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Politics : Evolution -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Brumar89 who wrote (17893)	11/21/2011 1:10:10 PM
From: average joe	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 69300

Christmas Was Not Originally A Christian Holiday Did you know that a pagan winter festival was traditionally the most popular festival of the year in many cultures long before Jesus ever came to this earth? Did you know that December 25th was celebrated as the "birthday" of pagan gods such as Mithras and Sol long before it became Christianized? Did you know that Jesus WAS NOT born on December 25th? One of the pagan pre-Christian festivals was called Saturnalia. It was a holiday when the Romans commemorated the dedication of the temple of their god Saturn, which was on the 17th of December and the festival would last for a whole week until the 23rd of December. Later the Romans also started holding a festival on December 25 called Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, which means "the birthday of the undefeated sun." Pagan Scandinavia also celebrated a winter festival called Yule, which was held from late December to early January. Yule logs were lit to honor the god "Thor". The holiday would continue until the Yule log burned out, which could take as many as twelve days. Thus this is where we get the "12 days of Christmas". In the year 350 A.D., Pope Julius I declared that "Christ’s birth" would be celebrated on December 25th from then on. His rationale was that he was trying to make it easier for pagan Romans to convert to Christianity. But Jesus was not born on December 25th. It would have been way too cold for shepherds to be out with their sheep at night during that time. Jesus was actually born during the Feast of Tabernacles. Are you ready for more stuff you didn't know about Christmas? Watch this video: themoralcollapseofamerica.blogspot.com

To: Brumar89 who wrote (17893)	11/21/2011 1:56:47 PM
From: average joe	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 69300

DUGGAN: Regardless of how Thanksgiving originated, its meaning is solid By Ryan Duggan Published: Sunday, November 20, 2011 Updated: Monday, November 21, 2011 00:11 Related Articles American Thanksgiving traces its roots to many things: an imitation of a religious festival, a failed attempt at socialism, the massacre of innocent Native Americans. Yet we rarely stop to give thanks for anything other than football and turkey. Giving the settlers at Plymouth Rock credit for establishing Thanksgiving is actually too bold. Almost every culture that bases any of its well-being on agriculture has celebrated some version of a harvest festival and Thanksgiving. Certain English sects still recognize "Harvest Home," which has deep pagan roots and celebrates the end of the harvest. William C. Hazlitt, author of "Faith and Folklore of the British Isles," proclaims the holiday's origin goes as far back as the Romans and their praise of the agriculture goddess Ceres. Another harvest feast can be found in the Old Testament. The Sukkoth is the third and final feast of the Israelites and is celebrated during the autumn harvest. Exodus 23:16 references it by saying "Celebrate the Feast of Harvest with the first fruits of the crops you sow in your field. Celebrate the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in your crops from the field." Though there are other religious functions tied in with this celebration, it's nonetheless a harvest celebration. As for the first American Thanksgiving, the Plymouth settlers actually weren't first. Marian T. Horvat, a journalist with a Ph.D. in Medieval History, claims that the first "Thanksgiving" in America was held in 1598 by Spanish explorers in El Paso, giving thanks for their safe voyage. But even before that, credit goes to Native American tribes for holding the first Thanksgiving in America. Whether it was for a successful harvest, a peace treaty between tribes or a religious celebration, Native Americans had given thanks on this land far before any other person. Instead of all of these possible origins of Thanksgiving, we focus on the select year of 1621 and fabricate it to mythical proportions. Those of European descent imagine it as a day of thanks for a successful harvest and a peaceful gathering of the Wampanoag and Pilgrims. However, Native Americans view the holiday as the beginning of the European invasion celebrating the deceitfulness of the settlers; a day when they offered peace, but war was returned. To clear things up, the Pilgrims were starving. Not because they were experimenting with a socialist economy, but because they were ill-equipped with the knowledge and supplies necessary to provide their own food. Seeing this, the Wampanoag tribe showed mercy and taught them how to grow crops and provided the settlers with the knowledge to sustain themselves on this new land. In 1621, the settlers gathered some fowl and a portion of their crop, and sat down to have a measly meal of thanks. The Wampanoag came to the settlement — whether invited, or as some have said, in a war party having been alarmed by the gunshots fired when hunting birds — and ended up contributing five deer as well as other additions to the meal. Sadly, this day is not remembered for what it was in singularity. It's either viewed as a day of American prosperity and their first successful harvest or is associated with the deceitful settlers and the massacre at Mystic River in 1637. In fact, this day was hardly remembered by many colonists and became a secular celebration. Thanksgiving was not even nationally celebrated on a single day until Abraham Lincoln recognized it in 1863. This move was used as an attempt to unify the northern and southern states with a singular holiday. Thanksgiving still wasn't portrayed as we now know it until the 1900s, most notably when Franklin D. Roosevelt declared it as a national holiday on the fourth Thursday of November. This boosted the economy and provided for a longer holiday season of shopping between Thanksgiving and Christmas. A single moment in history has gone from a day that provided a glimpse of peace between two cultures, to the beginning of a massacre. It was forgotten, later revived as a political gesture and finally transformed into a commercial holiday. Therefore, now we celebrate the eve of Black Friday with mindless, gluttonous consumption, dysfunctional family gatherings and football. What it should be, regardless of where it originated and as simple as it sounds, is a day of thanks. A day to pause for just a moment, a serene minute of truly realizing all that there is to be thankful for, and humbling yourself to life and the fortunes that it has bestowed upon you. And if it has to be related to that day in 1621 — if that occurrence of Thanksgiving is too deeply ingrained in our culture — then we should give thanks for what it is: the glimpse of peace that occurred on that day, and most importantly the honorable, selfless acts of the Wampanoag. Attention should be brought to the later mistreatment, and a sense of gratitude should be displayed toward the mercy of those native peoples. I'm not asking to forgive and forget, but to learn and come together with our neighbors, recognizing the ugly past and celebrating the hope of a better tomorrow together. dailynebraskan.com