Grinch Corner

@Obelix-Vendée Isn't the whole Christmas and Easter tradition lifted straight from pagan festivals?

 

@shiney you only stopped with the decs 40 years ago ??? I'll see that and raise you another 10 years

 

Yes @KT53. There is also Imbolc which falls half way between the winter solstice and spring equinox. The Celts celebrated as the beginning of the laming season, heralding spring to come. The Romans adopted it as a celebration of Faunus, god of farm animals and fertility and then the Christians as Candlemass and the presentation of baby Jesus to the temple at 40 days old.

They all involve candles and, for the Celts, parades by torchlight. The Belgians and French eat pancakes which, supposedly, represent the round, yellow sun and its return with the lengthening of days.

 

Imbolc, February 1st/2nd is/was the feast day of the Celtic Irish goddess Brigid. Christianised as St. Briget, who's Saint's Day is also - not coincidentally - February 1st/2nd, Candlemas. It's still under debate whether the lore of the older Celtic deity was 'grafted' onto St. Briget of Kildare by the Church, or whether St. Briget was allocated the characteristics of the pagan deity.
Either, or - both represent the beginning of Spring.

 

Thank you @AuntyRach and @Obelix-Vendée for clarifying 12th night and the follow up. Could you also clarify the 12 days of Christmas please? I don't understand the significance of 'twelve' days of xmas. Thank you for your time.

 

@Meomye - The Twelve Days of Christmas is just the whole of the Christian celebration which starts 25th Dec (the birth of Jesus) until the 5th Jan (the arrival of the Wise Men/3 Kings/Magi).

 

The Celts celebrated Yule for 12 days @Meomye so it's just another tradition co-opted by the Church to attract followers and thus income.

 

Wasn't it the Germanic/Norse people who celebrated Yule, rather than the Celts? The Celtic peoples certainly marked the Winter Solstice on December 21st, aided and abetted by the Druids.
Or am I just splitting hairs and being a pedant?

 

The churches will use any means possible to increase their income. Most effective over the centuries has been fear.

 

Never mind go into your local coop and buy Easter eggs. Ours is already selling them.

 

And objections to birth control, keeping women enslaved.

 

Apparently, M&S has come up with a rectangular one. Hmmm, not an egg then. Just a highly processed, excessively sweet load of expensive junk. (I believe it retails at over a tenner!)

 

@Tinkerton the Celts spread across much of Europe as far as the Danube and into modern day Turkey. Roman expansion from the south and Germanic tribe migrations from the north pushed their culture into what is now Ireland and northern Britain but the people remain - Gauls (Asterix and Obelix and co), Britons, Belgae, Gaels and so on.

 

I must have been splitting hairs and being a pedant, then.

 

Being a pedant means being precise n'est-ce pas? If you don't know how far Celtic culture originally spread how can you be pedantic about its feasts being adopted by the Catholic church that followed its suppression and drove it out of everyday lives?