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Post by SwimFellow on Dec 2, 2010 21:03:47 GMT -5
So, every year I wear a Santa hat for the holidays. This isn't at all a religious thing, I'm not Christian or anything, but it's definitely my favorite time of year, so I like to be festive. Anyway, I have this friend, and he's usually a nice guy. He's half-Jewish, half-Christian, and I've always enjoyed talking with him about a lot of things.. Unfortunately, this was the first time he saw me in a Santa hat.. He asked me why I was wearing it, and I said what I explained to you above. He knows that I'm not Christian, so he said to me "But, you aren't Christian!" I said back that I again just like to be festive. We decided to just leave it at a disagreement for then, but I saw him the next day, and he brought it up again. I researched Santa, and apparently, he never came from Christianity (sans the name.) He actually was from the holiday of Yule, or the Winter Solstice for mainly US people (apparently, they celebrate Yule in most other countries.) Anyway, evergreen trees in your house also comes from Yule. That's beside the point. Any, anyway, most celebrators of Yule (at least in Northern Europe) wore hats that resembled Santa hats, and also dressed up the town drunk in red garb and one of these hats (seem familiar?) and would drink with him and have a good time for Yule.. Then stone the town drunk.. :0 Anyway, when he brought it up again, I thought I would tell him that information. He didn't take it so well.. He called me a motherf***** who ruined the holidays for the religious people. I tried to say that I respect all religions, but he then told me that I shouldn't share my perspective on religion and to f*** myself. I walked away, and I'm going to not be his friend for the remainder of the holiday. I'm still wearing my santa hat. What do you guys think about the situation?
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Post by Ryan on Dec 2, 2010 22:14:21 GMT -5
Um. That's very strange of your friend to first question your reasoning for wearing a santa hat, and then when you explain that it has nothing to do with religion at all, and it is purely for the festivity of winter for him to blow up at you like that. If this is not an uncommon reaction to things (i.e. he has previously blown up at people for explaining their actions and pointing out good reasons that seem do disagree with his convictions), then chances are he's not a very good friend and cares more about his convictions than about accepting different people.
If this is an uncommon occurence, I would probably in your shoes apologize to him, and say sorry about seemingly upsetting him, and then go on to explain that you don't fully understand the reason he blew up at you. In any case, if it was just a mood he was in or if he is really close minded about his view point, then talking to him about it will shed the most light on the situation and allow you to proceed in the future with a better sense of how strong your friendship really is.
EDIT: A good friendship looks beyond the differences and is based on what is the same. Friends don't care if their opinions are different, they take differing opinions as opportunities for growth and discussion. If he is a bigot, then he can never be a good friend with you.
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Post by SwimFellow on Dec 2, 2010 22:31:08 GMT -5
Hmm.. Good advice! It's very uncommon. He apologized.. In fact, I actually know someone who lives in Germany, just the type of place that Yule would be celebrated, and he said that no one else besides the US, Canada, Britain, and Australia actually have Santa. They have someone like Santa, but he commented that Santa isn't a religious figure.. This person isn't my best friend IRL of course, but I have enjoyed talking with him in the past.. It's very odd too, because I've known him for 2 or 3 years, and every year I've worn a Santa hat, but this is the first time this has exploded into great proportions..
I still heart Santa hats.
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Flappy
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Grrr! But not really....
Posts: 577
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Post by Flappy on Dec 2, 2010 23:00:00 GMT -5
So, every year I wear a Santa hat for the holidays. This isn't at all a religious thing, I'm not Christian or anything Before reading the whole thing, my first reaction was actually "but Santa's not even a religious thing... Yeah, and there's no problem with that at all. Also Saturnalia played a big part! Christmas was actually the Christians holiday in response to Yule and Saturnalia. It was actually extremely lazy, in fact they stole nearly all of the traditions from Yule and Saturnalia. (Of course the whole Jesus' birth thing was the Christians idea, however, again, it was lazy because Jesus wasn't even born in December.) They would also give small gifts ocassionally. I think it was Saturnalia that made gift giving a regular, and mandatory, thing though. And the Slaves and their owners would switch roles for the day. No one was treated better than anyone else. The Slave owners would even serve the slaves a feast. The reality is simply that religious people are ignorant and they don't like to be shown that what they thought was theirs really isn't. Marriage is another thing some Christians tend to think they own (my mom at least.), but that's beside the point. Frankly, your friend is just really immature. I would think, and I don't mean to sound racist, that the Jewish side of him would be a lot more tolerable. (If you know any other Jews, at least from the ones I know, they're very respectable of other religions and ideologies.) I don't blame you. You didn't do anything that should have upset anyone. Being festive and enjoying the holiday's shouldn't be frowned upon. Your former friend is wrong in this situation, plain and simple. Edit (after reading the other responses): So basically, yeah, what I said about him being immature. It's still true, what he did was immature, but perhaps he is not so immature. About Yule, it was a Pagan holiday, so wherever the Pagan's were, that's where Yule was. I do understand this meant Greece and Rome (though Roman's celebrated Saturnalia). Um...I'm not sure what or how many countries celebrate Yule anymore...
