As a kid I never celebrated Christmas. After I married it became one of our traditions. One of my fondest was at my sister-in-laws home. She went out of her way to make things special; and all these years later seeing how the family dinamaics have changed; her divorce, my mather-in-law's passing, and our moving to Big D. We still do the X-Mas thing, just with a less spin on the "Jesus" bit and more on our personal family unit. Being a Pagan I've gotten a deeper understanding of the celebration.
I don't quiet agree with the "Merry Christmas" greetings being taken out of school. I believe in tolerance, and the separation of Church and State Religion, but some things are getting rediculious. Having been a Jehovah's Witness, Southern Baptist, and now a Wiccan - believe me I know what persecutive stupitity feels like.
http://www.candlegrove.com/images/y
So - Readers: "May you all have a Blessed Winter, till the warmth of Spring's embrace!"
Thank you for taking the time to visit; enjoy the posts...
Speaking from the Christian perspective, I can understand why governmental institutions would be reluctant to *evangelize* for any particular religion, but I believe that it goes too far when one tries to remove any evidence that religion even exists. As an example, no one denies that the city of Los Angeles was founded by Roman Catholics - so why is there this great brouhaha about the cross on the Los Angeles emblem? My two bits.
ReplyDeleteRegarding Christmas itself, I hope that nearly everyone realizes that a mid-winter celebration pre-dates Christianity. What's interesting to note is that, at least in the English-speaking countries, Christmas was not embraced by the church until the 19th century. So it's obvious how non-Christians can celebrate around Christmastime; they've been doing it longer than the Christians have.