War on "Merry Christmas"?

[OldGreyEagle 5]

Why Christmast City, USA of course, better known as Bethlehem, PA. About 90 minutes east of Harrisburg. How far from Cabela's are they?

[ozemu 10]

My daughters birthday is 26 Dec. The 25th is known as Ashleigh Eve in our house.

 

BTW what is the Yule thing? I've heard of Yule tide (don't know what that is though - just hear it from the tv) But a Yule log? And is it really referred to in greeting?

 

And of course Halloween trick or treaters just get a 'wrong continent matey' response from me. Humbug!

[eolesen 10]

 

Ed, Pack is right; if Christianity hadn't taken hold in the Empire, we would probably still be celebrating a Mithraic mid-winter festival, or a version therof.

 

 

If Christianity hadn't taken hold in the Empire, we probably wouldn't be on this continent...

 

Merry Christmas to all... May Santa Scout be good to all of you!

 

E

[Gold Winger 9]

"WE" might not be here but somone would be. The Norsemen would have colonize America or Erikland as they may have called it. The Greeks or Romans would have made it here. Who knows but someone would have come.

[CalicoPenn 729]

Ozemu - Yule is the old Scandinavian winter festival, held in late December to Early January in honor of Thor. As far Northern Europe (aka Scandinavia) was the last place in Europe to be "Christianized" (Roman soldiers were no match for Scandinavian Warriors (aka Vikings)so the Holy Roman Empire wasn't able to convert using force, as they had elsewhere in Europe), certain traditions of the Yule were absorbed into and tolerated in the Church's Christmas Traditions, such as the Yule Log. Yuletide refers to the time of the Yule - the old Anglo-Saxon calendar had two 60-day periods known as "tides", one of which was in the summer and one of which was December/January.

 

As far as the so-called war on "Merry Christmas": First, anyone who needs to hear "Merry Christmas" from a $10.00/hour retail store clerk who would say this hundreds of times a day and not mean it, needs to take a long and close look at their own lives. And second, when retail clerks (or anyone else for that matter) start responding to people who say "Merry Christmas" to them with 50-caliber gunfire, THEN you can call it a war - until that time, stop perpetuating this utter nonsense.

 

Calico

[SR540Beaver 116]

Happy Festivus to the rest of us!

[packsaddle 753]

Well the Santa suit is packed away til next year. And I guess we'll be passing Dan in the opposite direction on our way to NYC for Christmas (I love NY) and driving right past OGE on the way (we go up I81 and then across on I78, connecting to the Outerbridge). So I'll be signing off for a while. Merry Christmas to all on the forums. Y'all play nice now, you hear?

[ozemu 10]

Thanks CalicoPenn I love history but to my last days I will mourn the fact that my teacher over four years knew a lot about ancient China and all I ever wanted to study was Rome and the middle ages. I now read historical fiction constantly but I have not read much about the Vikings since I was a boy. Time to go there. You've sparked a flame - thanks for the Christmas present. And Merry Yule Tide.

[Merlyn_LeRoy 72]

Uh, people have been on the north & south american continents for around 12,000 years, so it doesn't matter if christianity took hold or not, there were already people here long before then.

[eolesen 10]

Yes, Merlyn, but pretty much all of us here would have been born on other continents, speaking different languages.

 

It's a great chaos theory experiment... Take away Christianity, and the subsequent religious persecution of the 1600's becomes the crushed butterfly... Colonization might have eventually occurred, but without the English colonies, the USA (and thus BSA) would have probably never been formed...

 

And yes, I hope you too have a Merry Christmas...