‘Tis the Season
Deck the halls with rampant mindless, shallow consumerism…
Fa-la-la-la-la-la-la…
‘Tis the season of ad nauseum commercials…
Fa-la-la-la-la-la-la…
Don we now our gay garland and tacky carols
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If nothing else, right now at this time, I am grateful for the fact that we have no cable television in our household. My husband and I got rid of it back in October and not a moment too soon. We missed the train wreck that is the ‘holiday season’ barrage of commercials, hocking wares and goods we do not need. We have not seen one commercial yet for anything related to Christmas. What a luxury! I don’t know how anyone else can tolerate it. Now that we’re free from it, we hear only the silence that we need.
Mind you, I have no quarrel with Christmas itself, hell, I don’t give a flying rat’s ass if someone wishes me Merry Christmas. My problem are the carols and the commercials. They are detrimental to everything about the holidays. Yet, the people who should be speaking out against this, the Christians, are the ones who have decided that the “War on Christmas” stems from the fact that a store clerk wishes them a “happy holiday”, or worse yet, to be showered with greetings of “seasons greetings”. But nary a word of the commercials and the hijacked season.
The same group whines if a scene of nativity disappears from public property or if a tree is not decked out with the finest, or someone doesn’t wish them a “Merry Christmas”. Yet, they ignore everything that is actually contrary to Christmas itself; the consumerism, the tree (first used in the 19th century)… the figure of Santa Claus (St. Nick, from the 15th century). Gift giving itself was typically done on New Years Day, which occurred after the Advent, which began on November 11th. The 12 days of Christmas refer to December 26th-January 6th.
Christmas itself was derived from Winter Solstice, Saturnalia, one of many pagan (or heathen if you will; as heath is neither Christian nor Jewish) celebrations, along with Yule. In fact, there is no proof that Jesus was actually born on December 25th; it was an idea that was made popular with the Chronographiai by Sextus Julius Africanus in the 3rd century AD. There is no mention of the birth date anywhere in the New Testament. There are theories that the birth happened on January 6th or even in the spring. The year is also highly disputed.
Also amusing is the fact that Xmas is not at all censoring the word of “Christmas”, which in itself is a contraction of two words, Cristes mæsse, in Old English. The χ (chi), from the Greek character set, is the first letter of Χριστός (Christ), making Xmas in use since the mid-16th century.
Now that I’ve briefly covered the history of it, it’s safe to say that the zealots who believe there is a War on Christmas are the ones aiding and abetting the war because they are participating in many of the elements that they ought to decry if they want to truly celebrate it. But sadly they don’t. They also do not recognise the orthodox day that celebrates the same event, that falls on January 6th (on the Julian Calendar; developed by Julius Caesar), or rather January 19 on the Gregorian Calendar, (the two are 13 days apart).
Meanwhile, I’ll be watching it amused because I don’t have to put up with the commercials and online debates are always more amusing that televised, which always seemed very scripted to me. There is one other thing I will not be missing and that is the plethora of Christmas specials, which are recycled junked.
Between the commercials and specials, I can say I’m very happy to not have to pay for cable television.
Stumble It!
