Can someone elaborate the TRUE meaning of Christmas...

[Endangered Specie]

I recall it having something to do with a pagan tradition, winter solstice and something like that. Can someone fill me in in more detail, I wanna really shovel it unto certain relatives when they decide to discuss the "True meaning of christmas" ;)

[JNelson6563]

1. I think the answer can be found

in the retail sector. ;-)

Julie

(I think it originally as a day that the sun god was worshipped but not sure)

[fshrink]

2. What I remember...

Santa Klaus, was not a God (became "Santa" later) but a hero who recued children from a guy, some oger, who was stocking them up to actually eat them. This is the compressed popular memory of times of starvation, where such thoughts certainly crossed the mind. A child is way more appetizing than an elederly (eeww!). So Klaus was sympathetic to children and might reflect the negative of the oger on a subjective level: the id wants food at any cost, the super-ego steps in and saves the day. That's my interpretation, but the legend goes sort of like I described. Later, the imperialist church needed to suck in everything that had existed before, and rather than to suppress it and cut itself from the people, chose to fuse the legend in its own set of legends.

[Tafiti]

3. Here you go.

Some good information here. Be sure to read all the links below the heading "The Real Story of Christmas."

http://www.historychannel.com/exhibits/holidays/christmas/real2.html