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Pastimes : Don't Ask Rambi -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JF Quinnelly who wrote (57826)	12/27/2000 8:55:39 AM
From: epicure	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71178

And this is...important and worthy of a snit?

To: JF Quinnelly who wrote (57826)	12/27/2000 9:00:54 AM
From: Rambi	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 71178

I don't think that James Frazier is an academic slouch and he draws lots of comparisons between heathen and Christian ritual. In The Golden Bough he writes that the Gospels say nothing about the date of Christ's birth and no one celebrated it in the early church. The Egyptian Christians later started celebrating it on Jan 6, and the idea spread until the Western church around the beginning of the fourth century decided to celebrate it on the 25th. He cites lots of pagan events that were already celebrated on that date and quotes a Syrian writer (a CHristian) as saying that the date was transferred when "the doctors of the church perceived that the Christians had a leaning to this festival... and resolved that the true Nativity should be solemnized on that day..." BUt wait! I was looking up Frazier on the net after reading this to see if he was related to Peikoff, hoho, and I found THIS! Clearly the Bible is reticent about informing us to observe Christmas as the birth date of Jesus; however, it does speak out about the Christmas tree. Surprisingly, the Bible gives a literal rejection of the Christmas tree: Jeremiah 10:2-6: Thus saith the Lord, learn not the way of the heathen...For the customs of the people are vain; for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. The Bible clearly points out that the display of the Christmas tree is the way of the heathen--the customs of the people. The Bible admonishes the people not to learn their customs or to follow them. Also, this particular verse suggests that the Christmas tree custom is a form of idolatry. English scholar, Sir James Frazier in his noteworthy book The Golden Bough has this to say about the Christmas tree, or as he calls it, tree-worship: In the religious history of the Aryan race in Europe the worship of trees has played an important part of cultural activity. Sacred groves were common among the ancient Germans, and tree-worship is hardly extinct amongst their descendants at the present day. At Upsala, the old religious capital of Sweden there was a sacred grove in which every tree was regarded as divine. Proofs of the prevalence of tree-worship among Lithuanians. Prussians, Greeks, Italians and the Druids are abundant. Frazier also informs us that: On Christmas Eve German peasants used to tie fruit trees together with straw ropes to make them bear fruit; saying that the trees were thus married. Well, enough- I feel like I have carried on in the Feelies tradition for long enough- and at least the pigtopic has been suffocated by my droning. I must go put in all my sales for today with tears in my eyes as I kiss their little stockcorpses farewell-- may they rot in hell. I close with a quote from Frazier Thus, as time went on,the two religions, (my note- he's talking about Buddhism and Christianity) in exact proportion to their growing popularity, absorbed more and more of those baser elements which they had been instituted for the very purpose of suppressing. Such spiritual decadences are inevitable. The world cannot live at the level of its great men. He then adds that its a good thing, since they both glorify poverty and celibacy, and practiced perfectly, would have resulted in the end of the human race.