Happy Holidays and Merry Crimble everyone! This will be the last Sceptic Saturday before I take a lil seasonal break, I hope you enjoy it and get some wind down time too! The most magical holiday gift for me would be for you to check out (and subslime to) my new channel @EmmaThorneExtra 🥰 I just uploaded a video decorating my Satanic Christmas Tree, you can take a look here: ruclips.net/video/On2B_G4P8Gc/видео.html See you soon! 🦆❤ VIDY NOTES cause I'm a dumbus: Turns out I was taking for granted the notion that Pope Julius decreed the official Christmas celebration to be December 25th! This claim comes only from a letter quoted in a 9th Century source and is therefore pretty spurious. The more you know :) At one point I couldn't understand what Bodie was saying and I thought the video had skipped a word or something- no. He said "everyone honours their birthday". My ability to comprehend words just evaporated. Luckily the video subtitler caught it correctly :')
Well, in regards to the mention of Pope Julius establishing the day of celebrating Christmas in a 9th-century source: You never know! Life is ALWAYS full of surprises... ;-)
@@JD43081 and when supposed parent set the stage for you to fail in the first place, when they could have made everything perfect? what then? Stop making excuses for a clearly imperfect god with a clearly imperfect plan, who doesn't even clearly exist.
@@JD43081 . Or of course the more rational explanation, it was an invented story to give as an answer to anyone who asked why the world is not perfect.
When I was a kid, I always saw "Happy Holidays" as a way of wishing people both a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year because they typically go on break for one to two weeks... Then it became a broader, more inclusive way of wishing people well for various celebrations. Cool - nothing wrong with that. It's a HAPPY sentiment. But some people are just allergic to joy, I guess? Then this outcry of "You're destroying Christmas!" came about. I'm just out here trying to wish people well, man. Literally no one that has ever said "Happy Holidays" is out here trying to personally kill Christ.
The way I see it, "Happy holidays" is meant to be a quick way of being inclusive. That way, you don't have to say anything like "Happy Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanza, Yule, New Year, and all that!" Much easier. The only people getting offended over the term "Happy holidays" are people who think the end of the year should be exclusively about Christianity. I haven't heard any other religious people get offended (except maybe ironically to prove a point).
I've heard somewhere that the X in Xmas is actually a chi which has been a symbol for Christ for ages... Do fact check me but it's kind of hilarious that they're saying Xmas is trying to take Christ out of Christmas
Correct. Xmas is of Christian origin. People have decided because of their own assumptions that it is from an “other” group being disrespectful. You can see the chi-rho imagery everywhere.
This is correct, and the use of a chi instead of "christ" isn't exactly uncommon elsewhere either - a lot of christograms, like the chi-rho (☧) use a chi somewhere in them.
The expression “Happy Holidays” goes back at least a century and a half. When I was a kid in the ‘50s, I went Christmas shopping with my mom, and she said “Happy Holidays” to the salesman who had helped her. Later, I asked her why she hadn’t said “Merry Christmas,” and she told me, “I think Mr. Weiss may be Jewish, so I wanted to be polite.” Yes-polite. Not PC. I’m a boomer who’s been saying “Happy Holidays” all my life, whenever I’m not sure of which ones people celebrate.
On the origin of candy canes, I remember reading at some point that some priest basically wanted to give candy to children in church during long Christmas services so they would shut the hell up, but you can't just give candy to kids in church, apparently, so he commissioned a candy shaped like a shepherd's cane so it was like "hey, see it's Jesus related"
And a very happy solstice to you. May an abundance of good company, food, gifts, and music warm your days, and the sun bring back the light, from those sun hogging Aussies down under :p They have had it for long enough! Our turn again! :p
I love how they talk about dates as if the calendar hasn't changed in a few thousand years. If they just accepted that Christianity simply piggy-backed other holidays so that their friends had something to celebrate when everyone else is. Then this time of year could have been one glorious period every year that's super inclusive, respectful and fun. Reminds me of The First Amalgamated Church from Futurama. What a cool idea.
Oh, PLEASE do a video about how Christianity alone brought us freedom and rights 😂 As an ex-evangelical Christian, I would love nothing more than to hear you rip that apart! Happy holidays to everyone!!
28:50 So, how long til Emma noticed that what she heard as "everyone on Earth ---s the day of their birth" was "Everyone honours the the day of their birth" Love your content Emma, and a wonderful holiday season to all the wonderful folks out there.
Also, not everyone honours/celebrate the day of their birth. So that's something else they got wrong. Then again they are wrong about so many things so... whatever
Point of order: Rob says his shirt says "we are all on the naughty list"....his shirt actually says "you are all on the naughty list," which is considerably different, both in meaning and intent.
And that is the level of lies in the face od facts I'm used to from Evangelicals. And I guarantee his supporters would argue until they couldn't breathe about it if they saw your comment. They are told hourly to deny their senses and listen only to their leaders.
I always find it funny that I learn way more about the bible or just about any religion from non-religious sources. Anyway, Happy Christmas and Happy Holidays
Non-Christians tend to take a more scholarly view of the Bible and Christian history. Not all Christians take this literal fundamentalist view it has to be said
If I my translate in short what these two dudes are saying: "I've been brought up to celebrate Christmas in a certain way, and that way is correct. Here's what reasons I could find for why, and don't mention the herd of elephants in the room that say otherwise!"
While teaching "American" culture in China 30 years ago, I presented Christmas as two separate holidays that happen at the same time, but with the same name. One quiet and religious, and the other loud and capitalistic. But yes, it's been celebrated as it is now only since Dickens' short story. Also the Bible does talk about 'going to the toilet" in Deuteronomy 23:12-14 . Dig a hole, poop in it, cover the hole. Keep up the good work. Thank you
28:39 He's quoting Ephrem the Syrian, "Everyone honors the day of their birth." I know, American accents are hard, lol. What's funny to me is him quoting Ephrem, an influential Orthodox patristic theologian who spoke Syriac. No fundamentalist protestant would ever read Ephrem unless he was googling to find Christian support for birthday celebrations.
There's a lot more fun to be had in the bible books that are quietly ignored these days as if they never existed... this book of books that is the word of their god who is infallible and perfect yet had to be translated many times over as well as the choice of books that comprise the overall book juggled and swapped around depending on which person was compiling a bible. One could almost think that with all the contradictions and references to mistakes by their infallible and perfect god that their infallible and perfect god was not infallible nor perfect and didn't write any of their bible...
My guess about candy canes is just that the hook-shaped handle makes it possible to hang them on the tree (or maybe they were originally meant to represent shepherd's crooks?).
The story as I recall goes like this. A pastor who either was or knew a candy maker, had an idea to use candy as a baby pacifier during Mass. The hook was to catch on the outeside of mouth/cheek and prevent choking. Read this in a bathroom reader like 25 years ago and I kinda hope it's true.
My favorite thing about their obsession with the 25th is they also stated "he is the reason for the season". Such a statement implies celebration far wider than their one day which would connect with all the other festivals.
Exactly. No one really puts thought into it but we call it the Christmas SEASON. Meaning it has origins somewhere as an entire seasonal celebration. I mean we talk about it, buy for it and have mini celebrations and festivals leading up to christmas for an entire month.
And if Jesus existed, it’s also a false date for his birth (but Christians slapping their traditions on other people’s celebrations is nothing new). Historians who do think Jesus exist have said he was born earlier in the year. Christmas (Yule/Saturnalia) was indeed a winter festival, not focused on one single day, but at least over a few weeks).
One of the most delightful interactions with the public I’ve had at Yuletide was speaking to a group of Secular Humanists about the Winter Solstice. I’m a witch & Pagan, plus studied folklore at university, so that’s why they asked me. What a delightful group of people 🥰. They felt the same way about Christmas as you do 🎄 Holiday sweaters & cookies 🍪 I had no idea their organization went back to the early 1800s. IO SATURNALIA, Happy Hanukkah, Joyous Yule, Blessed Solstice, & Merry Christmas 🎄
According to the Gregorian calendar, the winter solstice occurs near December 21. In the Julian calendar used by the Roman Empire, the winter solstice occurred around December 25. So Christmas fell on the Winter Solstice.
In a discussion at my Unitarian Universalist church of early Christmas celebrations, it was mentioned that one custom was bringing an apple tree inside a house of worship to represent the Tree of Knowledge in the garden of Eden. Also: Axial tilt is the reason for the season.
