Here goes:
Christmas was supposed to be about the celebration of the birth of Christ with the slight problem being that all evidence points to Jesus having been born in the spring while the heathens (that would be us Northerners as opposed to the enlightened Southerners in Europe) celebrated Winter Solstice right about this time of year. The heathens, like so many after them, had to be taught the proper ways. To make things easier for them the bigwigs in Christendom decided to play with the timeline a little bit (like they hadn’t done that before) and suddenly Christ was born on Christmas Day! Tadaaaaaa!
These days Christmas isn’t so much about spreading the supposed love of Jesus, but instead about who bought the biggest and priciest presents, or who did the most cooking, threw the biggest party, or has the biggest family. Add a fat old dude in a white beard and red suit (a version of Santa originally created by Coca Cola Company I might include) and voila; you’ve got yourself a commercialized pagan/Christian/capitalist holiday.
To me, religion has become quite problematic. It’s a thorn in my side because in the end it limits people and holds back identity development. Philosopher John Stuart Mill said that without deviant and dissident thoughts we could never make progress (in his book “On Liberty” from 1859). I strongly believe that if God created humankind “He” also intended there to be diversity.
So screw trolls and haters; I’m going to light a candle, have some mulled wine and fight my relatives for some ham without giving Jesus (or any other religious character for that matter) a single thought.
Happy Holidays to Everyone!
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