Thursday, November 24, 2016

Happy Thanksgiving







As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. – By John F. Kennedy




It's evening as I write this. Another Thanksgiving Day is coming to a close. Now it begins: the craziness and the beauty of the weeks before Christmas. I've already seen lights on some homes and some people have shared pictures of their trees up and decorated. I plan to start decorating for the holiday season. I will say up front that I'm not a Believer in the Judaeo Christian tradition. However, I do enjoy the lights, the colors, the sounds, the smells and traditions of Christmas. I've told people at times that I prefer to celebrate Winter Solstice and get some odd looks. 
 
One of the things I dread is social media postings about "keep Christ in Christmas" or "Share this if you still say Merry Christmas" or one of my favorites "Are you afraid to say Merry Christmas? Share this if you're not." UGH UGH UGH is my reaction. More than once I've said that nobody CARES if you want to say Merry Christmas, but that's mostly aimed at stores that DARE to tell their workers to wish people Happy Holidays. Because actually there is more than one holiday season in short period. 
 
Some people get annoyed when you tell them that Christ was actually born in March based on the fact that there were lambs in the fields, and that the celebration of the birth of Christ was moved to December to replace Saturnalia. If you think about it, that's a pretty masterful stroke. Don't try to wean people away from their celebration of light at the darkest time of the year. Supplant it with a religious theme. They did the same with churches which were built atop the ruins of Roman temples. Cathedrals were often built right on the same site. So there are layers and layers of history in one spot. 
 
That all begins tomorrow though. Right now, I'm going to try to enjoy that lovely feeling of having had a nice meal with my family. That's the best I can do at the moment before the mad rush of the holidays begins. 
 
On the other hand, I'm looking forward to some terrific photo ops! 

No comments:

Post a Comment