Happy "whatever" to you all
 

Choose one:

1) Merry Christmas
2) Happy hanukkah
3) Happy holidays
4) Other
5) Bah Humbug

Yeah, happy whatever to you too.

:D :D

Hopefully everyone's getting some good food and hanging out with friendly folks this time of year. :)

Happy #5 to everyone! I love each and every one of you as if you were my very own inlaws!

I wish all of you the very best...

and...
 

HAPPY KWANZAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) :) :) :) :) :)

Happy Festivas!

Merry Christmas everyone! :)

And for those of you who subscribe:

Micah 5:2
But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,
who are little to be among the clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
one who is to be ruler in Israel,
whose origin is from of old,
from ancient days.


--------------------
"Consult any history book and the author will point you to the great centers of civilization in antiquity: Rome, Athens, Tenochtitlan, the Indus River Valley, ancient China. Nowhere in any ancient estimation would it be said that the fulcrum of the world was to be found in a hardscrabble little village of washed-up dreams out on the eastern fringe of Augustus' realm. Bethlehem had had its little moment in the sun, politically, a thousand years before, because it was the birthplace of David (an obscure Semitic monarch who meant a great deal to one of the insignificant little ethnic groups that buzzed like flies somewhere on the borders of Roman political consciousness). But let's face it: Jewish nostalgia for David had about as much to do with hope as some tribe of Bantus dream of achieving world military domination. So why did the Jews hang on? Because God promised. And tonight, against all hope, the promise came true. The King was born."

**************************************************

Just a Word of Encouragement
from Mark Shea & Jeff Cavins

Before the birth of Jesus, did they just have a "Big Party on December 25th For No Special Reason, Just for the Heck of It" day? :D

Sort of.
In ancient pagan times, the last day of winter in the Northern Hemisphere was celebrated as the night that the Great Mother Goddess gives birth to the baby Sun God. It is also called Yule, the day a huge log is added to a bonfire, around which everyone would dance and sing to awaken the sun from its long winter sleep.

In Roman times, it became the celebrations honouring Saturnus (the harvest god) and Mithras (the ancient god of light), a form of sun worship that had come to Rome from Syria a century before with the cult of Sol Invictus. It announced that winter is not forever, that life continues, and an invitation to stay in good spirit.

The last day of winter in the Northern Hemisphere occurs between the 20th and 22 December. The Roman celebrated Saturnalia between 17 and 24 December.

To avoid persecution during the Roman pagan festival, early Christians decked their homes with Saturnalia holly. As Christian numbers increased and their customs prevailed, the celebrations took on a Christian observance. But the early church actually did not celebrate the birth of Christ in December until Telesphorus, who was the second Bishop of Rome from 125 to 136AD, declared that Church services should be held during this time to celebrate "The Nativity of our Lord and Saviour." However, since no-one was quite sure in which month Christ was born, Nativity was often held in September, which was during the Jewish Feast of Trumpets (modern-day Rosh Hashanah). In fact, for more than 300 years, people observed the birth of Jesus on various dates.

In the year 274AD, solstice fell on 25th December. Roman Emperor Aurelian proclaimed the date as "Natalis Solis Invicti," the festival of the birth of the invincible sun. In 320 AD, Pope Julius I specified the 25th of December as the official date of the birth of Jesus Christ.

Christmas official, but not generally observed
In 325AD, Constantine the Great, the first Christian Roman emperor, introduced Christmas as an immovable feast on 25 December. He also introduced Sunday as a holy day in a new 7-day week, and introduced movable feasts (Easter). In 354AD, Bishop Liberius of Rome officially ordered his members to celebrate the birth of Jesus on 25 December.

However, even though Constantine officiated 25 December as the birthday of Christ, Christians, recognising the date as a pagan festival, did not share in the emperor's good meaning. Christmas failed to gain universal recognition among Christians until quite recently.

The complete article:
http://www.didyouknow.cd/xmas/xmashistory.htm

You crack me up Z :D Gotta meet you at a GTG someday:D

"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!" (Luke 2:14 NKJV)

I wish everyone here a merry christmas and happy holidays!

Re: and...
 

out of curiosity, what is kwanzaa anyways? I only heard about it maybe 7 years ago or so, and I have to admit I know nothing about it. What religion does it pertain to? What does it signify? Has this only been around shortly, or have I just not heard of it? Just curious... I like to know what's goin on around me.

Should we use the drunken brawl thread for the festivas comments!

Okay, just one more 'cause it's Christmas:

Luke 2:7
And she gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths,
and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.


--------------------
The blessed apostle has recalled that two men gave a beginning to the human
race, namely Adam and Christ; two men equal in physical nature but unequal in
merit; truly alike in their bodily structure, but totally dissimilar in their
own origin. ‘The first Adam', he says, ‘became a living being; the last Adam
became a life-giving spirit.

That first Adam was made by this last, from whom he obtained the soul to give
him life; the last was author of his own making: he did not look for life from
another, but himself alone bestowed life on all. The first Adam is moulded from
the vile dust of the earth, the second comes forth from the precious womb of the
Virgin. In the first Adam earth is changed into flesh, in the last, flesh is
raised up to God.

And what more? This last is the Adam, who when forming the first set his own
image in him. Hence he assumed his role, and received his name to prevent the
loss of what he had made to his own image. There is a first Adam, then, and a
last Adam: the first has a beginning, the last has no end. Because this last is
in truth himself the first, as he says, ‘I am the first and the last...'.

‘As was the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; and as is the man of
heaven, so are those who are of heaven'. How shall those not born in such a
condition be found so, remaining not as they were born, but as they were reborn?

This is the reason, brothers, why the heavenly Spirit makes fertile the womb of
the virginal font, by the secret admixture of his light, that it may bring forth
as heavenly creatures, and bring back to the likeness of the Creator, those whom
their origin in earth's dust had produced as men of dust in miserable state. So
now reborn and refashioned to the likeness of our Creator, let us fulfil the
apostle's command: ‘Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, let us
also bear the image of the man of heaven'.

Now reborn after the pattern of our Lord, as I have said, let us bear the full
and complete image of our maker; not in majesty, in which he is alone, but in
innocence, simplicity, meekness, patience, humility, mercy and concord - in
which he deigned to become and to be one with us.

– St. Peter Chrysologus