this post was submitted on 16 Dec 2023
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submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 56 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

Actually true. There's no reference in the Bible where Jesus says we should do that. Apart from the name, Christmas has nothing to do with Christ.

https://www.history.com/topics/christmas/history-of-christmas

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

Here is a term from the old world:

Jul/jól

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

The gift giving was more as a celebration of epiphany which eventually migrated if I remember correctly.

[–] [email protected] 42 points 11 months ago (2 children)

It's not even his real birthday.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago

It is, however, Isaac Newton's real birthday. Merry Newtonmas!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 34 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It's the calendar date of the day you were born, repeated each year. But that's not important right now.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 20 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The third person neuter pronoun in English, but that's not important right now.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

No, what is Jesus's birthday?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Supposedly in the summer due to something about the stars. Xmas was supposed to be cultural approtiates of the winter solstice or something. I'm sure someone will add to this.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago (1 children)

On a serious note, yes Christmas was placed where it was in order to coincide with Saturnalia, the Roman winter solstice festival. This was an attempt by Constantine, the emperor who legalized Christianity in Rome, to transition the Romans to Christianity more easily.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Thanks! I thought it happened waaay later.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

I've never seen one before. No one has. But I'm guessing it's a white hole.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)

#🇱🇷🇱🇷🇱🇷🦅😌❤️🇱🇷🇱🇷🇱🇷

[–] [email protected] 18 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The Liberia flags add to this

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (3 children)

It's not even like there aren't two US flag options, too: 🇺🇸🇺🇲

If anyone figures out the difference, let me know, because these look pretty much the same.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

My messenger blows up emojis when I send them with no other text, and I used these side by side and the one on the right has a smaller blue square than the left one.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

Taking a screenshot and zooming in, the grainy extrapolated pixels appear to be in exactly the same pattern. Very odd indeed.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Apparently because of how flag codes work, the USA and US Minor Outlying Islands technically have different flags in unicode, even though they're the same flag. There are countless people who have used the USA minor Outlying Islands flag instead of the regular USA flag.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Josh probably isn't that much of a fan of his birthday, tbh. It's the rest of us.

Well.

Those of us who decided or accepted that we'd celebrate Josh's birthday for him around the time of Roman Saturnalia or the pagan mid-winter* festival, even though that's very much unlikely to be the right date**, because there were already celebrations going on at that time. The whole "let's decorate a tree" thing is pagan.

There are some offshoots of Josh's fan club who don't think much of his birthday either, and instead have the big celebration around his death-date instead. Not like "at last he's gone and kicked the bucket", more like "yay he went to heaven and paved the way for the rest of us, or so we tell ourselves because that'd be awesome.". That's totally not also based around celebrations that existed before Josh, no siree.

Anyway, my point is that his opinion isn't really known, and he probably wouldn't decorate a tree. He'd be more likely to shout at it for not having figs.

* where "winter" is defined as the seasons autumn and winter together, the same way that "day" can mean daytime and nighttime together)

** compare how the British monarch often has two "birthdays": An actual one and an official one in June where people can celebrate in nice weather. (Liz's real birthday was in April and Chuck's is in November. Both rainy months.)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I'm more about celebrating other people's birthdays. I don't do anything for my birthday. I usually sit at home and watch Steven Seagal movies, which is something I've done for the past 22 years.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (2 children)

You should stop doing that. Don't give Seagal any more money.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

And miss out on his "music album"? How can you live without hearing Me want the punani?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago
[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago

He literally celebrates advent, or his "birthday month". The worst.