Religious Right pressures school to recognize Christmas

http://www.livejournal.com/users/bambenek/94565.html?mode=reply

Guess they haven't heard of the Establishment clause

as depicted now, is a secular icon. They have Santa Claus in Japan, which celebrates 'Christmas' while not being a Christian country.

I guess they pushed Christmas so hard over the years that they pushed it right into a non-religious status. Too bad for them.

stole from non-Xtian groups which were celebrating Mithras' Birthday, the Feast of Sol Invictis, the Winter Solstice and so on. I like to think of it as reclaiming MY heritage (pagan north European).

Santa Claus seems to have strayed from St. Nicholas, and I haven't heard of anyone worshiping him as a saint.

Edit: On the other hand, Santa is firmly associated with Christmas, not Chanukah or any other religion. So, although Santa Claus is not religious, he does seem to be Christmas specific.

In all other respects, he's a purely pagan figure, part of the same fertility-based complex as every other expression of seasonal revelry, from the trick-and-treaters of Halloween, to the New Years Mummers, to Mardi Gras. See http://home.bak.rr.com/darog/xmas/history.htm

Beyond that, Santa and the other pagan elements in contemporary solstice festivities have a strong association with traditional pre-Christian cosmology. Our Christias tree is a representation of the world-axis, and the star at the tip is the North Pole Star. Santa's own location -- from which he can simultaneously see everyone in the world -- is also clearly at the Pole Star and not at the earhly North Pole. His flying sleigh (like the sun-chariot of Apollo) also clearly marks him as an ancient celestial deity.

to defend all things Christian and wish us all a merry Christmas.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1....

RL

Let us pray not. :)

Unless, of course, you consider him the patron saint of greed.

that the principal believes that he is honoring the separation of church and state ideal by banning Santa...and therefor must believe Santa is a religious icon of some sort.

Would he have banned someone wearing a yarmulka? He might offend some of the christian persuasion there...

theProdigal

Someone posted a link to a Greenland advent calendar.

http://www.santa.gl/uk/Adventcalendar/index

It's fun, but long. I'm up to day 5. Santa is really a polar bear.