So as I was saying... make up your own traditions! It looks like everyone else has! Why should you and your kids be the only ones left out of the fun... and grow up freakish? Whatever you do... just teach them they can enjoy this time of the year, too! It ain't no big deal. Christ was born in September. Just perhaps, it is wierd ol' Santa who was born in December?!

Now folks, quite frankly... a quick "cut 'n paste" WWW search of the word: Saturnalia... will reveal the primary purpose... and oldest Reason for this Saturnalia Season. Short and simple, it's... SEX!!!...(Blessed holy Angels come and purify the air!) Yep, SEX and festive Orgies... and frolicking with all them Ho, Ho, Ho-s... and other such Jollies and Holiday Happiness that folks love getting off on! Am I the only one... or do you know there are some people out there who just love to get off on Ho, Ho, Ho-s? It's as if they can't get enough! You know... when you really think about it... this particular Holiday was just a great excuse for doing the... uhhhh, what do the high school kids call it?? Oh yeah... the Jungle Thing! (As if anyone needs an excuse... 'cause they certainly don't seem to on those 364 other days during the year!)

Anyway folks, please don't ignore the facts... or try to keep 'em covered up. Perhaps, you might want to keep other things covered. But regarding this subject... your kids will find out sooner or later... if they don't know already. So, deal with it! And to the provincial 'n pure... as well as to the unlearned who may still be a little mystified by ALL these and many more neglected facts about the Reason for the Season... go check out MetaCrawler ... or any other search engine!

For more on a simple, informational link (PG - version...) to the Saturnalia celebration in mid-winter go here.

The following link is to somebody who probably has the most graphic illustration of the old Roman Festival of Saturnalia that I've found on the Internet (though I won't link directly to it since there are many young folk who read my homepage. You'll have to figure out how to get there by yourself! -- Saturnalia by Patrick Farley, http://www.e-sheep.com/toc.html .... You may have to encourage him to make his file available... sometimes it disappears!)

By the way, you may or may not know that April Fools Day (the first of April...) is another hold-over of much of this confusion. At one time, Religious Celebrations (some anciently connected with the Vernal Equinox... once considered "New Years" and other traditional holidays...) were orignially celebrated in April. When moving such orthodox festivities from April to modern New Years Day, it was the fundamental April Fools purists who kept that particular holiday party going. But as we know (due to poor family planning... I think?!)... fools are born... oh, ... just minutes apart... and sooner or later... there's something for everybody. So if you're hoping for a little more spicy Season Greetings. If you're looking for a few real crowd pleasing winterized celebration and party planner ideas, you might consider checking out the late December Feast of Fools and Asses.

Actually, if you really, Really need to celebrate something around that time of the year... you might want to seriously consider celebrating Hanukkah with your family and friends. At the very least, it is historically set in December. And it actually makes a better tradition for religious folk and other lovers of freedom to keep.

Why? Because it recalls the courageous protest led by the Maccabean brothers who refused to bow down and worship the govern-mental bureaucrats of their times. You see... around 168 B.C., Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the Greek king of the northern portion of the old Seleucid Empire -- comprising Babylon, Phoenicia, Syria, and Palestine -- he tried to surpress the conflict between Judaism and Hellenism. Upon returning from a military campaign in Egypt, Antiochus Epiphanes (by the way, Epiphanes implies God appearing...) (How 'bout that for inflated bureaucratic ego?! -- almost sounds like Mr. God Appearing is the one who wrote the IRS Agency -- Public Relations manual!)

With an ego like that... apparently, Antiochus wanted to eliminate any competition. In this case, he decided to sack Jerusalem and desecrate the temple, stripping it of its golden altar and candlesticks and all the silver and gold ornaments. Two years later he carried out a massacre in Jerusalem and established a citadel over against the temple. Worship practices were forbidden, idolatry was commanded, and all copies of the Scriptures that could be found were burned.

A thousand were killed for defiant pacifism and quietism to the King's emissaries, but soon their pacifism turned into all out resistance and self-defense. Judas the Maccabee's guerrilla warfare paid quick dividends. While Antiochus was occupied in Persia, Judas and his outnumbered army won a succession of victories over the Seleucid forces, so that he was able to regain Mount Zion and restore and rededicate the temple. The edict proscribing worship was rescinded, religious freedom had been regained, and the initial purposes for the revolt had been achieved.

So all you lovers of freedom... go ahead and celebrate! When you think of it: Hanukkah is a good Protestant holiday!

On the Net, I usually recommend references without commentary (whatever else you find attached to these files is up for mental grabs!), so on this subject... you might check out A. Hislop's classic study for starters: The Two Babylons. Don't forget to enjoy the holidays... just don't forget to know your history, too.

And I would be remiss if I didn't say that for perhaps the finest scholarship on this and a variety of other non-traditional subjects... you ought to check out Dr. Gene Scott's homepage. He's not afraid to tackle some of the tough issues that we are forced to deal with in life.

Finally, in the 1930s - 1950s the prolific English writer and president of Oxford's Socratic Club from its inception in 1941 until accepting a professorship at Cambridge in 1954, C. S. Lewis composed numerous short, thoughtful, and evocative essays on a variety of subjects. You can always tell a good writer; he communicates the essense of an idea or concept and writes in a way that reaches across boundaries of time and traditional barriers. When reading these essays, remember these are not from today's headline publications. Over 40 years ago... and in England, C. S. Lewis applied his pen and, in his unique style and wit, wrote: What Christmas Means to Me.

Perhaps... more later! Reggie Keith