BS: How do u celebrate midwinter godlessly?

Subject: RE: BS: How do u celebrate midwinter godlessly?
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 23 Dec 07 - 02:00 PM

And again..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swaddling

Subject: RE: BS: How do u celebrate midwinter godlessly?
From: Alice
Date: 23 Dec 07 - 02:16 PM

I'm with Wolfgang on enjoying the traditions.
Even though I am not religious, I like the music, the Christmas trees
(although I don't put one up any more) and the festiveness of the season that brightens the cold, dark days.

Subject: RE: BS: How do u celebrate midwinter godlessly?
From: john f weldon
Date: 23 Dec 07 - 04:39 PM

A little tale apropos of nothing:
When I was young, I noticed that everything we did on Christmas became part of a tradition; if we did something one year, we had to do it every year forever after. Playing table shuffleboard on Xmas Eve or reassembling the old toy train....
Naturally Christmas became ever more complex as we tried to fit in all the traditions.

One year my (then about 6-yr old) sister ran downstairs to look at her presents, and the excitment overwhelmed her. She stared for a second, then ran to the kitchen sink and vomited violently!

My father watched grimly. "Oh God, now we have to add this as well!"

Subject: RE: BS: How do u celebrate midwinter godlessly?
From: Emma B
Date: 23 Dec 07 - 04:43 PM

I bet that was a toss-up between threads john :)

Subject: RE: BS: How do u celebrate midwinter godlessly?
From: john f weldon
Date: 23 Dec 07 - 05:39 PM

Thanks EmmaB, and I also thought it worth repeating something from the endless No God thread... ...hey, it's almost Xmas Eve....

Two of my best friends are VERY religious (one RC, another evangelist) and we tease each other but always remain friends.

Love trumps ideology any day.

(Hey didn't I just coin a nice Xmas phrase?)

Subject: RE: BS: How do u celebrate midwinter godlessly?
From: Joe_F
Date: 23 Dec 07 - 08:58 PM

I read things that allow me to meditate on Christianity with less than usual hostility:

Matthew 1-2; Luke 2 (c. 100)
Charles Dickens, "A Christmas Carol" (1843)
Rudyard Kipling, "Christmas in India", "Eddi's Service", in _Verse:
Definitive Edition_, pp. 53-55, 512-513 (1886, 1910)
Edna St. Vincent Millay, "The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver", in
_Collected Poems_, pp. 177-184 (1922)
Jean Ritchie, "Brightest and Best...The Ritchies Take Christmas", in
_Singing Family of the Cumberlands_, Chapter 10, pp. 146-178 (1930)
Ogden Nash, "I Remember Yule" (1939)
W. H. Auden, "For the Time Being", in _Collected Poems_, pp. 269-308
(1941)
George Orwell, "As I Please", in _The Collected Essays, Journalism and
Letters_, Vol. 4, pp. 256-259 (1946)
James Agee, "Lines Suggested by a Tennessee Song", in _The Collected
Poems_, pp. 71-75 (1949)
John Betjeman, "Christmas", in _Collected Poems_, pp. 153-154 (1954)
David McReynolds, "The Bowery: A Ghetto without a Constituency", in
_We Have Been Invaded by the 21st Century_, pp. 38-43 (1968)

Subject: RE: BS: How do u celebrate midwinter godlessly?
From: john f weldon
Date: 23 Dec 07 - 09:21 PM

We heathens have the logic, but them Christians got lotsa good songs!

Subject: RE: BS: How do u celebrate midwinter godlessly?
From: GUEST,PMB
Date: 24 Dec 07 - 03:52 AM

Sorry John, but what precisely are these "love trumps"?

Subject: RE: BS: How do u celebrate midwinter godlessly?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 24 Dec 07 - 05:55 AM

love trumps

the one you love doing a prolonged fart. It vibrates against you in bed, and you think, that's my girl......

too much detail perhaps?

Subject: RE: BS: How do u celebrate midwinter godlessly?
From: MaineDog
Date: 24 Dec 07 - 12:38 PM

A few days ago I went to a solstice party given by one of my friends. We were promised a secret solstice ritual at the appropriate time. The hostess handed out oranges and ordered us to peel them. Then we were commanded to break up the peel, assign each of our faults to a little piece of it, and throw the pieces into the fire.
Somehow, that wasn't particularly exciting, although the orange was good.
After that about half the guests began to sing old-fashioned religious Christmas carols without any help from me. A good time was had by all.
Then I went to a contradance.
MD

Subject: RE: BS: How do u celebrate midwinter godlessly?
From: Bill D
Date: 24 Dec 07 - 12:51 PM

"assign each of our faults to a little piece of it, and throw the pieces into the fire."

