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The war on Christmas


booksnbeats

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Blue, purple, and rose are actually Advent colors, so trees decorated in these colors are liturgically church-year correct!

It depends on which denomination of Christianity. My Methodist neighbor had those colors but my Baptist grandparents had a green wreath with red and white candles.

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It depends on which denomination of Christianity. My Methodist neighbor had those colors but my Baptist grandparents had a green wreath with red and white candles.

Advent is a liturgical season celebrated by Catholics, Lutherans, Episcopalians, etc. The colors are blue, purple, and rose. Do Baptist churches have liturgical seasons? I'm not sure but I don't think so. Advent wreaths would use those colors but just regular wreaths on a door or house can be any color of the rainbow. Damn, there I go with that gay agenda again. :gay-rainbowflag:

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I just pulled out the cards I bought at the after Christmas sales last year, purchased especially to give out at work. I cracked myself up when I saw that all 3 designs I bought wish people a happy sparkly holiday! Yes, it was on purpose. :twisted:

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Advent is a liturgical season celebrated by Catholics, Lutherans, Episcopalians, etc. The colors are blue, purple, and rose. Do Baptist churches have liturgical seasons? I'm not sure but I don't think so. Advent wreaths would use those colors but just regular wreaths on a door or house can be any color of the rainbow. Damn, there I go with that gay agenda again. :gay-rainbowflag:

It depends on the Baptist church. A lot of them play fast and loose with what they do and don't do. The one I grew up in did follow the church calendar pretty much. We did Maundy Thursday for example while most other protestants would not even know what that was. We had advent wreaths with red and white candles.

In Catholic churches, the most popular colours for the Advent candles are purple and rose. In the Western church, purple is the historic liturgical color for three of the four Sundays of Advent: once the color associated with royalty, it symbolizes Christ as the "Prince of Peace." Rose is the color for the Third Sunday of Advent, known as Gaudete Sunday from the Latin word "rejoice". Gaudete Sunday anticipates the joy of the Christmas celebration, so its color is a mixture of Advent purple and Christmas white. It may also symbolize the color of early dawn.

In Protestant churches it is more common to use four red candles (reflecting their traditional use in Christmas decorations) because rose vestments and decorations are not commonly used in Protestant churches. Blue is also a popular alternative color for both Advent vestments and Advent candles, especially in some Anglican and Lutheran churches. This is in keeping with the liturgical seasons; blue means hope and waiting, which aligns with the seasonal meaning of Advent. Other variations of the Advent wreath add a white candle in the center to symbolize Christmas, sometimes known as the "Christ candle." It can be lit on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. White is the traditional festal color in the Western church. Four red candles with one white one is probably the most common arrangement in Protestant churches in Britain.[8]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advent_wreath

There are pictures in the article of wreathes with red/white candles as well as the purple/rose that you were talking about.

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I just stumbled across this response (from a Pastor) to all the facebook rants about the war on Christmas. While I don't agree with all of it, it's a message a lot of people should probably hear.

I know a lot of people have been upset about all the changes regarding Merry Christmas to Happy Holidays etc. A good friend of mine Pastor Dave had this Letter from Jesus posted and HOW TRUE!!!! I wanted to Share it with everyone. I know it is long but well worth the read!!!!!

Letter from Jesus,

It has come to my attention that many of you are upset that folks are taking My name out of the season.

How I personally feel about this celebration can probably be most easily understood by those of you who have been blessed with children of your own. I don't care what you call the day. If you want to celebrate My birth, just GET ALONG AND LOVE ONE ANOTHER.

Now, having said that let Me go on. If it bothers you that the town in which you live doesn't allow a scene depicting My birth, then just get rid of a couple of Santas and snowmen and put in a small Nativity scene on your own front lawn If all My followers did that there wouldn't be any need for such a scene on the town square because there would be many of them all around town.

Stop worrying about the fact that people are calling the tree a holiday tree, instead of a Christmas tree. It was I who made all trees. You can remember Me anytime you see any tree. Decorate a grape vine if you wish: I actually spoke of that one in a teaching, explaining who I am in relation to you and what each of our tasks were. If you have forgotten that one, look up John 15: 1 - 8.

If you want to give Me a present in remembrance of My birth here is my wish list. Choose something from it:

1. Instead of writing protest letters objecting to the way My birthday is being celebrated, write letters of love and hope to soldiers away from home. They are terribly afraid and lonely this time of year. I know, they tell Me all the time.

