Re: Why is Christmas on December 24?

Carmella V. Greacen (word@primenet.com)
Fri, 14 Apr 1995 23:10:13 MST

In article <ifjed.574.2F8AF305@nmsua.nmsu.edu> ifjed@nmsua.nmsu.edu (Jack Davis) writes:
>From: ifjed@nmsua.nmsu.edu (Jack Davis)
>Subject: Re: Why is Christmas on December 24?
>Date: Tue, 11 Apr 1995 21:22:13 GMT

>Actually, in Sweden Midsummer's Day seemed to me to be more celebrated than
>Christmas (and a lot more fun, especially the toast after each song).
>Crayfish Day is good, too, even though importing the little buggers from
>Louisiana deflates it a little. But after several cups of skaansk aquavit,
>you don't really notice. Danes, on the other hand, have a better Christmas
>blow-out. Iceland's somewhere in between. Could these differing emphases
>be based on nationalism?

>My girlfriend, who is Spanish, has never heard of hunting Easter eggs laid
>by the Easter bunny. She asked, where this comes from? Where DOES it come
>from? In Spain, they don't seem to have all the different kinds of spirits
>we have in the English-speaking world (they're all lumped into a few
>categories, like duendes, fantasmas and espiritus).

***perhaps I missed it - surely someone has discussed the winter solstice?
"Pagans" (whatever that means besides the predecessors of the patriarchal
single "god" - apparently did some serious partying for Winter Solstice.
So subsequent religions adapted many holidays to make their "converts"
more amenable to the new rites/rituals/ceremonies. Horror of horrors . .
some folks didn't buy it.

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and that's my "sacrilege" for the day
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regards - Carmella