Hey Emma! Ex-JW here. Love this video so far.. I’m a few minutes behind live but I should say that you’re pretty much spot on about the apologetics/justifications that JWs use for by celebrating Christmas. The reason the organization forbids members from celebrating is a totally different question though. Long story short, it has to do with controlling members by making them more insular (no part of the world) and feeds a persecution complex (Jesus: the world hated me and they will hate you too) which validates their true religion/superiority complex. It’s just yet another means of increasing their control over members. Fun fact, the religion was started in the 1870’s but they didn’t stop celebrating Christmas until I think the 1920’s. Anyway, great video!
When I was in middle school I had a friend that was a JW. I didn’t fully understand the religion back then, so I invited him to my birthday party. I told him I understood if he couldn’t come, but he was welcome. Apparently he really wanted to come because he walked to my house because his parents wouldn’t drive him. They wouldn’t give him money for a gift so he was super embarrassed when he gave me a handmade card with $3 in it because that’s all he had. I was so moved that I gave him a huge hug. I think a scared him a little. It wasn’t until years and years later that I found out how strict JWs were about boys and girls touching. If I’d known, I wouldn’t have hugged him. Anyway, once I learned more about the religion, things made more sense. I wonder if his parents thought if he showed up with his nice clothes all sweaty from the walk, and only a couple dollars as a gift that we would mock him and shame him and scare him away from “the world”. And they could justify it to themselves by saying “of course we can’t help him go to a _birthday party_ ! If he wants to go and turn from Jehovah, that’s his own choice.” Instead, as far as I could tell, he had fun. No one shamed him. Quite the opposite. And we didn’t force him in to things he was uncomfortable with (except maybe for me hugging him). I moved not long after that, so I don’t know if he got out, but I hope he did. I also hope I’m wrong that his parents were hoping he’d get humiliated and come running back with a broken heart, but the more I learn about JWs, the more I don’t think I am.
@@Annie_Annie__ that’s very possible that his parents did that.. I did things like that when I was in high school too. The reason I had to walk was because I was sneaking off without my parents knowledge to go be with friends from school. If my parents had known I would have been absolutely forbidden from going to a school friend’s house even to study or something like that, let alone for a birthday party. People offered to give me rides to things all the time but I always turned them down with a very few exceptions, because I knew I would get in big trouble and be lectured and guilt tripped if I did
Hi everyone, this is something that comes from someone that celebrates Yule. I just wanted to share this to lighten the mood a little bit and have fun, but I’ve decided that for one of my traditions this year I would like to make sort of like a Yule log cake but whenever everyone decides to cut a slice, as they are cutting it they can make a wish.
I call Christmas "Yule" as well. I studied with the Jehovah Witnesses when I was a teenager. They managed to convince me of one thing, and that is most holidays are Pagan in origin. It didn't turn me off from celebrating them, though.
Polkagris (Polka pig) a Swedish stick candy that was invented by Amalia Eriksson 1859 in the small town of Gränna. The traditional polkagris is red and white striped and also shaped like a cane. Probably the best type of candy comming from my native country of Sweden.
When dealing with these kinds of individuals, I've over the years come to understand that in their world, what I call, "Child like simple answers" are what they want to explain complex ideas and or issues. They don't want in-depth explanations, where they have to wrap their heads around it. It will make their heads hurt.
I just want to say how much I love your videos. What you do really resonates with me. I know it's unfathomable what kind of flack comes your way as a result of just being you in public, but I for one love it. I love your look, I love your vibe, and I love the things you say most of all. Thank you for brightening my day!
I, as an atheist working in Pantomime, working 80 hour weeks in the build up to Christmas, seeing people buying presents that they can't afford, having to find time to buy presents that I don't have, working every day without a break except for xmas day, when I have to cook a big meal for my family, and a day when all shops are closed, means I really hate xmas. Decorations, drunkeness in pubs, depression due to missing people who they have lost. And all for Jesus who I am not sure ever existed. What a load of crap.
The whole modern take on Happy Christmas v Happy Holidays makes me laugh, when I was 2 my mum and dad bought Gene Autry's Christmas Cracker album, he was know as the singing cowboy. A big moment on the album is when he says "Happy Holidays folks, wherever you may be!". Oh that was in 1966!
December was the time for saturnalia between 17-23 december to celebrate the god of agriculture Saturnus and the goddess of bountiful harvest Opis . Opalia was a main festival during Sartunalia for godess Opis to make sure the grain had it safe while being storaged during the winter also was on December 19:th in ancient rome.
I had a long argument with someone who claimed the change in the calendar was evidence the Christians did not take over an existing pagan midwinter festival. They missed the point the Celts did not rely on calendars but went by the length of the days. Plus the 11 days were accumulated over 1,700 years, the time difference was only about 5 minutes a year. It would take 288 years for the date to differ by one day.
Saturn is still with us on New Year's as the Old Year depicted as an old man with a long white beard and an hourglass and a scythe (medieval depictions include a crutch). Your mention of Juvenalia made me wonder if that's the origin of the New Year baby, but Wikipedia describes Juvenalia as pertaining to a child coming of age.
5:45 Deuteronomy 23 v 12-14 : “You shall have a place outside the camp, and you shall go out to it. And you shall have a trowel with your tools, and when you sit down outside, you shall dig a hole with it and turn back and cover up your excrement. Because the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you and to give up your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be holy, so that he may not see anything indecent among you and turn away from you."
Boy golly, “happy holidays” has always been used as a nice way to say “Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year” for me. The situation will determine if I wish both…. God forbid two holidays happen back to back and we want to wish folks who we won’t see soon a good tiddings for each. Silliness
"What we really needed was to be rescued from God himself" - Bodie Hodge, 39:59 I've never heard a Christian say the quiet part out loud like that. That's Protection Racket shaped.
Personally, I didn't really grow up Pagan, but my mother, aunt, and grandmother are all witches, so I eventually learned about it later as well as most of the other holidays. I eventually was Pagan for a few years, but since then and learning about everything, I started calling "Christmas" Yule, because what we celebrate is in fact Yule! The tree, gift giving, and even decor amongst other things including the origin of Santa Claus. Christmas is not even close to what we celebrate, and it's because of that reason, I actually hate it when people say "Merry Christmas", because to me, they are just blatantly showing their ignorance, so I definitely prefer "Happy holidays", or something akin. When told to "Have a Merry Christmas", or similar, my default response is always "No thank you", and I laugh because people tend to hate me for it. After I educated myself greatly on the actual origins of the holiday, as well as the others, I do my best to educate people every year.
Hey Emma, Happy Christmas! A note about Kwanzaa, it's not a religious celebration, it's a fairly recently created holiday that's intended to celebrate African American history and culture. It is usually celebrated in addition to Christmas, not as a replacement for it (though that was the creator's original intention)
I was told I was gonna be visited by three ghosts. I didn't expect it to be in video form. Are you the ghost of christmas past, present or future? ;) I celebrate Yule (Jul in swedish) with Cthulhu sitting a top of the tree, watching over the gifts, with good food and Lovecraftian carols. Hope you have a fantastic time while on your break!
Two days ago, I had myself the brightest idea to gather some pagan friends and bring back Saturnalia (Roman peoples' celebration of their god Saturn) on the day before our break from school. We swapped seats at the lunch table, swapped personality traits, shared food freely, gave each other little gifts, and caused chaos just for the hell of it! So fun haha
My mother was quite the prankster. She would wrap up charcoal briquettes and give us to my sister and I. We did get real presents of course. It was always good for a laugh, even though, we'd find the gift wrapped briquettes and start laughing. Another thing we'd get would be half rotten oranges. I might have deserved these things. LOL
My closest friends consider many absurd Biblical stories to be historical fact so they used Answers in Genesis to fortify their beliefs. I love how they cling to Christmas and Father Christmas but ignore how he's a lot like Odin and how the holiday resembles Yule. Same thing with Halloween. Well Merry Christmas from New England.
