what is christmas all about? - Page 2 - Darkforum.com - Dark Stories, Dark Art, Poetry, Photography, Debates and Discussions

Iron's Rite · 12-09-04

No matter how much you may genuinely dislike consummerism, we all enjoy getting gifts for the holiday.
I like getting together with my family the best though, we're just dysfunctional enough to be interesting without being grotesquely dysfunctional. Although of course there is always somebody in any family who crosses that line . . .

As for Santa, well that's an interesting story:

Quote:

"The history of the death and resurrection of the beast-god that sired Santa is older than Greece, even older than modern humans. It was a ceremony of death and resurrection, of life and fertility, carried on by an ancient aboriginal people - called elves or fairies by later settlers - and adopted by these settlers, who replaced them and continued the sacred rituals throughout Europe."

http://www.forteantimes.com/articles/118_santan.shtml

Nivvie · 12-09-04

You don't have to be religious to enjoy Christmas!
The actual birth of Christ, if you believe in the bible that is, was about October time. The church then came along and knew that people were never going to give up the winter solstice, what with the traditional feasting, tree decorating etc
So they Christianised it.
The feasting was due to the fact that the harvested food would not last much longer and so the more perishable and unsaltable food needed to be eaten and the more frail animals that wouldn't survive the rest of the winter needed to be killed.
It is the festival Yule! Try your best to enjoy it, cos I know it aint always easy...