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Page: Profile: Wren's Nest News Local
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Article: 5784
[Culture]
Date Posted:
12/21/2002
10:01:40 am EST
Wvox Stats
Views: 5,838
RSS: 0
Comments: 3
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Halifax Parish Gets Into The Spirit Of Solstice
Author: Ruth Davenport, The Daily News Source: Canada.com
Title: A CELEBRATION OF HOPE
Although wiccans have gathered for years at monolithic structures like Stonehenge to celebrate the twice-yearly solstices, the events are not observed by pagans alone. In one Halifax {N.S.} parish, worshippers gathered last night for a special service in honour of the winter solstice.
“This is a celebration of hope on the darkest day of the year,” said St. Lawrence pastoral associate Dinah Simmons. “We’re looking forward to the renewing of the light, associating with the birth of Jesus.”
“Religion is in the business of discerning meaning, so any religion will use symbols from natural traditions and make them a part of religious traditions,” he said.
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Community Thoughts: There are 3 comments posted | Reverse Sort |
| Was It Really That Bad? | Dec 22nd. at 1:05:35 am EST |
by KarEEna (Perth, Australia)
I know that there were political reasons (there are those for everything really) for claiming the Jesus was born on Dec. 25th. Yeah, putting the birth of christ around the same time as a Pagan festival IS a really good way to try to convert the masses. Whatever. But, they DID pick the right festival to do it to, you know? I mean, Yule pretty much sums up a lot of how Christians feel about the birth of christ . . . the new beginning, etc etc. Maybe it wasnt as malicious a decision as we'd like to think.
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| Ah, Sharing | Dec 21st. at 2:21:03 pm EST |
by Jo (CO)
I used to have a Mormon art teacher who would celebrate the solstices and equinoxes. We would take a break from class on those days and have food, drink, and talk about art and nature. I think it had more to do with his respect for the earth than him trying to steal a holiday. He was just open minded enough not to be afraid and it was really cool.
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| This Was No Suprise... | Dec 21st. at 10:22:03 am EST |
by Branowen (Mesa, AZ, USA) - wc_xemail - Web
I'm sure some of you who are reading this are thinking the same thing...
It sounds like the christian groups that are starting to pick up solstice as a holiday are just trying a repeat conversion. Oh, way back when, (and they even admit it) when they were trying to convert pagans to christianity - they "stole" the holiday by conveniently placing the birth of Christ on the winter solstice. This worked for a while for the most part, but not that solstice is being reclaimed they had a better idea. They figure they wrecked christmas so badly with commercialism that it is no longer about religion, so they will just take yule over completely. And I'm sure it will work, too. It did the first time.
This just upsets me that there are few religions out there now whose holidays aren't coincidentally near a christian holiday. It seems to me that December= christmas, and Hannukah, Kwanzaa, Yule, Rammadan, Solstice and what have you - are just an afterthought. What happens when years down the road, when solstice is a christian holiday and it has also been wrecked by commercialism? Do they move on again? Not to quote the Matrix, but there is another thing that moves from host to host until each is dried up and dead - a virus.
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