> This whole affair made me rethink the whole concept of a holiday.
> I mean, St. Patrick and St. Valentine have nothing to do with our lives,
> much less the colors red and green. Ever wonder how the heck red/green and
> a pagan figure like Santa Claus could represent Christmas, a religious
> holiday, or how orange/black equals Halloween, or Easter (the resurrection
> of Christ) equals pastels, a rabbit and eggs?
I can't explain all the holiday insanity, but I'll try to explain some. Easter
is like you said, a holiday about resurrection, it occurs in the spring, and
neatly took the place of pagan holidays of rebirth. Rabbits and eggs you'll
notice are both symbols of fertility. How pastels got mixed in, I dunno. In a
similiar vain. Christmas trees don't seem to have much to do with the birth of
christ. And they don't. Christmas also replaced a non-christian holiday
time. The winter was a time when most plants were dead. In an act of "magick"
those plants that were able to stay green in the winter (pine (christmas)
trees, holly, mistletoe) were brought inside to lend their life power to the
inhabitents. That's why these plants are associated with Christmas.
-Paul Prestopnik