[stylist] Origins of Santa and Christmas

[Marion Gwizdala]

Bridgit,
    There is a really good book on this subject entitled, "4000 Years of 
Christmas". I haven't read it in awhile, but might see if I can get my hands 
on it before the holidays are out!

Fraternally yours,
Marion


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bridgit Pollpeter" <bpollpeter at hotmail.com>
To: <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, December 10, 2011 5:12 PM
Subject: [stylist] Origins of Santa and Christmas


> What theology is off? It's put bluntly, but according to the Jewish
> religion, they don't "need" Jesus because he is not a part of that
> religion. Everything Chris writes about Chanukah is correct, and the
> Hebrew/Jewish concept of a "savior" is not the same as the Christian.
>
> As far as personal beliefs go, the theology may be "wrong" depending on
> what religion you prescribe too, but the facts as known and accepted by
> Jews is not incorrect at all.
>
> And as for Christians "stealing" pagan rituals, this is true, but again,
> put bluntly. When Christianity spread west, converts, particularly
> Celtic converts, fused many old rituals with the new Christian ones, and
> many of the Christian concepts were similar and made it "easy" for some
> to combine the two traditions. Yule logs, decorated fir trees, mistletoe
> and even Santa... Many of these things were originally a part of pagan
> practices that the Christian church later adopted and made into
> Christian rituals.
>
> That we celebrate Christmas in December is in fact a pagan thing because
> Christmas was originally practiced in the spring, which is believed to
> be the real birth date of Jesus, but the winter solstice is in
> mid-December, and when western converts began to celebrate Christmas, it
> was switched to help the former pagans ease into Christianity.
>
> Santa too is a much debated topic even within the Christian communities.
> For so long it was thought he derived from a St. Nick dwelling in the
> Netherlands, but now many believe Santa may be based off a St. Nick who
> was a bishop in Turkey, or what is now Turkey. Most parts of the world,
> however, have a version of Santa that varies greatly. And yes, there are
> pagan gods, demi-gods of the Celtic and Viking practices, resembling
> Santa. The Santa we now know derives from department store marketing
> ploys from the 1950's, which is pretty widely accepted even among
> Christians.
>
> Because Christmas was so infused with pagan customs, the Puritans, when
> first coming to America, refused to celebrate Christmas, and for years,
> the Puritans did nothing in December to recognize, or participate in any
> way, with Christmas practices.
>
> This is all well-documented with plenty of archeological, historical and
> anthropological evidence to back it all up. It doesn't mean it takes
> anything away from Christianity, or that any belief isn't real, but
> Chris isn't "making" anything up here.
>
> Sincerely,
> Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter
> Read my blog at:
> http://blogs.livewellnebraska.com/author/bpollpeter/
>
> "History is not what happened; history is what was written down."
> The Expected One- Kathleen McGowan
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Fri, 9 Dec 2011 11:48:45 -0600
> From: "Barbara Hammel" <poetlori8 at msn.com>
> To: "Writer's Division Mailing List" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
> Subject: Re: [stylist] Holiday exercise, part 1: Schmanta Claus
> Message-ID: <SNT139-ds12BE7922AEF721F9337D74EBB90 at phx.gbl>
> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
> reply-type=response
>
> I think this was a well written piece.  Perhaps your theology is off a
> bit,
> but ...
> Barbara
>
>
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