Merry Christ-MYTH or … Happy Business-mas

Around this house and when we’re out and about, we’re very content to wish people ‘Happy Holidays’.  It’s polite, it’s brief and it recognizes that the person I’m talking might be Jewish, Buddhist, Jainist, Zoroastrian, Shinto, Atheist, Muslim, Bahai, Pagan or Taoist.

To name just a few.

Or Christian.  And therein lies the extension of good wishes:  by saying ‘Happy Holidays’ I’m reminded that the word ‘holiday’ is literally a contraction of ‘Holy’ and ‘day’, so my wishes are with the highest level of reverence for what the recipient finds holy in these days.

There’s no ill intent to ‘bury’ Christian tradition.

In fact, if we were to follow the true path of Christ, we’d have a very different collection of ‘holy days’.  Read this article from Truthdig to understand that the ‘holy days’ we face over the next two weeks have very little to do with the original messages of Christ, if he existed.

We indulge, we splurge, we spend and we consume.  The only thing Biblical about our behaviour is that we consume like locusts sent on a God-hating mission of destruction of Pharoahs of old.

We destroy this planet willingly that the mythological God gave us all in the name of ‘Christmas’.

What we ‘enjoy’ today over the holidays is nothing like what the early Christians experience, except perhaps never-ending persecution by the Romans (Americans) over the rest of the world as they tried to get by and work with tax authorities to ensure proper collection of what’s due to the high rulers.

What we do today is spread the word of Christ-myth, a collection of stories and histories pilfered from other organized (and not so organized) religions around the world.  Observation and a break over the next two weeks originate with Saturnalia.  The evergreen in our livingroom is not a Christmas tree, but a symbol of green returning to our lives now that the days are getting longer.  December 25 is only the first day on which days are noticeably longer and, per the Sheldon quote above, if Christ did exist, he wasn’t born now, but in the spring.

Alternatively, as the Holy Days wind down, we engage in a free-for-all expansion of debt per capita on largely disposable crap in a period of the year I call ‘Business-mas’.  These are the twilight days of the calendar year where retailers have just moments left to make or break their whole year.

So, if you’re into commerce, like the buffoons and Fox and other right-wing propaganda networks are, open your wallet and spread the joy in the coming days of Business-mas.

Endless credit adds a whole new definition to the word ‘ever green’.

Your tax man will appreciate it!