Send CathInfo's owner Matthew a gift from his Amazon wish list:
https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/25M2B8RERL1UO

Author Topic: A Satire on Xmas  (Read 631 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Lover of Truth

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 8700
  • Reputation: +1158/-863
  • Gender: Male
A Satire on Xmas
« on: November 26, 2012, 12:04:33 PM »
  • Thanks!0
  • No Thanks!0
  • I thought you might get a laugh out of this, though it is sad in a sense:

    To wit, a man who died forty-nine years ago yesterday, that is, on Friday, November 22, 1963, without ever converting to the true Faith wrote a very fine satirical look at the differences between the "Xmas season" and the Christmas season in a fictional country he called "Niatirb." "Niatirb" is, of course, Britain spelled in reverse. It would be wrong to coopt this great satirical commentary, although one could substitute the phrase "Holiday Season" for the "Xmas Season" and change Niatirb into Acirema and be very close to the truth of the matter (except here in Acirema, you see, people are more apt to send seasonal greeting cards with images of their families than even the "winter scenes" described the the author of The Screwtape Letters, Clive Staples Lewis, in his essay "Xmas and Christmas:"

    And beyond this there lies in the ocean, turned towards the west and north, the island of Niatirb which Hecataeus indeed declares to be the same size and shape as Sicily, but it is larger, though in calling it triangular a man would not miss the mark. It is densely inhabited by men who wear clothes not very different from the other barbarians who occupy the north western parts of Europe though they do not agree with them in language. These islanders, surpassing all the men of whom we know in patience and endurance, use the following customs.

    In the middle of winter when fogs and rains most abound they have a great festival which they call Exmas and for fifty days they prepare for it in the fashion I shall describe. First of all, every citizen is obliged to send to each of his friends and relations a square piece of hard paper stamped with a picture, which in their speech is called an Exmas-card. But the pictures represent birds sitting on branches, or trees with a dark green prickly leaf, or else men in such garments as the Niatirbians believe that their ancestors wore two hundred years ago riding in coaches such as their ancestors used, or houses with snow on their roofs. And the Niatirbians are unwilling to say what these pictures have to do with the festival; guarding (as I suppose) some sacred mystery. And because all men must send these cards the marketplace is filled with the crowd of those buying them, so that there is great labour and weariness.

    But having bought as many as they suppose to be sufficient, they return to their houses and find there the like cards which others have sent to them. And when they find cards from any to whom they also have sent cards, they throw them away and give thanks to the gods that this labour at least is over for another year. But when they find cards from any to whom they have not sent, then they beat their breasts and wail and utter curses against the sender; and, having sufficiently lamented their misfortune, they put on their boots again and go out into the fog and rain and buy a card for him also. And let this account suffice about Exmas-cards.

    They also send gifts to one another, suffering the same things about the gifts as about the cards, or even worse. For every citizen has to guess the value of the gift which every friend will send to him so that he may send one of equal value, whether he can afford it or not. And they buy as gifts for one another such things as no man ever bought for himself. For the sellers, understanding the custom, put forth all kinds of trumpery, and whatever, being useless and ridiculous, they have been unable to sell throughout the year they now sell as an Exmas gift. And though the Niatirbians profess themselves to lack sufficient necessary things, such as metal, leather, wood and paper, yet an incredible quantity of these things is wasted every year, being made into the gifts.
    But during these fifty days the oldest, poorest, and most miserable of the citizens put on false beards and red robes and walk about the market-place; being disguised (in my opinion) as Cronos. And the sellers of gifts no less than the purchaser’s become pale and weary, because of the crowds and the fog, so that any man who came into a Niatirbian city at this season would think some great public calamity had fallen on Niatirb. This fifty days of preparation is called in their barbarian speech the Exmas Rush.

    But when the day of the festival comes, then most of the citizens, being exhausted with the Rush, lie in bed till noon. But in the evening they eat five times as much supper as on other days and, crowning themselves with crowns of paper, they become intoxicated. And on the day after Exmas they are very grave, being internally disordered by the supper and the drinking and reckoning how much they have spent on gifts and on the wine. For wine is so dear among the Niatirbians that a man must swallow the worth of a talent before he is well intoxicated.

    Such, then, are their customs about the Exmas. But the few among the Niatirbians have also a festival, separate and to themselves, called Crissmas, which is on the same day as Exmas. And those who keep Crissmas, doing the opposite to the majority of the Niatirbians, rise early on that day with shining faces and go before sunrise to certain temples where they partake of a sacred feast. And in most of the temples they set out images of a fair woman with a new-born Child on her knees and certain animals and shepherds adoring the Child. (The reason of these images is given in a certain sacred story which I know but do not repeat.)