The way we say "Merry Christmas" here in Sweden (similar in all the nordic countries), is "god Jul" as in "good Yule". So if you want to take the holiday season back, we are happy to lend you our Jul. :)
@@joshuaciresoli2927 I was told people from Massachusetts refer to people being jerks as being "Massholes". Now I know crazy people from Maine are Maineacs!!! Did you know that here in Baltimore were often substitute the word Baltimorians meaning people from Baltimore for "Baltimorons" or Morons from Baltimore hence Balti-Moron. Interesting...
I live in Germany. We've until recently been a majority christian country. (Because of scandals that mostly have to to with SA of children and the ever growin secularisation of people in general, both the catholic and protestant church here are bleeding members.) I was born in 1986 and as far as I remember, "Frohe Weihnachten" ("Merry/happy Christmas") has been as a common greeting as "Frohe Feiertage" ("Happy Holidays") or "Frohes Fest" ("Happy festivities"). Around here, everyone gets a holiday (= day off) for a lot of holidays. It's okay to just take a step back and appreciate that not everyone celebrates all the holidays that you do.
Thank you for a very interesting video! :) I have a lot of answers but I have probably an equal amount of questions.. LOL. I am a Mormon and we do celebrate Christmas and we are Christians. Sometimes our explanations for things make sense, when they don't, I rely on my faith and think "Maybe I will know someday" :) it will be so interesting.
Here's a few more gods we can celebrate on Dec 25. Before 1,000 B.C. we have the following gods or demigods born on December 25: Horus, Osiris, and Attis. Before 200 B.C. we have Mithra, Heracles, Dionysus So Merry Christmas, Happy Christmas to the UK and Happy Holidays to all.
I've been to Germany and worked in construction which introduced me to another evergreen tradition. When they're building a new building and you've completed the walls/top story and are ready for the roof (or have just put in the roof), they attach an evergreen to the highest point. Either it's a tradition for marking that milestone in the construction or else it's for good fortunate so that the business or family will grow or prosper. Probably another pagan tradition that carried on into the present. Another use of evergreens (or so I've been told) is to display a branch in front of a Lokal to advertise the Heuriger wine season, that season's newly fermented wine that hasn't been aged yet. Beaujolais nouveau ("new Beaujolais") is similar and is only available starting in late November.
emma, your videos really help me stay afloat, especially during the holiday season when i’m surrounded by fundie family. you are truly a joy and i’m so glad you’re online making videos!
I once read that "Xmas" is an abbreviation for Christmas because it's not an "x", it's a capital chi, which is the first letter in "christ" spelled in Greek. Supposedly the abbreviation is really, really old. I have no idea if it's true though.
@@JWK1101 Thank you James. I keep forgetting about Snopes for stuff like this. I can't think of any similar abbreviations that include non-latin letters so I was skeptical that what I'd read so long ago was actually true.
@@DaviniaHill Oh, people get *pissed* when I hyphenate G-d, they accuse me of censoring the concept of god. So many times responding with "yeah, no, it's a Jewish respect thing, doesn't necessarily translate into digital but it's not censoring the concept or anything."
The full name of the symbol is Chi-Rho. It was used by Emperor Constantine, so it's around 1700 years old. Probably older. Meaning it could be one of the oldest Christian symbols in the world.
Ahhh. I'm in Pennsylvania & praying for snow on Christmas. It happened in 2020 which was hilarious bc no one was there to talk about how it finally snowed on Christmas! 1st time in 20 years! Looks like it's not happening this year, yet again 😕.
Hej Emma, Yule is not just another holiday but also the scandinavian name for Christmas,(spelled Jul) yes it used to be the name for Winther solstice but we never got another name for it in the Christian tradition. The most important winter holiday in mordern; asatru, Nordic peganism and Nordic animism is Longnight five days before winter solstice, today the 17th of december. Happy Holiday from a Devilish Dane.
we are here on the German - Danish border and we have Weihnachtsbäume / Juletræer and God Jul everywhere. I have bought my son a Julbock and a Wichteltür to celebrate Julfest.
Probably worth noting that Asatru isn't representative of the majority of Norse paganism, and is a modern invention (similar to Wicca) based at least as much on misrepresentations or misinterpretations of history as on the history itself, and much more on people making things up that "feel right" to them than on any attempt at interpreting history. It's actually got a lot of associations with racism (particularly white supremacy) which put it *strongly* at odds with most Norse pagans and many other pagan groups. At least in the wider global use of the term, might be different in Scandinavia, but the term has been associated with some pretty awful groups around the world, so tends not to be as commonly accepted these days.
What does northern paganism mean? It sounds like an umbrella term for some very undefined 20th-century invention based on the claim someone did something before.
Happy Holidays Emma, I wonder if Answers In Genesis has factored in calendar reform in relation to the date Christmas is observed. Doesn't The Greek Orthodox Church normally observe Christmas on January 7th because they use Julian calendar? Also isn't the Jewish calendar based on lunar months so I wonder if the age given for Adam in the Bible is referring to lunar months rather than solar years?
When I was a kid my dad drove a semi truck and I d go with him during school holidays. Back then on the CB radio it was common to tell people to “have a merry merry and a happy happy.” Apparently it’s because s-heavy words didn’t convey well over the radio, so they avoided saying “Christmas”. There’s been times when people gripe about the term “happy holidays” that I’ve been tempted to tell them to have a merry merry and a happy happy just to see how they react.
Hi Emma, great video, as always. I don't know if somebody already pointed that out, but think at 28:42 he said "everyone honors the day of their birth" so there is no word missing.
If you need some insider information about why JWs dont celebrate birthdays or christmas I can recommend Owen Morgan (Telltale). There are also some other ex-JW channels on here, but I don't remember the names right now.
Fundamental Christians commenting about "double standards" is always a good one. Great Video Emma. I didn't know many of the stuff which came up in the video but it was really interesting. Greetings from Christmastree-Origin-Land.
Christmas: the time when the financial year ends and companies/people have to make a lot of financial transactions/donations to minimize their taxes or justify their budget.
@Singlespeedpunk The US governments fiscal year ends in September. For companies, they can choose when their fiscal year ends. But for taxes, the year ends on December 31st.
Bodie Hodge is Ken Ham's fail-son-in-law. He's literally there through nepotism and it's been pretty obvious from the first appearances he made in AiG videos. So yeah, Bodie gets stuff wrong all the time - it's like his thing. Bodie also loves dad jokes and pointing out logical fallacies. Although, given how much he loves getting stuff wrong, he's usually wrong about what logical fallacy it is and often ends up making up some that... don't exist.
When person's income and position depends on claiming something is so, they are not likely to speak honestly about it. Would anyone expect an expert's non biased opinion about the supposed Resurrection when the 'expert' is being employed by a Christian institution and is required to believe.
@@grahvis While I agree with the point of your comment, I feel the need to remind you that we're talking about Bodie Hodge. Bodie isn't an expert on anything. Well, other than failing upwards through nepotism anyway.
@@SadisticSenpai61 . Lol, very true. I was thinking of real Bible scholars. It can be applied to anyone working for AiG, since anything they say has to comply with the Earth being young. No matter what qualifications they may have.
@@grahvis Yup. I went to a Bible college that hosted Ham when he was going around fundraising for his "museum." By the time I was "ready" to graduate, I couldn't. I couldn't honestly sign that statement of faith anymore. So $50k down the drain. Plus interest. Sigh.
A christian sect in my hometown has a hall of meeting that is called Morning Star. But perhaps they are satanists, not the simple minded type of christians I thought they were.
