Re: ******mas Greetings
Christopher Green wrote re Richard Morrison's piece in the London Times (December 22): What a funchity old grouch. Ah, well. They say that Christmas time is liable to produce family squabbles, and TIPS is obviously no exception. So Ill be blunt. Dear Christopher, please dont use words like funchity which is in neither my Chambers nor my Oxford Concise dictionaries. Now to more pleasant matters. The loss of Christmas carols from public schools hardly seems to rate a Times rant. First, it is not a *Timess* rant. It is an article in the Times by Richard Morrison, the papers classical music critic, giving the *writers* own personal view. Second, Morrisons article is not focused *solely* on the loss of Christmas carols from most schools, but on a concern by someone with a deep love of music that one (admittedly small) part of our musical heritage is in danger of being lost. (And, in the course of his article, he turns aside to castigate those in officialdom who fear to even *allude* to Christmas for fear of offending someone or other). Newsflash! We don't live in an overwhelmingly Christian society anymore. Coming from a (ex-?) US citizen and directed towards a Brit, that has to be a joke. Religious observance in Britain is a small fraction of that in the US (though those who identify themselves as nominal Christians in the UK still far outnumber any other group). [Reminds me of Bertram Russells story of his experience in prison in the First World War. When asked his religion, he said Atheist. The prison official responded: Well, we all worship the same God, dont we.] Celebration of Christmas has, for the vast majority of people in Britain, almost nothing to do with religion -- for most people it is a secular event. As Morrison writes, Britain is a society that has long since lost faith in God. In other words, it is very different from the US, eg, no one mentions religion in election campaigns, and a Jew is leader of the Tory party, and therefore a prospective Prime Minister, without anyone turning a hair (except, no doubt, in the miniscule neo-Nazi groups). Morrisons own agnostic inclination is intimated in his rather cheeky allusion to God (whoever she is), hardly the words of a stuffy true-believer yearning for a return to religious rituals per se. Especially funny is how the author tries to include Jewish people among those who have lost Christmas carols Judeo-Christian tradition?) If you look again, Chris, youll find that the allusion to Judeo-Christian tradition is in a paragraph that deals with items other than the singing of carols. And of course, in the context of the general subject matter in that paragraph, implicit in the term Judeo-Christian is that the early Christians were Jewish heretics. For my part, I'm perfectly happy to celebrate the secular public holiday Christmas has become: lights, parades, a little extra charity, gifts, Santa Claus But thats precisely what the essence of those two articles is about! -- to let people get on celebrating Christmas without trying to make them apologetic about the fact that it is traditionally a Christmas (ie, Christian) celebration (whatever its pagan origins), when in fact relatively few people in Britain consciously associate the word Christmas with Christ at this time of year. I take it to be an instance of the long tradition (much longer than any Judeo-Christian tradition) of winter solstice celebrations of light. Yeah, yeah, we all know that (and Morrison himself alludes to Celtic fertility symbolism in some carols). Much more ridiculous is the constant wishing of Merry Christmas to people who have no connection with the holiday. I think this shows up the difference between the States and Britain. Chris sees some people (including himself) as having no connection with the holiday. In Britain, virtually *everyone* has some connection with the holiday, because it is simply an annual break from work for (almost) everyone, with a day for present exchanging and so on, which we (traditionally) happen to call Christmas. When someone says Merry Christmas, probably not one in a hundred would think it has anything to do with a belief in Christianity. Now I must do a last-minute check if there are any names Ive left out of the paltry list of people to whom I send Xmas cards (nothing for you this year, Chris). Pity someone like Elizabeth Taylor, who has to start by writing greetings to five hundred of her closest friends before she gets going on the others. Allen Esterson Former lecturer, Science Department Southwark College, London [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.human-nature.com/esterson/index.html http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/articleprint.php?num=10 --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: ******mas Greetings
