Thank you anna missed and Bernhard.
In re Snow Job: I asked fauxreal, my favorite go-to scholar just What it was that Christmas replaced since the evergreen thing is more Druidic (?) than Christian and then I heard it on NPR. It was Saturnalia, the celebration of the return of the sun that followed the winter solstice and involved days long partying, etc., etc. The Romans not wanting to take all that fun from the newly converted Pagans decided that Jesus’ birth would be celebrated at the same time. [Besides no pregnant woman would have wandered around in the desert in winter in those times]. So. I would add Happy Saturnalia to the many other greeetings: Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, and of course, the one we currently celebrate: Happy Visa.

Posted by: beq | Dec 27 2005 18:15 utc | 4

Sol Invictus- the invincible sun…the late (i.e. 200 bce) version..
was one, but there were lots of sun worshippers (and they weren’t living in Miami…) –and, according to wiki (tho, can I cite them now?) there were more sun goddesses than sun gods across cultures.
Japan has a sun goddess tradition, ms. beq, fwiw.
and we all know it’s all about fvcking anyway…that and crops.
I am now one week w/o a modem or internet access. It’s amazing the stuff I’ve gotten done. Someone near me gets online at about midnight, and I’ve been able to glom off their access with my airport, but most of the time- I have to rely on teevee for news. That’s scary.
But now I’m in the library with the fruit of my loins so that we can all check email. You sure get used to access to different povs online, and sure do miss them when they’re gone. I have to actually plan to catch democracy now!, too.
best christmas in a long time for me. It snowed and four deer were hanging out in the backyard eating out of the bird feeders b/t my house and my neighbor’s house.
plus, last night was a great Harvey Birdman. what can I say.

Posted by: fauxreal | Dec 27 2005 19:27 utc | 6