You will all be happy to know that this evil does not hold sway everywhere. In the Czech Republic, Santa doesn’t give out presents on Christmas. He does on the feast of Saint Nicholas, though.
On St. Nic’s feast, December 6, the Saint (who looks more bishop-y than than our red-suited satanic elf) goes around door to door with an angel and the devil. If kids are bad, he tells the devil to give them a lump of coal or a potato. If kids are good, he tells the angel to give them a gift. It’s sometimes called “Little Christmas”…kind of revs everyone up for the real thing.
On Christmas day, the Baby Jesus brings the presents. I can see this backfiring, though. you want your kids to find out there’s no Baby Jesus when they grow up?
So, anyone else up for heading to H4E’s house dressed as santa with me?
Someone can provide the redlighting and I’ll ask the question we’ve all been expecting Santa to ask:
“Hello little <boy/girl (whatever)> what do you want Santa to bring you for YOUR SOUL!”
Althought it’s pathetic how hard some people try to make other’s lives filled with misery and fear.
Ah, come on guys,… be nice…
Though her posts show her to be somewhat narrow minded, and often ill-informed, she does strike me as at least being sincere in her …ahem… beliefes.
How the hell can I get a freakin’ spell checker in this posting stuff? JEBUS!!!
pravnik, thanks for the insight. I had no idea of anything about Christmas over yonder. And, I think the Baby Jesus grew up? (I think i missed the point but I’m trying out the eggnog just a little early)
Well, as anyone with any experiance with English cars or motorcycles can attest, Lucas is indeed the Prince of Darkness, so there might be something to the rest of this.
Clearly, more study is required. (while drinking Bass Ale, I think)
His4Ever, the evolution of Saint Nicholas, Bishop of Myra into Santa Claus is quite well documented, especially at this time of year. Also, the fellow who brings gifts at this time of year isn’t called “Santa Claus” by all English-speaking people. My own father still refers to him as “Father Christmas” despite having lived in America for 35 years.
I’m aware that Christmas is highly over-commercialized. My response to this is, if that’s what you think, don’t buy into it. For the seven years I lived in Hawaii, I didn’t have a Christmas tree because I was too poor to affor one. Instead, I had an Advent wreath made on the second Sunday of Advent at a party at my church which also served as birthday party for me. Much as I will love spending Christmas day with my family, the most important part of Christmas will be celebrating the birth of my Redeemer at midnight mass on Christmas Eve, just as it has been all my adult life, and for most of my teenage years.
Please, lass, spread joy and peace and hope, rather than fear. None of our modern day Christmas celebrations date back to the time of Christ. Most of them are no more than 150 years old. Nevertheless, I will sing “O Come All Ye Faithful” (written between 1711 and 1786), “Angels We Have Heard On High” (written between 1813 and 1882), and my old favorite, “Silent Night” (written in 1816) in church on Christmas Eve with great joy. I’ll even do a rendition of “The Little Drummer Boy” in private, so as not to annoy some of my fellow Dopers.
Ever read Anthony Burgess’ The Wanting Seed? All the little kiddies learn about Dog in their school books. I wonder if the choice of anagram also has something to do with the fact that it’s only one letter off from Bog.
I skimmed through the link and it sounds very plausible to me. I can agree with it.**
You do? Hey, that’s great! I have this bridge in Brooklyn you might be interested in investing in. I can let you have it for a REALLY CHEAP price, too!
Hey there Guy, stop making a fool of yourself! I’m a grad student and I have a bone to pick with you!
#1 Latin - Latin is read from right to left and is broken down into prefixes and suffixes and to know the true meaning of a word you must trace the origin and find the original meaning of it. #2 English - is a Germanic language with Latin rules! #3 Our brain is a funny, funny thing! University of Paris Professor Emile Javal 1878) found "reading was not done by smoothly scanning a line of text but was a matter of JUMPING from one fixation point to another…(as in an anagram). These jumps are known as saccades. Reading or gathering in of textual material, took place at the fixation point not during the saccades (Solso, 2008, p. 83). This is a graduate level cognivite psychology book I just quoted from.
What Guy does that mean? It means FIXATED WORD----rote----rote----rote—rote and arrive at another fixated point! Is this to say there is nothing of value in the saccade? No, it saying that a brain will take in a message and the comprehension of a story or reading based on those fixated memories and reasoning of it in the cortical area. This my dear man/woman is a anagram! :smack:
Welcome to the board and thank you for your contribution, LLWoodward. But this thread is very old and a lot of the people who were participating aren’t around anymore. For example Guybud5 hasn’t been here in six years. So I’m going to lock this and suggest that if anyone is interested in this topic, they start a new discussion.