@@kellydalstok8900 I was referring to Isaiah 14:12 which talks about the morning star and most Christians think is talking of Satan. How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! (NIV) How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! (KJV)
Well, as a (non-fundie) Christian, I do not doubt that a day was set aside to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. :-) The rest is just cultural osmosis & sharing of customs. ^_^ Which is always great! Also, your thumbnail got me humming the duel music from "The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly". XD
@Emma Thorne, I have to admit I have been infatuated by your voice for over a year. For me, it's joyous, erudite (and therefore sexy), and it reminds me of holidays with my great aunt in Shropshire during the 80s (she worked with gifted kids, so I got to meet a lot of people speaking "proper English" innit). It's also extremely confident, and I find that to be so affirming my world view of equality through diversity as you proudly represent your own life choices. Happy New Year
"We don't like Halloween! It's icky and scary so it's a Pagan Holiday, you can keep it! (After we're done appropriating it for forever and a half) -but the nice happy Christmas that we took from Pagan Holidays? It's pretty, so **I** want it and **I** deserve it!" When you think about the synopsis of what they're saying, it's such a childish temper tantrum
I grew up in a fundie Baptist family and they ruined Christmas for me with the whole "Jesus is the reason for the season" stuff - literally if it wasn't about Jesus? We didn't do it/weren't allowed to do it. It literally sucked the joy out of the holiday. We had to read Luke 2 before we could get presents. Nothing Santa or reindeer themed was allowed because that was Satan trying to distract us from Jesus. It's why even though I give a token nod towards Yule/Winter Solstice (which I treat as more of a New Year's celebration than anything else), I just struggle to really get into it. There's some years where I've been more enthusiastic than others, but most years? It's just another day and one I barely even notice as it goes by. I don't really get into any holidays, for about the same reason really. Everything had to be about Jesus. If it wasn't about Jesus, it was Satanic. Well, with the exception of the 4th of July. But even then, it was really more just family getting together and hanging out. Same thing with the other secular holidays - everyone had them off, so it was an excuse to get together. We never really did the "patriotism" thing, which is why some of the MAGA super patriotism from some of my family caught me completely off guard. We never cared about patriotism when I was a kid. It was always Jesus exclusively and "the US is better than anywhere else, I guess. But it still has a ton of problems." Like, no one was "Ra Ra! USA! USA!"
When I first became atheist I was distraught that I shouldn't celebrate as but when I realized HOW MUCH of it had nothing to do with the religious aspect, I was so happy and relieved 😁 I love the decor- the lights, the colors, even the music of the carols (lots of instrumental versions out there). All the sweets and drinks are great too. I love a good hot chocolate w/ peppermint with 'a kick '. (I have a zebra striped Santa hat with hot pink trim) Edit: after you 'teach' them that Jesus is the morning star, (then you can tell them that's what Lucifer means too. Btw, I read once that celebrating bdays was a Roman thing, but I don't remember where so more research on that could be done.
Emma loving flashing lights is not surprising. I have this picture in my head of her lying by the tree and batting at the lights with her paws…erm…hands.
I still don't get why people get so upset about happy holidays. There are three holidays at the end of the year - Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. That is why it's called "the holiday season". I'm certainly not going to name them individually by saying something like, "Happy Thanksgiving, merry Christmas, and happy New Year." That just takes way too long to say. So, why is it a bad thing to wish someone happy holidays? It covers everything from November to January. They get so upset about happy holidays but they're fine with people calling it the holiday season. It doesn't make any dang sense. Yes, I know Thanksgiving is an American thing only. Still. Happy holidays covers Christmas and New Years everywhere else.
Lovely time as always. Here's a fun holiday challenge should you find yourself cornered by a Christian at a party. Challenge said Christian to show in the Bible where Jesus' exact date of birth is listed. With any luck, they will remain stuck in their book and you will be able to get back to enjoying whatever celebration you are attending.
I tell people I don't celebrate Christmas, but I get together with family, I don't partake in the gift giving or receiving, aside from bringing party crackers. December is when I donate to charities. I like Christmas comedies & horror, I even like the message of the song All I Want For Christmas is you. I won't say merry Christmas or even happy holidays. If someone says it to me, I say happy new year or It's Festivus for the rest us. 😄 I only listen to sinical xmas or anti Christmas songs & I wear shirts with the same sinical or anti Christmas message all December. I don't decorate for Christmas, but I do have an elf on the shelf (just for the creep factor 😄).
When you have an elf, maybe have a look at the Krampus. When you dress up as one, you are in best german christian tradition - and scare the US christian to death :-))
Here in Germany we have not so many issues, primarily because here christianity is more a cultural thing. Here I never heard about an imminent rapture or other Bible literalist nonsense. Catholics have a pope that accepts old earth and evolution, and the german protestants/lutherans/evangelicals are way more progressive than catholics.
Happy Holidays and Merry Crimble everyone! This will be the last Sceptic Saturday before I take a lil seasonal break, I hope you enjoy it and get some wind down time too!
The most magical holiday gift for me would be for you to check out (and subslime to) my new channel @EmmaThorneExtra 🥰 I just uploaded a video decorating my Satanic Christmas Tree, you can take a look here: ruclips.net/video/On2B_G4P8Gc/видео.html
See you soon! 🦆❤
VIDY NOTES cause I'm a dumbus:
Turns out I was taking for granted the notion that Pope Julius decreed the official Christmas celebration to be December 25th! This claim comes only from a letter quoted in a 9th Century source and is therefore pretty spurious. The more you know :)
At one point I couldn't understand what Bodie was saying and I thought the video had skipped a word or something- no. He said "everyone honours their birthday". My ability to comprehend words just evaporated. Luckily the video subtitler caught it correctly :')
Well, in regards to the mention of Pope Julius establishing the day of celebrating Christmas in a 9th-century source: You never know! Life is ALWAYS full of surprises... ;-)
@@JD43081 The Norse god Odin? XD Well, with Santa, you never have to worry about perishing!
@@JD43081 and when supposed parent set the stage for you to fail in the first place, when they could have made everything perfect? what then? Stop making excuses for a clearly imperfect god with a clearly imperfect plan, who doesn't even clearly exist.
@JD1981 you literally tried to explain bad in the world by saying God has faith in mankind.
@@JD43081 .
Or of course the more rational explanation, it was an invented story to give as an answer to anyone who asked why the world is not perfect.
Let's take a moment to remember all of Father Christmas' elves who were lost in the War on Christmas!
A brutal slaughter, it was. But we dined on reindeer for weeks thereafter.
Pour one [glass of egg nog] out for them.
Christmas started this war. We lost Thanksgiving in the US before we could mobilize. Thankfully we have been able to save Halloween.
Last year's war. Let's take a moment to honor the elves currently fighting.
When a Elf dies, where does said elf go?…
The Halls of Mandos?…
When I was a kid, I always saw "Happy Holidays" as a way of wishing people both a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year because they typically go on break for one to two weeks... Then it became a broader, more inclusive way of wishing people well for various celebrations. Cool - nothing wrong with that. It's a HAPPY sentiment. But some people are just allergic to joy, I guess?
Then this outcry of "You're destroying Christmas!" came about. I'm just out here trying to wish people well, man. Literally no one that has ever said "Happy Holidays" is out here trying to personally kill Christ.
Allergic to common sense as well, an empathy etc.
I think their argument is about as well informed as the people protesting against "X-Mas"
they only want to make the world worse in a way they expect god will reward them for
To me I don't care if you wish me "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays!" They're both nice ways to say to someone during the holidays.
The way I see it, "Happy holidays" is meant to be a quick way of being inclusive. That way, you don't have to say anything like "Happy Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanza, Yule, New Year, and all that!" Much easier.
The only people getting offended over the term "Happy holidays" are people who think the end of the year should be exclusively about Christianity. I haven't heard any other religious people get offended (except maybe ironically to prove a point).
I've heard somewhere that the X in Xmas is actually a chi which has been a symbol for Christ for ages... Do fact check me but it's kind of hilarious that they're saying Xmas is trying to take Christ out of Christmas
The original was written as 'chi-rho maes' in Anglo-Saxon, so if anything the English term Christmas is the newer form!
Correct. Xmas is of Christian origin. People have decided because of their own assumptions that it is from an “other” group being disrespectful. You can see the chi-rho imagery everywhere.
This is correct, and the use of a chi instead of "christ" isn't exactly uncommon elsewhere either - a lot of christograms, like the chi-rho (☧) use a chi somewhere in them.
@@justinbennitt835 you shouldn’t go out of your way just to annoy people like that.
@@Xenonaut779 Unless they're an asshole. Then annoy the shit out of em. It's the morally righteous thing to do.
The expression “Happy Holidays” goes back at least a century and a half.
When I was a kid in the ‘50s, I went Christmas shopping with my mom, and she said “Happy Holidays” to the salesman who had helped her. Later, I asked her why she hadn’t said “Merry Christmas,” and she told me, “I think Mr. Weiss may be Jewish, so I wanted to be polite.” Yes-polite. Not PC. I’m a boomer who’s been saying “Happy Holidays” all my life, whenever I’m not sure of which ones people celebrate.
