Hi, my fellow Felicifians.
Christmas is almost upon us. As more of a jew than a christian and more of an atheist than a jow, christmas is of no religious significance to me. But it's inescapable. It's everywhere! It's a significant reason for my newfound employment in electronics retail, I suppose.

So, is holiday season something that you enjoy or that you become peeved about? Do you plan to spend time with your family, with friends, with colleagues, or alone? Do you have the time off that you would like? Are you travelling anywhere?

Would you like to share any unorthodox christmas holidays with us at Felicifia? My favourite is Seinfeld's Festivus: for the rest of us! According to Wikipedia, it's December 23, and it's a non-denominational holiday to be celebrated by those frustrated or jaded with the commercialism and pressure surrounding the Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa season. It is characterised by Airing of Grievances, Feats of Strength and the Festivus Pole.

On the topic of that alleged downside of christmas: have you heard the story about elevated suicide rates? The theory is that people feel lonely and wonder why they are not as happy as everyone else. Well I've heard that rates of depression are indeed elevated in festive season but that suicides are in fact no higher than normal. Those who are sad decide that when family are around, it may not be the best time to end their lives.

Maybe you would like to chat about something nicer, like the weather instead. Don't get me started on the bloody boiling stuff we get here, mate
Wherever you are, on and off the internet I wish you all lovely holidays.

I don't really care for holidays.

Snopes.com says the suicide rate does not increase during Christmas.

In the first utilitarian reflections I remember entertaining as a child, the pleasure of finding my presents under the tree on Christmas morning stood out as a kind of standard for measuring happiness, representing the greatest happiness I had known. That could make me a bit biased in favour of Christmas... But then it was the presents — and other emotional aspects — that meant happiness to me, not all the Christ-stuff, even though I did believe in it (somewhat) then.

In contrast, today Christmas for me mostly means the season in which animals are mistreated most harshly and in the greatest numbers. At least here in France. It's a moment of great human rejoicing and non-human suffering. Since the suffering — the chapon (rooster castrated without anesthesia), the turkey, the foie gras, the boiled-alive lobsters and so on — is placed right in the center of the table around which the rejoicers rejoice, Christmas looks a lot like a form of Schadenfreude. Or a celebration of how much we (our Christian civilisation) love humans and hate all other sentient beings.

Charles Dickens, in «A Christmas Carol» wrote:Heaped up on the floor, to form a kind of throne, were turkeys, geese, game, poultry, brawn, great joints of meat, sucking-pigs, long wreaths of sausages, mince-pies, plum-puddings, barrels of oysters, red-hot chestnuts, cherry-cheeked apples, juicy oranges, luscious pears, immense twelfth-cakes, and seething bowls of punch, that made the chamber dim with their delicious steam. In easy state upon this couch, there sat a jolly Giant, glorious to see; who bore a glowing torch, in shape not unlike Plenty’s horn, and held it up, high up, to shed its light on Scrooge, as he came peeping round the door.

Scrooge's “change of heart” about Christmas, from a bad fellow to a good fellow, a joyful, generous, loving one, is told through his offering a poor family a turkey so large that he “never could have stood upon his legs” — which shows that the deformities that modern animal farming inflicts upon animals were already produced in the 19th century.

Anyway, this incredible rejoicing over the suffering of other sentient beings that is so prevalent at Christmas-time is something that makes me hate Christmas.

Concerning the religious, and Christian, aspect: unfortunately, our Western civilisation is more deeply marked by the Christian point of view than we often realize. The fact that Christmas is a quasi-official celebration is just one particularly obvious aspect of that.

As for an alternative celebration: why not? But do we need celebrations at all? Perhaps. I don't know. It's nice to think back to the presents-under-the-Christmas-tree feeling. But then many don't experience such feelings at Christmas-time, and there may well be other ways to have them.

Sorry if this message is a bit inconclusive...

David

Merry NewtonMass? He was born on the 2th of December.

faithlessgod wrote:Merry NewtonMass? He was born on the 2th of December.

Why Mass? Why not Momentum, ElectricCharge or Temperature (freezing), for instance?

And why Newton? My little girl is due any moment now, I could propose her birthday as a universal holiday!

David

David Olivier wrote:

faithlessgod wrote:Merry NewtonMass? He was born on the 2th of December.

Why Mass? Why not Momentum, ElectricCharge or Temperature (freezing), for instance?

Newton was responsible for separating the notions of mass from weight, he also laid a firm foundation for momentum but AFAIK had nothing to really contribute on the latter two. As for mass it should be obvious given the other connotations of mass, it is a pun.

David Olivier wrote:And why Newton? My little girl is due any moment now, I could propose her birthday as a universal holiday!

Well lets first see if she makes any significant contribution to humanity. If one has to ask who has most positively contributed to humanity born on 25th december surely Newton beats Jesus easily. Granted there is a holiday why not choose whose birthday we are celebrating.

faithlessgod wrote:Well lets first see if she makes any significant contribution to humanity. If one has to ask who has most positively contributed to humanity born on 25th december surely Newton beats Jesus easily. Granted there is a holiday why not choose whose birthday we are celebrating.

How dare you suggest that David Olver's daughter won't make a huge contribution to humanity! I, for one, am most confident that she will.
Give me a day, David, and I'll celebrate it!

RyanCarey wrote:

faithlessgod wrote:Well lets first see if she makes any significant contribution to humanity. If one has to ask who has most positively contributed to humanity born on 25th december surely Newton beats Jesus easily. Granted there is a holiday why not choose whose birthday we are celebrating.

How dare you suggest that David Olver's daughter won't make a huge contribution to humanity! I, for one, am most confident that she will.
Give me a day, David, and I'll celebrate it!

Still waiting!

Perhaps on Festivus...

David

I quite like the idea of a national holiday for a famous scientist... but could we pick a scientist who wasn't a vicious sociopath?

Arepo wrote:I quite like the idea of a national holiday for a famous scientist... but could we pick a scientist who wasn't a vicious sociopath?

We already have Darwin Day. The point of NewtonMass is that given there is already a holiday to celebrate a birthday why not chose whose to celebrate? If you can find some who has contributed positively to society and is not, IYO, a sociopath, please suggest someone. Whatever Newton's issues, he did not unleash the destruction and violence on this world that jesus did, so I am a bit dubious of your sociopath constraint given the opposition.

BTW I came up with this independently of Michael Shermer - who did coin the term "NewtonMass"

I love Christmas. Mind you it has about as much religious significance to my family and myself as Halloween being a celebration of Samhein. Even though i'm not in the least bit religiouis, arepo can testify to that, I do enjoy the traditions, the ham, the turkey, the tree etc I also enjoy the fact that I'm part of this tradition that has brought happiness to many generations, mind you working in the art heritage industry I'm probably a bit more 'sentimental'(?) to these types of things. They mightn't seem very logical to some, but then again there isn't always a logical reason needed for something, especially if it makes enough people happy. Good food, family, pressies, summer, holidays, all very nice. Increases my happiness, that's for sure