December 21, 2005

• Christmas Greetings From AllThingsMike

  

  
  

  Here is a link to the 2001 "Christmas Page" on my website. 

  
  

  (Close this window when the other opens so that the music selections on each page don't "fight" each other.)

  
  

  I'd like to "break the fourth wall" and wish all my Xanga readers, friends, and acquaintences the most Happiest of Holidays this Christmas season. I find myself home feeling a bit "under the weather" this day, and specifically took the day off after feeling a bit of fatigue during work on Monday and Tuesday, because tomorrow is our company Christmas Party, and I don't want to miss the celebration.

  
  

  "Christmas Spiritual"
  Poetry by Michael F. Nyiri
  © December 21, 2004 4:58 a.m. pst

  
  

  
  

  
  Rudimentary ruminations concerning the Holiday Spirit
  Alone this Christmas again but depression hasn't yet
  Come in the back door like Santa begging for cookies and milk
  Remembering the soft slow wait as the days turned
  And the little windows on the countdown card were opened
  Remembering the subtle sound of sleighbells
  Even though White Christmas is a dream in California
  Remembering the silent night,
  And becoming the loudest purest voice in the choir
  Memories fade with time, but gain luster brimming with Spirit
  My life becomes meager and insignificant
  When compared to those whose Holiday Spirit
  Fills the auras around them so beautifully
  My Spirit becomes underdeflated and morose
  But lifts immeasurably when confronted with
  The thoughts and deeds of others who are so caring
  I pause for prayer, perusing the Heavens for clues
  I shudder for humanity (again)
  Yet relish memories of Christmas Past
  And the Great Turkeys of memory taste even better
  When the Spirit permeates the Season.
  Elucidating emmisaries of Good Will
  Permitting me to enjoy a modicum of Family togetherness
  Even after mine disintegrated
  For these moments I am thankful and filled with Spirit
  Thoughts of good people involved with their community
  Feelings of fantastic regard and overjoyed with gladness
  Year after year the small trinkets of specialness abound
  So that now, relaxed, evenly keeled, in the port of Happiness
  My ship rests in the berth of Kindness
  Gladly celebratory, and suddenly Spiritual Again.
  May God Bless Us Each And Every One.

  
  

  Here is the text of an "article" I wrote on the Universal Blog last year.

  
  

  Saturday, December 18, 2004 (From "The Universal Blog")

  
  

  "Why do I feel Christmas is somehow "special" if it is only a Christian holiday?"

  
  

  The Universal Mind "remembers" all days as holidays. But the concept of "honoring" a day as a "celebration" of those past and a respite and time of recollection for those present is purely an idea in the "living realm" of Earth, where we are right now. I think one of the reasons in popular culture why we celebrate a "Universal Holiday" is because mankind needs this kind of self acknowledgement of historical importance. "Christmas" was a pagan festival at first, another time for celebration and recollection, testament to early man that he was in fact "in charge" of the planet. After the Christians took over most of the civilized world, the pagan holiday became a religious holiday, celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, the "savior" of mankind. When I was a youngster, this is the version of Christmas I most remember, as ingrained in the Baptist Doctrines I was taught growing up. Of course the Culture soon demented the religious aspects of the holiday, in order to favor a time of year when advertisers, manufacturers, and retailers could make a lot of money at the "expense" of the "holiday tradition." Current Culture bestows a greater meaning of the smaller Jewish Holiday of Channukah. Then, to appease and entice the black population, Kwaanza is established almost suddenly overnight. Now, in Southern California and in other parts of America, the Spanish greeting of Merry Christmas, or "Feliz Navidad" is also used along with the others. In the 21st Century world, "Happy Holidays" encompasses all these holidays and more, to sate the masses into establishing a history with allusions to your "religion of choice". In America, allusions to any Muslim holidays, like Ramadan for instance, which just passed, are not given to the public by the media because, especially in light of the 9/11 tragedy, Muslims are not in favor at this time in Cultural History.
  I am programmed to feel this is a special time of year. Now it is fashionable to refer only to secular images of Christmas and to take the religious icons out of the experience completely. I find this fairly amusing, as a Christian, but I'm not surprised.
  As a believer in the Universal, however, I find the blurring of the holidays somewhat prophetic. The mix of races and creeds is more advanced than at any time in history. If the media propels the deep seated anger inherent in any clash of religious idelogy, then all he** breaks loose, and mankind loses. I think there is a "peace on Earth" that can be achieved, and perhaps it will be, and perhaps it won't.
  However at the time of the corporeal "death" as one leaves Christmas, Channukah, and Kwaanza in the dust of time, one achieves the Universal Truth, that holidays are merely days of remembrance embraced by man to make him think he has a great history and culture, derived from myth and early belief systems. He doesn't yet know what lies in store, and why there are no holidays in the Universal. Especially holidays which essentially compete for religious supremacy no matter how cheerful and filled with joy the message "seems" to be.
  

