I celebrate The Holidays
Yes, all of them.
I LOVE this time of year for many reasons; but I mostly love them because of my children. I love to see their delight and excitement in all of the things that we do and traditions that we choose to either carry on or invent.
I celebrate and love The Holidays and have a place in my heart for each one of them.
Thanksgiving rocks. Lots of eating and food and football games on television. Everything is quiet because nothing is open and it's usually cold outside. It's only too bad that D. can't celebrate with me because her Thanksgiving is in September or something, (those Canadiens are such non conformists. . .)
I get so excited when I see a Menorah and always want to buy one and light the candles every night for eight nights; but since I don't know how to do it, it would probably be disrespectful to do so.
I love the colors of Kwanzaa, and again, don't know how to do it but I'm excited for people who celebrate that holiday.
Winter Solstice is so ancient and great; celebrating nature and the wonderfullness and mystery of all that is from our earth.
Christmas with all that it is and what it represents is a lovely holiday that fills the world with hope.
And New Years? Any day dedicated to drinking champagne, sounds good to me.
The Holidays in what they are today area collection of cultures and beliefs, some stemming back over 4000 years bringing with them an array of traditions and treats and fun to share with EVERYONE.
The ancient Mesopotamians celebrated their New Year festival in the winter for 12 Days. (Later those 12 Days of celebration became the 12 Days of Christmas.)
In ancient Scandinavia when the sun would disapear in the long winter nights they would celebrate the Yuletide and burn a Yule log to celebrate the return of the sun.
Ancient Persians and Babylonians as well as ancient Greeks would celebrate a winter battle between two gods and have winter festivals with lots of eating and drinking to cheer on their god.
The Roman's celebrated Saturnalia, a huge winter holiday that lasted from the middle of December to the beginning of January. They would have huge feasts and visit friends and gave eachother gifts; that is how we came to gift giving today! They would decorate with garland and greenery (sound familiar?)
Germans used to decorate trees to celebrate the Winter Solstice.
I mentioned early in this post that it's great to be able to carry on traditions or invent new ones. Most of the traditions that we as a society practice today are in fact "invented" traditions and a lot of what and how we celebrate today is infact due to author Washington Irving who re-invented Christmas in the 19th Century. Shortly after, Charles Dickens wrote "A Christmas Carol," and so it went. Christmas wasn't even a federal holiday until 1870. Before that, Congress and everyone else still went to work that day.
Other "invented" traditions came from Mexico (brought us the Poinsettia,) England (brought us the holiday greeting card,) The Celtic people brought us misteltoe, and the US of A brought us eggnog (a nog is any drink made with rum, yum,) and most importantly. . .The Big Guy. . . aka, Santa Clause. And really people, WHO doesn't like Santa? What's not to like? A big Guy in red velvet (the appropriate time to wear red velvet, I might add,) who comes into your house while you're sleeping and leaves you presents (Nikon D-50, Nikon D-50, Nikon D-50, Nikon D-50, Nikon D-50) How cool is he?
And finally there is the modern, invented tradition of Rudolph, but that's another post altogether.
To me, the modern and current recognition and celebration of The Holidays is exactly what it should be; a great melting pot of ancient and modern tradition with fun songs, bright lights, eggnog, cookies, ham and presents, (Nikon D-50, Nikon D-50, Nikon D-50, Nikon D-50, Nikon D-50,) and I am delighted to be sharing and participating in all of the traditions that make this time of year so special and wonderful.
For more information on the History of Christmas, go to this presentation from the History Channel online.
I LOVE this time of year for many reasons; but I mostly love them because of my children. I love to see their delight and excitement in all of the things that we do and traditions that we choose to either carry on or invent.
I celebrate and love The Holidays and have a place in my heart for each one of them.
Thanksgiving rocks. Lots of eating and food and football games on television. Everything is quiet because nothing is open and it's usually cold outside. It's only too bad that D. can't celebrate with me because her Thanksgiving is in September or something, (those Canadiens are such non conformists. . .)
I get so excited when I see a Menorah and always want to buy one and light the candles every night for eight nights; but since I don't know how to do it, it would probably be disrespectful to do so.
I love the colors of Kwanzaa, and again, don't know how to do it but I'm excited for people who celebrate that holiday.
Winter Solstice is so ancient and great; celebrating nature and the wonderfullness and mystery of all that is from our earth.
Christmas with all that it is and what it represents is a lovely holiday that fills the world with hope.
And New Years? Any day dedicated to drinking champagne, sounds good to me.
The Holidays in what they are today area collection of cultures and beliefs, some stemming back over 4000 years bringing with them an array of traditions and treats and fun to share with EVERYONE.
The ancient Mesopotamians celebrated their New Year festival in the winter for 12 Days. (Later those 12 Days of celebration became the 12 Days of Christmas.)
In ancient Scandinavia when the sun would disapear in the long winter nights they would celebrate the Yuletide and burn a Yule log to celebrate the return of the sun.
Ancient Persians and Babylonians as well as ancient Greeks would celebrate a winter battle between two gods and have winter festivals with lots of eating and drinking to cheer on their god.
The Roman's celebrated Saturnalia, a huge winter holiday that lasted from the middle of December to the beginning of January. They would have huge feasts and visit friends and gave eachother gifts; that is how we came to gift giving today! They would decorate with garland and greenery (sound familiar?)
Germans used to decorate trees to celebrate the Winter Solstice.
I mentioned early in this post that it's great to be able to carry on traditions or invent new ones. Most of the traditions that we as a society practice today are in fact "invented" traditions and a lot of what and how we celebrate today is infact due to author Washington Irving who re-invented Christmas in the 19th Century. Shortly after, Charles Dickens wrote "A Christmas Carol," and so it went. Christmas wasn't even a federal holiday until 1870. Before that, Congress and everyone else still went to work that day.
Other "invented" traditions came from Mexico (brought us the Poinsettia,) England (brought us the holiday greeting card,) The Celtic people brought us misteltoe, and the US of A brought us eggnog (a nog is any drink made with rum, yum,) and most importantly. . .The Big Guy. . . aka, Santa Clause. And really people, WHO doesn't like Santa? What's not to like? A big Guy in red velvet (the appropriate time to wear red velvet, I might add,) who comes into your house while you're sleeping and leaves you presents (Nikon D-50, Nikon D-50, Nikon D-50, Nikon D-50, Nikon D-50) How cool is he?
And finally there is the modern, invented tradition of Rudolph, but that's another post altogether.
To me, the modern and current recognition and celebration of The Holidays is exactly what it should be; a great melting pot of ancient and modern tradition with fun songs, bright lights, eggnog, cookies, ham and presents, (Nikon D-50, Nikon D-50, Nikon D-50, Nikon D-50, Nikon D-50,) and I am delighted to be sharing and participating in all of the traditions that make this time of year so special and wonderful.
For more information on the History of Christmas, go to this presentation from the History Channel online.
posted by Kathryn at
8:26 AM
2 Comments:
Damn RSG..thanks for the history lesson!
Very freakin cool!
Good post, sister.
Those D50s are on sale in these parts.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home