I was recently watching Christmas Unwrapped on The History Channel. I have watched several historical shows over the years about the origins of Christmas and I am always happy when a new one comes along, especially from a source most people hesitate to discredit like The History Channel.
The truth is, Christ has nothing to do with Christmas. It was a nice try by the Christians to hijack a pagan holiday but like most things Christians do, except war and child molesting, they failed. If you’re a Christian, don’t get all bent out of shape about what I’m saying here. Like any good American Patriot, I believe everyone has the right to believe in anything they want, as long as they don’t impose their beliefs on others. This is the definition of freedom. So if you want to believe in Jesus, God, Unicorns, Leprechauns, Talking Walnuts, Zeus, Crazy Glue that works, The Tooth Fairy, Efficient Government Workers, Ra the Sun God, Honest Politicians, long lasting bubble gum or whatever else that doesn’t exist, I don’t care. What I do care about is the meaning of Christmas and I don’t like when religious zealots or politicians try to force their vision of eternity (and their guilt) down my throat.
In a nutshell, starting in a period of earth’s history way before indoor plumbing, electric blankets and an infamous carpenter there was the celebration of the winter solstice, which was observed in late December, and was the darkest time of winter when the days were short, the nights were cold and the fields were covered in snow and frost. Humans survived by a shoestring. Whatever you were able to store when the weather was warm had better be enough to get you and your family through the long cold winter or death was a serious possibility. The end of December marked a period of festivities where food was still plentiful and families and friends celebrated, quite raucously, with food and drink. Fireplaces were roaring with burning wood, and alcohol and fatty carbs were consumed with reckless abandon. Many of our most sacred (and I say that in a pagan way) Christmas traditions have zero to do with Christianity. Consider the Christmas tree…
Long before the advent of Christianity, plants and trees that remained green all year had a special meaning for people in the winter. Just as people today decorate their homes during the festive season with pine, spruce, and fir trees, ancient peoples hung evergreen boughs over their doors and windows. In many countries it was believed that evergreens would keep away witches, ghosts, evil spirits, and illness.
In the Northern hemisphere, the shortest day and longest night of the year falls on December 21 or December 22 and is called the winter solstice. Many ancient people believed that the sun was a god and that winter came every year because the sun god had become sick and weak. They celebrated the solstice because it meant that at last the sun god would begin to get well. Evergreen boughs reminded them of all the green plants that would grow again when the sun god was strong and summer would return.
The ancient Egyptians worshiped a god called Ra, who had the head of a hawk and wore the sun as a blazing disk in his crown. At the solstice, when Ra began to recover from the illness, the Egyptians filled their homes with green palm rushes which symbolized for them the triumph of life over death.
Early Romans marked the solstice with a feast called the Saturnalia in honor of Saturn, the god of agriculture. The Romans knew that the solstice meant that soon farms and orchards would be green and fruitful. To mark the occasion, they decorated their homes and temples with evergreen boughs. In Northern Europe the mysterious Druids, the priests of the ancient Celts, also decorated their temples with evergreen boughs as a symbol of everlasting life. The fierce Vikings in Scandinavia thought that evergreens were the special plant of the sun god, Balder. ~Link here.
Naturally, all this partying was frowned upon by the Christians who consider this life to be merely a gas stop and pee break between wherever we came from and Heaven. The rest of us consider the real possibility that this is the only time we get to spin around on this globe and as such, we are going to make the most of it. The Christians of course would have none of it, and decided to make the birthday of Jesus, December 25th, smack on the same day of the pagan festivals. There is significant evidence that Jesus was born nowhere near that day, and was probably born in the Spring, such as references to the “shepherds..keeping watch over their flock by night.” It’s hard to have a flock in the dead of winter. The truth is that the Christians wanted to usurp the pagan festival celebrating the hope and return of spring and the life saving food and warmth it brings with the birth of their religious savior and all the guilt that that brings.
MY RECOMMENDATION…CELEBRATE CAPITALISM FOR CHRISTMAS! IF YOU HADN’T WORKED HARD ALL YOUR LIFE YOU WOULDN’T OF EVEN HAD ANY MONEY FOR TOYS!
