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Post by matt on Dec 10, 2012 22:54:00 GMT 10
Stop worshipping Christmas, you Pagans!
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Post by jody on Dec 11, 2012 6:45:16 GMT 10
I doubt this is worth watching so I won't bother.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 11, 2012 16:46:54 GMT 10
I don't think worshipping Christmas is the right word at all...celebrate, more like it.
Most festivals are surrounded in myth, it is what keeps folks coming back year after year...we still sing about sleigh bells and snow...in 40 degree heat, but it is part of the magic of celebration, as ridiculous as it all seems.
Suspension of belief can be a good thing
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Post by matt on Dec 11, 2012 17:52:42 GMT 10
The worship of Santa is blasphemy.
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Post by jody on Dec 11, 2012 18:08:42 GMT 10
I know of no actual christians who worship santa....only the atheists I know seem to do that.
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Post by pim on Dec 11, 2012 19:13:43 GMT 10
If I go to one of the big shopping malls like T-Tree Plaza in suburban Adelaide, or that huge mega shopping complex in Marion, I feel like I'm in a temple and that we're all there to worship Mammon. Which is what festivals like Christmas in Australia are. The southern hemisphere Christmas, held in summer because that's when it occurs, bereft of all its winter associations in the northern hemisphere with the short dull days, long nights, Christmas markets with their little stalls and mulled wine, freezing weather and the Christmas lights in the centre of town that give it its sense of magic, has nothing in its Australian summer torpor but retail therapy. So the Australian Christmas is nothing more than a festival dedicated to the god Mammon. Matt's right.
In Holland by contrast, gift-giving happens on Dec 5 which is the feast of St Nicholas - the original Santa Claus which name comes to us in English via the Americans from the Dutch "Sinterklaas" or St Nicholas. St Nick is dressed as a bishop and is accompanied (pc people at this point should close their eyes and skip over the next point)by his black servant "Zwarte Piet" or Black Peter. I have a little statue of Zwarte Piet which was sent to me by my daughter from Holland a few years ago. It's part of my Christmas decorations. But Christmas itself is 3 days and consists of going to church and also visiting, receiving visitors and eating an awful lot! I could go on but it's more convivial and, dare I say it, spiritual. And therefore more meaningful. I understand Boxing Day was originally intended as the day those who could do so gave presents to the poor. Nothing to do with pugilism. Everything to do with putting things in boxes. Another of my offspring spent a few years in Western Canada. On her first Christmas over there she was asked "what are you doing for Christmas" and she began to tell the person how she and her husband intended to spend Christmas Day so far from home. She was interrupted with "No, what do you intend to DO for Christmas? For charity!" She had to admit the question flummoxed her. Christmas? Charity? She gained an insight into the meaning of Christmas!
Our Australian brand of Christmas is a hedonistic affair. How can it be otherwise? It's too hot for it to be anything else!!
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Post by jody on Dec 11, 2012 19:30:38 GMT 10
You'd be wrong there Buzz. I know atheists who get very into the santa thing for their kids. They say it is their excuse to celebrate Christmas
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Post by jody on Dec 11, 2012 19:36:47 GMT 10
ok Buzz.  |
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Post by slartibartfast on Dec 11, 2012 20:42:59 GMT 10
At least you can see Santa.
You can't see God!
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Post by Deleted on Dec 11, 2012 21:47:38 GMT 10
I know of no actual christians who worship santa....only the atheists I know seem to do that. The thing that surprises me is the number of atheists who celebrate Christmas. If they had any honesty they wouldnt. |
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Post by slartibartfast on Dec 11, 2012 23:03:03 GMT 10
At Christmas we get together with family and celebrate with those that are here and remember those that are no longer here. Religion is never mentioned and doesn't have to be.
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Post by jody on Dec 12, 2012 6:37:46 GMT 10
agreed Skippy.....but hey, a holiday is a holiday and even atheists are happy to have a holiday...especially Aussie atheists  |
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Post by pim on Dec 12, 2012 8:15:43 GMT 10
Well, you can't blame them for that! And have you ever pondered on the religious origins of the word "holiday"?
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Post by Occam's Spork on Dec 12, 2012 10:43:42 GMT 10
...So let me get this straight, Matt.
Christians celebrating Christmas ought to be shunned....But enrolling in the Freemasons is fine?
I think you have your religious ethics ass backward.