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Post by SwimFellow on Dec 2, 2010 23:30:56 GMT -5
^Much more detailed than my explanation. It's very odd, the person I'm talking about isn't religious, and I didn't know he celebrated Christmas until this week.. Yeah, most people I know are Jewish, and one of my best friends (who is Jewish) commented that I looked good in the hat.. I never felt I did anything wrong, I was trying to get a perspective from others to see if this was somehow offensive.. I kind of expected these types of replies.
EDIT: He IS religious in the sense that he takes a lot of pride in being Jewish/Christian, but he isn't like really conservative.
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Post by Kevak on Dec 4, 2010 7:35:20 GMT -5
and he said that no one else besides the US, Canada, Britain, and Australia actually have Santa. AND Finland! It is, after all, Santa's home
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Post by krzych32 on Dec 4, 2010 8:36:56 GMT -5
and he said that no one else besides the US, Canada, Britain, and Australia actually have Santa. AND Finland! It is, after all, Santa's home WTF, its the north pole. The WW1 was actually over this.
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Post by SwimFellow on Dec 4, 2010 10:28:27 GMT -5
^Best post ever.
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Post by kdphilosophy on Dec 4, 2010 17:07:34 GMT -5
I totally agree with enjoying Santa and celebrating secular Christmas. I do as well. But Yule is a pagan holiday as said above and is celebrated by many modern neopagans (the largest group being Wicca.) The changing of the time that was more or less the solstice into the birth was Jesus was little more then a....well incredibly lame pun changing the "birth of the sun" into the "birth of the son" xD Modern Christmas traditions being partly roman festivals and partly Scandinavian with the use of the evergreens and heck, I beleive at one point Odin actually played the part of Santa.
but all in all. Santa hats rock and it's plenty of fun to celebrate holidays secularly, espically the very nonreligious aspects of them.
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Post by Kevak on Dec 5, 2010 5:05:31 GMT -5
NO.
FINLAND.
WW3 BEGINS!
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Post by SwimFellow on Dec 18, 2010 0:12:21 GMT -5
Oh SH**! Well, AMERICA POPULARIZED HIM!!
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Post by SwimFellow on Dec 21, 2010 21:45:14 GMT -5
Well this is pretty funny. There were actually two people that plagued me about this, the one you heard about was the worse one. The other disapproved, but wasn't all in my face about it. Well, the one I didn't tell you about had a photo taken of him today. A photo with a mall Santa..
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Post by Wombat on Dec 23, 2010 16:55:37 GMT -5
Lots of countries have santa. I didn't even realise some people think he's a religious figure until I stumbled upon this topic. Are people really that ignorant? Also, Santa lives in Jamaica.
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Nakor
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Non-Prophet
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Post by Nakor on Dec 24, 2010 22:08:59 GMT -5
^ That's just his summer home. He winters in the Northwest Territories here in Canada.
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Post by stephen5000 on Dec 26, 2010 0:52:31 GMT -5
I never thought of Santa as a religious figure. These days I don't even consider Christmas to be a religious holiday.
Are there actually good Santa hats out there? The ones I've seen are always cheap things that wouldn't make a decent hat.
Edit: Oh, yes, and from what I've heard Santa does live in Canada. He even has a Canadian postal code: it's H0H 0H0
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Post by SwimFellow on Dec 26, 2010 16:44:07 GMT -5
I never thought of Santa as a religious figure. These days I don't even consider Christmas to be a religious holiday. Are there actually good Santa hats out there? The ones I've seen are always cheap things that wouldn't make a decent hat. Edit: Oh, yes, and from what I've heard Santa does live in Canada. He even has a Canadian postal code: it's H0H 0H0 Yeah, I have a furry and soft hat, and it's very nice. I got it from a CVS for like 5 bucks..
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