And it can be interpreted to include new year as well.
andy williams had a big xmas hit "happy holidays"
this is all about the fox news created "war on xmas"
On the origin of candy canes, I remember reading at some point that some priest basically wanted to give candy to children in church during long Christmas services so they would shut the hell up, but you can't just give candy to kids in church, apparently, so he commissioned a candy shaped like a shepherd's cane so it was like "hey, see it's Jesus related"
I’ve definitely heard the shepherd’s cane explanation, though not the giving candy to kids to shut them up part
Happy Winter Solstice, everyone! I hope you're all happy and healthy.
Happy solstice
And a very happy solstice to you. May an abundance of good company, food, gifts, and music warm your days, and the sun bring back the light, from those sun hogging Aussies down under :p They have had it for long enough! Our turn again! :p
Happy solstice to you too
To you too. It's an incredibly important agrarian calendar event when people didn't have calendars.
I got in trouble at my old church for saying "HAIL SANTA" over Christmas sermon time.
Worth it
Gifts Hail!
Legend!
good thing you are not dyslectic and did not read it and say it as HAIL SATAN (the same letters)
@@jamesknight2198 I've had loads of dyslexic christians claim that I worship Satin. Not the same letters, but that's the nature of dyslexia.
clever boi
I love how they talk about dates as if the calendar hasn't changed in a few thousand years.
If they just accepted that Christianity simply piggy-backed other holidays so that their friends had something to celebrate when everyone else is. Then this time of year could have been one glorious period every year that's super inclusive, respectful and fun.
Reminds me of The First Amalgamated Church from Futurama. What a cool idea.
Oh, PLEASE do a video about how Christianity alone brought us freedom and rights 😂 As an ex-evangelical Christian, I would love nothing more than to hear you rip that apart! Happy holidays to everyone!!
My jaw clenched so hard I almost cracked a tooth when I heard these pair of evangelicals try to claim that Christianity "invented" freedom.
@@jamesrule1338 you literally made me lol with your comment; I felt that in my bones 😂
@@sarahallegra6239 Watch "Why we are DOOMED" by darkmatter2525 if you haven't already.
28:50
So, how long til Emma noticed that what she heard as "everyone on Earth ---s the day of their birth" was "Everyone honours the the day of their birth"
Love your content Emma, and a wonderful holiday season to all the wonderful folks out there.
Also, not everyone honours/celebrate the day of their birth. So that's something else they got wrong. Then again they are wrong about so many things so... whatever
I understood what he was saying and it honestly confused me about what she is mishearing but I have misheard things plenty lol
@@unrightist I was the American accent, she heard "Honors" as "on earth", "Ho ners" sounded like "On Earth"
@not themama I get that, but before she spelled it out I had no idea where a word would have been missing.
@@tessaninetails8065 he was quoting an ancient person
Point of order: Rob says his shirt says "we are all on the naughty list"....his shirt actually says "you are all on the naughty list," which is considerably different, both in meaning and intent.
And that is the level of lies in the face od facts I'm used to from Evangelicals. And I guarantee his supporters would argue until they couldn't breathe about it if they saw your comment. They are told hourly to deny their senses and listen only to their leaders.
I always find it funny that I learn way more about the bible or just about any religion from non-religious sources.
Anyway, Happy Christmas and Happy Holidays
Well, their version anyway.
Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays! 😊 🕎
Also a Happy New Year to you! 🎈 🕯 🎄
if a religious source was portraying whats actually in their books.... they wouldnt be religious to begin with.
Non-Christians tend to take a more scholarly view of the Bible and Christian history. Not all Christians take this literal fundamentalist view it has to be said
Where else could you learn it from?
My absolute favorite thing about Emma videos is when she does her Kent Hovind voice. It makes my day everytime! I wish I could use it my Alexa voice.
Id say take it a step further
Id find a way to use AI to make Kent Hovind an Alexa voice
If I my translate in short what these two dudes are saying: "I've been brought up to celebrate Christmas in a certain way, and that way is correct. Here's what reasons I could find for why, and don't mention the herd of elephants in the room that say otherwise!"
"What did you say, there's this herd of bellowing elephants in the room?!"
While teaching "American" culture in China 30 years ago, I presented Christmas as two separate holidays that happen at the same time, but with the same name. One quiet and religious, and the other loud and capitalistic. But yes, it's been celebrated as it is now only since Dickens' short story. Also the Bible does talk about 'going to the toilet" in Deuteronomy 23:12-14 . Dig a hole, poop in it, cover the hole. Keep up the good work. Thank you
You don't get to worry about the laptop falling while waving around that mug, almost spilling it all over the place!!!
Happy holidays 🖤
No liquid was harmed in making this video... 🌊
@@FatWhiskyDrinkingGuy Who knows what was edited out!? ;)
28:39 He's quoting Ephrem the Syrian, "Everyone honors the day of their birth." I know, American accents are hard, lol. What's funny to me is him quoting Ephrem, an influential Orthodox patristic theologian who spoke Syriac. No fundamentalist protestant would ever read Ephrem unless he was googling to find Christian support for birthday celebrations.
There's a lot more fun to be had in the bible books that are quietly ignored these days as if they never existed... this book of books that is the word of their god who is infallible and perfect yet had to be translated many times over as well as the choice of books that comprise the overall book juggled and swapped around depending on which person was compiling a bible. One could almost think that with all the contradictions and references to mistakes by their infallible and perfect god that their infallible and perfect god was not infallible nor perfect and didn't write any of their bible...
I misread patristic as parasitic 😂
Being Swedish, I don't do Christmas, we all do Yule, so problem solved. Yeah, it's called Jul in Swedish.
My guess about candy canes is just that the hook-shaped handle makes it possible to hang them on the tree (or maybe they were originally meant to represent shepherd's crooks?).
The first candy Cane was made in a town in Germany
Matthew,your first was correct
Candy canes can be used ornaments as well
The story as I recall goes like this. A pastor who either was or knew a candy maker, had an idea to use candy as a baby pacifier during Mass. The hook was to catch on the outeside of mouth/cheek and prevent choking. Read this in a bathroom reader like 25 years ago and I kinda hope it's true.
My favorite thing about their obsession with the 25th is they also stated "he is the reason for the season". Such a statement implies celebration far wider than their one day which would connect with all the other festivals.
Exactly. No one really puts thought into it but we call it the Christmas SEASON. Meaning it has origins somewhere as an entire seasonal celebration.
I mean we talk about it, buy for it and have mini celebrations and festivals leading up to christmas for an entire month.
Yep. And brooding animals give birth in early winter. 😂
And if Jesus existed, it’s also a false date for his birth (but Christians slapping their traditions on other people’s celebrations is nothing new). Historians who do think Jesus exist have said he was born earlier in the year.
Christmas (Yule/Saturnalia) was indeed a winter festival, not focused on one single day, but at least over a few weeks).
One of the most delightful interactions with the public I’ve had at Yuletide was speaking to a group of Secular Humanists about the Winter Solstice. I’m a witch & Pagan, plus studied folklore at university, so that’s why they asked me. What a delightful group of people 🥰. They felt the same way about Christmas as you do 🎄 Holiday sweaters & cookies 🍪 I had no idea their organization went back to the early 1800s.
IO SATURNALIA, Happy Hanukkah, Joyous Yule, Blessed Solstice, & Merry Christmas 🎄
Ok but at 26:40 he's talking about shaping trees into idols and worshipping them, as I notice the cross on the wall behind him
This probably all makes sense to home-schooled American fundamentalists. Thank you, Emma, and Happy Holidays! 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄
If children are indoctrinated to believe fairy stories, as adults they are programmed to believe nonsense.
According to the Gregorian calendar, the winter solstice occurs near December 21. In the Julian calendar used by the Roman Empire, the winter solstice occurred around December 25. So Christmas fell on the Winter Solstice.
In a discussion at my Unitarian Universalist church of early Christmas celebrations, it was mentioned that one custom was bringing an apple tree inside a house of worship to represent the Tree of Knowledge in the garden of Eden.
Also: Axial tilt is the reason for the season.
Hey Emma! Ex-JW here. Love this video so far.. I’m a few minutes behind live but I should say that you’re pretty much spot on about the apologetics/justifications that JWs use for by celebrating Christmas. The reason the organization forbids members from celebrating is a totally different question though. Long story short, it has to do with controlling members by making them more insular (no part of the world) and feeds a persecution complex (Jesus: the world hated me and they will hate you too) which validates their true religion/superiority complex. It’s just yet another means of increasing their control over members. Fun fact, the religion was started in the 1870’s but they didn’t stop celebrating Christmas until I think the 1920’s. Anyway, great video!
