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Hmm, would they be the traditional values of the travelling poor being forced to give birth in a stable because the hotels were full of people complying with the actions of a puppet government relentlessly enthusiastically imposing the will of an occupying superpower (even one that did bring aquaducts and sanitation), or the massacre of the innocents?
Plus ca change, plus ca meme chose, seems to me.
I’m sorry, but I’m not allowed to rant anymore. If you want me to go on ranting, you’ll have to pay for another 5 minutes. 🙂
Original values – well, that’s either giving thanks to whatever because the winter solstice had passed, as though "whatever" had something to do with it, and looking forward to being able to get a nice suntan in the back garden and drag the barbie out of storage, or the christian story. Take your pick, but I have slightly more sympathy with the barbie gang.
I’m with Gordon re PYO fiction.
I don’t avoid the ‘c’ word though; Christmas is what it is now, to each of us: no more, no less, and not what it may have been to anyone else previously. For me, it’s a drag, except when it involves chldren young enough to light up because of it. Calling something by a different name does not change the referent, it just says something about the attitude of the speaker – especially when attention is drawn to it 😛
Remember those signs, still on the churches around my way: "The true millennium is the 2,000th birthday of Jesus Christ"? No it’s not; the true millennium is a period of 2,000 years, not the date on which one starts or ends. Would they say "The true year is 1st January"? And that’s leaving aside the cardinal / ordinal argument over whether it was 2000 or 2001 and whether there was a year zero. The point is that some groups, including but far from limited to the christian church, will nick anything and pretend they thought of it first.
It’s not the commercialisation of christmas that’s the problem for the christian church; it’s the growing away from religion of the populace and hence the desanctification of christmas.
Sod original values. Sod values, even. Just live and, more importantly, let live.
(Malcy, I’ve recharged your PAYG rant card. Have one on me.)
Not to mention the fact that we changed calenders half way thru….
Julian to Gregorian was it ? I dunno. 2000 years my RRRss though !
Christmas is just an excuse for being sick a little more often and with more voracity. But I’m a mere amateur at cynicism compared to some round my way ! And precisely where in the bible (any version) does it say born in a stable and visited by three wise men ? Nowhere, that’s where. Any why are the Apocrypha left out ? Where is the missing 21 years of His life ? Mention of wife and family ? Brothers and sisters ?? Try reading the Apocrypha, interesting stuff. Make Mr Da Vinci Code Brown sound almost sane.
Happier New Year all 🙂
DH
Post edited by: g8ina, at: 2004/12/28 16:34
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