2/
I mean, yes, every word that @sonyaellenmann says is true. The format of Christmas celebrations certainly involved osmotic absorbtion of other cultural norms. And the the market, and the desire to feast are two of those.
...but what holiday DOESN'T evolve in that way?
-
Show this thread
-
3/ So the argument that "Christmas isn't purely Christian" is true, but it's true in a trivial way - it's a mix of Christianity and HUMAN BEHAVIORS. Heinlein said that you put two Hong Kong Chinee is a crater and they start selling rocks back and forth and get rich....
1 reply 0 retweets 8 likesShow this thread -
4/ I say that you put two humans anywhere and give them a religious holiday - from ANY religion - and the result is that there is feasting and commerce and small threads of all other cultural traditions they already have mixed in.
1 reply 2 retweets 9 likesShow this thread -
5/ So, if X is true of Christmas AND EVERYTHING ELSE ... then it's deeply uninteresting to say that X is true of Christmas. "Bob is angry" "Well, AKSHUALLY Bob is made out of atoms" "uh...yeah...so is everyone. Anyway, Bob is angry".
1 reply 1 retweet 13 likesShow this thread -
6/ The modern war on Christmas / trying to make Christmas a non Christian holiday is in fact a change from the last 2,000 years, when Christmas was a mix of things, but the celebration of the birth of the Son of God was foremost among them.
4 replies 4 retweets 19 likesShow this thread -
Replying to @MorlockP @sonyaellenmann
Christmas has been a family holiday since the Victorians remade it. It's been cultural all your life
1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes -
Replying to @Bethpresswood @sonyaellenmann
so you're saying my family HASN'T gone to midnight mass ?
1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes -
Replying to @MorlockP @sonyaellenmann
I'm saying you understand that millions of people do Christmas without going to midnight mass and that plenty of people at midnight mass don't really believe either
1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes -
Replying to @Bethpresswood @sonyaellenmann
so you're saying you agree with my thesis that Christmas is a COMBINED religious / cultural / market holiday?
1 reply 0 retweets 1 like -
Replying to @MorlockP @sonyaellenmann
Yes, except that there's no modern war on Christmas
1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
except there is
-
-
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.