When I was in middle school I had a friend that was a JW. I didn’t fully understand the religion back then, so I invited him to my birthday party. I told him I understood if he couldn’t come, but he was welcome.
Apparently he really wanted to come because he walked to my house because his parents wouldn’t drive him.
They wouldn’t give him money for a gift so he was super embarrassed when he gave me a handmade card with $3 in it because that’s all he had.
I was so moved that I gave him a huge hug. I think a scared him a little.
It wasn’t until years and years later that I found out how strict JWs were about boys and girls touching. If I’d known, I wouldn’t have hugged him.
Anyway, once I learned more about the religion, things made more sense. I wonder if his parents thought if he showed up with his nice clothes all sweaty from the walk, and only a couple dollars as a gift that we would mock him and shame him and scare him away from “the world”.
And they could justify it to themselves by saying “of course we can’t help him go to a _birthday party_ ! If he wants to go and turn from Jehovah, that’s his own choice.”
Instead, as far as I could tell, he had fun. No one shamed him. Quite the opposite. And we didn’t force him in to things he was uncomfortable with (except maybe for me hugging him).
I moved not long after that, so I don’t know if he got out, but I hope he did.
I also hope I’m wrong that his parents were hoping he’d get humiliated and come running back with a broken heart, but the more I learn about JWs, the more I don’t think I am.
@@Annie_Annie__ that’s very possible that his parents did that.. I did things like that when I was in high school too. The reason I had to walk was because I was sneaking off without my parents knowledge to go be with friends from school. If my parents had known I would have been absolutely forbidden from going to a school friend’s house even to study or something like that, let alone for a birthday party. People offered to give me rides to things all the time but I always turned them down with a very few exceptions, because I knew I would get in big trouble and be lectured and guilt tripped if I did
Uh... Actually it has to do with the pagan origins of the holiday and the fact it has nothing to do with Jesus' birthday 😅
Hi everyone, this is something that comes from someone that celebrates Yule. I just wanted to share this to lighten the mood a little bit and have fun, but I’ve decided that for one of my traditions this year I would like to make sort of like a Yule log cake but whenever everyone decides to cut a slice, as they are cutting it they can make a wish.
I call Christmas "Yule" as well. I studied with the Jehovah Witnesses when I was a teenager. They managed to convince me of one thing, and that is most holidays are Pagan in origin. It didn't turn me off from celebrating them, though.
Get an original French 'bûche de Noël' recipe. It's absolutely amazing, especially if you like chestnuts.
That's a great idea. We all have our own little traditions and it's good to have some to share and carry on 😊
@@SensaiGaia1 My husband and I like to start the celebrations with a good, old fashioned argument, in hissed voices, behind a closed door.
Christmas 2023 is coming up now, but roast parsnips! One of my favourites! Even mid summer my family has had the full roast chrissie lunch.
Polkagris (Polka pig) a Swedish stick candy that was invented by Amalia Eriksson 1859 in the small town of Gränna. The traditional polkagris is red and white striped and also shaped like a cane. Probably the best type of candy comming from my native country of Sweden.
It doesn’t taste like salty liquorice does it?
@@lemonflavouredquark no not even close.
Whew, my sister brought some home from Norway once and I have since feared all Scandinavian candy. 😀
Lets all have a moment to thank the Swedes for tasty candy canes
@@lemonflavouredquark Peppermint oil is one of the main ingredients of polkagris.
When dealing with these kinds of individuals, I've over the years come to understand that in their world, what I call, "Child like simple answers" are what they want to explain complex ideas and or issues.
They don't want in-depth explanations, where they have to wrap their heads around it.
It will make their heads hurt.
I just want to say how much I love your videos. What you do really resonates with me. I know it's unfathomable what kind of flack comes your way as a result of just being you in public, but I for one love it. I love your look, I love your vibe, and I love the things you say most of all. Thank you for brightening my day!
I, as an atheist working in Pantomime, working 80 hour weeks in the build up to Christmas, seeing people buying presents that they can't afford, having to find time to buy presents that I don't have, working every day without a break except for xmas day, when I have to cook a big meal for my family, and a day when all shops are closed, means I really hate xmas. Decorations, drunkeness in pubs, depression due to missing people who they have lost. And all for Jesus who I am not sure ever existed. What a load of crap.
Funny thing ,
I was a Muslim once and my wife a Buddhist and we both celebrate Christmas 🎄 ❤❤❤
Why not 😊
Well, for one thing you're making Hogfather sad if you don't believe in him, too ...
The whole modern take on Happy Christmas v Happy Holidays makes me laugh, when I was 2 my mum and dad bought Gene Autry's Christmas Cracker album, he was know as the singing cowboy. A big moment on the album is when he says "Happy Holidays folks, wherever you may be!". Oh that was in 1966!
December was the time for saturnalia between 17-23 december to celebrate the god of agriculture Saturnus and the goddess of bountiful harvest Opis . Opalia was a main festival during Sartunalia for godess Opis to make sure the grain had it safe while being storaged during the winter also was on December 19:th in ancient rome.
Shouldn't we also be taking into account the change from Julian to Gregorian calendar as we lost 11 full days. Julian calender Xmas is January 6.
I had a long argument with someone who claimed the change in the calendar was evidence the Christians did not take over an existing pagan midwinter festival.
They missed the point the Celts did not rely on calendars but went by the length of the days. Plus the 11 days were accumulated over 1,700 years, the time difference was only about 5 minutes a year. It would take 288 years for the date to differ by one day.
Saturn is still with us on New Year's as the Old Year depicted as an old man with a long white beard and an hourglass and a scythe (medieval depictions include a crutch). Your mention of Juvenalia made me wonder if that's the origin of the New Year baby, but Wikipedia describes Juvenalia as pertaining to a child coming of age.
I was glad to see that this video was made just an hour ago. Because I love watching your videos Emma. And always look forward to the next one.
5:45 Deuteronomy 23 v 12-14 : “You shall have a place outside the camp, and you shall go out to it. And you shall have a trowel with your tools, and when you sit down outside, you shall dig a hole with it and turn back and cover up your excrement. Because the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you and to give up your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be holy, so that he may not see anything indecent among you and turn away from you."
There are 14 religious holidays in December & 13 secular holidays. So happy holidays is VERY appropriate in December.
Boy golly, “happy holidays” has always been used as a nice way to say “Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year” for me.
The situation will determine if I wish both…. God forbid two holidays happen back to back and we want to wish folks who we won’t see soon a good tiddings for each.
Silliness
If it was easter and I really forgot… i might say “Happy Holiday”…. Cause .. ya know… just one holiday is occurring
Hi Emma! First video I've seen of yours. Great content 👍😊
"What we really needed was to be rescued from God himself" - Bodie Hodge, 39:59
I've never heard a Christian say the quiet part out loud like that. That's Protection Racket shaped.
Personally, I didn't really grow up Pagan, but my mother, aunt, and grandmother are all witches, so I eventually learned about it later as well as most of the other holidays. I eventually was Pagan for a few years, but since then and learning about everything, I started calling "Christmas" Yule, because what we celebrate is in fact Yule! The tree, gift giving, and even decor amongst other things including the origin of Santa Claus. Christmas is not even close to what we celebrate, and it's because of that reason, I actually hate it when people say "Merry Christmas", because to me, they are just blatantly showing their ignorance, so I definitely prefer "Happy holidays", or something akin. When told to "Have a Merry Christmas", or similar, my default response is always "No thank you", and I laugh because people tend to hate me for it. After I educated myself greatly on the actual origins of the holiday, as well as the others, I do my best to educate people every year.
Emma: Who is in charge of researching for answers in genisis?
Me: What makes you think they do research?
A fifty minute video? Christmas has come early!
Hey Emma, Happy Christmas! A note about Kwanzaa, it's not a religious celebration, it's a fairly recently created holiday that's intended to celebrate African American history and culture. It is usually celebrated in addition to Christmas, not as a replacement for it (though that was the creator's original intention)
I was told I was gonna be visited by three ghosts. I didn't expect it to be in video form. Are you the ghost of christmas past, present or future? ;)
I celebrate Yule (Jul in swedish) with Cthulhu sitting a top of the tree, watching over the gifts, with good food and Lovecraftian carols. Hope you have a fantastic time while on your break!
