I celebrate Christmas in a basically secular fashion, and so on Christmas Eve, I offer my traditional benediction.
In every part of the world that has a serious winter, we find the same form of celebration. In the deepest, darkest part of the winter, when everything’s been cold and dead for months and you’ve been cooped up with the same bunch of people eating the same crappy food for so long you’re about ready to kill someone, that’s when the party happens. We get gluttonous and drunk and give presents and tell everyone how much we love them and we sing old songs. We remind ourselves that we are still alive and we still love each other, and that light and life will come back to the world before too long.
So whichever form of that you celebrate, merry that. And don’t let anyone dictate to you how to enjoy it based on your gender, ’cause fuck that noise.
Southern hemisphere, so we celebrated Summer Solstice at the beach … and then eat-up large on Christmas Day (happy late Saturnalia !).
No public holiday for our mid-winter, so we have our own little rituals at the end of June.
Been thinking of you all, up there in the dark (I know it’s a bleak time for you, especially, Noah). Sending some of this light and warmth to you, now we’re on the way to your mid-summer again !
No matter what day, no matter what it’s called, no matter what it is to you, I hope you all had a wonderful holiday .*muah* much love all around <3
@YmcY: Yes, in my fear about the homophobic slur, I forgot about the one towards Kirstie. Should I still play it?
@Noah Brand: For me, a video combining one of the great Christmas songs with one of the great Christmas specials was too good to pass up.
Anyway, this one contains no unfortunate words:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpmiPbDkvBQ
May God bless you all; or Her absence if that’s your thing.
Wait. Maybe I’m wrong. That song contains in a pejorative sense at least TWO nasty words.
Happy Christmas Everyone!
And happy all of the other holidays, too.
@monkey: Surely you could have at the very least named the song, provided the word is not in the name?
And given my guess that it is Fairytale of New York, one of the great Christmas songs all time, that’s not the case. Also….. well I hope we can be allowed to be enjoy beautiful songs even if they may have flaws.
@monkey: THANK YOU for that RUN-DMC vid. People forget that they did that song, which I always enjoy. But then, I was a child during what Keith Knight called the Golden Age of hip-hop, so perhaps I’m spoiled. 🙂
@Schala: So many things have silly/ugly historical baggage attached to them. You say you might “celebrate the end of the year”; but have you ever thought about why the year ends when it does? The Romans originally measured years starting in MARCH. But all new government officials assumed offices at the start of the year, including generals. As they undertook more distant conquests, travelling from Rome to the front-lines consumed valuable time when the armies could be marching. So the assumption of offices, and the start of the year, was moved back (so the generals could travel while the army… Read more »
@ Schala: Another way to look at it is that Christians wanted to incorporate pagan festivities, not “overwrite” them.
Joyeux Noël from Canada…Christmas Eve is the big day for me, and in my secular fashion, it’s all about good food, watching football, being able to stay in your pj’s all day, and enjoy relaxing with my partner (and the dog, who hogs the couch). I’ll Skype with my family in other time zones later today and watch more cheesy old movies, open the last of the gifts, and haul out the leftovers 🙂 Enjoy whatever you celebrate with whoever you share it with and a happy new year to everyone as well!
I’ve made sugar cookies for my relatives at Solsticemas. :3 I’m Pagan, and celebrate Yule privately at home, but the rest of my family is all Christian, and doesn’t know about my faith. So I’m celebrating a second time today.
Gender is universal. Meet Mrs Chewbakka at 3.25 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbF_ecnlyTk
Happy terminal period of the year (calendar not financial)!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xW7EL3_xL9s
On the other hand, if anyone objects to this, I can’t help them…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vF3cRi8bkA
There’s a song I love so much for Christmas, but I… it’s hard, because it features a single nasty word. (Hint: It’s an Irish group and a late female singer).
Happy Mithras’s Birthday to one and all! 🙂
I’ve been listening to these songs a lot this holiday season:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxDwy8JkFFI&feature=related
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_KiHRHwaAs
The Pagan ritual of the Winter Solstice celebration, anterior to Christmas and overridden by it.
Jesus was most likely not born on December 25th, but to Christian authorities, overriding the pagan ritual was worth it, regardless of the accuracy of the date.
I celebrate the solstice. Period. I might eat food, too. Mostly to celebrate the end of the year.