(Started December 20, 2005) This is the time of year that we celebrate all sorts of holidays er rather "Holy Days".  Holiday comes from "holy day".  People celebrate, Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanza, New Years and this new one, "Chrismahanukwanzakah".  Then there's an old term for this time of year Saturnalia.  Yes, this time of year was once known as Saturnalia.  The reason there are lights on the "Christmas" tree, is because people put candles on the tree.  It had to do with the pre-Christian religions of Europe.  If I remember correctly it had to do with celebrating the longest night of the year.  And they wanted to insure that the sun came back. I am paraphrasing how it went anyway.  Hope I am not offending anyone.

December 21, 2005  There's a lot of myths about this time of year.  For one thing, Jesus was not originally "the reason for the season". The original "reason for the season" was celebrating the winter solstice. Jesus was born in September. (Around Sept. 11, 3 BC [BCE] )  It wasn't on a "silent night" either.  He was born during the "Feast of Trumpets" or Rosh Hashanah.     The way we know that Jesus was born in September  is because we can read records, such as, the one in Revelation chapter 12 which talks about the time that Jesus was born.  It records what the stars looked like in the heavens.  If you know astronomy, or have the right computer program, you can study what the stars looked like back in 3 BC [3 BCE].  Now even though I know that Jesus wasn't born on a silent night, I do like the song as a song.  You can enjoy the melody or the history of the song itself.  You do not have to think of the words, to enjoy the melody.  I came from one of the best families on earth.  We have a tradition of singing "Silent Night" at our Christmas Eve gathering.  When I hear the melody I think of the gatherings like we used to have them many years ago.  Then I get very homesick!

According to a documentary I saw on the History Channel a year or two ago, this idealized "Victorian" Christmas that "Americans" strive for, is something of a myth.  In the early 1800's and back, Christmas wasn't an official holiday.  There were drunken brawls (riots) that took place in the large cities of the U.S. on Christmas.  It was the concerted effort of writers and other shapers of popular culture, to invent the myth of the "traditional" family gathering at Christmas.  It was German immigrants and Queen Victoria that popularized the Christmas tree in this country.  The evergreen tree and plants like "holly" were part of the winter solstice celebrations.  It is still popular in some countries to put real candles onto the Christmas tree.  Red and green, the colors of the holly plant, are still the colors of "Christmas". 

Some people "celebrate" a "Mass" on December 25th.  The word, "Christmas" comes from "Christ's Mass". If I understand correctly, in the Mass the participants are re-sacrificing Christ as a presentation to God. Well, Jesus Christ only needed to die for our sins once.  He is risen from the dead.  He sits at the right hand of God. Why in the world would we need to do this again for God's benefit?  It doesn't make much sense.  I don't know if there was much celebrating that Jesus died.  We celebrate his accomplishments and the fact that he has risen and sits at the right hand of God. 

Ok, so about the "liberal's war on Christmas".  Here in Michigan there was this family who put this "Crèche" (manger scene) out in front of their house.  Someone complained to their neighborhood association about it being there. The neighborhood association was going to fine them a lot of money every day until they removed it.  So this group that does for religious people, what the ACLU does for other's, was going to sue on the family's behalf.  I can see how a Creche could be considered offensive.  But how does someone have the right to have it removed from a private home?  Maybe the neighborhood association banned religious displays?  But how can that be a correct thing---to keep someone from using their "free speech" by displaying what they want.  Of course you know that the ACLU complained that these people wanted the creche in their yard. [As you know, those Christian, "Fundamentalists" (Fundies), want to legislate a Christian "theocracy", onto the U.S.. Ha! "They" claim that the "majority" wants to squeeze out any minority opinion in this country.]  My question is this,  "If this family had wanted a nude statue in their front yard, and one of the "Fundies" found it offensive, would the ACLU have fought tooth and nail for the family to keep it there?".  

Oops! I nearly left out this point.  One thing that really irritates me is when "leftists" like to have removed, "Christmas" trees and other "signs of the season".  Here they are complaining because the Christmas tree is a "Christian" symbol and it shouldn't be in a "government" building like a school or university.  The "Christmas" tree,  is a symbol of the festival to celebrate the winter solstice.  It isn't a "Christian" symbol at all.  The tree may have come to be used by Christians.  These same "Christian"  people have obviously forgotten the original meaning behind these trees. It is irritating to me when these "leftist", "anti-God" people try to "erase" the God of the Bible from their view, by getting rid of something that is not of God in the first place!  They accuse us of not knowing history.  They complain about how we Evangelicals are trying to return the country to this "imagined past".  But yet they do not even know the "pagan" [non-Christian] origins of the "Christmas" tree!!

The other thing that really irritates me is when a government will put up the Minnorah, and other "religious" symbols, but yet they won't put up the Christian symbol.  It doesn't seem fair.  But according to the left, it is fair since Christians have been the dominant force in this country for too long.  It is not just in modern times that people have attempted to call this country a "Christian" nation. We were very diverse in a lot of ways.  But our history has always been predominantly "Christian". 

I can understand why people from "The South" (who are born into that predominantly Conservative Christian culture) would want to escape and become "atheists" or "agnostics". I tried that for a while.  It didn't work for me. I once thought it was very odd when the Sunday school teacher said we should live through the week, what we learn on Sunday.  I thought come Monday a person should go back to being a "regular person" again.  Ha! Not all the people in "The South" are "Fundamentalist".  I hate being called a "Fundamentalist" or "Fundie".  In the South it seems to me like it is more of a "Christian" culture than it is "Up North" where I live.  Up here it seems to be a heavily Catholic culture.  Where I come from, they are mostly Protestants of various flavors.  I just don't know why "they" have to try and change things so heavily.  I am talking about people on both sides of the "Culture War".  The people who call my beliefs, "religious anti-rationalism", want what we NEVER had, and that is NO religion whatsoever in any public place.  And then there are some on the other side, who would like to see what we also never had which is this, what the left calls a "theocracy".  The only way to have a Christian culture is for "Each One Reach One". It is not for us to legislate Christianity (or what people think of as "Christianity") onto the people of this country. 

On a side note, it was not "racism", or rather, "classism", that caused the "Founding Fathers" to want voters to be land owners.  As I understand things, they weren't against poor people as such.  People who have half a brain and are able to get themselves together enough that they own property, are better able to vote.  This means they are possibly able to read, but more importantly they are able to "reason" and "think" which are two important abilities voters should have.  An educated voter is better than a voter who blankly pokes at the "hanging chads". Right now in the U.S. we allow anyone to vote.  There is a lot of "illegal" voting that takes place. We have illegal aliens,

[Oops! "Immigrants" who do not yet have their "green card".] dead people, people who have already voted and other voters who are not supposed to be voting. I hope to become a better educated voter the next time I vote. I know that in the past I have voted for people simply because they had unusual names amongst other reasons. I hope to do better next time.

It is very late "at this juncture".  I must be going.  But, "I shall return"!  I will probably return on another page.  That is, unless you see more after this text, with another date above it.  Check back to this page or this site as you never know what will happen to it.  Thanks for reading this.  If you have any comments, let me know.  Thanks!