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  A Christmas Chronology:
  Dec. 21st, the arrival of the Winter Solstice, has always been a time of celebration, and the Norsemen of Scandinavia celebrated "Yule", slaughtering their animals for the winter, and particpating in a great celebration. The "Yule log" dates from this time, when the practice of burning a large log signalled the return of the sun after winter, when the nights are longest in the North. As the log burned feasting and celebration could last as long as 12 days.
  During the solstice in Germany, the people honored the god Oden, whose flight over Germany deciding who was "good" and "bad" gave roots to the later introduction of Santa Claus. The Germans also followed the Scandinavian practice of bringing evergreen trees into their houses and halls. The evergreen was a symbol that life was constant, and that Spring would return again. The "tannenbaum" would later become the Christmas tree.
  During the time of the Roman Empire, the festivals of Saturnaila and Juvenalia coincided in a great time of hedonistic pleasure. The early Christians, who eventually thrived after the fall of the Empire, eventually incorparated these pagan festivals into their religious tradition, celebrating Christ Mass, or the birth of Jesus Christ, although he was in acuality probably born in the Spring. It was Pope Julius the 1st in the 6th century AD who initiated the festival of the Nativity on December 25th.
  From the beginnings of early religious observations of Christmas, the pagan festivals were celebrated side by side.
  The protestant faithful known as Puritans in the 17th century banned Christmas, which had always been celebratory. In early America, even after revolution broke ties with England, Christmas was not celebrated for nearly 70 years. Congress even met on Christmas day, and in Boston, one could be fined for exhibiting "Christmas Spirit."
  What we think of as Christmas today, was actually only "invented" during the 19th Century. Two well read authors, Washington Irving in America, with "The Sketchbook fo Geoffrey Crayon" and Charles Dickens in England, with "A Christmas Carol", actually 'invented' the supposed "traditions" with which we are familiar nowadays. Clement Clark Moore wrote the poem "A Night Before Christmas" which introduced Santa Claus, based on St. Nicholas, a Turkish monk who in around 280 AD gave away his wealth and helped the sick and downtrodden. The Christmas Tree, which dated from early Germany, was introduced in English homes when Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, a German, displayed the German tannenbaum in the royal palace.
  American department stores quickly adopted Santa Claus as the "spirit of Christmas" and today the "department store Santa" is a familiar fixture. Montgomery Ward introduced Rudolph the red nosed reindeer, which wasn't in Moore's poem, as an advertising icon for the chain.
  So Christmas is not "just" a Christian, or a secular holiday, but has been celebrated in tandem with secular and religious beliefs side by side for millennia.
  Merry Christmas. Happy Holidays. And "God Bless Us Every One."

  
  

  A more detailed "history" of the Christmas holiday can be found on the History Channel's website HERE. It is an excellent read, and I got most of my research from the timeline there.

  
  

  

  
  

  Tomorrow: Mike's Christmas Story. A personal journey through my reminiscences of  the holiday season.

  
  

  

  
  

  Happy Holidays

  
  

  
  

  
  

  Happy Channukah

  
  

  Merry Christmas

  
  

  Happy Kwaanzaa

  
  

  Feliz Navidad

  
  

  
  

  
  

  May your holiday season

  
  

  be filled with wondrous

  
  

  Joy

  
  

  And Happiness

  
  

  
  

  
  

  Here's hoping for a

  
  

  somewhat more

  
  

  enlightening future

  
  

  
  

  
  

  May our future Christmasses

  
  

  be a far more Celebratory

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  We've suffered much, and yet we feel a touch

  
  

  of Humanity's kindness, this season

  
  

  We know with our souls

  
  

  And our hearts and our minds

  
  

  That we exist for

  
  

  This wonderful reason

  
  

  
  

  
  

  As

  
  

  the holiday

  
  

  season

  
  

  washes over us

  
  

  with nostalgic recall

  
  

  let us give thanks

  
  

  and pray

  
  

  and worship our

  
  

  collective consciousness today

  
  

  MFN 12/2001

  • 3:34 pm
  • 37 Comments