Apparently the current focus on gifts at Chistmas is about a 150 years old; the powers that were wanted to discourage the singing of th wiats — wassailing, pople showing up at their neighors' houses drunk in the small hours, singing for small ale. So they told people to stay home.
When the puritans came over, they didn't believe in celebrating Christmas. Cromwell forbade it — he thought all that Lord of Misrule gender bending and marchepane and mummery was getting out of hand. So Christmas as people mean it in popular culture is a mixed bag, pagan and secular, elements of medieval, and Victorian protestantism.
I see the point: that people don't publicly celebrate Kwansaa and Ramadan and the feast of lights. Tell you the truth, I find the public celebration of Christmas frustrating — it may be a privilege to watch people take a family ritual or a sacred symbol of worship and string it up on a marquee, but it comes at cost.
I did find these food for thought. 18 confuses me — if you write about th privelegs of Christianity, aren't you putting Christianity on trial by definition? Isn't this list a case in point? Also I've been learning a lot this semester about the influence of Calvinist protestantism on our culture. There's a reason I wrote about paganism for my final paper:-)
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Date: 2005-12-13 11:09 pm (UTC)When the puritans came over, they didn't believe in celebrating Christmas. Cromwell forbade it — he thought all that Lord of Misrule gender bending and marchepane and mummery was getting out of hand. So Christmas as people mean it in popular culture is a mixed bag, pagan and secular, elements of medieval, and Victorian protestantism.
I see the point: that people don't publicly celebrate Kwansaa and Ramadan and the feast of lights. Tell you the truth, I find the public celebration of Christmas frustrating — it may be a privilege to watch people take a family ritual or a sacred symbol of worship and string it up on a marquee, but it comes at cost.
I did find these food for thought. 18 confuses me — if you write about th privelegs of Christianity, aren't you putting Christianity on trial by definition? Isn't this list a case in point? Also I've been learning a lot this semester about the influence of Calvinist protestantism on our culture. There's a reason I wrote about paganism for my final paper:-)