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Topic: Seasonal

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Subject: Seasonal
Date Posted: 4/19/2014 11:54 AM ET
Member Since: 10/17/2006
Posts: 1,427
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Not to be irreverent about it,  but does it make you smile when one of such days rolls 'round, such as "Christmas" and "Easter", and you once again observe that the parts of the attendant celebrations that people love best are the 'pagan' elements?

What does a candy-egg delivering rabbit have to do with Passover and Easter?   And an evergreen tree full of tinsel and glitter, and a fat old bewhiskered fellow and a troop of elves, and stockings (or wooden shoes) to be stuffed with goodies,  to do with Christmas?  Etc.?



Last Edited on: 4/19/14 11:55 AM ET - Total times edited: 1
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Date Posted: 4/23/2014 9:18 AM ET
Member Since: 11/28/2006
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I told my work colleagues that I would be happy to tell them about the fertility goddess Eostre and why eggs/bunnies are around at Easter if they were interested.  Some were - some weren't.

 

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Date Posted: 4/23/2014 2:09 PM ET
Member Since: 6/30/2008
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Easter is placed in the calender each year according to the equinox and the phases of the moon.

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Date Posted: 4/23/2014 5:44 PM ET
Member Since: 10/17/2006
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like Passover, Charles . . . . . .

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Date Posted: 12/23/2014 4:30 PM ET
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Same thing goes for Christmas . . . . it's interesting to think about what connection flying reindeer, tinsel and glitter-decked evergreen trees, and a talking snowman named (only) Frosty have to do with one of Christendom's two BIG "holy days", isn't it?  I got out Frazier's The Golden Bough (the one-volume version, not the set of twelve!) a few days ago, to refresh my memory about the origins of the December 25 observance.  Why do we read history, study archaeology, ponder cultural anthropological findings, try to decipher symbology from earlier peoples, etc., but refuse to see that our 21st century cosmologies had a long line of predecessors down through human history?  There's certainly no shame in that, is there?