*tsk*...I'd need at LEAST a couple of large grapefruit!

Subject: RE: BS: How do u celebrate midwinter godlessly?
From: CapriUni
Date: 24 Dec 07 - 01:31 PM

MaineDog -- no whoops of joy? No banging pots and pans loudly to banish dark spirits, nothing but a burning up of your flaws? tsk.

Subject: RE: BS: How do u celebrate midwinter godlessly?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 25 Dec 07 - 01:43 AM

Thousands of people have put lights on their houses in the winter, all over the place, and I don't assume they're all Christian-- maybe they're onto a good approach, and good for them!

Happy WhateverYouWantToCallIt, folks.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: How do u celebrate midwinter godlessly?
From: Stringsinger
Date: 25 Dec 07 - 07:17 PM

The answer: Easilly. Lights are always good. Be merry and full of good cheer no matter
what you believe or don't.

Bring people into your life and celebrate, celebrate, celebrate.

(Like the old joke, the monk says to his fellows, "Hey guys, we got it all wrong in the
translation. The word is "celebrate".

Frank Hamlton

Subject: RE: BS: How do u celebrate midwinter godlessly?
From: Amos
Date: 25 Dec 07 - 07:25 PM

Clebrate!
Celebrate!
Celebrate!
No need to wait!!
Thor off weight!!
Palpitate!!
Excitate!!
Resonate!!
And celebrate, celebrate, celebrate!!!

AFter all -- there are only two things to do with your time. One is lash the beast, and the other is celebrate victory!!!


A

Subject: RE: BS: How do u celebrate midwinter godlessly?
From: Amos
Date: 25 Dec 07 - 07:36 PM

ANd it requires no special chemicals or mythical entities, either.


A

Subject: RE: BS: How do u celebrate midwinter godlessly?
From: Stringsinger
Date: 25 Dec 07 - 09:35 PM

John, gives a whole new meaning to Christmas cookies. (Sorry about that).

Frank

Subject: RE: BS: How do u celebrate midwinter godlessly?
From: GUEST,Neil D
Date: 26 Dec 07 - 03:33 PM

I'm a secular humanist and my wife is Wiccan and we callit Christmas. I agree with what a previous poster said about the days of the week being named for pagan deities. You don't have to worship Thor to call the 5th day Thursday. Also, you don't suppose all the revellers at Mardi Gras are going to Mass in the morning and rubbing ashes on there forehead, do you?
    I do understand some people not wanting to be wished a Merry Christmas. I used to run a phone center in Central Ohio where the main ethnic group was first and second generation Appalachians. I had a really hard time trying to get some of them to not wish strangers a Merry Christmas on the phone. "Merry Christmas, Mrs. Rosenberg" might grate on my ears, but they didn't seem to know better. (Once when I was explaining that we would suspend calling in certain areas during Yom Kippur because of a large Jewish population, I had a young lady ask me in all seriousness, "What are Jewish people?".) I finally convinced them to say "Have a nice holiday" because everyone gets a holiday even if it's just a legal one from work.
    We cook huge feasts for family. Christmas dinner is ALWAYS roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. (Turkey is for Thanksgiving and ham is for sandwiches, Philistines!) This year with French Onion soup using chicken broth instead of the traditional beef broth, super smashed potatoes, glazed carrots, biscuits, fruitcake, and pecan caramel pumpkin pie. This is after cooking a large amount on Christmas Eve when we hosted my wife's family's Christmas party. We'll be eating leftovers till New Years. Then we'll host another party on New Years Eve.

