rustedtusks.com

THANKS!!!

I LOVE the holidays! Including those that are celebrated during this time of year (during the Winter Solstice, when the shortest day is followed by the sun slowly bringing longer and longer daylight each day following)...

Holidays, for me, are the wonderful observances of traditions, passed down from one generation to the next... And traditions are awesome, to me, because they reflect many of the unique and interesting aspects that help bind a community of people together....

For me,...saying (and hearing) "Merry Christmas" is perfectly cool,...because all that represents (at least in my mind) is the invocation of all the good personal feelings that come from enacting whatever traditions that particular individual associates with actually HAVING a "Merry Christmas"...

And these traditions are different for each and every person in one way or another...

For one person, "Merry Christmas" might mean the traditions of having a decorated pine tree (a Germanic Pagan tradition), hanging stockings from the fireplace mantle filled with goodies (a Viking-Age Pagan tradition), giving gifts anonymously from "Santa" (a tradition following the antics of the real-life St. Nicholas), leaving milk and cookies for Santa (a Swedish Pagan tradition stemming from leaving bowls of sweet porridge for the Julenissen, meaning "Yule Elf"), and having a huge feast (following the Mithraistic traditions of Sun worship popular among the Romans on Sol Invictus/Saturnalia)...

For another person, "Merry Christmas" might mean only the traditions specifically surrounding the celebration of the birth of Christ (No date was ever given for Christ's birth in the Bible, though many church scholars believe it may have actually happened near the end of September. In Rome, December 25 was finally made popular by Pope Liberius in 354, chosen because it opposed the Pagan feast of the Natalis Solis Invicti "nativity of the unconquerable sun" aka Mithra, and became the rule in the West in 435 when the first "Christ mass" was officiated by Pope Sixtus III.), the singing of Christmas Carols (following the ancient traditions of communal songs sung during the harvest tide and later used to celebrate Christ's birth as well), the traditions of wassailing (which is singing during drinking or while requesting ale), or fishing little silver symbols and coins out of a plumb pudding for good luck, originally a tradition in parts of England)...

To another,...saying "Merry Christmas" might invoke feelings representing a combination of any of the traditions I just mentioned above!

...And to me,...it's ALL good!...

I'm a Pagan, myself,...and I practice the traditions of Yule around this time of year, which invoke things like the burning of the Yule Log (an ancient Germanic Pagan tradition primarily of bringing prosperity, protection from evil, and the calling of the cleansing fires of the new-born sun), hanging mistletoe (mistletoe bears fruit at the time of the Winter Solstice, the birth of the new year, and has been used in solstitial rites in Druidic Britain as a symbol of immortality, and was the plant of peace in Scandinavian antiquity), as well as having a decorated tree, a feast, and gift-giving (all mentioned above from various ancient references)...

As far as I'm concerned,..."Whatever makes ya happy!" is the name of the game when it comes to celebrations like these from this time (or any OTHER time) of the year...

Ever wondered where Santa and his eight tiny reindeer came from? Odin and his magic eight-legged horse Sleipnir….!

The birth of the sun….
The birth of the Son….

Too many people put too much emphasis on the semantics and the name of the holiday itself, instead of the "feelings" one associates with the holiday's traditions... The name should invoke the happiness of the feelings for the person saying it,...and the person hearing it should recognize that it's the goodness of the feelings that the person saying it is trying to project, and NOT that the person saying it is trying to somehow proselytize their beliefs or their faith, nor are they trying to shove their religion down their throats.... I'll just as swiftly respond to a "Merry Christmas!" with a "Thanks!...and Happy Yule to you!".... Assuming that they will understand the "spirit" of my holiday greeting just as they assumed I would understand theirs...

It's just simple, wonderful, glorious, generous courtesy...

...and absolutely what the season should be filled with regardless of why one might believe it...

Jadúgara ^_^