Re: Why is Christmas on December 24?
Carmella V. Greacen (word@primenet.com)
Fri, 14 Apr 1995 23:14:25 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).
***whoops - I forgot Easter. Easter is the Spring Solstice replacement.
Some (perhaps many) goddess cultures celebrated a rite that precedes the
Christian crucifixion/resurrection. In some cases, the "king" hid for several
days in a cave while the queen cohabited with his temporary replacement. A
man/youth subsequently sacrificed to the gods of fertility/growth. Then
"king" would be resurrected - emerging from the cave. Earlier, at least from
what I've read - the actual king was sacrificed and replaced annually.
Apparently one of them had some powers of persuasion that led to the "ritual"
death routine.
I read the entire mythology section in my grade school library and later
found Joseph Campbell.
so much for practicing organized "religion!"
regards - Carmella
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