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Merry Christmas Everyone

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Re: Merry Christmas Everyone

#331

Post by lolinder »

Aloha wrote: post #323
abustamam wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm Muslim too and I always find it interesting to see how various non-Christian theists observe Christmas. Obviously we don't "celebrate" but I personally don't see anything wrong with partaking in the secular parts of Christmas (and let's be real, in the west, it's pretty much all secular). My parents felt otherwise when I was growing up, so my siblings and I weren't allowed to do anything Christmas related, but no…

I will argue that in the US Christmas is in part a secular holiday - given its sorta pagan origins that makes total sense to me. It's a solstice feast basically.

The pagan origins thing is a myth, btw—all the various bits which people point to as evidence still date back to a Christian-era Europe and cannot be traced back further. Christianity has been around for a very very long time and has had a lot of time to evolve its own traditions. :)

For example, Christmas trees date back no later than the middle ages:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=m41KXS-LWsY

Re: Merry Christmas Everyone

#333

Post by soulofmischief »

I don't have many good Christmas memories, so I would probably say my favorite is when I received Pokémon Gold and a Gameboy Color at age 5. That game opened up a lot for me and had a huge influence on my life, philosophy and career.

Merry Christmas, everyone. Hug 'em if you got 'em.

Re: Merry Christmas Everyone

#334

Post by joemazerino »

Having the extended family over and the boys would all be playing outside until the street lights came on, and then inside to play whatever game came out. Clay fighter, mortal kombat, donkey kong country etc.

My family would pull straws to see which man would dress up as Santa clause and go door to door on my street to greet kids and give the adults some baileys or whiskey.

Great times. Merry Christmas.

Re: Merry Christmas Everyone

#335

Post by joemazerino »

jakebasile wrote: post #50

Merry Christmas! I had rented Final Fantasy 7 from Blockbuster so many times that my brother decided to get it for me for Christmas. Even though I never really snooped for presents he decided to mess with my head and wrapped it in two large bath towels and put it in an even larger box. This giant package below the tree for me, and it sounded like cloth - I figured it must've been a jacket or something until I opened…

2001 was definitely the FF7 year. Played all 3 discs during the winter break.

Re: Merry Christmas Everyone

#337

Post by sbuk »

lolinder wrote: post #331
Aloha wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will argue that in the US Christmas is in part a secular holiday - given its sorta pagan origins that makes total sense to me. It's a solstice feast basically.

The pagan origins thing is a myth, btw—all the various bits which people point to as evidence still date back to a Christian-era Europe and cannot be traced back further. Christianity has been around for a very very long time and has had a lot of time to evolve its own traditions. :) For example, Christmas trees date back no later than the middle ages: https://youtube.com/watch?v=m41KXS-LWsY

Nonsense. You're conflating tradition (tree in this case) with festivals and ancient religious rites. See:

- Yule

- Dísablót

- Koliada

- Lohri

- Saturnalia

- Yaldā Night

- Nardoqan

Re: Merry Christmas Everyone

#338

Post by jll29 »

egeozcan wrote: post #119

Merry Christmas! Mutlu Noeller! Frohe Weihnachten! I was born in Istanbul, a sprawling, chaotic city that's a fascinating blend of thousands of cultures. Christmas was always a thing there, even under an Islamist regime. As a non-believer, I never cared much for religious holidays, but I did enjoy the cozy decorations and sipping Glühwein (mulled wine). Beyond that, it didn't mean much to me. Now I live in Germany. M…

Thanks for sharing! And kudos to a boss who is also a friend - there are so many people far away from their loved ones, and therefore lonely, on what should be the happiest day of the year for all - so everyone, please remember who you could invite to share the enjoyment as described here.

Re: Merry Christmas Everyone

#339

Post by jll29 »

neofrommatrix wrote: post #47

Indian (Hindu) here who went to a Catholic convent back home. My favorite memory is of a reenactment of Jesus’ birth on stage by a bunch of 10th graders (my class) and instantly falling for the girl that played Mary. I’m now married to her and we have a toddler. Merry Christmas!

How romantic! Merry Christmas indeed.

Re: Merry Christmas Everyone

#340

Post by jll29 »

A very happy Christmas memory was from when I was sick with measles as a kid (perhaps aged 5?), wrapped in many layers of blankets on my grandparents' sofa, watching the Christmas tree and listening to everyone's conversation and Christmas songs on TV. Despite being slightly feverish and covered with red dots all over, I was the most happy child.

The most _nerdy_ Christmas was when I returned to my mom's house as a student (probably Chris Rea playing when I rode home on the train.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDt3u2Ev1cI ), and the only kit within reach there was an old Atari ST 520+ with a copy of Berkeley Yacc (Bison) on 3.5" floppy disk next to it. I happened to have an (unrelated) machine learning paper in my backpack, so I dedided to reimplement the paper in Yacc on this ancient machine, which was most gratifying (no man pages, no Web, no StackExchange, ...).

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