Christmas is about family, friends and being charitable. But there is one more thing about Christmas that we should all celebrate and it has been beaten out of us for so long that I think it’s time we take it back. It’s time America, to celebrate CAPITALISM and the power it has to lift the entire world from poverty! Buy your kids whatever they want, enjoy your warm house and your nice car. You put in your time, you worked the long hours, you sacrificed to improve your future…you EARNED the happiness your materialism and consumerism provides!
Think about it. Why did you study for tests in High School? Why did you take the SAT? Why did you go to college? Hell…why do you even bother showing up to work every morning, or asking for a raise, or changing jobs, or going after a higher degree or taking classes or training to make you more valuable to your employee? We didn’t do all of these things just to earn money that we have to give away or to be taxed and redistributed! We did all these things so we could have a nice life, nice things, go nice places and eat nice food.
You know what else you got by doing all of these things? You got EXCESS. You studied, you worked hard, and you prospered, and with that you have more money that you really need to live. Most of us save that money, or invest it…but we also donate it. And if it were not for all that hard work starting in Kindergarten, we would not have any excess to donate. If we took the easy way out, the shortcuts in life, we would still be living hand-to-mouth, paycheck to paycheck, suffering through it. Nobody wants that. Even people that are in that position now don’t want to BE in that position. Everyone strives to be more, to do more, to have more. So when Christmas comes around, and your hard work has provided you with excess, then you should celebrate it…share it with those in need and share it with your own family. That you can afford toys for your children, jewlery for your wife or girlfriend, a big ham or turkey and all the trimmings and a big fat Christmas tree…is compensation for all your hard work. Never, ever short yourself or your accomplishments because religion and liberal politicians want you to feel guilty about your success. You earned it. It wasn’t given to you. So you and your family deserve to celebrate it on Christmas.
I recommend reading the short article, Christmas Should Be More Commercial by Leonard Peikoff that explains the origins of Christmas and why we should be embracing the materialism of Christmas and not parroting what our friends, family, politicians and the TV tell us we should believe. The lives of most Americans have significantly improved in just a few hundred years. Why doesn’t anybody stop to ask why? Have you ever wondered why? Why haven’t you?
WHY ARE WE TRADING PLACES WITH CHINA, BOTH POLITICALLY AND ECONOMICALLY?
What is the difference between America that made it all happen and Europe that failed for hundreds of years to ever make anything happen and third world countries that can’t ever make anything happen at all? What about China? China is older than rocks, but only in the past 20 years has China become a wealth creating powerhouse for its citizens. But why? Nobody asks this question because we are told what to think by people who “know better.” China has recently adopted CAPITALISM…and in so doing is participating in the largest and most rapid increase in the standard of living for their citizens since the American industrial revolution. While China grows economically powerful and enjoys prosperity by embracing what we once were, we embrace the socialism that China is leaving behind. In essence, America and China are trading places both economically, and politically.
The freedom from religious and political tyranny in the United States has allowed everyone who came to America to participate in, and be the source of, the greatest advancements in science, medicine, production, invention, capitalism and entrepreneurship the world has ever known.
Christmas is a time to celebrate the lives we enjoy that exist only because of the freedom and Capitalism that generations before us have died to protect. America, at only 235 years old is an infant when compared to the history of most nations, and yet this Capitalistic powerhouse of the United States is the tide that has lifted all boats around the world in barely the blink of an eye.
The United States has generated more consumer goods, products, inventions, machines, processes, medicines, medical techniques and wealth for all of its citizens and citizens of other nations around the world in just a few hundred years than socialistic and oppressed Europe has ever done in its entire existence. The entire world from the starving children in mud puddles a thousand miles from the nearest town with electricity right down to the Socialists around the world who are hell-bent on destroying America and Capitalism all benefit from the freedom, production, inventiveness and Capitalistic powerhouse that defines the United States.
