Where's Waldo?

wheres this going?

I just had a thought...

Portmeirion = LoT Commune???

Cool, I'm sure it's a lot of fun. I just can't wrap my head around the use of the Saint's names to mark these festivals.

On Feb 13th, a Friday, we were closing up the library, and my (religious Christian) coworker made a point to wish everyone "a happy SAINT Valentines day", with plenty of pointed emphasis on the SAINT. Um, seriously, do you want us to celebrate the Saint? Are we supposed to go to church?

If I were a Saint with a holiday named after me that had anything to do with drinking, dancing, eating, shopping, having sex...I'd be pissed off.

Which leads to the question - is the church pissed off about these holidays? Do they try to stop them, or alter them? I'm really asking, I have no idea.

Don't forget Jolly Old Saint Nick.

Do demons get any days? - or what is the antonym for Saint? Heretic?

Saints' days were how the early church organized it's liturgical year (in the Middle Ages almost every day of the year celebrated a saint). Most very important Saints' "days" or festivals co-opted traditional pagan celebrations; for instance, St Valentine's day co-opted the Pagan holiday Lupercalia.

Historically, this is one of the reasons that Christianity was so successful (beyond the fact that Constantine converted and generally, where the Emperor goes, his subjects follow), they didn't force Christianity down Pagan's throats, instead they changed the names of their festivals and ceremonies but allowed the Pagans to otherwise continue their traditions (as long as they now called themselves-- publicly at least, Christians).

So, in answer to your question, the church may not like some aspects of the celebrations, but it was the church itself who embraced the celebrations and allowed the celebrations to go forward as they had centuries prior to Christianity.

Don't forget the strangest melding of Christian and Pagan... Easter! A holiday that mixes the rebirth of a new male god with the fertility rites of an old female one. They even kept the Pagan goddess's name as a name for the holiday!

Also, many ancient Pagan dieties and heros were made "saints" by the early Christians - St Bridget and St George for example.