Merry Xmas

[Liam Proven]

On Tue, Dec 29, 2009 at 8:01 PM, Graham Todd <grahamtodd2 at googlemail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, 29 Dec 2009 13:33:53 -0500
> Michael Haney <thezorch at gmail.com> uttered these words:
>
>> On Tue, Dec 29, 2009 at 4:41 AM, Amedee Van Gasse (u2s)
>> <amedee-ubuntu at amedee.be> wrote:
>> > Hey Romans, first you had to change our Yule to Saturnalia, then it
>> > had to be the birth of some baby in a country you occupied, and now
>> > it's some fat bloke in a red coat.
>> > Make up your mind already!
>> >
>  That fat bloke in a red coat was foisted on us by the Coca-Cola
>  corporation and thus is the representative of American capitalism.

Urban legend. Whereas the traditional dress of the yule elf involved
hunters' colours of green and black, the red-and-white ensemble
predates the invention of Coca-cola, as does making him human-sized
and later still fat.

http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/santa/cocacola.asp

Otherwise, though, I agree with you.

Another, slightly less-popular myth says that the early christians
stole the christmas story from the Roman secret military religion of
Mithras-worship. Mithras, they say, was born of a virgin on 25th Dec,
has 12 followers, was called "the way", "the truth", "the light", was
resurrected after 3 days, etc. etc. This is a red herring, too:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithraic_Mysteries#Mithraism_and_Christianity
http://christopherbutler.wordpress.com/2006/10/07/jesus-is-not-a-mithras-redux/

For myself, I've started calling this festival Yule, as this is a good
Old English word for the pre-Christian and even pre-Roman midwinter
festival. It's what the Norse still call it. People still know and
recognise the term, and "good Yule!" is a handily short, 2-syllable
greeting, rather than the polysyllabic "happy" or "merry christmas",
when I personally am not christian and have no time for the wretched
religion.

Heathen's greetings, Bah humbug, etc.

-- 
Liam Proven • Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/liamproven
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