SNOW!

We're in the midst of a big snowstorm here in Valhalla. Dunno how much accumulation we'll get as it's pretty warm out there – 32º. Even a dusting makes the neighborhood look more seasonally festive though.

Christmas seems to be the holiday that rightwing idiot grifters (yes, that’s redundant  – I know) most love to ruin. Their disingenuous howling lies about the fantastically fictional “war on Christmas" are beyond tedious. Do the Republican rubes still believe this shit? Sadly and apparently, yes they do. Christ, what simpletons!

As a kiddle, Christmas was always a horror show. It only became pleasant after I hit adulthood. While I had some decent late December holidays in my 20s and 30s, it wasn’t until The Amazing Bob, Jen, Oni and I moved in together (first in adjoining Cambridge apartments and then in Valhalla’s connected houses) that the day became actually happy and special versus a hurdle to get over, a pain to be endured.

Seeing as I’m in no way religious, December 25th, for me, isn’t about celebrating Christ’s birthday. It’s all about the Chinese food and watching movies with mia famiglia – Jen, Ten and Oni.

By the by

The Star of Bethlehem, Reneke told New Scientist, may have been Venus and Jupiter coming together to form a bright light in the sky. Using computer models, Reneke determined that this rare event occurred on June 17, in the year 2 B.C. (source)

So, the baby Jesus was born in 2 B.C., sometime between Flag Day and Juneteenth NOT around the winter solstice – K. Also, I thought B.C. meant “before Christ.” Wouldn’t the year of his birth be year 0 or 1? I’m so confused.

Julius Caesar (100-44 BCE) reformed the calendar and renamed the months during his reign (49-44 BCE). This calendar remained in use, with periodic revisions, until 1582 CE when Pope Gregory XIII instituted the Gregorian Calendar still in use in the present day. Christians used the Anno Mundi calendar and the Roman calendar in the early years of the faith. In c. 525 CE, however, a new concept in dating was introduced by a monk named Dionysius Exiguus (c. 470-544 CE) which provided the groundwork for the later dating system of BC/AD.

Dionysius invented the concept of Anno Domini (“in the year of our Lord”) in an attempt to stabilize the date of the celebration of Easter, (n.b:. NOT Christmas!) At the time he was working on this problem, Christians of the influential church of Alexandria were dating events from the beginning of the reign of the Roman emperor Diocletian (284 CE) who persecuted members of the new faith. Dionysius was seeking to bring the eastern and western churches into agreement on a single day on which all Christians would celebrate Easter. (source)

And now I’m just more confused. Intrigued sure, but confused. Homo sapiens have been around for 200 to 300,000 years – when did we, as a species start keeping track of the years?

As I’m sure you already know, Christmas is just the repackaged and sanitized for your protection version of the MUCH more fun celebration of Saturnalia. (which originated as a farmer’s festival to mark the end of the autumn planting season in honour of Saturn (satus means sowing)

Saturnalia saw the inversion of social roles. The wealthy were expected to pay the month’s rent for those who couldn’t afford it, masters and slaves to swap clothes. (source)

Also, did you know that mistletoe was believed, by the Druids, to be a powerful cure for everything – from infertility to poisoning.

"If you met someone in the forest you gave them the sign of peace under the mistletoe so people started to hang mistletoe above their doorways as a symbol of peace.” (source)

In this age of idiocy we could surely do with a return to Pagan times.