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Mythology Worlds
The Holiday Season
Festive Folktales
The History of the Holidays
Christmas has its roots in the Roman festival of Saturnalia, as well as the Germanic festival of Yule.
Even today, "Yule" refers to the holiday season.
Mistletoe was sacred to the Celts, and druids would harvest the plant to use in their rituals.
Early Christian missionaries in Northern Europe made efforts to convert the locals by transforming their sacred rites into a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ.
In reality, no one knows exactly when Jesus was born, and general consensus agrees that he was likely born in the springtime.
I was taught in UConn that Jesus was born in the year 4 B.C.E...which means that the Son of God would have been 4 or 5 years old during the Gregorian Year Zero.
Christmas was outlawed by the Puritans of Colonial Massachusetts.
Hanukkah is a celebration of the Maccabean revolt against the Hellenistic king Antiochus IV and the rededication of the Second Temple (where the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem is now).
The oil in the temple was supposed to last only one day, but it actually lasted eight days!
That's why the Hanukkah celebration is over a week long.
Kwanzaa is a relatively recent celebration.
It was invented in 1966 as part of the American Civil Rights movement of the time.
Designed as a way for African-descended people to remember their roots, it hearkens back to African harvest festivals.
Kwanzaa itself means "first fruits" in Swahili.
Santa Claus and other gift-givers
Holiday Folklore Around the World
"Rudolph, Frosty, Grinch...GET OUT!!"
--my culture-loving soul who is sick and tired of those same old Christmas specials they hawk at us every holiday season
What Christmas Means to Me
As a huge fan of mythology and folktales (hence Mythology Worlds), Christmas to me is about folk legends, ancient deities, and wintertime traditions in the North of the world.
Each time I criticize the lack of innovation in holiday-themed entertainment, I get labeled a Scrooge.
I like the holiday season; I just don't like the commercialized aspects of it.
Every time I make a point about how not everyone in the world celebrates Christmas, I get reminded that there are a lot of Christians in East Asia.
In reality, however, people in traditionally Buddhist countries romanticize Christianity in the same way the Occidental world does Buddhism.
Thus, I would say that Christmas is more commercialized in Japan, China, and other places than it is in the good ol' U.S. of A since the Nativity story has basically no meaning there.
Why else would Japanese people eat KFC on Christmas?
That's why I labeled Colonel Sanders as Japan's holiday gift-giver on my map of Santa Claus analogues.
In addition, I feel that "the true meaning of Christmas" is itself commercialized.
The values it preaches (ex. family, love, togetherness) are universal values that can apply to any situation.
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