Skatty....

Purely joking.

Skatty....

Purely joking.

CigarPrimate
Drop me a note at your convenience, will you?

fromsteves at hotmail dot com - yes, 'from' is part of the addy

i will not be baited into this one.....

study to show thyself approved.......

obviously, primate has done his homework....

i must agree with him regarding the holidays and their pagan origins. these traditions have been incorporated into the modern church over a period of many years. also, i am in agreement with primate that Christ's birthday was not dec. 25. though most christians "celebrate" Christ's birth on dec. 25, that does not mean that date was his actual birthday.

primate,

the only thing you left out was the christmas tree and the scripture to go along with it.....Jer ch. 10:2-8.

again, "study to show thyself approved....."

Sorry Billy, you're response sounded too much like other posts. Your sarcasm went over my head.

18delta,

Tree references get pretty diffuse. I've heard so many legends. Some of Jung's suggestions about the evergreen tree being a symbol for the cross, as well as for rebirth, were interesting. One of the most amusing stories I heard was that the Christmas tree was originally used in olden English times as follows: In the large halls of the royal families, who were so keen and ready to kill one another, during the Christ-Mass, a row of evergreens were set up dividing the hall, and competing factions would take turns approaching the trees and tying their gifts intended for their rivals on them. They would retreat, allowing their rivals to then approach the trees and tie their gifts on them. In this way the murderous extended family members could exchange holiday gifts without having to draw near enough to one another to be able to run one another through with a sword.

It's been awhile since I read Jung, but thinking back on it, I believe he suggested the evergreen as symbolic of eternal life; it would be deciduous trees that would get reborn, anyway...

I have a question ????

Whatever date is Jesus' birthday is fine . Let's assume it's 12/25.

Here's the question.
If he lived 30sum years before death then arose after three days. Why does the date of the ressurection change from year to year.

Cuda

Trying to apply strict dates to mythical legends is a crap shoot. The further back in time you go the fuzzier the accuracy gets as a general rule, and ballpark figuring is an absolute requirement. The sabbath dates tend to change with the society that used them at the time. My original point was that the major holiday clusters tend to occur on the equinoxes and solstices, because these times represent marked changes in the living conditions of the populations observing them at the time; and seasons have remained fairly constant since the last ice age, and therefore represent opportunistic comparison points for we moderns to relate to our long ago ancestors. With cultural holidays, it's always interesting to evaluate what they mean to us today un relation to what they might have meant to some population long ago; sometimes the correlation is still similar, and sometimes it's so dissociated as to have a different meaning entirely. There is some good analysis on this type of thing my Karl Jung and Joseph Campbell. Claude Levi-Strauss is one of my favorites, especially with regards to the American indians. But alas, another autumn has come and gone; next stop: the winter equinox & Christmas (the depth of winter brings the hope of spring and rebirth).