When we visited Iceland, my wife and I hiked all over Dimmuborgir, the home of the Yule lads. It was a maze of caves and canyons with pathways throughout, some more obvious than others. Various placards had information about them and their parents, but I don't recall anything about their cat.
*quality mythology

>> ^peggedbea:

>> ^NetRunner:

How about the people who will go out, and donate money, volunteer for, and vote for a guy like this? Can they be saved? Can the rest of us be saved from them?

i find this really interesting. i have two really, really badass friends. They're eclectic neo pagans. They support gay marriage. They love pre-marital sex. They love kinky sex. They give their children advice on masturbation and safe sex. They are not themselves swingers, but they hang out with lots of them. They smoke pot. They both have master's degrees in health science fields. They decorate their "yule" tree with pentagrams. They're really intelligent, groovy people. and They love Rick Santorum and Sarah Palin. I can't even ask them about it because we made a pact a long time ago that we wouldn't discuss politics. Because it makes our heads explode. BUT THIS MYSTERY IS MAKING MY HEAD WANT TO EXPLODE.


That is the most fucked up thing I read here on videosift.

>> ^NetRunner:


How about the people who will go out, and donate money, volunteer for, and vote for a guy like this? Can they be saved? Can the rest of us be saved from them?


i find this really interesting. i have two really, really badass friends. They're eclectic neo pagans. They support gay marriage. They love pre-marital sex. They love kinky sex. They give their children advice on masturbation and safe sex. They are not themselves swingers, but they hang out with lots of them. They smoke pot. They both have master's degrees in health science fields. They decorate their "yule" tree with pentagrams. They're really intelligent, groovy people. and They love Rick Santorum and Sarah Palin. I can't even ask them about it because we made a pact a long time ago that we wouldn't discuss politics. Because it makes our heads explode. BUT THIS MYSTERY IS MAKING MY HEAD WANT TO EXPLODE.

a: Holy cow Krampus is a real thing? I just thought it was something Scott Kurtz made up this year. Neato.
b: How many christians you figure look at this and decrie its paganism without stopping to think for 5sec about the actual origins of christmas/yule?

Egads, Mr. Robertson, from one Christian to another, knock it off already.... >_<

If we're to disregard Halloween as "evil" because of it's paganistic roots, then we'd have to throw out so much more. As many sifters have pointed out in the past, so many holidays that are held dear nowadays have their origin in paganism, such as Yule for Christmas, the feast of Ishtar for Easter, etc. THEN we should start disregarding the names of the days of the week, THEN we should go for months of the year!

The Bible even advocates partaking of "pagan holidays" to an extent. In 1Corinthians 8, it talks about how one can partake in other religions' celebrations, even to the extent of if the meat has been "sacrificed to idols." The only reason it says to NOT partake of said celebration is if you doing so causes a fellow believer to stumble.

...and seriously, Mr. Robertson. Knock it off. You're embarrassing the rest of us.

yes you believe in ghosts. Just 1 though. And everything else you believe is at least as silly as anything Halloween drags up. Oh and as long as your tossing out pagan holidays toss out Yule will ya? The rest of us are tired of hearing about the so called war on christmas.

stool, pool, rule, mule, tool, drool, cruel, ghoul, joule, spool, yule...>> ^blankfist:

There are other words that rhyme with cool other than fool and school.

Yeah I disagree with Penn on this point too. Christmas is a hodgepodge of myths and cultural traditions. Because some of those are based in the "Christian" religion and because Christians want to claim it solely a "religious" holiday is no reason for me to avoid it as an atheist. Santa, flying reindeer, xmas trees, gift giving, xmas dinner, xmas lights, yule logs, etc... Don't really have anything to do exclusively with the Christian religion so they don't get to claim ownership of it and expect me or anyone else to include the Christ myth in how we choose to celebrate it.

Bring back the Yule Log! Yeah, I said it.

>> ^scottishmartialarts:
Mithras was a Persian god, not Roman. Although his mystery cult was very, very popular among the Roman Legions. Wherever we have evidence of a Legion presence, we also find evidence of Mithras cult. As I recall Mithras was Ahura Mazda's (the infinitely good god of the Zoroastrian faith) general in his crusade against the devil Ahriman. Darius the Great's conquests were largely motivated out of missionary zeal to spread the Zoroastrian religion.


