Too Much Holiday Cheer?
Here is the scene outside my front door this holiday season --- could this be a case of too much holiday cheer?!
KENTROVERSY EDITORIAL:
The scene above was photographed from my front porch, of a house and front yard belonging to one of my neighbors. They profess to be devout Christians, and yet, the only thing they seem to be celebrating with their ... ahem ... festive holiday display ... are all the aspects of what Christmas has become that finds many people burned-out and HATING the holiday.
I am one of those people, by the way.
Christmas is actually based upon the oldest of all astro-theological traditions, the rebirth of the SUN OF GOD upon the annual occasion of the Winter Solstice, whereupon the SUN rises for yet another annual cycle of daily birth-death and re-birth the very next morning.
Astro-theology, by the way, is the world's OLDEST religion of all. It is the worship of the stars and planets and other heavenly bodies, and had become the template upon which subsequent religions were built.
In fact, this is of such importance that there are numerous words in the languages of the world that all relate to or deal with using the LIGHT OF THE SUN as a metaphor for knowledge and spiritual growth. I plan to discuss this in a future essay, but for tonight, I wanted to briefly discuss the digital photograph above.
In the photograph above, it can be clearly seen that there are the following items blazing in multicolored lights; two seperate lighted trees and bushes that surround the entire house, an eight foot tall Santa Claus, and various lit-up packages and gifts adorn the lawn, scattered across the scene.
What does ANY of this have to do with the BIRTH of the SUN OF GOD?
You see, on December 21st of every year in the Northern Hemisphere, the SUN is at its' lowest yearly point in the sky. Because of the relative sizes and distances between Earth and the SUN, it takes three days for the SUN to be reborn and appear above the horizon. This three day passage computates as the width of the SUN itself. Coincidentally, the point at which these three days have passed is December 24th, precisely at midnight!!
There are no less than sixteen saviours of the various global religious systems that were BORN on December 25th. No, really. YOU can look this up for yourself to confirm the truth behind this. And, not a single one of them had anything to do with snowmen, Santa Claus, flying reindeer, wrapped packages, and most especially, nothing to do with blazing up ones' yard with enough electric lights to power a used car lot!!
However, this DOES remind me of something.
It reminds me of how no matter what it might have started out as, Christmas has since become an orgy of consumption and overspending.
While working for RADIO SHACK during my college years, I discovered that each retailer makes approximately 50% of their YEARLY PROFIT in the last part of the year --- beginning with the day AFTER Thanksgiving, to New Year's Eve.
The photo above reminds me of that second kind of Christmas; the one where you show your level of LOVE AND COMMITMENT by your willingness to max-out all your credit cards. THAT is what I HATE about the holiday. Just go to the mall, and buy all your relatives, a GIFT CARD from whatever store appeals to them as a hobby or enjoyment.
This year, nearly everyone I know gave gifts from the heart, by making something with their hands, or to give the gift of time. I would rather visit with someone I don't get to see that often, because they live across the country, than to get some cheezy gift that was MADE IN CHINA anyway.
While I am certain that the local electric utility LOVES my neighbor, I can tell you that this display, which is the equivalent of a tuxedo t-shirt, a rough approximation, but nonetheless off-base and inappropriate.
The people who live in this house are nice people. They are friendly, and they are always polite and say hello when they run into someone else from the neighborhood.
I cannot help but wonder HOW they will up the ante at the NEXT Christmas, later this year?!
© 2006 Kentroversy Papers
All rights reserved. Used with permission.
Astro-Theology
Christmas
Holiday Cheer
SUN of God
X-Mas
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