2. Visit someone in a nursing home. You don't have to know them personally. They just need to know that someone cares about them.

3. Instead of writing the President complaining about the wording on the cards his staff sent out this year, why don't you write and tell him that you'll be praying for him and his family this year. Then follow up... It will be nice hearing from you again.

4. Instead of giving your children a lot of gifts you can't afford and they don't need, spend time with them. Tell them the story of My birth, and why I came to live with you down here. Hold them in your arms and remind them that I love them.

5 Pick someone that has hurt you in the past and forgive him or her.

6. Did you know that someone in your town will attempt to take their own life this season because they feel so alone and hopeless? Since you don't know who that person is, try giving everyone you meet a warm smile; it could make the difference.

7. Instead of nit picking about what the retailer in your town calls the holiday, be patient with the people who work there. Give them a warm smile and a kind word. Even if they aren't allowed to wish you a "Merry Christmas" that doesn't keep you from wishing them one. Then stop shopping there on Sunday. If the store didn't make so much money on that day they'd close and let their employees spend the day at home with their families

8. If you really want to make a difference, support a missionary-- especially one who takes My love and Good News to those who have never heard My

name.

9. Here's a good one. There are individuals and whole families in your town who not only will have no "Christmas" tree, but neither will they have any presents to give or receive. If you don't know them,

buy some food and a few gifts and give them to the Salvation Army or some other charity which believes in Me and they will make the delivery for you.

10. Finally, if you want to make a statement about

your belief in and loyalty to Me, then behave like a Christian. Don't do things in secret that you wouldn't do in My presence. Let people know by your actions that you are one of mine.

Don't forget; I am God and can take care of Myself. Just love Me and do what I have told you to do. I'll take care of all the rest. Check out the list above and get to work; time is short. I'll help you, but the ball is now in your court. And do have a most blessed Christmas with all those whom you love and remember :

I LOVE YOU,

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Oh good grief. From Teri Maxwell's Mom's Corner that someone posted:

I've heard the Maxwells sing. Does anyone else think that poor man was raising his hand in a desperate effort to get them to STOP?

I hate to burst their bubble, but after my Grandad had his stroke he would struggle to get his hand out from under his blanket and then lift it up. Sometimes it was in response to us, but the vast majority of the time he wasn't concious and it was just a physiological response to getting overheated under the blanket. He most certainly was NOT lifting his arm to praise the Lord, and I very much doubt this man was either.

I really hope this whole 'war on Christmas' thing doesn't travel over here any time soon. I have noticed people saying 'Happy Holidays', but I haven't read anything in the media about this being a bad thing, or Christmas vanishing, or whatever. I do usually see 'Jesus is the reason for the season' boards up outside churches, but it's confined to church property, which is fine.

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Fundies might be offended by my pirate themed tree this year.

They'd hate our tree then. All our ornaments are black and red, we even have a black star for the top!

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I spent a lot of my childhood at an ostensibly Christian private school (I say ostensibly because there were Jewish and Muslim families, and probably atheist ones, too), then switched to a very multicultural public school. Anyway, I don't think the public school was any more multicultural when it came to the establishment recognising holidays than the Christian school. In December, for instance, both schools held an event at which the choirs sang religious Christmas songs. The private school also included religious readings and hymns and called it a 'Carol Service'. The public school included secular Christmas carols and called it a 'Winter Festival'. Honestly, that strikes me as more offensive to members of minority religious groups, because there's this lip service to them without making any real effort at including them. How difficult would it be to include a Hannukah song (assuming such songs exist)? Or better yet, make it a Christmas concert, and in September hold a celebration of Rosh Hashannah.

I see 'happy holidays' as being precariously close to the same thing, in that, as others have mentioned, festivals like Hannukah receive inflated importance. Additionally, Ramadan tends to be viewed as being in December because it only ever really receives any notice in the West when it is, even though this year it was in August; likewise people think of Diwali as being in December when this year it was in October. Thus 'happy holidays' just seems to extend outwards from Christmas in an attempt to encapsulae other religious holidays.

That said, I think it's preferable to 'happy Christmas' in that it acknowledges that the other person doesn't necessarily celebrate Christmas while still trying to express goodwill. And what about New Year's? Do people from other religious backgrounds, particularly those with their own New Year, still celebrate the secular New Year?

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