The silly season and all its traditions
Less than a week till Christmas Day! This is such a busy time, with everyone rushing around trying to buy each family member the perfect gift, acquiring ridiculous amounts of food, putting up decorations and heading off to end of year parties. I personally love the silly season because it means I can dust off my Christmas albums and sing along to my favourite carols.
Love it or hate it, Christmas comes every year. Most of us enjoy getting into the spirit and following yuletide traditions, but do we even know why we follow so many rituals at this time of year that aren’t linked to the original meaning of the holiday? For instance every family puts up a Christmas tree – but where did the practice originate? And when did we start pulling Christmas crackers at the table? I was also interested to hear about how Santa’s suit came to be the way we know it nowadays.
There are lots of Christmas themed questions being asked by the Answers community at the moment – and there is a lot of interest in what those who don’t celebrate Christmas do at this time of year. If you have any Christmas questions why not post them and wait for someone to help you out!
Clea
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Even those of us who are not of a religious bent have a lot of fun at this time of year, we can party along.
Great blog xx
Since my blog (yarnlady_needsyarn)was attacked by a troll and deleted, I would like another invite. That was me up there above Annwyl.
The ‘Christ’ mass tradition is one that is at least 4,000 years old. In fact, it was first celebrated by the ancients pre-Babylon & actually formallised as a religious festival probably by the Sumerians with the observance being adopted & expanded upon by the Babylonians. Of course it was not know by the name ‘Christmas’ then. That happened because the Roman church, under the direction of Konstantin ‘the Great’, who was a faithful devotee of Mithra (Apollo), the chief deity whose representation was the sun, & his successors, adopted this among many other odious heathen practices & inculcated it into ‘Christian’ religious worship. This is something the Roman church has been a past master at for most of its existence – syncretism – the combining of religious practices from different cultures into one.
The Creator God expressly forbade the ancient Israelites from doing this, warning them of the serious consequences which would result if they did so but they not only syncretised their worship of Yahveh with that of the summer solstice but they holus-bolus went the hog & adopted all of their neighbours’ cultures & in the space of about 2-300 years, God had allowed the entire nation to degenerate into oblivion, finally being invaded by those same neighbours & deported to slave labour camps.
This custom of Christmas has nothing to do with the worship of the true Creator who thoroughly condemns its observance. In fact, there is a reference in His inspired Word concerning it in the Prophecy of Jeremiah, Chapter 10. It makes interesting reading for those who want to remain faithful.