Friday, March 21, 2014

slice

Why do we give people gifts on certain days, like birthdays? It seems a kind of weird tradition. Shouldn't everybody feel equally loved on any given day? Gifts are exciting to get, and the perfect gift makes people feel extra happy, but they also put pressure on everyone to find the right gift and seem excited no matter what they get. Also, the days that we give gifts on are kind of strange things to celebrate. Birthdays are a pretty arbitrary day in which we decide that we are officially a year older than the day before, and won't age at all until one year from that date, when we are exactly one year older. Hanukah is celebrating the fact that oil burned for longer than it should have. Christmas is celebrating the birth of someone who lived 2014 years ago. Christmas isn't even on the right day.

The date December 25th was chosen by the Roman emperor Constantine to correspond with the pagan holidays of the Feast of Saturnalia and Yuletide. Both of these are celebrating the solstice. The emperor believed that if he changed the date to correspond with the holidays that the pagans already celebrated, he could convert more to Christianity. Just to prove I am right, I did some research, and here are some sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas#History
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-small/the-origins-of-christmas_b_1140254.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rick-steves/the-roots-of-christmas-fr_b_4460062.html

I know that Wikipedia is not viewed as a particularly reliable source, but the Huffington Post is.

1 comment:

  1. I always enjoy people talking about a topic, and then showing that they did check sources so what they said could be supported. Nice, Theo. As for the gift-givng, I suppose it really doesn't matter, but I usually think that giving gifts for birthdays is to celebrate that that person is here, with us, and we care about him or her. Christmas is another thing, many think commercial, & Hanukkah too, but again, it's how we approach it, with some devotion to the celebrating of something good, if we believe in that story. Just my opinion. See, your post brought a reaction! That's good!

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