I’m right with you on the plastic parts.

Christmas is one of my least favorite holidays (the other one is St. Paddy’s Day, because I’m always wondering “why on earth” when people dress up like leprachauns and drink green beer…) Anyway.

Jesus was probably born in June, the fourth month of the Roman calendar. Xmas was “rescheduled” to happen around the same time as the Winter Equinox, when people traditionally gave each other small tokens of affection to help make the “dark days” brighter. The yule log was part of this tradition, as is lighting lights to “make merry the dark” and whatnot. Some people call it pagan, I just call it common sense: they didn’t have electricity, so they put candles in their windows to guide weary travelers in the darkness. Trees in the house had something to do with promise of power of life, as in “green doesn’t die”. Red and Green were power colors of life. So, sorta pagan I guess. Appropriated by the relgious.

The idea of santa the way we sort of know him was probably actually invented by the dutch (I think), who said he’d put either coal or apples in your sock, and then appropriated by coca cola and rockwell.

Xmas and Xchins in general, bug. I respect that some people love it, and I’ll probably do the xmas thing when I have kids.

Take care Ed dear, and have a Happy Lei Day!

xoa