11.6.11

Poppies

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It’s November again, which means it’s the time of year where everyone wears one of these.

It’s a simple sign of respect and remembrance for the soldiers who fought in World War One. Also in buying on you’re giving money to The Royal British Legion, who help members of the armed forces and their families. Now around this time of year everyone on TV is expected to wear a poppy, even characters in soaps wear them. But in the last couple of years there’s been this trend where people don’t just wear the simple paper poppy, but wear these.

To which my response is: NO.

This is from Strictly Come Dancing, but these sparkly poppies have been popping up everywhere. And I just find this really disrespectful. Poppies are turning into a fashion accessory. I even found this article here showing pictures of celebrities wearing sparkly poppies and saying to “Get the Look”, like it’s talking about clothes or jewellery or something tiresome like that.

Poppies should be plain and simple and really cheap to make so that as much money as possible goes to charity, not a bloody fashion accessory to be discussed in women’s magazines.

12.23.10

I’m not a Christian, but I’m still celebrating Christmas

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Recently on the news there’s been an influx of priests and other religious people complaining that the true meaning of Christmas has been lost. You know what the true meaning of Christmas is? People don’t like the middle of the winter, so they give out presents and eat a lot to make themselves feel better. Most cultures do this. It has nothing to do with the birth of a messiah. It was not Christianity which started this festival. It annoys me a lot when people say that Christmas should be a solely Christian affair, because originally it wasn’t Christian at all. It annoys me even more when people say I shouldn’t be celebrating because I’m an atheist.

One of the original festivals hijacked by Christianity was Saturnalia. This was an ancient Roman festival celebrating the God Saturn from 17th to 25th of December. Presents were shared, trees decorated, and it was a time to, according to the all knowing Wikipedia, “eat, drink, and be merry”. People would go from home to home singing naked (which is, rather amusingly, the origin of carol singing). So basically, the true meaning of Saturnalia was to get drunk. Christian leaders managed to convert large numbers of people to Christianity by allowing them to celebrate Saturnalia, and reclaiming the date as Jesus’ birthday. (1)

Another winter festival was Yule. This name is still in use today, but has origins way before Christianity. Yule celebrated the winter solstice; the shortest day of the year. It marked to end of the worst part of winter and the looked forward to spring. Druids would cut mistletoe and give it as a blessing, and the Yule log was burnt in honour of the sun. Large trees were brought into homes as a reminder that their crops would grow again. Again, Christianity used this festival in an attempt to convert pagans. (2)

I’m an atheist and I’m going to be celebrating Christmas for a long time to come. It’s not a solely Christmas festival anymore, and that’s a good thing. It’s a time where anyone, regardless of religion, can come together and try to feel a bit happier in the coldest and most miserable time of the year, like it should be. If you want you can celebrate the birth of your saviour, but don’t go claiming that’s the only meaning people can take from it. I’m not saying that people should stop celebrating Christmas they way they want, but equally I’m not going to let anybody tell me I can’t celebrate either.

1. http://www.simpletoremember.com/vitals/Christmas_TheRealStory.htm
2. http://www.essortment.com/all/christmaspagan_rece.htm