Our inventions farm fields. Our inventions move commerce. Our inventions save lives. Our inventions explore space. Our inventions protect countries around the world from dangerous neighbor states. Our inventions freed Europe from the Nazi’s. In a sick and ironic twist, when terrorists wanted to murder thousands of American citizens as a symbol of their hatred for Capitalism, they flew one American invention into another American invention, both inventions only in existence because of Capitalism, by flying a plane into the World Trade Center (skyscrapers are an American invention too).
Don’t let the politicians and the religious nuts guilt you into feeling bad about Christmas. Religion has nothing to do with Christmas despite their relentless pursuit to co-op such an incredibly powerful holiday. You have worked hard to have what you have and that includes the iPods, the TV’s, your nice apartment or home, your car, your nights out at fancy restaurants and your beer and pizzas, skydiving, Vegas nights and trips to Cancun. Christmas is a time to celebrate the capitalistic powerhouse that brought all of this to you, that made your life so comfortable, enjoyable, exciting and safe.
If you work in the private sector, and you are a financially responsible individual, then you are part of this incredible machine that lifts the quality of life for millions around the world. Go ahead and feel guilty about your success the other 364 days of the year, but on Christmas, celebrate your hard work. I’m not saying to forget about the less fortunate…I’m saying to not forget about YOU, and all your accomplishments. Religion, politicians, the news…they all bombard us with guilt. That we should feel guilty about everything we do, make, buy, eat or own. I say it’s time to take it all back. We work hard. We earn what we work for. We deserve to enjoy it.
In just the short period before 1890, a scant 114 years since America was born…immigrants to America had the freedom from government and religious tyranny (and guilt) to invent and produce all of the items listed below, and the entire world has benefited from it…so on Christmas, let’s not forget the power of Capitalism and its ability to lift the entire world from poverty and starvation and tyranny!
AMERICAN INVENTIONS IN JUST THE FIRST 114 YEARS
Suspension bridges, lobster traps, the milling machine, grain elevators, vulcanized rubber, the corn sheller, the circuit breaker, the lathe, the combine harvester, the magnetic coil, the relay, the steel plow, the safety pin, the wrench, the doorbell, jack hammers, dishwashers, printing telegraphs, gas masks, donuts, burglar alarms, potato chips, the steam shovel, morse code, clothes pins, toilet paper, the electric stove, the escalator, the vacuum cleaner, the repeating rifle, the twist drill, cereal, sewing machines, the ratchet wrench, the torpedo, motorcycles, paper clips, barbed wire, paper bags, tape measures, the pipe wrench, clothes hangers, can openers, railway air brakes, jeans, fire sprinklers, coffee percolators, dental floss, graham crackers, refrigeration, the cotton gin, cupcakes, bifocals, swim fins, lightning rods, harmonicas, fire hydrants, QWERTY, dental drills, oil burners, metal detectors, clothes irons, fans, solar cells, thermostats, dissolvable pills, popcorn machines, photographic film, solar cells, skyscrapers, filing cabinets, telephone directories, revolving doors, ball point pens, payphones, comptometers (calculators), gramophones (record players), screen doors, the gas pump, the cash register, ear muffs, the feather duster, the tape measure, the refrigerator car, post cards, dust pans, pencil erasers, the pepper shaker, pink lemonade, the elevator brake, the fire alarm box, the pin tumbler lock, football and baseball.
There are two places none of those inventions would have ever come from no matter how many generations were born and died…Europe…and Religion. Capitalism…in a free America…is the only reason any of them exist at all.
Sure the world could have done without a few of those. But if you read that list slowly, and consider how much different and worse off the world and all of its citizens would have been without such things as refrigeration, grain elevators, the combine harvester, the steel plow, sewing machines, calculators, and on and on and on…you start to realize how important freedom and Capitalism is and how it has not only made America great, but allowed the entire world to enjoy a higher standard of living and a better and safer life. And remember, that list is only from before 1890.
Merry Christmas and enjoy everything you have worked so hard for. YOU EARNED IT! Now go get drunk!
Categories: Personal Message
Angrywoodchuck's Blog 
Leave a Reply