12/20/2005

so I was thinking about Kwanzaa, and how lots of people make fun of it, me included. I guess this is because it's a made up holiday, but really, most holidays are made up holidays. I mean, Jesus was supposedly born in 6 BC in March or some other time, not December, and Valetines Day? Come on. I don't think Saint Valentine went around giving out candy hearts and stuff. I mean, holidays are fun and all, but I think anything that causes people to get stressed out is kind of the opposite of the reason for holidays. I am just going to celebrate Toyotathon and nothing else.

Also, here are some reasons why Jesus is greater than Santa Claus.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Part of the reason a lot of Christian holidays are celebrated, like Christmas and Easter, are celebrated around the time they are is because they were made to coincide with pagan holidays, like winter solistice (Christmas) and Easter (spring harvest).

That was it was easier for Christians to convert the pagans by kinda saying "See dudes, we have holidays right around the same time you do."

Its the same reason why Passover, Easter, and the spring harvest are all at the same time.

Or something like that.

It's kinda like Jews elevating Hannukah up to gift-giving holiday so their kids don't all en masse convert to Christianity... for the gifts.

Andrew W said...

word up

Anonymous said...

i wouldn't say that "holidays" are made-up but rather manipulated. To say a little...

The legend of Saint Nicholas was not originally celebrated (his death was actually Dec. 6th)to "compete" with Jesus, for lack of better words, however to exemplify what Jesus taught God believed people should do. Saint Nicholis was orphaned at a young age, inherited great wealth, became a monk and devoted his life to helping ill and poor children both with his presence, love, and various gifts he could offer. People celebrated him because he followed to a high degree what He wanted. It wasn't about getting toys, it was about giving to others, especially children in need, all that you could emotionally and physically afford.

And Saint Valentine (actually there are three St. Valentines and it is still undetermined who the stories are based off of) was not originally the symbol of cupid's bows and greeting cards, but rather the fact that he was a martyr for the Christian cause showed heroism and romanticism. It wasn't about flowers and candy, it was about proving devotion at the ultimate cost.

So, basically when these people/events came about, they were celebrated in a religious, intellectualized and spitited way.

We have just made it into a commercialized, superficial, out-of-context, stressed-out hoopla.

What was once very real, and meant very much, through the centuries has turned to crap probably due to the inherent gossiping, selfish, and greedy nature of man.

Anonymous said...

So i just read this the other day, post-holidays, but apparently a good portion of why Christmas was shifted to December from sprintime is so it would fall around Hannukah, so that early Christians would more easily evade persecution. I would think the same would be true with the whole Passover/Easter dealie. Dunno where I read that, smellyface.

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