Allen Esterson wrote: Dear Christopher, please dont use words like funchity which is in neither my Chambers nor my Oxford Concise dictionaries. Allow me to define: funchity. n. grumpily old-fashioned, out of touch. First, it is not a *Timess* rant. It is an article in the Times by Richard Morrison, the papers classical music critic, giving the *writers* own personal view. Thank you for the attempted grammatical correction. I did not mean it was a rant *of* the Times, however, but rather a rant *in*the Times, thereby a "Times rant", not a "Times's rant." I won't mention that you miswrote Bertrand Russell's name because that would be just as silly a tactic.:-) In any case, it can be both, a "rant" and "an article in the Times..." n'est pas? Newsflash! We don't live in an overwhelmingly Christian society anymore. Coming from a (ex-?) US citizen and directed towards a Brit, that has to be a joke. Perhaps all "(ex-?) US citizens" are not the same. Obviously I find the semi-official evangelical protestantism of the U.S., well, funchity (not to mention a number of more serious things). (Of course, England still has an official religion.) I did not criticize all of Britain for the attitude expressed in the editorial, just one (funchity) Briton. Perhaps my tone was harsher than it should have been. If so, my apologies, Allen. It wasn't directed at you. My point was simply that, on balance, the loss of Christmas carols from the public schools (and other public institutions) makes good sense given the kind of societies we all live in now. To force groups of children to sing songs of one particular religions for reasons of "tradition" in the face of the *current* heterogeneous religious makeup of the schools highly makes no sense at all. Happy holidays, -- Christopher D. Green Department of Psychology York University Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3J 1P3 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] phone: 416-736-5115 ext. 66164 fax: 416-736-5814 http://www.yorku.ca/christo/ . --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: ******mas Greetings
Christopher wrote: I won't mention that you miswrote Bertrand Russell's name... That's ironic, because yesterday I corrected a draft article (tranlated from Swedish) that someone sent me because the writer had spelt the self-same Russell with one 'l'! Perhaps my tone was harsher than it should have been. If so, my apologies, Allen. It wasn't directed at you. Apology accepted, though I didnt take it as such! I thought it was directed at Mr Morrison. I was replying on his behalf :-) Greetings for the holiday season to all and sundry. Allen Esterson --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: ******mas Greetings
Christopher D. Green wrote: Allen Esterson wrote: Dear Christopher, please dont use words like funchity which is in neither my Chambers nor my Oxford Concise dictionaries. Allow me to define: funchity. n. grumpily old-fashioned, out of touch. Of course, that would be wrong. It is an adjective. "Funch" is the noun form. :-) To force groups of children to sing songs of one particular religions for reasons of "tradition" in the face of the *current* heterogeneous religious makeup of the schools highly makes no sense at all. And while I'm at it, delete "highly" (or move to before "heterogeneous," where it was originally before I rearranged the sentence). Hh, -- Christopher D. Green Department of Psychology York University Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3J 1P3 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] phone: 416-736-5115 ext. 66164 fax: 416-736-5814 http://www.yorku.ca/christo/ . --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: ******mas Greetings
And for completeness, here's the second London Times piece, an occasional article by the paper's classical music correspondent. God save our merry, gentlemen Richard Morrison As the notion of Christmas itself as a Christian festival is all but expunged, I do grieve for our ever-receding heritage of carols CAROL-SINGING is a defining apartheid of 21st-century Britain. If you know the words, or even the tunes, of such rollicking British lung-busters as O Come, All Ye Faithful (which, to be unseasonably pernickety, is probably French in origin) or God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen, with its exquisitely-placed comma, its likely that you are on the wrong side of 40, that you sing in a church choir, or that you went to a private school or old-fashioned grammar. For 20 years or more, traditional carols have largely been shunned in state schools, certainly in multi-faith cities such as London and Birmingham. But then, the notion of Christmas itself as a Christian festival is all but expunged from the deeds and discourse of the people who run our schools, media and government. Tessa Jowell, who purports