Well, Mithra was the Persian name. Adding the "s" on the end was just how it was Latinized. But the Roman Mithraic cult doesn't, as far as scholars can tell, have much in common with the Persian cult beyond the name and a few elements of symbolism--a lion-headed "Arrimanus," for instance, a clear Latinization of Ahriman. It's perfectly acceptable to refer to the Roman version of Mithras as a Roman god.

It has to be said, though, that Fry's facts about Mithras are just wrong. In the first place, we don't actually know what the central beliefs about Mithras were. They were Mysteries, not be written down or revealed to outsiders. The doctrines of Mithraism perished with its last follower. Reconstructions of Mithraic doctrine like the ones Fry read are merely speculative interpretations of the images found in the Mithraea--the caves where the Mysteries of Mithras were enacted.

However, some of the things Fry said are just plain wrong even as mere speculation. Mithras is never depicted as being born in a cave or manger, for instance, but emerging from a rock or an egg. He didn't die for anyone's sins or to give people eternal life. The central image of Mithras was instead the tauroctony--Mithras' slaying of a bull, usually assisted by a dog, a serpent, and a crab, clearly astrological symbolism. While there are a few superficial similarities with Christianity--as Fry mentioned, the head of the cult of Mithras was called Papa, just as the Pope is--they do not seem to go very deep.

And finally, it would be very strange for the December 25th date of Christmas to come from the cult of Mithras simply because it was a private mystery religion. Public celebrations just weren't allowed.

However, I'm a little surprised that Fry didn't mention Dies Natalis Solis Invicti--the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun. It was celebrated in the late Roman Empire around the same time as Christmas as a public holiday, and so is a prime candidate for being an influence on the date of Christmas.

His quick dismissal of Saturnalia as being only somewhat influential, though, is just plain wrong. Many of the traditions of Christmas clearly come out of Saturnalia--gift-giving, visiting friends, and lavish feasts and celebrations. Many elements of Northern European Christmas celebrations just as clearly come from the pagan holiday "Jol" or "Yule," such as hanging mistletoe as a sign of peace and love, and the ornamenting of an evergreen tree.

Happy winter solstice to you too.

Yule.

I am looking forward to the Imbolc.

>> ^MarineGunrock:
nadabu is absolutely right. Christians don't do the things at Christmas that corporate America wants to worship God. It is possible to partake in an even that isn't specifically forbidden and still worship God. Just because some traditions may have pagan roots [citaion really fucking needed] does not mean they are being done as worship.
Way to pull a Palin an totally skirt the question, though.


some day around the end of december, and some day about 6 monts before are very celebrated days in many cultures and traditions. peoples noticed that the sun "turned" around these days and have some sort of festivity/religious arrangement attached to those days.

the swedes, they stick a big penis (with testicles and all) into the ground and dance around it on the summers longest day. a fertility rite.

we still call christmas Jul (yule), the germanic pagan name for the uhmm.. event. not Christ Mass like english hurches.

The christmas three, if i remember corretly, it is something green and shiny we bring into our homes on the years darkest day as a symbol of lighter and greener times (spring) that are coming.

Their lack of professionalism... I was going to say it's surprising but, well, it's really not... but that's the frustrating part about this piece. On some level, I feel I agree with them; I don't see the point of the message of these ads. I agree with the message, I just don't know why you'd make an ad out of it.

Christmas was celebrated in my family, but done as a family tradition with no religious connotations. We had a tree, lights, decorations, presents, etc. No crosses, Jesuses (Jesi?), mangers, etc. Technically it was more like a Yule celebration than Christmas.

Christianity functions like Microsoft; leveraging the same tactics, the three E's, to wipe out the competition. Always thought that parallel was quite funny... and sad.

I started my yule with a delightful toothache, and then a festive romp to the dentist for a rootcanal on the 25th. Thanks, santa! You're a real pal!

Other than that, merry x-mas.

Merry Christmas everyone!

...and let's not forget the original reason for the season 8-)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yule