• PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml
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    2 years ago

    Unbelievable. Imagine demonizing a deity of something as harmless and peaceful as harvest and natural cycle.

    Tbh he was not harmless deity. Think more of a late antique Dionysos or Mithra, he was born, fought with his enemies, die and then be resurrected as many other antique gods which were ultimately hijacked to form the myth of the resurrection of Christ (this always seemed to me like loosely fitting magic addition put there to entice the pagans to join).

    There’s nothing more pathetic than a so-called deity hating their own worshippers. Couldn’t he help his worshippers out? Being a god of war and all.

    Well he once did send Engels (whoops, german version) angel to kill hundreds of thousands Assyrians, but later he seems to cool off on that. I mean it is pretty rational for war god to hate his people for constantly losing, but then why even worship him? The Lost Tribes did exactly that i bet.

    Also, if Mary indeed was the daughter of a local noble, wouldn’t her parents be able to just use their connections/power/money to just get her out of trouble?

    They did it. They might not be some high noble but local gentry, so by that epoch standards avoiding the scandal while not killing or exiling anyone was pretty successful from the society point of view. And since Jesus was apparently also part of local gentry the scandal was avoided. Well if we go along that line i bet there was no scandal at all and Mary was just wed to Joseph quite conventionally and Jesus was concieved also pretty conventionally :)

    They were kings?

    Traditionally they are Magi i think, but also very often called and depicted as “kings” in catholicism at least. We just had 06.01 holiday of Epiphany, in Poland called “Święto Trzech Króli” (“Three Kings’ Day”) and it’s… a state holiday, free from work, if you ever had doubts how much modern Poland is secular state.

    • VictimOfReligion@lemmygrad.ml
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      2 years ago

      Oh, in Spain we have too the Kings’ Day too, which it’s the 5th(or 6th?) of January, and the eve is a parade of pseugo ancient parafernalia with horses and even sometimes camels, and like Santa Claus, they bring presents to children.

      But I prefer our (Catalonia) originally pagan present bringer for children, i which on Christmas Eve, children give sweets to a log with legs, face and a barretina (a traditional hat), cover it with blanquets, wait for the “log to eat the sweets”, and then, congregate around the log and performing a BDSM ritual which consists in children beating the fuck out of the log while chanting “Tió, Tió, shit out nougat and presents”, and then, supposedly the log shits out presents and Christmas food.

      Ah, I love it.

      • PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml
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        2 years ago

        Funnily enough in Poland nobody really fest that holiday. it was unremarkable and pretty much disappeared during the socialism era, even priests who traditionally made tours around their parishes around that time (“kolęda”) started to do it even month before.

        So when the modern bourgeois government (liberal!) introduced it as state holiday in 2010 most people were kinda baffled why even, the resons were apparently to demostrate bootlicking of the church and pre-war fash Poland (a lot of stupid things and some catastrophical were done in post 1989 Poland from sole reason of “it was like there before the war”).

        Of course free day is welcomed, nobody would argue that. Well except bourgeoisie who did, but our national bourgeoisie also bootlick church hierarchy so they only grumbled somewhat.

    • Hijacked? How?

      I mean it is pretty rational for war god to hate his people for constantly losing, but then why even worship him?

      I guess to prove to him that they’re still worth something in some other way? As self-punishment for disappointing their deity?

      We just had 06.01 holiday of Epiphany, in Poland called “Święto Trzech Króli” (“Three Kings’ Day”) and it’s… a state holiday, free from work, if you ever had doubts how much modern Poland is secular state.

      What places were they kings of then? Also interesting that Kings would just show up on their own just to deliver gifts to a girl they know nothing about… unless, like I said, they were her simps. (But even then wouldn’t they just send their men instead? Just to keep their reputation from sullying)

      Also, can’t complain about a free holiday. But that gets me thinking, did Jesus ever teach/preach about Ethnonationalism? It’s honestly mesmerizing that for a Christian Nation, its people would rather be dicks towards people that aren’t exactly 100% them.

      • PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml
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        2 years ago

        Hijacked? How?

        Christianity, especially catholicism, is in fact the most syncretic religion in history full of things taken from pagan religions, and then put under the single hegemony. but it did immensely helped it spread and they did it even centuries later. In this case, read about resurrecting gods, there was many of them and especially Dionysus and Mithra were straight up competition for early christianity. If not for emperor Constantine, we might be as well discussing about Mithraism right now (which would be probably very much identical to christianity).

        I guess to prove to him that they’re still worth something in some other way? As self-punishment for disappointing their deity?

        Well, martyrdom and mortification is very popular in abrahamic religions for a reason.

        What places were they kings of then?

        Unspecified. It is mostly folk thing that became popular for no reason.

        It’s honestly mesmerizing that for a Christian Nation, its people would rather be dicks towards people that aren’t exactly 100% them.

        Problem is, you can take the Bible, and by creative quoting, you will get justification for basically anything.