I’m having a hard time understanding this whole Christmas Tree thing.
I was going by the Krogers’ lot the other day, and they’d taken up about half the lot and filled it with trees. This meant that I had to circle a few times to find a spot, walk a few minutes in the rain to get my groceries, and then push the cart aaaaaalll the way back… ugh.
Anyway, will someone explain how chopping down a bunch of trees, humiliating them with all sorts of garish goofy fragile ornaments from the Hallmark store, and then throwing them out when they go bad is supposed to celebrate the birth of your messiah?
The presents, I get. Mass marketing, keeps the economy going. Good for all. And maybe even the big fat bearded guy in the red suit flying around makes sense… that’s the Coca Cola Company’s fault, I figure. Well, them and the animators at Rankin Bass.
But the ritual humiliation and discarding of trees has got me at a loss. Almost as much as whole bunny rabbit and colored eggs thing with regards to the messiah’s coming back to the dead.
Whatever. If you’ll excuse me, I have to finish carving up this block of wood for my homemade dreidel. And don’t tell me that it’s a sinful gambling device. When was the last time you got trackback or comment spam from an offshore site like “Dreidel Dollars dot com” or “Hanukkah Party Palace dot net” ?
It’s actually a pagan druid tradition…AND I’M FIRST!!!!!
I’m right there with you Laurence.
My fiancé is a (non practicing) Methodist, and yesterday we put up the Christmas tree in the house. Initially, I was skeptical since this was my first time ever having one of these things around me, but as we put the humiliation flare (and after reading your post,) it dawned on me; The tree, Jesus, and gifts are related by one common thing: Cabbage Patch Dolls.
Our generation was first to introduced to these things back in the early 80’s (not the retreads in stores today). The main hook was these were “adoptable” and included birth certificates. Before the doll was given it laid waiting, a pre-newborn, under the healthy (yet dying tree) tree. Kids were given them for Christmas as gifts, primarily, to virgin mothers (obviously analogous to Jesus’ birth), using the vehicle of the living tree as the conduit.
Based on my future in-law’s previous real tree (ours are plastic), the life cycle of the tree ends about 3 weeks after Christmas day, the same amount of time it takes for a child to lose interest in a toy (say, a Cabbage Patch Kid). The parents (analogous to Jesus’ society at the same) get dismayed at the doll for lying around, and put it away. Around this time, it’s about early April.
Around Easter, the child realizes that their Cabbage Patch Doll is not around and starts to get sad and upset. The parents, upon realization of this, place the doll where it suddenly is resurrected in the eyes of the child. The miracle again!
But what of the tree? It also died, serving its function, but is now reborn as compost, or living life well in a Jersey landfill. That’s fine with me, since the damn thing, with it’s bright lights, twinkly ornaments, and shiny tinsel, make my small menorah look like a wooden turd!
Anyway, that’s my take. Happy Hanukkah to you.
Actually most of the “christian” holidays were taken from different paga religions. A smart pope decided he would mark them as christian holidays then tell them since they respected the same time frames that the pagans must be christian. Since this worked it helped in mass conversions. Oh and btw pagan origonally stood for a term the equivelant of being a hick, as they were the people away from the cities and less likely to be converted from their earth based religion. Example easter is an aspect from one of the religion (which one escapes me at the moment) and her creature associated with her is guess what? you got it the bunny. Just goes to show how gullable humans can be.
I just thought they were cool things as part of the holidays as a kid. It’s great to know the history of such things, but why make it into a cynical morass of personal anger. That’s what I get from some people. It’s a frigging holiday and go enjoy it. If you don’t then don’t crap on anyone else’s parade.
“with regards to the messiah’s coming back to the dead.”
should be
“with regards to the messiah’s coming back from the dead.”
It’s the Democrats. I’m sure of it.
They discovered hugging trees got them nowhere (except laughed at) so they took a different tack. KILL THE TREES!
Yepper, that’s the ticket.
Moonbats.
The original Evil. And they probably invented Santa too:
Arlo Guthrie got it right (bless his moonbat little brain) years ago:
“Santa Claus wears a red suit,
He’s a Communist.
And a beard, and long hair,
Must be a pacifist….
What’s in the pipe that he’s smoking?…”
Santa Claus also wears big black boots– to kick terrorist booty. Santa carries a bag to represent the goodies of Capitalism. And Santa gives to each according to the size of his stocking.