to be the nations Culture Secretary (presumably as long as culture doesnt include any remnant of the Judaeo-Christian tradition that is the cornerstone of Western civilisation) has rightly taken a bashing for sending out a Christmas card that doesnt mention Christmas. Seasons Greetings is its anodyne message, illustrated with Indian dancers, a TV set, a train, what appears to be a mosque, and the curious word goal. Jowell, however, is characteristically only following a general drift towards a gormless, grey, mushy, value-free blandness of thought in all intellectual areas under Government control. This year the words Merry Christmas were also banned in cards sent by the Scottish Parliament, because the greeting is not deemed socially inclusive. And Buckinghamshire County Councils thought-police stopped a church from advertising its carol service in local libraries for the same reason. Such nonsense is rife. In Hendon we have received a December newsletter from our local council studiously avoiding references to Christmas, but sporting a festive cover inviting us to rejoice that Diwali is celebrated in such style in the borough. I do rejoice, but I cant help thinking that Diwali was last months big religious festival. Still, I guess that if Christianity can get through 2,000 years of persecution, schisms and wars much of it self-inflicted it might just survive being slighted by the likes of Buckinghamshire County Council. But I do grieve for our ever-receding heritage of traditional carols. Many date from pre-Renaissance times (the pernicious notion that they were all written by the Victorians is more anti-Christmas propaganda). And as such they constitute the last body of ancient folksong still in fairly widespread use in modern Britain. Sometimes their melodies are as mysterious in origin as they are memorable in performance. God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen, in fact, is a classic case. In medieval Europe, from Bulgaria to Cornwall, the tune linked with those words could have been heard in dozens of different variants. Nobody knows who thought of it first. The shrouded origins of the texts are even more fascinating. Whole families of ancient carols draw on a subtle (and cheerfully unclerical) mingling of Christian and pagan imagery most obviously the holly and ivy carols, which relate to Celtic fertility symbols. Indeed, so complex is the beautiful imagery of The Cherry Tree Carol another anonymous gem cropping up in dozens of versions that the editors of the estimable New Oxford Book of Carols are moved to draw our attention to what they call its Jungian shadow. Dont get me wrong. When it comes to carols, I dont want to make a fetish of antiquity. I have never forgotten how, when I was a student at one of our more pompous universities, those who attended the college carol service were forced to sing all seven verses of O Come, All Ye Faithful in Latin in a snobbish attempt to prove, I suppose, that we were intellectually a cut above the average Songs of Praise congregation. Not only perverse but disastrous! You try getting your brain round Adeste, fideles, laeti, triumphantes by candlelight after drinking half a bottle of port. But if we eliminate all culture from our schools and public life that isnt instantly understandable, instantly inclusive and just as instantly disposable the lowest common denominator, in other words we will lose both our roots and our capacity for imaginative thought. As a child I pondered for hours how the three ships of the carol I saw three ships could sail into Bethlehem, when Bethlehem is on top of a hill with not a river in sight. I dont think such richly metaphorical carols carried me a inch closer to God (whoever she is). But they did give me a taste of mankinds genius for using words and music to transport the mind and
Re: ******mas Greetings
Annette has reminded me that London Times articles are not available online outside the UK without a subscription, so here is the first article cited above. It's on the op-ed page, and is by Mick Hume, editor of spiked-online www.spiked-online.com London Times December 22, 2003 These meanies wont be happy until its the last No¨l Mick Hume What is the proper form of seasonal address in 2003? Merry Christmas? Seasons greetings? Happy holidays? Or how about, to rework a classic song: Have Yourself a Miserable Little Xmas? That comes closer to capturing the official spirit of the season. For years our society seemed unsure whether Christmas should be a religious festival or a Bacchanalian knees-up. Now we have an answer: it is to be neither. Christians are no longer supposed to display religious convictions, for fear of offending others. But the rest of us are not meant to enjoy ourselves either, in case it risks public health, wealth and safety. No¨l, no faith, no