a teaching I now have a reason to regret not following. Witnesses also don't vote or participate in politics, a policy that I am slowly seeing the wisdom of.)
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
But it's all a lie. A huge lie that's all around us every year. Most of us don't even notice it because it's what we grew up with and it's what our kids and grandkids grew up with. We all just assume it's what our parents grew up with, and their parents before them too.
From the Jehovah’s Witnesses website at jw.org
What Does the Bible Say About Christmas?
https://www.jw.org/en/bible-teachings/questions/bible-about-christmas/
The Bible does not give the date of Jesus’ birth, nor does it say that we should celebrate his birthday. As McClintock and Strong’s Cyclopedia states: “The observance of Christmas is not of divine appointment, nor is it of NT [New Testament] origin.”
Instead, an examination of the history of Christmas exposes its roots in pagan religious rites. The Bible shows that we offend God if we try to worship him in a way that he does not approve of.—Exodus 32:5-7.
History of Christmas customs
1. Celebrating Jesus’ birthday: “The early Christians did not celebrate [Jesus’] birth because they considered the celebration of anyone’s birth to be a pagan custom.”—The World Book Encyclopedia.
2. December 25: There is no proof that Jesus was born on that date. Church leaders likely chose this date to coincide with pagan festivals held on or around the winter solstice.
3. Gift-giving, feasting, partying: The Encyclopedia Americana says: “Saturnalia, a Roman feast celebrated in mid-December, provided the model for many of the merry-making customs of Christmas. From this celebration, for example, were derived the elaborate feasting, the giving of gifts, and the burning of candles.” The Encyclopædia Britannica notes that “all work and business were suspended” during Saturnalia.
4. Christmas lights: According to The Encyclopedia of Religion, Europeans decorated their homes “with lights and evergreens of all kinds” to celebrate the winter solstice and to combat evil spirits.
5. Mistletoe, holly: “The Druids ascribed magical properties to the mistletoe in particular. The evergreen holly was worshiped as a promise of the sun’s return.”—The Encyclopedia Americana.
6. Christmas tree: “Tree worship, common among the pagan Europeans, survived after their conversion to Christianity.” One of the ways in which tree worship survived is in the custom of “placing a Yule tree at an entrance or inside the house in the midwinter holidays.”—Encyclopædia Britannica.
You May Also Like BIBLE QUESTIONS ANSWERED
When Was Jesus Born?
Find out why Christmas is celebrated on December 25.
Who Were the “Three Wise Men”? Did They Follow the “Star” of Bethlehem?
Several terms used in popular Christmas traditions actually do not appear in the Bible.
Is Christmas for Christians?
Did those closest to Jesus celebrate Christmas?
Why Don’t Jehovah’s Witnesses Celebrate Christmas?
Many people celebrate Christmas despite knowing its origins. Find out why Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t.
https://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/faq/why-not-celebrate-christm
as/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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If your god gets annoyed at people celebrating with food, gifts, lights, and general good cheer, yours is a stupid god.
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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA
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