 Christmas is the very best time of year to be Jewish. I get to look at all the crazyass psycho-family pressures and emotional blackmailing and consumer frenzy and go, hm. Those crazy Christians are at it again. And please don't tell me you're "not Christian." You have a Christmas tree? You go home to your family to share dinner on Dec. 24? You're Christian. It has nothing to do with what you "believe" or whether you go to church. I don't go to the synagogue (much) or believe that Moses parted the sea, but I am Jewish -- my upbringing and 5,000 years of cultural inheritance had a huge part in making me who I am today. You were born and raised in a Christian culture, with Christian traditions and values. I was not. And although we share Judeo-Christian roots we are not the same. Just because you are part of the cultural majority (here in Canada) does not mean you don't have a culture; like a fish swimming in water doesn't see the water. It's all around you. You have to be outside it to see it. And don't give me that "but the Christmas tree is really a Pagan thing" crap. You can say Christmas is Pagan in origin, but every northern culture has a festival of lights around the solstice, and every animistic religion pays tribute to the trees and the animals (and some, to the rocks and the sky). And some other tradition came before and influenced the Pagans. And Judaism grew out of other Semitic traditions, and Christianity grew out of Judaism. It doesn't matter, it's not about seniority. And there's no copyright, you are free to embellish and re-invent as you like. Whatever speaks to you and inspires you is relevant. Pagan neither contradicts nor legitimizes Christian rituals. If you want to have a Christmas tree have a Christmas tree, and be proud of it. You're Christian. You don't have to take responsibility for it, you didn't create it. But acknowledge it. And don't be ashamed to share the parts of it that still speak to you with your friends who may not be of that culture. Yes please, I would like a slab of fruitcake, thank you very much. My mother made a great fruitcake, with the red ang green cherries and all -- and she was Jewish, go figure. |
|||
Fossilosopher said:
be sure to celebrate the pedal galactic alignment festival dec 12-18-22.
light more and more candles and share stories of counterculture survival!
christianity is a world religion that has passed over the goyim amen world without end.
my ancesors were presbyterians who did not celebrate christmas or quakers who lived voluntary simplicity
before that celitc christians who were mostly following earth spirituality and ritual traditions
before that in the time of abraham they probably danced naked around trees and made blood sacrifices in megalithic stone circles.
i was raised unitarian which was very interfaith and very broadly christian
but historically it is heretical intelligentsia juddhism,
frugal and dissident about santa clause culture.
i am even more pagan than my parents and grandparents
but we are all part of secularisation
its all jumlbly now like fruitcake
How about...
How about,
Christian as an adjective, not a noun?
oh ho ho! You challenge me !
oh ho ho!
You challenge me ! Thank you. I begin with a snort . I am NOT Christian!! But still... what do I hold dear and why do I get caught up the way I do?
Don't have a tree, but sometimes do. Do gather to eat traditional foods with family, but it will be different foods this year. Do believe in a teacher who taught a simple thing: to love and judge not.
So... .. who are you to tell me what I am? I choose from a multitude of choices only because they are here to choose from. Our parents and grandparents and beyond had no such smorgasborg. Things were simpler in their subscribed lives. Now we can freely define ourselves according to our exposure to blessed confounding diversity.
Please don't lump me or dump me because I am changing with every second and do not know myself what or who I will be from day to day.
Though I do know that when I see you I promise I won't call you names.
Post new comment