fun; tis the season of miserabilism to all men. After Tessa Jowell, the Culture Secretary, caused a stir by sending out cards with no mention of Christmas, her departmental spokesman explained that they had agonised over whether to go down the Christmas route with their, er, Christmas cards, but had decided that would be inappropriate. Then a church in Buckinghamshire was banned from advertising carol services in a local library, because the Tory council insisted it cannot promote a religious preference group. Our Labour-led council in London sent around a magazine reminding us that the real festive season involves all manner of religious festivals. The magazines cover carried symbols of every celebrating religion except Christianity. Inside it pointed out that Christmas had simply taken over the pagan festival of Saturnalia, before hastily adding that this is still celebrated in some parts of the borough today no doubt to avoid offending the local Pagan community. Even to a Christmas card-carrying atheist like me, this Christophobia is nothing to celebrate. The people who come up with these strange bans are sometimes compared with the Puritans. But their petty gestures are a far cry from Cromwells ban on Christmas festivities. He did it out of religious conviction, believing it to be sacrilegious on such a solemn day as the birth of the Saviour. They do it because they have no convictions, religious or secular, and want to treat society like a family gathering where you avoid mentioning anything controversial. So has Jesus lost out to the devils of indulgence in the battle for Christmas? Hardly. There is plenty of seasonal consumerism, of course, but precious little hedonism. Instead, breast-beating Christmas miserabilism infects the non-religious aspects of the holidays too. We have been warned about the Christmas dangers of credit card debt and domestic violence, of bug-infested turkeys and killer toys, of date-rape drugs and binge drinking, of suicide and insanity. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents informs us that Christmas trees, lights, trimmings and turkeys will be among the things turning seasonal merrymaking into misery and mayhem. The charity Allergy UK adds that many are now allergic to Christmas: For some people it can make life a complete misery unlike all this doom-mongering, presumably. Even going to the pub can be difficult as there might be peanuts on the bar. So you cant go out for fear of peanuts, and cant stay in because the turkey might get you. It is almost enough to make one echo the commander of a US military base near Southampton, ordering his 200 British civilian staff to attend the Christmas party. If you feel like I am trying to force FUN upon you, he told them, then you are correct. All this miserabilism suggests that a society that has long since lost faith in God is now near to giving up on humanity, too. The authorities fear that we are meek little lambs who cannot be trusted to cope with offensive beliefs, or with the temptations of the flesh, especially at Christmas a time which is still seen to embody the hopes and fears of all the years, except without the hopes part. During the festival of Saturnalia a Lord of Misrule presided and all of the conventions of the rest of the year were turned on their head. Maybe it is time to bring him back except that the Government would issue advice for a Safe Saturnalia, and there would be calls to ban any mention of Bacchus as offensive to the anorexic, obese and alcoholic communities. Allen Esterson Former lecturer, Science Department Southwark College, London [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.human-nature.com/esterson/index.html http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/articleprint.php?num=10 --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: ******mas Greetings
What a funchity old grouch. Apprently someone who didn't successfully make the transition out of the 1970s? Newsflash! We don't live in an overwhelmingly Christian society anymore. The fact that we did 20 or 50 or 100 years ago is relatively immaterial. Especially funny is how the author tries to include Jewish people among those who have lost Christmas carols (Judeo-Christian tradition?) The loss of Christmas carols from public schools hardly seems to rate a Times rant. Much more ridiculous is the constant wishing of Merry Christmas to people who have no connection with the holiday. I wonder how the author would feel if people regularly wished him Happy Eid (look it up) without bothering to find out (a) what faith, if any, he has and (b) what sort of observances it recognizes. For my part, I'm perfectly happy to celebrate the secular public holiday Christmas has become: lights, parades, a little extra charity, gifts, Santa Claus... (yes, yes, I know he originated as a