Subject: RE: BS: How do u celebrate midwinter godlessly?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 26 Dec 07 - 05:12 PM

It's a miserable time of year if one can't fly first class to Dubai, but a few of the more companionable family members and a good dinner help.
This year we voted against kitchen slavery and took in the buffet at our 4-star Hyatt-Regency- and we will do it again.
A fine representation of seafoods- salmon several ways, suchi, oysters on the halfshell, mussels, large prawns, crab, etc. in two area, fine beef, turkey and bison at another, and excellent auxilliary choices- vegetables roasted to perfection, prepared salads or your selections, excellent desserts (the tiramisu and English trifle should get special mention, and they spiced the pumpkin properly), and other choices too numerous to mention.
The staff provided wine service, removed empty plates to provide room for the next selected choices, and offered a fine selection of ports as well as dessert liquors and coffees at the conclusion.

A much more relaxing way to spend 'Christmas' than at home. The day could have been extended with a visit to their Spa- perhaps next time.

Subject: RE: BS: How do u celebrate midwinter godlessly?
From: autolycus
Date: 27 Dec 07 - 04:40 AM

Don't most people in the West answer the question by going to the post-Christmas sales to spend their credit cards on not-actual bargains propagated as real bargains?


Ivor

Subject: RE: BS: How do u celebrate midwinter godlessly?
From: Art Thieme
Date: 27 Dec 07 - 02:38 PM

With a nice piece o' gefilte fish!

Art

Subject: RE: BS: How do u celebrate midwinter godlessly?
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 27 Dec 07 - 06:27 PM

Art, ain't no such thing as a good piece of gefilte fish' If there were, it wouldn't need to be served with nose-numbing, tear-causing horse radish. I feel pretty much--no, exactly--the same about Dim Sum.

Subject: RE: BS: How do u celebrate midwinter godlessly?
From: Art Thieme
Date: 27 Dec 07 - 09:37 PM

I didn't say "good"---I said, "NICE!" ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: How do u celebrate midwinter godlessly?
From: autolycus
Date: 30 Dec 07 - 10:11 AM

John, you haven't tasted my Mum's gefilte fish. 'Good' doesn't begin to cover it.

HNY

Ivor

Subject: RE: BS: How do u celebrate midwinter godlessly?
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 30 Dec 07 - 07:27 PM

I like tradition and I like holidays -- why not celebrate them all? So I do!

I'm glad I'm not an atheist -- but don't try to nail me down on my spiritual beliefs. i don't have a god/dess problem -- I have a problem with organized religion. ALL of 'em!

Linn, former Lutheran (Missouri Synod, geez, talk about politics!) Sunday school teacher and choir member

Subject: RE: BS: How do u celebrate midwinter godlessly?
From: john f weldon
Date: 30 Dec 07 - 09:32 PM

Another no-relevance Xmas tale-

My Father was a depression kid & his Xmases were pretty grim; the result was that he attempted to overdo everything when he could finally afford it.

One odd feature was the Christmas tree; it had to be huge. We lived in an older house with a 13-foot ceiling, but he said the tree had to be bushy all the way to the top. No tapering! So we'd drag home a 16-footer and cut the top off. When I had a home of my own, I'd take that top bit back and decorate it, a perfectly good "extra" tree.

He also insisted that it be decorated "all the way around", even though you couldn't see more than a few inches into the tree, there were lights & stuff that were totally invisible.

Decorating the tree took many days. Once, after a week of setting up the monster tree and decorating it, we all stood around admiring it, when...

...a large black crow suddenly flew out of the tree!

We chased it around the house, and eventually shooed it out a door.

This mystery has haunted me ever since. Had it hidden in there all week? While we decorated? If not, how did it get in? Down a chimney is the most plausible explanation, I guess. But... ...ah well...

Happy New Year, All.

Subject: RE: BS: How do u celebrate midwinter godlessly?
From: CapriUni
Date: 31 Dec 07 - 12:06 PM

John -- in some folk traditions, having a bird in your Christmas tree brings good luck for the next year... Most people (my mother among them) opt for bird-shaped ornaments, but if you've got the real thing, so much the better ... I guess.

(an old bird's nest, from the previous spring, is also considered good luck).

And just something that came into my head, the other day, regarding whether to actually call your celebration "Christmas," or not.

Some people I know (usually Neo-Pagan, or atheist) actually have the solstice eve as their primary day of celebration, and although they borrow Christmas traditions (or Hanukka traditions) from their childhoods, many (if not most) also deliberately add new traditions specifically designed to focus attention on the astronmical event. In that case, I think it's simply a case of accuracy to call it something other than "Cbristmas," and not just political correctness...