The Reason for the Season

[Ava]

not to hijcack the thread from the story. But the dickens' tale introduces a sort of "be a better person to your fellow man." And that's a good thing. But I don't know that its about the real meaning of the season. I think the original Judy Garland lyrics, rather than the updated lyrics for Sinatra who wanted something more light hearted, work for me.

Lyrics to "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" from Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) at Reel Classics

I think the message of the Dicken's movie, relative to the reason for the season, is giving. Happiness is found in the giving to others. The happiest people I know, do this on a regular basis. Bless `em.

 

[theword]

Christmas / Winter Solstice / Yuletide... The coming holiday/holyday has deep ancient roots, only recently attributed to Chrisitianism, which had no birthday for its Savior until the fourth century AD, and even then was piggybacked onto already-ancient traditions of tree worship (see Christmas trees, mistletoe) and the concept of Nature rebirth (evergreens, holly) and sympathetic magic to bring back the light of the sun (christmas lights). Our most remote ancestors noticed the fading/resurrecting sun patterns from their earliest days. Being dependent on natural cycles for agriculture and hunting -- they had to.



As good an intro as any is --

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZgT1SRcrKE


Winter Solstice at Newgrange - Solar Alignment - YouTube


Won't be long before the sun starts to rise again.

God's people can't obey the commandments of God and receive His blessings. Instead, they are cursed to death during this age.

Deuteronomy 28
15: “But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all his commandments which I command you this day, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.
16: Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field.
17: Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading-trough.
18: cursed shall be the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your gournd, the increase of your cattle, and the young of your flock.
19: Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.
20: “the Lord will send upon you curses, confusion, and frustration, in all that you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and perish quickly, on accound of the evil of your doings, because you have forsaken me.
21: The Lord will make the pestilence cleave to you until he has consumed you off the land wich you are entering to take possession of it.
22: The Lord will smite you with consumption, and with fever, inflammation, and fiery heat, and with drought, and with blasting, and with mildew; they shall pursue you until your perish.
23: And the heavens over your head shall be brass, and the earth under you shall be iron.
24: The Lord will make the rain of your land powder and dust; from heaven it shall come down upon you until you are destroyed.

Our Creator wasn't joking. But in the next age, His people will obey Him forever.

Jeremiah 31
31: "Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah,
32: not like the covenant which I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD.
33: But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
34: And no longer shall each man teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, `Know the LORD,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."

 

[daws101]

Christmas / Winter Solstice / Yuletide... The coming holiday/holyday has deep ancient roots, only recently attributed to Chrisitianism, which had no birthday for its Savior until the fourth century AD, and even then was piggybacked onto already-ancient traditions of tree worship (see Christmas trees, mistletoe) and the concept of Nature rebirth (evergreens, holly) and sympathetic magic to bring back the light of the sun (christmas lights). Our most remote ancestors noticed the fading/resurrecting sun patterns from their earliest days. Being dependent on natural cycles for agriculture and hunting -- they had to.



As good an intro as any is --

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZgT1SRcrKE


Winter Solstice at Newgrange - Solar Alignment - YouTube


Won't be long before the sun starts to rise again.

edited for idiocy

 

[bendog]

not to hijcack the thread from the story. But the dickens' tale introduces a sort of "be a better person to your fellow man." And that's a good thing. But I don't know that its about the real meaning of the season. I think the original Judy Garland lyrics, rather than the updated lyrics for Sinatra who wanted something more light hearted, work for me.

Lyrics to "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" from Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) at Reel Classics

I think the message of the Dicken's movie, relative to the reason for the season, is giving. Happiness is found in the giving to others. The happiest people I know, do this on a regular basis. Bless `em.

Well, that was my pt. I'm not sure the central meaning of the holiday (and not just the chrisitan hijacking) is giiving. I think the central meaning is being with loved ones, even when being in phyisical proximinty, or even social media, is impossible. And, we all have life long, at least, connections with those we love(d) who are dead.

Giving is certainly part of being with loved ones. I wrapped packages for my college daughter yesterday. I was looking forward to her arrival on Thur. Today I was looking forward to watching Lilo and Stich and Mulan, some of the first movies I took her too, and I'm sure we'll go see the Hobbit or something. Then she called and said she blew her Latin final because the questions were from pages 47-50 of the study guide and she only got to 46! Screw Mulan, the little dragon and the Island Girl with the alien! (-: