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| Burn! Burn! |
He weakens their Faith in Christ having been deceived over his existence!
It would be nice if he were St Nicholas of Myra, but he isn't! He hasn't even been CRB checked!
Thousands of letters are sent to 'Lapland'. Where do they all go? An icy landfill? No Bishop of England and Wales would applaud that!
Rich children get flashy, expensive presents from him, but all poor children get is a lump of coal and a satsuma, even when they give him mince pies!
There is no mention of Father Christmas in the Sacred Tradition of the Church or the Catechism! Burn him!
See Fr Ray Blake's post and a link to the story of the Argentinian priest who scandalised a whole town by being honest about the awful truth of Father Christmas, Santa Claus, or, as we Catholics like to call him, Beelzebub in festive drag!
Burn him!
17 comments:
I agree. When I was seven, my atheist grandfather explained away Father Christmas, telling me that God was just another lie, used by priests to make people do as they were told.
I went to bed that night an atheist, remaining for seven more years terrified by the idea of my final non-existence.
I would not wish that on any child.
I thought it was only nutty Protestant fundamentalists who didn't like Father Christmas. Interestingly, the atheists of the Soviet Union rebranded him- with a blue robe- as "Grandfather Frost" - who brought "New Year Presents" to the children. Christmas trees were similarly renamed "New Year Trees".
I think he's harmless really...Still, in these days of child protection, parents shouldn't really let him down their chimneys. Everyone's a suspect now. There should be at least one other adult present when he visits.
Patricius, that's only half true. The Russian Christmas is not until the 7th of January and is a (relatively minor) part of the Oxthodox liturgical cycle (Easter is their big celebration). Greek and Russian orthodox believers do not celebrate Christmas as we do, it is a purely religious affair. The New Year was, even before the revolution, the Russian festive winter holiday (derived from the pagan festival of light). There's a wonderful description of this in Chekhov, and it was clearly not a religious holiday even in the nineteenth century.
The problem is more with the Catholic calendar, which tried to cram together a Christian holiday with a general celebration of the end of the solstice
And Father Christmas, well, as you know, he wasn't invented in his modern form until the 30s in America, and this was a period when Stalin was copying a lot of American customs (sky scrapers, advertising, processed food), so he copied that one too.
I think we end up confusing children by trying to run the original secular celebration of the end of winter darkness with the celebration of the birth of christ. Maybe the orthodox calendar makes more sense here, dividing the two and keeping them as distinct issues
"There should be at least one other adult present when he visits."
And there usually is.
Santa lives in Rovaniemi in Finland
http://www.santatelevision.com/santaclaus/en0527/en0527.html
I'd like to point that a very devout Catholic you may have heard of, JRR Tolkien, loved to tell stories of Father Christmas to his children. He went further than most. He would make up letters, illustrate them and made a deal with the postman to deliver them (to make the illusion as real as possible). Why do you think he didn't see it as harmful to his children?
Murder the Easter bunny and the tooth fairy too - they're obviously heretics!
If he isn't real, how will you burn him?
That's exactly the point, Anthony.
It's all about nurturing imagination.
But if that's to be considered deceit and lies, then the ban must extend to Harry Potter, Beatrix Potter, Tolkien and CS Lewis, not to mention every work of fiction ever written, plus every work of art (except, of course, unmade beds and dead sheep because they're real).
Without imagination we make very harsh judges.
So lighten up Lozza and jingle some of those bells.
(Jingle jingle)
I have had a dozen children and they are all devout Traditional practicing Catholics and they all believe in Santa and boy oh boy did he believe in them !
What is wrong with childhood joy ? I always explained to my children that it is not the big fat 'Coca Cola' Santa that brings them so many wonderful presents at Christmas but it is a most wonderful thing that happens while they sleep on Christmas eve because baby Jesus wants to share his birthday with all the children of the world ! Jesus not only gives us his birthday he also gives us his life so as we can live forever with him in Heaven !!
Laurence England and Ttony - I love you !!
Left-Footer:
As you use the term I hope you might be able to enlighten me - Why are we Catholics called "Left-footers"?
I recall it as a faintly derogatory (but mainly affectionate) term from my Naval days, but I've no idea as to its etymology.
Rusticus:
As I understand it, Catholic labourers were said by Protestants to put their left foot on the spade when digging.
I prefer to think of myself as being out of step and bloody-minded.
In the homosexual community a 'left-footer' is the passive partner in an encounter! You might want to change your blog name lest people get the wrong idea about its contents!
Thank you, Edward H. I'm changing the blog name today, though I haven't yet noticed any such visitors.
Sorry to intrude again.
If anyone is interested, my blog name is now Polytropos, and no longer Left-footer.
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