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- Alabamamania
I'm not exactly sure why there's a couple of days' discrepancy between the Winter Solstice (usually December 21) and Xmas, but it could have something to do with the lack of leap-year days, precession, and so forth from the times. Easter, also a pagan holiday, is just a celebration of spring, as now day and night are the same length of time, and that's how we wound up with the sun facing due west when setting, and due east when rising. Every day after that, the sun a little more offset north/south when setting/rising, until it reaches a node at summer, and returns to a similar pattern for the vernal equinox, et cetera.
I suppose a parallel with Jesus's birth-death-resurrection is a good analogy; the story of how he's born in meager conditions, night-time, and so forth. Spring is when crops would grow, similar to resurrection after plants died for your dinner plate. The only problem is that Passover is mentioned as the Last Supper in the Bible, and the Jews saw fit to create a calendar that has a leap month every 19 years, which creates even more solar/lunar disparity, and it's technically off by 6 minutes shorter compared to the Christian calendar.
So to make an easy conversion of sorts 300-400 years later, early Christians just used the traditions of [wikipedia]Saturnalia[/wikipedia] and [wikipedia]Sol Invictus[/wikipedia], the later apparently was created long after Christ's death. I don't know for sure; but Xmas probably borrowed from other obscure traditions, just as it continues to do, in both large and smaller circles.
That's what is funny to me when people claim they're ruining tradition when something changes about the holidays, since Christmas traditions vary and continue to do so every year in some way or another, with elements borrowed, created, and removed each year.
I just can't stand the complexity of the gift-giving each year; it's gotten out of hand when $500 items are touted as "stocking stuffers" the the average Joe and Jane (perhaps for the richest 0.1%, they are...but face it, large-scale advertising is not meant to tackle the wallets of infinitesimal groups). I just think there's so much crap that people buy for people that don't want crappy things, for the sake of giving something. Give them a gift card, and do not think about re-gifting, unless it's a one-of-a-kind thing they've stolen from you before.
Since 1974, I'm proud to part of the problem.Foolkiller
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I am going to have lots of fun in this holidays as the card gives access to 200+ online games and worlds and the ability to purchase premium goods..
