Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Tannenbaum


Lets get Christ out of Christmas and just go back to celebrating it as a pagan heathen holiday.

Is There Too Much Christian Influence in Christmas?

Ever since a bunch of evangelical right wingers and their Fox media syncophants decided to put Christ back into Christmas everyone is attacking poor Christmas Trees.

Judge's Christmas tree ban triggers protest

Rabbi wants menorah in airport, Christmas trees removed instead


Heck they aren't even a Christian symbol, never have been. Even some Christians recognize that, those of the Calvinist persuasion as well as the World Wide Church of God.

There was a strong Calvinist element in Lochdubh which frowned on Christmas. Christmas had nothing to do with the birth of Christ, they said, but was really the old Roman Saturnalia which the early Christians had taken over. And as for Santa Claus -- forget it.


The Christmas tree represents the eternal life, the ever-green tree. Which was absorbed into Christian mythology as they adapted pagan traditions into their syncratic Catholicism. The Holy Roman Empire strode Borg like across Europe. The later Reformist revolts continued to subdue the pagan peasants and absorb their radical theologies, pagan as well as protest-ant.

In the German-speaking countries the Christmas tree is part of the pre-Christian tradition of the "12 Rauhnächte" (12 harsh or wild nights), which later became the "Twelve Nights of Christmas." The tree is put up on December 24 and taken down after New Years or on January 6, known as "Twelfth Night." A part of the tradition of taking down the tree is the "Plündern," raiding the tree of cookies and sugar plums, an event, anxiously awaited by the children. January 6 is also known as "Three Kings." On that evening carolers, three of them dressed as the three kings or Magi, stroll from house to house. In some areas the old trees will be brought to a public place and burnt in a big bon-fire. January 7 ushers in the pre-Lenten Fasching or Carnival season.O TANNENBAUM - O CHRISTMAS TREE




Deutsch
Tannenbaum
TEXT: Ernst Anschütz, 1824
MELODIE: Volksweise (traditional)


O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
wie treu sind deine Blätter!
Du grünst nicht nur
zur Sommerzeit,
Nein auch im Winter, wenn es schneit.
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
wie treu sind deine Blätter!

O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum!
Du kannst mir sehr gefallen!
Wie oft hat nicht zur Weihnachtszeit
Ein Baum von dir mich hoch erfreut!
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum!
Du kannst mir sehr gefallen!

O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum!
Dein Kleid will mich
was lehren:
Die Hoffnung und Beständigkeit
Gibt Trost und Kraft
zu jeder Zeit.
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum!
Das soll dein Kleid
mich lehren.
English
O Christmas Tree
Literal English translation - HF
Traditional melody


O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree
How loyal are your leaves/needles!
You're green not only
in the summertime,
No, also in winter when it snows.
O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree
How loyal are your leaves/needles!

O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree
You can please me very much!
How often has not at Christmastime
A tree like you given me such joy!
O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree,
You can please me very much!

O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree
Your dress wants to
teach me something:
Your hope and durability
Provide comfort and strength
at any time.
O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree,
That's what your dress should
teach me.


And for those of you who celebrate it as the orgy of capitalist consumption it really is well $ea$on$ Greeting$, to you too.

Which is what this is really all about, the commercialization and materialist consumer nature of secular Christmas season. Capitalist Christmas if you like. Christmas in North America today is a secular holiday.

Disagreement focuses on whether decorations are religious or seecular

It's a season not a day, it is the season of the dying and returning Sun, transformed by Christians into the birth of their dying and reborn Son. It is Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year. It is the season of light in the darkness hence Hanukkah, by the by Happy Hanukkah.

All three are celebrated in Hawaii.

Trees, Menorahs Light Up Hawaii Airports

And even as a secular holiday it celebrates the season of fraternity, sorority and solidarity, that of giving from thems thats got to thems with not. Which is why the Alaister Sim version of Scrooge resonates with us as does the Grinch Who Stole Christmas.

Moral tales for an era of unbridled Capitalism, past and present. For like its pagan origins the Solstice season of giving comes from an earler tradition that of the gift economy.

Happy Yuletide,

Merry Christmas,

Happy Hannukkah,

Blessed Be,

One and all,

this Solstice Day,

from a Pagan and a Heathen ,

friend of the Rebel Jesus.








Original recording from the chieftain’s album the bells of dublin

All the streets are filled with laughter and light
And the music of the season
And the merchants’ windows are all bright
With the faces of the children
And the families hurrying to their homes
As the sky darkens and freezes
They’ll be gathering around the hearths and tales
Giving thanks for all god’s graces
And the birth of the rebel jesus

Well they call him by the prince of peace
And they call him by the savior
And they pray to him upon the seas
And in every bold endeavor
As they fill his churches with their pride and gold
And their faith in him increases
But they’ve turned the nature that I worshipped in
From a temple to a robber’s den
In the words of the rebel jesus

We guard our world with locks and guns
And we guard our fine possessions
And once a year when christmas comes
We give to our relations
And perhaps we give a little to the poor
If the generosity should seize us
But if any one of us should interfere
In the business of why they are poor
They get the same as the rebel jesus

But please forgive me if I seem
To take the tone of judgement
For I’ve no wish to come between
This day and your enjoyment
In this life of hardship and of earthly toil
We have need for anything that frees us
So I bid you pleasure
And I bid you cheer
From a heathen and a pagan
On the side of the rebel jesus.


See

Christmas

Xmas

Solstice




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