Bah Humbuggery

[stacey]

I couldn't see a post here for those of us who are allergic to tinsel so thought I'd start one    I wish I could just roll with it, ignore the shabbiness of the ritual with its trees that don't mean anything and its snow when it's summer here in Australia. Jesus was a top enlightened dude but it's not about him anymore. I guess I really have problems with empty rituals. I can't help feeling they are damaging for people in the crumbly end of a civilisation that lies to us regularly as it is.

Add on top the creepiness that this time of year can flash those of us from crap childhoods back into, and that combo makes this about the most stressful time of year for me. Hateses it!

Hence racking off to Perth for five days and ignoring the whole thing, which feels very liberating on the one hand and very guilt inducing on the other.

So for everyone who's struggling with this time of year, I hear ya. And you are not a bad, dull, unfun Grinch if it does your head in. Take solace - it's almost over

[Dutch Uncle]

Thanks. It struck a cord with me.

I managed to ditch most, if not all, negative memories of X-mas when a child, and had managed to replace it with something else to celebrate.
Now that has 'died' too, which makes it a bit hard this year.

Your post is much appreciated on the opposite side of the globe. When I'll be staring a bit sullen at my feet over the next days, I'll try to remember I'll be looking straight your way. 

Cheers!

[woodsgnome]

This seasonal morass played a huge role in my free childhood "seeing-through-hypocrisy" course. I was once beaten for messing up a church x-mas pageant (I think I may have smiled during the dour sermon on "love came down" or something)--so much for joy to the world, eh? The posturing then, and now, is purely awful until and unless one can step back from it. Or just escape.

That said, once I take the personal memories out of the spectrum and look a bit more, I find lots of interesting folklore in the goings-on. But many people have no clue about that background--it's been watered over first by the two-edged sword of the churchies and ratcheted up by the commercial claptrap. Between the two, it's hard to see any other side to it.

So from a folklore standpoint, I get a kick out of the "behind-the-scenes" stuff; I can only stand the upfront over-the-top junk, though, if I remember to keep my inner laugh going--that's where the childhood hypocrite training comes in handy. Of course back then the only safe way to laugh was to do so inwardly, and with certain people still is. It's really all that got me past the grief, which is all I saw (and experienced ) behind the smug faces of the original childhood hypocrites.

[stacey]

Dutch Uncle, I felt sad and then laughed at your post. Yes! Living on this rotating ball is quite the mind trip. I'll make sure to raise a cup to you under my feet. (Does that mean I need to pour it out?)

Everything is heightened this season. I have chronic fatigue syndrome and no kids, and the constant advertisimg to happy families can really make you start feeling dissatisfied with your lot. And with losses too, in your case. Be kind to you

[stacey]

Oh, Woodsgnome, that's awful! Grrr at your parents for being so caught up in appearances. I wish the joy to the world lord had come and swiped their bum with a switch.

The folklorish elements are interesting. They feel a bit discordant though ripped out from their original moorings that gave them their meaning in the first place. But yes, that sounds like a good way to ride your way through this "festive" season.

Funny, when I was a kid, Boxing Day (there's another reference lost to history) used to be the most boring and heavy day but these days it comes with the great lightness of knowing that we are as far away from the empty fakeness as we can possibly be

[mourningdove]

I was once beaten for messing up a church x-mas pageant

That's horrible, woodsgnome.

I hate all the major holidays, because they are more about social control than about communal celebration.

[Danaus plexippus]

Since we are about half a year away from next Christmas, I see no point in starting a new thread. I must admit I do like the twinkly lights on my neighbors' houses. in the north, Christmas comes at a dismal dark time of year. I'm glad Christians decided to hold on to the old pagan traditions, they cheer me up. That is to say the old, old ways not the commercialized con-jobs of today. In Japan it's referred to as gift giving day.

I won't have a tree because of all the chemicals they are treated with. So far as I know there is no such thing as organically grown Christmas trees. What a shame, I love the smell of evergreens. Sometimes after a storm I go out scavenging fallen boughs to fragrance up my apartment. Doesn't matter what time of year it is.