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Post by Occam's Spork on Dec 12, 2012 10:47:44 GMT 10
Drunken hoons, road accidents, blatant stupidity, people being happy for no particular reason. I don't like Christmas. My mother died over Christmas so I dont like to celebrate the time and the dreadful memories. She died New Years Eve so I just pretend its not happening. The behaviour of people at the festivities is just appalling. Christmas at Alice Springs was interesting. Buzz->  |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 12, 2012 10:52:30 GMT 10
I know of no actual christians who worship santa....only the atheists I know seem to do that. The thing that surprises me is the number of atheists who celebrate Christmas. If they had any honesty they wouldnt. ...and visitors to our shores who happen to be here on January 26 should be banned from participating in Australia Day celebrations? |
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Post by Occam's Spork on Dec 12, 2012 10:58:32 GMT 10
At least you can see Santa. You can't see God! Since you seem to be imply that seeing is the primary requisite for your belief. It then follows that you must still believe in Santa, slarti. Isn't that simply pwescious! |
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Post by fat on Dec 12, 2012 11:20:18 GMT 10
I believe Jesus 'ever existed' and I believe he is the son of a very wise God.
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Post by pim on Dec 12, 2012 11:24:01 GMT 10
I don't know what all the fuss is about and why this thread is getting itself into a lather about Christmas. You have the oh-so-predictably boooring paleo-atheists who, hilariously, reckon they believe in Santa Claus. I have a confession to make: I'll be placing a coin under my grandchildren's pillow for the Tooth Fairy when the time comes. Tell me somethin'! How much does theTooth Fairy cost these days?? When my kids were little (and they're now into their 30s) the tooth fairy demanded 50 cents for each milk tooth. I shudder to think how much the Tooth Fairy demands these days!!!
But leaving the paleo-atheists with their boring obsessions about "I've-got-plenty-of-nothin', and nothin's-plenty-for-me ...", Stud Manly, I couldn't think of a greater contrast than between a Canadian Christmas and an Australian Christmas. In Canada I should imagine all of the Christmas stereotypes of long nights, short days, lots of christmas lights and snow snow snow and freezing temperatures would all come together. Now Stud Manly I do hope to see you one day visiting us Down Under (I have been Up Over in your part of the world) but my advice to you would be to give an Australian Christmas a big miss! This is high summer. I'm sitting here typing this with the outside temperature at 36° Celsius. The aircon is getting a good workout and so are the ceiling fans. Today the sun rose at 5:55am and it's due to set at 8:23pm. That's a 14½ hour day. Christmas lights? Oh you'll see the odd house in a suburban street all lit up but nothing of the public lighting in your part of the world. Street decorations? Pathetic, compared with the northern hemisphere. The daylight is so bright and the weather right now is so hot that the banners hang pathetically and flaccidly from the lightpoles. As a visitor from England I spoke to last Christmas said: "You wouldn't know it was christmas!"
On the other hand, Stud Manly, why not experience an Australian Christmas. Turn a negative into a positive! Sit around a backyard swimming pool and gather with the "blokes" around the backyard BBQ (no, we don't do "shrimps on the barbie"!) but you have to do so clutching a small bottle of beer we call a "stubbie". Wear shorts and T shirt and maybe later we'd all head off to the beach to watch the sunset (you can do that on Adelaide beaches) and have a swim in the balmy evening when it's still warm but not so hot anymore. And that's an Australian Christmas! It'll be something different!!!
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Post by jody on Dec 12, 2012 12:23:18 GMT 10
Pim.....a friend of mine with littlies has told me that they get around $5 a tooth now |
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Post by Salem on Dec 12, 2012 12:50:54 GMT 10
Christmas is little more just an annual family get together these days. I know I used to call it the Big Feast. Its just a family day to catch up with family and eat a really great big feast. It isn't God's birthday. Its just an annual family reunion day.
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Post by pim on Dec 12, 2012 14:04:47 GMT 10
Pim.....a friend of mine with littlies has told me that they get around $5 a tooth now The Tooth Fairy costs five bucks these days!!??!!  That's outrageous! That's highway bloody robbery!  Besides, a $5 Tooth Fairy means we can't put a coin under the kid's pillow any more ...  As a grandfather with toddler grandchildren, I have no choice but to believe in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy. It being that time of year, I'm already busy with Santa, and since my grandchildren are only a year old, the Tooth Fairy can wait a while yet!! But five bucks a tooth ... |
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Post by fat on Dec 12, 2012 22:38:16 GMT 10
Buzz - I could show you stuff but you would just say it is fake, or changed or (your favourite word) redacted.
I'll just wish you a happy Christmas whether you want one or not and I'll say a prayer (have a yarn with God) on your behalf because I reckon you and He could be great mates.
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Post by fat on Dec 12, 2012 22:39:48 GMT 10
Pim - I think it has to be a coin. A plastic paper note just wouldn't be right.
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Post by matt on Dec 13, 2012 0:19:50 GMT 10
I will never lie about Santa to my child and I'll encourage him not to lie about this false god either.
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That's outrageous! That's highway bloody robbery! 
