Observances for the New Year

Halloween

We have made this an evening of Trick or Treat where children dress up as creatures of myth and fantasy, Vampires and Princesses, Zombies and Swashbucklers, and run from door to door throughout their neighborhoods gathering candy and sweets from everyone who participates. It is an evening where people dress in costumes and go out to parties to show off their outfits to everyone willing to look. Two decades ago, when I was a teenager, the normal costumes at the time were things like Zombies and Witches. My friends and I would dress as the walking dead and try to make ourselves appear as damaged as possible by adding in gashes and fake blood. The teenage girls would dress in black satin dresses and wear tall black pointy hats, or put on some ballerina or princess gown or the like. Now I see costumes in stores and magazines that are for teenage girls, and these have less material to them than most skimpy lingerie. Parents are allowing their young daughters to go outside dressed in the barest of costumes, showing the maximum amount of skin, and they don’t even bat an eyelash. This is no longer a Holiday (Holy Day), this day has reverted back to its pagan customs and rituals. The original holiday for Halloween was called “All Hallows Eve” which had rituals steeped in dark magic, because according to legends, that day is a nexus of power. Rituals included human sacrifices, animal sacrifices and sexual rituals which I will not go into here. Many decades ago the name All Hallows Eve was bastardized through the English language and the people who never truly learn to speak it properly into Hallow e’en, and then further into Halloween which we currently use today. As a Christian, I find the “Holiday” Halloween reprehensible. It is a return to Sodom and Gammora at the most basic of levels. It is an “acceptable” thing for women to publicly wear the skimpiest of outfits, and for our children to act on their greed for candy.

Thanksgiving

When we look at the first thanksgiving, we see how truly detestable this so called holiday is. The Pilgrims who had come to the shores of America to escape religious persecution in Europe essentially persecuted the native Americans who were already living off the land for their different religious beliefs. If not for the native Americans, the original settlers would have starved to death because they did not know how to live off the lands. Most of the crops that the pilgrims planted failed due to the different soil types and different climates that the crops were used to growing in, and if not for the natives giving most of the food to the settlers during that first winter, we would not be here as we are today. Since that time, the Native Americans have been pushed from location to location, and were attacked on sight for the most part because of their “savage ways”. This day that we celebrate as our day for giving thanks for this new and bountiful land essentially preceeded an extermination of many different peoples. I will not give thanks for the death this day had caused throughout the history of the Americas.

Christmas

This holiday is basically good at the heart of it, but there is where the goodness ends. This day is supposed to be the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, the savior and Messiah of the Christian faiths. Jesus was born in the summer. How is it then that we celebrate his birth in the winter? Hundreds of years ago, in her many efforts to enfold pagan religions under her cloak, the Catholic Church made a concession to the pagan worshipers of one of the druidic religions of northern Europe. The Winter Solstice, or the shortest day of the year was remade into a Christian holiday. This day is the day to which the Pope changed the birth of Christ. This was done to appease people who did not believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior, but who believed in the power of the sun and moon, and who believed in the worship of Gaea, or Mother Earth. This is not the only reason this holiday is corrupt and has no true religious significance, not by a long shot. The worst part about this holiday is the capitalization of it. Jesus taught peace and harmony. Jesus taught love and compassion. This holiday teaches greed and self-gratification. This holiday teaches that we should go out and buy presents and gifts for everyone. The giving of gifts isn’t a bad thing, but when we start teaching our children to say “I Want” we then start to let that slip into “Gimme”, and there starts the greed.

These three Holidays teach some of the worst things to our children, and we as a society don’t see it because we have had blinders put on us by the corporations who profit from them. These Holidays are about profit margins and overhead costs, not about God. We should seek in ourselves to attain a spiritual relationship with God and with Jesus, and in so doing we will start to grow in our ability to relate to those we love. We will no longer need a Holiday to give to those we care about, we will give to them because it is good and it is right. We will be able to teach our children the value of what they have, and we will be able to teach them that it is not about us, but about God. I have seen some very wealthy people, and for all their possessions and money, they were miserable. I have also seen some of the poorest people on earth, and even though they make less than $20 US each day, they are happy because of the love they have in their families and friends. All of us have greatness locked away within ourselves, we only need the key to unlock it, and God is that key.

Faith will make us strong.
Strength will let us persevere.
Perseverance will let us accomplish our goals.

~Ralek Talen (7 January 2008)