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NiftyWitch wrote:

"The Druids would plunge a dagger into a victim's chest, observe the way his limbs convulsed as he died, then read the future from his blood spatters. Sometimes, the configuration of his entrails, as they fell to the ground, would also be used for divination."
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAHH! !!! Where the h#!! did she dig this up??

DaBroad wrote:

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Diodorus Siculus, a Greek historian. He actually did write that, concerning Druids around the year 100 BCE. However, there is no evidence that this is currently practiced. Keep in mind that the Romans and Greeks also thought that early Christian sects practiced canibalism - the whole "eat my flesh/drink my blood" thing.

CHRISTMAS CHEER wrote:

What do Pagans celebrate at the Holiday Season? Do you still get gifts?

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DaBroad wrote:

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Diodorus Siculus, a Greek historian. He actually did write that, concerning Druids around the year 100 BCE. However, there is no evidence that this is currently practiced. Keep in mind that the Romans and Greeks also thought that early Christian sects practiced canibalism - the whole "eat my flesh/drink my blood" thing.

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Clark Griswold wrote:

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Pagans celebrate Yule, which is the historic Pagan winter festival. I personally like to consider the whole winter holiday a Yule celebration, starting around the middle of December and ending the 3rd of January after the last bowl game.
My family celebrates Christmas, being that with the exception of my mother, they are all christian fundies. I used to get together with them when my nieces and nephews were young, but have stopped, since it's a real challenge for me to be around them anymore. They do things like pray before the meal, which isn't totally unbearable, except for the fact that they all glare at me for starting my salad during it. Then my sister usually buys me some really crappy KMart sweater from all 8 of them, which I can't even use to wash the car because it's mostly polyester and you know how anti-absorbent that stuff is. The crappy sweater part isn't all that bad either, except I have a habit of putting a lot of thought into any present I go to the trouble of buying. So I end up dropping a few hundred bucks on them. Then on the way home I stop off at the nearest Good Will box to deposit my KMart sweater. So from a financial, spiritual, and moral viewpoint, staying home for christmas is a win, win, win, situation for me.
I've got this bad habit of straying off topic in order to voice some of my deep seated animosities, but to get back to your original question, I don't think you need to be christian to celebrate Christmas. I know athiests, agnostics, pagans, and jews that put up a Christmas tree and exchange gifts on Christmas. I associate the whole Yule season with a spirit of giving and fellowship. It's a great time of the year. Lots of parties, the stores are all crowded with shoppers. Believe it or not, every once in a great while I'll even go back to the church I went to as a kid for the Chistmas Eve service... just for nostalgic reasons. I'm a big on nostalgia during the Yule season.

NM Desert Rat wrote:

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Clark I always get a charge out of your posts. I can definitely understand the reason to stay home for Christmas routine. It never fails to amaze me how the Christians can take a Pagan Holiday, Christianize it and then claim it has always been that way. In my grandmother's home Yule lasted 6 days beore the solstice and 6 days after. Gifts were given on all of the days. The holiday was a great time of feasting, partying and family celebration. I carried on the tradition in my home. Other than being labeled a bunch of devil worshiping, crazed, baby sacrificing heathens from my fundie relatives and them screaming we are disrespecting the true meaning of Christmas we carry on the tradition without them.

Clark Griswold wrote:

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Yeah, the irony of it all is hard to take. And not a single one of these people judging you has even the least bit of a clue as to what your beliefs are. On another note...interesting Rat, I didn't know you were a blue blood. That's very cool. Do you know how many generations your spirituality goes back?

Clark Griswold wrote:

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Yeah, the irony of it all is hard to take. And not a single one of these people judging you has even the least bit of a clue as to what your beliefs are. On another note...interesting Rat, I didn't know you were a blue blood. That's very cool. Do you know how many generations your spirituality goes back?

NM Desert Rat wrote:

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I'm not a blue blood. I think most if not all families have relatives that practiced some or all of the old traditions. I grew up on a farm. My grandmother was very close to the earth and seasons so naturally her beliefs were in that area. She felt Christianity was a blood sucking waste of time. The church was more interested in fleecing the flock than tending to it. My parents were Christian so I was raised as a Lutheran. My grandmothers beliefs appealed to me more than Christianity so I left the church at a young age.

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NM Desert Rat wrote:

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I'm not a blue blood. I think most if not all families have relatives that practiced some or all of the old traditions. I grew up on a farm. My grandmother was very close to the earth and seasons so naturally her beliefs were in that area. She felt Christianity was a blood sucking waste of time. The church was more interested in fleecing the flock than tending to it. My parents were Christian so I was raised as a Lutheran. My grandmothers beliefs appealed to me more than Christianity so I left the church at a young age.

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Sheila wrote:

<quoted text>Uh, you do realize that there's no such thing as magic, don't you?

NM Desert Rat wrote:

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Clark I always get a charge out of your posts. I can definitely understand the reason to stay home for Christmas routine. It never fails to amaze me how the Christians can take a Pagan Holiday, Christianize it and then claim it has always been that way. In my grandmother's home Yule lasted 6 days beore the solstice and 6 days after. Gifts were given on all of the days. The holiday was a great time of feasting, partying and family celebration. I carried on the tradition in my home. Other than being labeled a bunch of devil worshiping, crazed, baby sacrificing heathens from my fundie relatives and them screaming we are disrespecting the true meaning of Christmas we carry on the tradition without them.

Clark Griswold wrote:

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Oh look we've got a new resident troll. Isn't she cute.