Two days ago, I had myself the brightest idea to gather some pagan friends and bring back Saturnalia (Roman peoples' celebration of their god Saturn) on the day before our break from school. We swapped seats at the lunch table, swapped personality traits, shared food freely, gave each other little gifts, and caused chaos just for the hell of it! So fun haha
The faithful will be eaten first.
If you've been naughty, you'll get a lump of Emmathornium in your stocking. So something to look forward to this Exmas.
My mother was quite the prankster. She would wrap up charcoal briquettes and give us to my sister and I. We did get real presents of course. It was always good for a laugh, even though, we'd find the gift wrapped briquettes and start laughing. Another thing we'd get would be half rotten oranges. I might have deserved these things. LOL
I got Emmathornazine, gave me a rash. Shouldn't have opened it early I guess.
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and have a very Happy "festivis for the restofus". 🙂
As always, great video! I would need to drink heavily to watch their stuff all the way through. Thanks again!
My closest friends consider many absurd Biblical stories to be historical fact so they used Answers in Genesis to fortify their beliefs. I love how they cling to Christmas and Father Christmas but ignore how he's a lot like Odin and how the holiday resembles Yule. Same thing with Halloween. Well Merry Christmas from New England.
Merry Christmas from New England as well. :D
Merry Christmas from a traveling Maineac! Looking forward to being back home in Vacationland/Pine Tree State next Christmas.
The way we say "Merry Christmas" here in Sweden (similar in all the nordic countries), is "god Jul" as in "good Yule". So if you want to take the holiday season back, we are happy to lend you our Jul. :)
@@joshuaciresoli2927 I was told people from Massachusetts refer to people being jerks as being "Massholes". Now I know crazy people from Maine are Maineacs!!! Did you know that here in Baltimore were often substitute the word Baltimorians meaning people from Baltimore for "Baltimorons" or Morons from Baltimore hence Balti-Moron. Interesting...
Santa is like Thor as red is his color and he is strong enough to carry all presents.
I live in Germany. We've until recently been a majority christian country. (Because of scandals that mostly have to to with SA of children and the ever growin secularisation of people in general, both the catholic and protestant church here are bleeding members.)
I was born in 1986 and as far as I remember, "Frohe Weihnachten" ("Merry/happy Christmas") has been as a common greeting as "Frohe Feiertage" ("Happy Holidays") or "Frohes Fest" ("Happy festivities").
Around here, everyone gets a holiday (= day off) for a lot of holidays.
It's okay to just take a step back and appreciate that not everyone celebrates all the holidays that you do.
It’s good to see that Emma and Answers in Genesis have so many ideas in common 😂
Thanks!
Emma, your videos are absolutely amazing. I hope you have a wonderful Christmas/Yule/Winterval. Well done!
Thank you for a very interesting video! :) I have a lot of answers but I have probably an equal amount of questions.. LOL. I am a Mormon and we do celebrate Christmas and we are Christians. Sometimes our explanations for things make sense, when they don't, I rely on my faith and think "Maybe I will know someday" :) it will be so interesting.
Here's a few more gods we can celebrate on Dec 25. Before 1,000 B.C. we have the following gods or demigods born on December 25: Horus, Osiris, and Attis. Before 200 B.C. we have Mithra, Heracles, Dionysus
So Merry Christmas, Happy Christmas to the UK and Happy Holidays to all.
Dionysus? I'll drink to that
@@johnathanwalker8395 That's the spirit!
28:54 what he said is "everyone honors the day of their birth" 👍 those pesky American accents
I've been to Germany and worked in construction which introduced me to another evergreen tradition. When they're building a new building and you've completed the walls/top story and are ready for the roof (or have just put in the roof), they attach an evergreen to the highest point. Either it's a tradition for marking that milestone in the construction or else it's for good fortunate so that the business or family will grow or prosper. Probably another pagan tradition that carried on into the present.
Another use of evergreens (or so I've been told) is to display a branch in front of a Lokal to advertise the Heuriger wine season, that season's newly fermented wine that hasn't been aged yet. Beaujolais nouveau ("new Beaujolais") is similar and is only available starting in late November.
It’s a Dutch tradition (or used to be one) as well.
They do that in the United States
That was used on old thatched roofs
Bodie Hodie. 😂 now I won’t be able to hear his name without thinking of that. Thanks Emma
Axial tilt: The reason for the season.
Would it be more biblical for christmas to be a quiet, slow holiday where no one does anything and nothing happens?
emma, your videos really help me stay afloat, especially during the holiday season when i’m surrounded by fundie family. you are truly a joy and i’m so glad you’re online making videos!
I once read that "Xmas" is an abbreviation for Christmas because it's not an "x", it's a capital chi, which is the first letter in "christ" spelled in Greek. Supposedly the abbreviation is really, really old. I have no idea if it's true though.
Snopes says you are correct.
@@JWK1101 Thank you James. I keep forgetting about Snopes for stuff like this. I can't think of any similar abbreviations that include non-latin letters so I was skeptical that what I'd read so long ago was actually true.
The people who will write g-d get mad at X-mas, when they are the same concept.
@@DaviniaHill Oh, people get *pissed* when I hyphenate G-d, they accuse me of censoring the concept of god. So many times responding with "yeah, no, it's a Jewish respect thing, doesn't necessarily translate into digital but it's not censoring the concept or anything."
The full name of the symbol is Chi-Rho. It was used by Emperor Constantine, so it's around 1700 years old. Probably older. Meaning it could be one of the oldest Christian symbols in the world.
24:56. I thought some one else was the morning star?
Ahhh. I'm in Pennsylvania & praying for snow on Christmas. It happened in 2020 which was hilarious bc no one was there to talk about how it finally snowed on Christmas! 1st time in 20 years! Looks like it's not happening this year, yet again 😕.
Hej Emma, Yule is not just another holiday but also the scandinavian name for Christmas,(spelled Jul) yes it used to be the name for Winther solstice but we never got another name for it in the Christian tradition. The most important winter holiday in mordern; asatru, Nordic peganism and Nordic animism is Longnight five days before winter solstice, today the 17th of december. Happy Holiday from a Devilish Dane.
we are here on the German - Danish border and we have Weihnachtsbäume / Juletræer and God Jul everywhere. I have bought my son a Julbock and a Wichteltür to celebrate Julfest.
I think the French Nöel is the same word for yule and Xmas as well.
Probably worth noting that Asatru isn't representative of the majority of Norse paganism, and is a modern invention (similar to Wicca) based at least as much on misrepresentations or misinterpretations of history as on the history itself, and much more on people making things up that "feel right" to them than on any attempt at interpreting history. It's actually got a lot of associations with racism (particularly white supremacy) which put it *strongly* at odds with most Norse pagans and many other pagan groups. At least in the wider global use of the term, might be different in Scandinavia, but the term has been associated with some pretty awful groups around the world, so tends not to be as commonly accepted these days.
@@a-blivvy-yus that was why i also mentioned Nordic peganism and nordic animism bacause then it's representetiv of the majority.
What does northern paganism mean? It sounds like an umbrella term for some very undefined 20th-century invention based on the claim someone did something before.
Emma looks at answers in Genesis crap so we don't have to. Thanks Emma.
Happy Holidays everyone. I hope u all have a wonderful festive season however u decide to celebrate it or if u decide to celebrate it at all
Happy Holidays Emma, I wonder if Answers In Genesis has factored in calendar reform in relation to the date Christmas is observed. Doesn't The Greek Orthodox Church normally observe Christmas on January 7th because they use Julian calendar? Also isn't the Jewish calendar based on lunar months so I wonder if the age given for Adam in the Bible is referring to lunar months rather than solar years?
Excellent breakdown. I'd love to see you do something with the war on Christmas book!
I always thought people say "happy holidays" because it also cover New Years...
When I was a kid my dad drove a semi truck and I d go with him during school holidays.
Back then on the CB radio it was common to tell people to “have a merry merry and a happy happy.”
Apparently it’s because s-heavy words didn’t convey well over the radio, so they avoided saying “Christmas”.
