However, I would note that All Saints and All Souls are observed by some non-Catholic Christian church as days of veneration. Thanksgiving for harvest also goes well beyond the US and is observed as a church service in some faiths.
I think the December spending has absolutely nothing to do with Christmas. It's Santa Day and we must spend, spend, spend. The giving of gifts to celebrate the rebirth of light is a gift of hope. What we do is an obscenity, driven, as you say, by economic powers.
I LOVE holdays and observance. The Santa Day juggernaut truly does obliterate everything else. And it completely despoils the slow procession of the fall into the growing darkness that asks us to be mindful during the days of Advent, followed by the great joy of Christmas, when light once again rules.
(no subject)
However, I would note that All Saints and All Souls are observed by some non-Catholic Christian church as days of veneration. Thanksgiving for harvest also goes well beyond the US and is observed as a church service in some faiths.
I think the December spending has absolutely nothing to do with Christmas. It's Santa Day and we must spend, spend, spend. The giving of gifts to celebrate the rebirth of light is a gift of hope. What we do is an obscenity, driven, as you say, by economic powers.
I LOVE holdays and observance. The Santa Day juggernaut truly does obliterate everything else. And it completely despoils the slow procession of the fall into the growing darkness that asks us to be mindful during the days of Advent, followed by the great joy of Christmas, when light once again rules.