Christmas is coming. Are you ready for it? Ready for the family dinners, the twinkling tree, and the exchanging of gifts? Or are the images you carry overcrowded stores, angry/rude people and Black Friday Madness?
Our culture has the made the holiday into the most popular toys, latest electronic gadgets and companies watching the ka-ching of their cash registers.
Churches have made it about pageants, musical choirs and nativity scenes complete with a huge star.
The solstice is celebrated by others with the drumming up of the sun.
Question is, what is Christmas really about? Given the various examples it would depend on whom you asked.
Our modern Christmas trees come from German tradition.
The giving of gifts DID NOT originate with the gifts the magi gave to the Christ child. It comes from the presenting of gifts to a pagan god during the Solstice. It was adapted and changed by the Catholic church.
Fact. It is too cold in the middle east for sheep to be out grazing during December. It is more likely, or so it is speculated, that Jesus was born sometime in September.
The huge star was actually a series of planetary conjunctions noted by many cultures. The Jewish people did not watch the heavens and therefore didn't know what was going on. Another reason Herod had no idea what the magi were talking about. Not to mention Mary and Joseph were living in a house when the gifts were presented. Not the stable as is commonly shown.
The story of the birth of Jesus has had a great deal of mythology added to it. Not to mention at no point does Peter, Paul or any of the followers of Christ say we should make a holiday out of our savior's birth.
So what is Christmas really? Should it really be a celebrated holiday or is it simply a tradition that is a mix of many cultures with roots no one really wants to look at? And what will it morph into in the future?