There’s been times when people gripe about the term “happy holidays” that I’ve been tempted to tell them to have a merry merry and a happy happy just to see how they react.
Hi Emma, great video, as always.
I don't know if somebody already pointed that out, but think at 28:42 he said "everyone honors the day of their birth" so there is no word missing.
If you need some insider information about why JWs dont celebrate birthdays or christmas I can recommend Owen Morgan (Telltale).
There are also some other ex-JW channels on here, but I don't remember the names right now.
Fundamental Christians commenting about "double standards" is always a good one.
Great Video Emma. I didn't know many of the stuff which came up in the video but it was really interesting. Greetings from Christmastree-Origin-Land.
28:51 I think he said "Everyone honors the day of their birth" 😉
Happy Saturnalia, Emma.
Christmas: the time when the financial year ends and companies/people have to make a lot of financial transactions/donations to minimize their taxes or justify their budget.
@Singlespeedpunk The US governments fiscal year ends in September. For companies, they can choose when their fiscal year ends. But for taxes, the year ends on December 31st.
You seriously need to team up with Lady of the Library! You two would make a great team! 🙂
Bodie Hodge is Ken Ham's fail-son-in-law. He's literally there through nepotism and it's been pretty obvious from the first appearances he made in AiG videos. So yeah, Bodie gets stuff wrong all the time - it's like his thing. Bodie also loves dad jokes and pointing out logical fallacies. Although, given how much he loves getting stuff wrong, he's usually wrong about what logical fallacy it is and often ends up making up some that... don't exist.
When person's income and position depends on claiming something is so, they are not likely to speak honestly about it.
Would anyone expect an expert's non biased opinion about the supposed Resurrection when the 'expert' is being employed by a Christian institution and is required to believe.
He's never said a correct fallacy either.
@@grahvis While I agree with the point of your comment, I feel the need to remind you that we're talking about Bodie Hodge.
Bodie isn't an expert on anything. Well, other than failing upwards through nepotism anyway.
@@SadisticSenpai61 .
Lol, very true.
I was thinking of real Bible scholars.
It can be applied to anyone working for AiG, since anything they say has to comply with the Earth being young. No matter what qualifications they may have.
@@grahvis Yup. I went to a Bible college that hosted Ham when he was going around fundraising for his "museum."
By the time I was "ready" to graduate, I couldn't. I couldn't honestly sign that statement of faith anymore. So $50k down the drain. Plus interest. Sigh.
Just discovered your channel. Nice! Merry Christmas! 🎄🎄🎄
They said, "You can talk about Jesus being the Morning Star."
In the Bible, Satan is the Morning Star. Not Jesus. 😆
A christian sect in my hometown has a hall of meeting that is called Morning Star. But perhaps they are satanists, not the simple minded type of christians I thought they were.
I googled “morning star”; in Revelations 22:16 David is called morning star.
@@kellydalstok8900 Interesting. Than Jesus would be too as the new David.
@@kellydalstok8900 I was referring to Isaiah 14:12 which talks about the morning star and most Christians think is talking of Satan.
How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! (NIV)
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! (KJV)
Happy festivus for the rest of us!!!
Well, as a (non-fundie) Christian, I do not doubt that a day was set aside to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. :-) The rest is just cultural osmosis & sharing of customs. ^_^ Which is always great!
Also, your thumbnail got me humming the duel music from "The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly". XD
Wish I didn't have to share customs with Christians
@Emma Thorne, I have to admit I have been infatuated by your voice for over a year. For me, it's joyous, erudite (and therefore sexy), and it reminds me of holidays with my great aunt in Shropshire during the 80s (she worked with gifted kids, so I got to meet a lot of people speaking "proper English" innit). It's also extremely confident, and I find that to be so affirming my world view of equality through diversity as you proudly represent your own life choices. Happy New Year
"We don't like Halloween! It's icky and scary so it's a Pagan Holiday, you can keep it! (After we're done appropriating it for forever and a half) -but the nice happy Christmas that we took from Pagan Holidays? It's pretty, so **I** want it and **I** deserve it!"
When you think about the synopsis of what they're saying, it's such a childish temper tantrum
Both Halloween and Christmas were created by christians
9:30 Finally! I was hoping you show us the rest of it. That's cool.
Tis the reason for the season, for raisin' the praisin'.
Can we call it Happy Yuletide per chance?
Thank You Emma, very informative. 🇬🇧🖖💜
Love your content, definitely loving that shade of lipstick! :)
I grew up in a fundie Baptist family and they ruined Christmas for me with the whole "Jesus is the reason for the season" stuff - literally if it wasn't about Jesus? We didn't do it/weren't allowed to do it. It literally sucked the joy out of the holiday. We had to read Luke 2 before we could get presents. Nothing Santa or reindeer themed was allowed because that was Satan trying to distract us from Jesus.
It's why even though I give a token nod towards Yule/Winter Solstice (which I treat as more of a New Year's celebration than anything else), I just struggle to really get into it. There's some years where I've been more enthusiastic than others, but most years? It's just another day and one I barely even notice as it goes by.
I don't really get into any holidays, for about the same reason really. Everything had to be about Jesus. If it wasn't about Jesus, it was Satanic. Well, with the exception of the 4th of July. But even then, it was really more just family getting together and hanging out. Same thing with the other secular holidays - everyone had them off, so it was an excuse to get together. We never really did the "patriotism" thing, which is why some of the MAGA super patriotism from some of my family caught me completely off guard. We never cared about patriotism when I was a kid. It was always Jesus exclusively and "the US is better than anywhere else, I guess. But it still has a ton of problems." Like, no one was "Ra Ra! USA! USA!"
When I first became atheist I was distraught that I shouldn't celebrate as but when I realized HOW MUCH of it had nothing to do with the religious aspect, I was so happy and relieved 😁
I love the decor- the lights, the colors, even the music of the carols (lots of instrumental versions out there). All the sweets and drinks are great too. I love a good hot chocolate w/ peppermint with 'a kick '.
(I have a zebra striped Santa hat with hot pink trim)
Edit: after you 'teach' them that Jesus is the morning star, (then you can tell them that's what Lucifer means too.
Btw, I read once that celebrating bdays was a Roman thing, but I don't remember where so more research on that could be done.
Education and friendly discussion is the Reason for the Season. 🌶 🇬🇩
Merry Christmas 🦆
Emma loving flashing lights is not surprising. I have this picture in my head of her lying by the tree and batting at the lights with her paws…erm…hands.
I still don't get why people get so upset about happy holidays. There are three holidays at the end of the year - Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. That is why it's called "the holiday season". I'm certainly not going to name them individually by saying something like, "Happy Thanksgiving, merry Christmas, and happy New Year." That just takes way too long to say.
So, why is it a bad thing to wish someone happy holidays? It covers everything from November to January. They get so upset about happy holidays but they're fine with people calling it the holiday season. It doesn't make any dang sense.
Yes, I know Thanksgiving is an American thing only. Still. Happy holidays covers Christmas and New Years everywhere else.
4:01 You're looking for the word penultimate! One of my favorites :)
Everyone HONOURS the day of their birth
Lovely time as always. Here's a fun holiday challenge should you find yourself cornered by a Christian at a party. Challenge said Christian to show in the Bible where Jesus' exact date of birth is listed. With any luck, they will remain stuck in their book and you will be able to get back to enjoying whatever celebration you are attending.
I tell people I don't celebrate Christmas, but I get together with family, I don't partake in the gift giving or receiving, aside from bringing party crackers.
December is when I donate to charities.
I like Christmas comedies & horror, I even like the message of the song All I Want For Christmas is you.
I won't say merry Christmas or even happy holidays. If someone says it to me, I say happy new year or It's Festivus for the rest us. 😄
I only listen to sinical xmas or anti Christmas songs & I wear shirts with the same sinical or anti Christmas message all December.
I don't decorate for Christmas, but I do have an elf on the shelf (just for the creep factor 😄).
When you have an elf, maybe have a look at the Krampus.
When you dress up as one, you are in best german christian tradition - and scare the US christian to death :-))
Here in Germany we have not so many issues, primarily because here christianity is more a cultural thing. Here I never heard about an imminent rapture or other Bible literalist nonsense.
Catholics have a pope that accepts old earth and evolution, and the german protestants/lutherans/evangelicals are way more progressive than catholics.