Xref: utzoo alt.flame:1154 talk.religion.newage:1372 talk.origins:929
Path: utzoo!yunexus!geac!chris
From: chris@geac.UUCP (Chris Syed)
Newsgroups: alt.flame,talk.religion.newage,talk.origins
Subject: Re: Theological Debates
Summary: holidays
Keywords: Holiday
Message-ID: <2064@geac.UUCP>
Date: 4 Jan 88 18:33:05 GMT
Article-I.D.: geac.2064
Posted: Mon Jan  4 13:33:05 1988
References: <4032@uwmcsd1.UUCP> <14193@oddjob.UChicago.EDU> <4062@uwmcsd1.UUCP> <14199@oddjob.UChicago.EDU>
Organization: GEAC Computers, Toronto, CANADA
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> 
> If Easter took a wrong turn one year and fell on
> Mother's day, would they be the same holiday?  No, they'd be two
> holidays on the same day.  If I am born on July 4th, does the whole
> country celebrate my birthday?  No, you dolt, they celebrate
> something else.
 
  Hmmm. Well, up here, we don't celebrate anything at all on your birthday,
  sorry. Nor, with the exception of sundry "Druids", do many folks celebrate
  pagan feasts these days. 
 
  It was common practice for the early (and early medieval) Xtians to "borrow"
  local customs, placing Xtian churches on the sites of pagan shrines, etc.
  In the case of Xmas, they also borrowed some of the trappings - the holly
  and the ivy, for one (two?). 
 
  It's been a while, but I believe a good summary of this sort of thing
  can be found in Robertson, D.W. _A Preface to Chaucer_. Another source,
  believe it or not, is _The Catholic Encyclopedia_. 
 
  Happy Holy Days!
  Chris.