Catholic saint, but not since Coca Cola got ahold of him). I take it to be an instance of the long tradition (much longer than any Judeo-Christian tradition) of winter solstice celebrations of light. If I were also forced to profess faith in the birth of a supernatural savior of humankind in order to do the rest, I'd be inclined to opt out. Bah! Humbug! :-) Happy solstice, -- Christopher D. Green Department of Psychology York University Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3J 1P3 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] phone: 416-736-5115 ext. 66164 fax: 416-736-5814 http://www.yorku.ca/christo/ . Allen Esterson wrote: And for completeness, here's the second London Times piece, an occasional article by the paper's classical music correspondent. God save our merry, gentlemen Richard Morrison As the notion of Christmas itself as a Christian festival is all but expunged, I do grieve for our ever-receding heritage of carols CAROL-SINGING is a defining apartheid of 21st-century Britain. If you know the words, or even the tunes, of such rollicking British lung-busters as O Come, All Ye Faithful (which, to be unseasonably pernickety, is probably French in origin) or God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen, with its exquisitely-placed comma, its likely that you are on the wrong side of 40, that you sing in a church choir, or that you went to a private school or old-fashioned grammar. For 20 years or more, traditional carols have largely been shunned in state schools, certainly in multi-faith cities such as London and Birmingham. But then, the notion of Christmas itself as a Christian festival is all but expunged from the deeds and discourse of the people who run our schools, media and government. Tessa Jowell, who purports to be the nations Culture Secretary (presumably as long as culture doesnt include any remnant of the Judaeo-Christian tradition that is the cornerstone of Western civilisation) has rightly taken a bashing for sending out a Christmas card that doesnt mention Christmas. Seasons Greetings is its anodyne message, illustrated with Indian dancers, a TV set, a train, what appears to be a mosque, and the curious word goal. Jowell, however, is characteristically only following a general drift towards a gormless, grey, mushy, value-free blandness of thought in all intellectual areas under Government control. This year the words Merry Christmas were also banned in cards sent by the Scottish Parliament, because the greeting is not deemed socially inclusive. And Buckinghamshire County Councils thought-police stopped a church from advertising its carol service in local libraries for the same reason. Such nonsense is rife. In Hendon we have received a December newsletter from our local council studiously avoiding references to Christmas, but sporting a festive cover inviting us to rejoice that Diwali is celebrated in such style in the borough. I do rejoice, but I cant help thinking that Diwali was last months big religious festival. Still, I guess that if Christianity can get through 2,000 years of persecution, schisms and wars much of it self-inflicted it might just survive being slighted by the likes of Buckinghamshire County Council. But I do grieve for our ever-receding heritage of traditional carols. Many date from pre-Renaissance times (the pernicious notion that they were all written by the Victorians is more anti-Christmas propaganda). And as such they constitute the last body of ancient folksong still in fairly widespread use in modern Britain. Sometimes their melodies are as mysterious in origin as they are memorable in performance. God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen, in fact, is a classic case. In medieval Europe, from Bulgaria to Cornwall, the tune linked with those words could have been heard in dozens of different variants. Nobody knows who thought of it first. The shrouded origins of the texts are even more fascinating. Whole families of ancient carols draw on a subtle (and cheerfully unclerical) mingling of Christian
Re: ******mas Greetings
Delightful! With that nasty little edge that makes life worth living. :-) The music is a nice surreal touch too. A sure cure for Xmas diabetes. -- Christopher D. Green Department of Psychology York University Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3J 1P3 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] phone: 416-736-5115 ext. 66164 fax: 416-736-5814 http://www.yorku.ca/christo/ . Linda M. Woolf, Ph.D. wrote: Hi Y'all, For those wanting a bit of seasonal fun without the trappings of any sort of religious perspective, go to http://ww12.e-tractions.com/snowglobe/globe.htm Make sure you spend a little time watching one of the characters build their snowman. Best to all! Linda --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
