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Unread 26-12-2003, 15:03
KenWittlief KenWittlief is offline
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Re: Christmas and Schools

when I said "If you research it a little you will discover that the church actually frowned on the celebration of christmas for longer than they have accepted it (because of its pagan roots)"

what I meant was, the christian church tried to take over the pagan practices of the winter soltace celebrations, but they could not surplant the existing traditions completely

and as a result they ended up with a cross beween a christain celebration of the birth of Christ along with many pagan rituals and practices, some of which were very sexual in nature

so in a sense, the church created a monster :c)

there was an (unusally excellent) program on the history of christmas on the history channel a while ago that talked about this - it wasnt until christmas started becoming commercialized in the US that it started to loose its more objectional associations with the immoral pagan practices - then it became more generally acceptable to the church as a whole (I wish I knew where to point you for more info on this)

so I didnt mean to say that christmas was rejected by the church, they thought they could squelch the pagan practices assosicated with the winter soltice observation, but instead they ended up giving them more steam than if they had left them alone.

I guess you had to see the program - they explained it better than I am here.

BUT back to the subject of this thread - I have several friends who came here from China, and I see there intentions on maintaining their cultural traditions with their children. Ive been invited to several Chinese new-years partys and always have a great time.

My grandparents came to the US from Germany around 1910 - and I wish I had learned more about their roots, learned to speak german...

Christmas IS a part of our culture. So is thanksgiving, july 4th, easter, rock and roll music, fast food, and being independant and somewhat rebellious when you are young :^)

One thing I would suggest to turn this situation around - talk to your sisters teacher and see if you can start some sort of chinese new year celebration at her school - I like moon-pie (at least once a year :c)
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