    But I myself conversed with a priest in one of these temples and asked him why they kept Crissmas on the same day as Exmas; for it appeared to me inconvenient. But the priest replied, “It is not lawful, O stranger, for us to change the date of Chrissmas, but would that Zeus would put it into the minds of the Niatirbians to keep Exmas at some other time or not to keep it at all. For Exmas and the Rush distract the minds even of the few from sacred things. And we indeed are glad that men should make merry at Crissmas; but in Exmas there is no merriment left.” And when I asked him why they endured the Rush, he replied, “It is, O Stranger, a racket”; using (as I suppose) the words of some oracle and speaking unintelligibly to me (for a racket is an instrument which the barbarians use in a game called tennis).

    But what Hecataeus says, that Exmas and Crissmas are the same, is not credible. For first, the pictures which are stamped on the Exmas-cards have nothing to do with the sacred story which the priests tell about Crissmas. And secondly, the most part of the Niatirbians, not believing the religion of the few, nevertheless send the gifts and cards and participate in the Rush and drink, wearing paper caps. But it is not likely that men, even being barbarians, should suffer so many and great things in honour of a god they do not believe in. And now, enough about Niatirb. (Clive Staples Lewis, "Xmas and Christmas," 1954.)
     
    Poor C. S. Lewis, who died as a member of the Anglican sect into which he had been baptized as a child on the same day that Untied States President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was αssαssιnαtҽd in Dallas, Texas, did not understand that the descent of his beloved country into the "Exmas" or "Xmas" season was the result of the heretical and schismatic nature of the false religion in which he lived his entire life. The paganization of island of Great Britain that was apparent in the 1950s was but the consequence of King Henry VIII's break from Rome in 1534.

    The full article which is also somewhat amusing and sad is from the below link:

    http://www.christorchaos.com/AsWentNiatirbSoGoesAcirema.html
    "I receive Thee, redeeming Prince of my soul. Out of love for Thee have I studied, watched through many nights, and exerted myself: Thee did I preach and teach. I have never said aught against Thee. Nor do I persist stubbornly in my views. If I have ever expressed myself erroneously on this Sacrament, I submit to the judgement of the Holy Roman Church, in obedience of which I now part from this world." Saint Thomas Aquinas the greatest Doctor of the Church


    Offline Matthew

    • Mod
    • *****
    • Posts: 31183
    • Reputation: +27098/-494
    • Gender: Male
    A Satire on Xmas
    « Reply #1 on: November 26, 2012, 12:13:56 PM »
  • Thanks!0
  • No Thanks!0
  • Good article.

    Just one comment -- there's nothing bad about abbreviating "Christmas" as "Xmas", though I used to think there was. I used to say, "What are they doing, X-ing out Christ! Put the Christ back in Christmas!"

    But I was ignorant and mistaken.

    X is the first letter of Christ in Greek.  So you're putting in a letter than stands for Christ. It's a harmless abbreviation.

    You know the X and P (written on top of one another) on the back of the priest's chasuble? That's the CHI-RO.
    The first two letters of "Christ" in the Greek alphabet. Another famous and popular symbol of Christ.
    Want to say "thank you"? 
    You can send me a gift from my Amazon wishlist!
    https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/25M2B8RERL1UO

    Paypal donations: matthew@chantcd.com


    Offline Anthony Benedict

    • Full Member
    • ***
    • Posts: 533
    • Reputation: +510/-4
    • Gender: Male
    A Satire on Xmas
    « Reply #2 on: November 26, 2012, 01:25:54 PM »
  • Thanks!0
  • No Thanks!0
  • Mebbe.  Mebbe not.

    Seen it argued both ways.

    An aside, please report any wishes received in the next four weeks for a Super Sparkly Winter Solstice , especially if offered by a rad-fem nun, to your pastor. Do not attempt to apprehend these individuals alone!

    Offline 1st Mansion Tenant

    • Full Member
    • ***
    • Posts: 1765
    • Reputation: +1446/-127
    • Gender: Female
    A Satire on Xmas
    « Reply #3 on: November 28, 2012, 01:06:00 AM »
  • Thanks!0
  • No Thanks!0
  • Got chewed out by Sister in 2nd grade for using X-Mas instead of writing out Christmas. She said that it was not only lazy, but it was disrespectful. Never did it again.  (But man, what a loooong word for a little kid just learning to write...)