Re: OT Rant About Christians.

On Fri, 6 Sep 2024 09:13:41 -0500, "Michael F. Stemper"
<michael.stemper@gmail.com> wrote:

On 22/08/2024 11.03, Paul S Person wrote:
>

IOW, it can be argued that it is not the /Christian's/ Christmas that
is commercialized. Which is why it is more commonly called "the
Holiday Season", and starts (at latest) the day after Thanksgiving and
extends to (at earliest) New Year's Day. That is to say, I don't think
it's been extended to the day after Halloween or Epiphany. Yet.

>
The Christmas season runs to Epiphany.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Days_of_Christmas.

The religious one (and its cultural attachments) does, to be sure.
That is why each year I listen to one movement of JS Bach's Christmas
Oratorio on as close to the proper day as possible, and then take down
my decorations (which went up on Christmas eve).

But I was talking about the /commercial/ version, with all its madness
building to the 25th. Amazon will warn you if your order won't arrive
before Dec 25th, aka The End of the World if your kid doesn't get the
toy you ordered; I don't think it warns you the same way about Jan 6.
"Epiphany tree" and "Epiphany gifts" are not terms I recall seeing
very often.

Similarly, while the /commercial/ season begins the day after
Thanksgiving (or at least did until relatively recently), the
/religious/ season in a sense starts with the First Sunday in Advent.

These are at about the same time, but the commercial one was timed to
not detract from Thanksgiving, while the religious one serves a
different purpose.
--
"Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"