From the Encyclopaedia Britannica (online)
… bla bla pagan crap …
The modern Christmas tree, though, originated in western Germany. The main prop of a popular medieval play about Adam and Eve was a “paradise tree,” a fir tree hung with apples, that represented the Garden of Eden. The Germans set up a paradise tree in their homes on December 24, the religious feast day of Adam and Eve. They hung wafers on it (symbolizing the host, the Christian sign of redemption); in a later tradition the wafers were replaced by cookies of various shapes. Candles, symbolic of Christ, were often added. In the same room was the “Christmas pyramid,” a triangular construction of wood that had shelves to hold Christmas figurines and was decorated with evergreens, candles, and a star. By the 16th century the Christmas pyramid and the paradise tree had merged, becoming the Christmas tree.
… bla bla how ornaments and stuff got added …
so why is christmas wrong and all the other races holiday right? or is it that its a christian holiday? So why pick on one and not all? its because that its a white holiday. thats what its really about. AND i have one thing to say christmas will never die but will still be the nymber one holiday of all.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO TOOKIE.. Damn he will not see any more holidays.
Great post, as usual.
Our trees were never a complete waste… our horses LOVED to eat spruce trees, mainly because they were not supposed to. We fed them our Christmas tree every year and that seemed to give them a good tree-eating fix for the next while…
How much do you want to be Laurence has a “Chanukkah Bush”?
It goes back to Babylonian sun god worship. When Constantine conquered Rome in the 300’s is when Christianity got merged with some of the pagan bs.
The birth of the reincarnated sun god is december 25th, whether it’s Tammuz, Ra, Mithra, or whatever the name changed into after the language was confused after the tower of Babel.
But whoop-de-do, Basil, what does it all mean? It means the devil knows who the Messiah is and is trying to steal his glory.
Notice in Leviticus 23 that after a description of the Spring Feasts comes an accomodation for the strangers, us Gentiles, then comes the description of the Fall Feasts.
Because Constantine separated Christianity from the Feasts of the LORD and everything else associated with the Jews we Christians were left to our own devices to celebrate the Messiah’s birth, which should be at Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, when he came to tabernacle among us (our physical body being a tabernacle of sorts). So we got it wrong due to tradition.
Back to the tree: What is God’s opinion of it? Brittanica aside, it has been various types of trees at various times and in various cultures. Check out Jeremiah 10:3-5
“For the customs of the people are vanity: a tree out of the forest is cut down, the work of the hands of the workman, with the ax. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. They are like a rigid post, and they cannot speak; they must needs be carried, because thay cannot walk. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good.”
If we knew what we were doing we would heed Exodus 31:13, which tells us to keep the sabbaths (notice the plural) because they are a sign between God and us. The sabbaths are described in Leviticus 23.
If we can understand the sign God is showing us, we would know how to show reverence and why we should.
I’d add to what others have posted that the Christmas tree is a needled evergreen tree because those are the only trees that don’t shed their foliage during the winter in northern Europe, where the custom of setting up and decorating a tree originated. It’s something still obviously alive at a time of year in which many things are dead.
As for any concern about wasting trees, nearly all Christmas trees are grown specifically to be Christmas trees. Eliminating Christmas trees would reduce the number of trees growing in the United States (and, I suspect, elsewhere).
The presents, I get. Mass marketing, keeps the economy going. Good for all. And maybe even the big fat bearded guy in the red suit flying around makes sense… that’s the Coca Cola Company’s fault, I figure. Well, them and the animators at Rankin Bass.
But the ritual humiliation and discarding of trees has got me at a loss.
Aw, that’s easy. The timber industry wanted a cut (if I could overpun, I would) of the action, so colorfully-decorated trees became part of the annual Christmas festivities.
“Follow the money,” as the saying goes. :o)
When was the last time you got trackback or comment spam from an offshore site like “Dreidel Dollars dot com” or “Hanukkah Party Palace dot net” ?
this is the first!
well i think christmas trees suck and that we might as well have some other odd tradition like why dont we see hew can fit the most grapes in there mouth and see who can fit the most in.by the way why dont we replace the easter bunny with the easter kittycat and how do bunnys and eggs have anything to do with each other bunnies dont even lay eggs i dont think