Ok, I'm pissed that Discordianism doesn't officially have a winter holiday like everyone else (Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Samhain, Yule, Solstice, Saturnalia, Festivus, Chrismukkah, Hogswatchnight, etc.). I suggest we do something about this. I want a lame excuse to recieve presents and spend time with my horrible family. Who's with me?
Also, let's have a war on Christmas. The secularists aren't doing a good enough job at it so far. Their trolling skills are almost non-existant.
I consider New Year's Eve to be the premiere holiday of the entire year, so I don't feel the need for another winter holiday.
however...
a war on Christmas would be full of win. I will troll the fuck out of the next mall Santa I see.
Well, if we look at the foundations for many of these celebrations, they have to do with the rebirth of the Son/Sun... or magic light from oil lamps.
So we could do something like that.
OR, for Discordians maybe the rebirth of the season of Chaos?
Also also, should we try to get the other Discordian groups (POEE, EB&G, LJ spags, etc) in on this? It would be nice to have something semi-official.
we should celebrate something arbitrary on Christmas
like Lyndon B Johnson's birthday*
and make a BIG FUCKING DEAL about it
*note, he was not born on Christmas
People who were actually born on December 25: Isaac Newton, Clara Barton, Conrad Hilton, Humphrey Bogart, Cab Calloway, Anwar Sadat, Rod Serling, Noel Redding, Jimmy Buffett, Barbara Mandrell, Karl Rove, Rickey Henderson.
Or we could go with someone born on a different day.
People born on December 24: Ryan Seacrest, Ricky Martin, Lemmy, George Patton, Howard Hughes, Mary Higgins Clark.
:|
Joshua Norton was January 8th.
However, a war on Christmas sounds like more fun.
I like christmas. It's already crazy and convoluted. Plus I like the orgy of consumerism. It's like the energy drink of holidays.
I do, however, advocate mashing any and all strangeness that you like into it. You can institute bizarre rituals in your family unit, and since the holiday, in general, is universally celebrated the children will accept as normal anything you do in what is ultimately a private family occasion. Haven't you ever been to someone elses Xmas day and they're doing something that makes you say 'WTF?' but they view as the epitome of normalcy? that's totally awesome.
I was pretty old before i realized that not every family has a giant spaghetti dinner every christmas eve, since my family always made a big freaking deal out of it.
Now i have my own family unit that i can institute bizzare rituals on. For instance, i recieved as a gift years ago a (supposedly) traditional german christmas tree decoration that is a life size glass pickle. It obviously blends in with the tree, and the ritual is that it is hung on the tree the night before christmas, and in the morning, the kid who locates the glass pickle first gets some extra gift or candy or something. That's awesome. I'm going to do that. and someday when my kids are like 12 or thirteen they'll mention it to their friends that they were cool cause they finally found the glass pickle this year and there will be confusion between them.
Christmas is already a fantastic opportunity for high weirdness. don't fight it. coopt it.
Quote from: Cramulus on October 27, 2008, 10:31:08 PM
we should celebrate something arbitrary on Christmas
like Lyndon B Johnson's birthday*
and make a BIG FUCKING DEAL about it
*note, he was not born on Christmas
Best idea so far ITT, next to trolling mall Santas.
Festivus seems like the obvious choice to me. I mean, it is for the rest of us.
Christmas holds the distinction of being infinitely variable, as demonstrated with the glass pickle tradition. I'd seen those before and fully intend on carrying it out when I get my own tree.
Last year some Australian friends of my stepsisters came over for the morning. I placed one of the cardboard tubes from an empty wrapping paper roll prominently in the window and told them it was a tradition. You see, it originated during the Great Depression, when kids weren't sure whether or not their families could afford a Christmas celebration. The kids would search their house for empty wrapping paper rolls and then display them to their friends in the neighborhood as a sign that their parents had indeed bought them gifts. I had them pretty well convinced, which would have been wonderful if they had brought the "tradition" back to tell their friends, but my family thought I was being a dick and told them the truth.
A most excellent lie, EoC! :D
that is to be commended. and a pigeon turd upon your family for ruining the fun!
Quote from: Iptuous on October 27, 2008, 11:10:43 PM
I like christmas. It's already crazy and convoluted. Plus I like the orgy of consumerism. It's like the energy drink of holidays.
I do, however, advocate mashing any and all strangeness that you like into it. You can institute bizarre rituals in your family unit, and since the holiday, in general, is universally celebrated the children will accept as normal anything you do in what is ultimately a private family occasion. Haven't you ever been to someone elses Xmas day and they're doing something that makes you say 'WTF?' but they view as the epitome of normalcy? that's totally awesome.
I was pretty old before i realized that not every family has a giant spaghetti dinner every christmas eve, since my family always made a big freaking deal out of it.
Now i have my own family unit that i can institute bizzare rituals on. For instance, i recieved as a gift years ago a (supposedly) traditional german christmas tree decoration that is a life size glass pickle. It obviously blends in with the tree, and the ritual is that it is hung on the tree the night before christmas, and in the morning, the kid who locates the glass pickle first gets some extra gift or candy or something. That's awesome. I'm going to do that. and someday when my kids are like 12 or thirteen they'll mention it to their friends that they were cool cause they finally found the glass pickle this year and there will be confusion between them.
Christmas is already a fantastic opportunity for high weirdness. don't fight it. coopt it.
TITCM. Also I have one of those glass pickles too.
Quote from: Iason Ouabache on October 27, 2008, 10:42:16 PM
People born on December 24: Ryan Seacrest, Ricky Martin, Lemmy, George Patton, Howard Hughes, Mary Higgins Clark.
:|
I think we may have a winner.
Everyone gather around the Yule Boils!
Quote from: East Coast Hustle on October 27, 2008, 10:14:02 PM
I consider New Year's Eve to be the premiere holiday of the entire year, so I don't feel the need for another winter holiday.
however...
a war on Christmas would be full of win. I will troll the fuck out of the next mall Santa I see.
You should go up to him and bitch about how his costume contains the colors red and white, but no blue. Then start making a ruckus about him being unpatriotic, accuse him of being un-American, turn to the watching parents and say something like, "This Santa is all in red, and is thus an obvious Commie. You seat your children on the lap of evil!"
Anywho, I like the idea of arbitrary celebration, but I think it could all be made a bit more abstract:
Perhaps we could get the word out to other Discordians for a pretty cool MF. My idea is that we issue a Discordian "edict" saying that "Christmas should be about consumerism, and nothing else." Our reasoning could be that entreaties to honor ties of "peace, love and brotherhood" are really cleverly crafted ways to promote, respectively, the end of the Iraqi war, promiscuity and homosexuality. The organization issuing the edict could be called "The Council for a Pure Christmas," or some other such nonsense. With any luck we could get some support from a few right wing nutjobs, or something; that would be pretty funny.
Rough idea, to be sure, but I think making a central MF project around the whole ordeal would really help to liven up the holiday. After that, it's really just a matter of taste as to how you want to survive the festivities. My wife and I try to bake the most disgusting cookies/treats that we can think of each year (rule: they must still use real cooking ingredients, and nothing based on organ meat), and we put them in each other's stockings. On Christmas morning, we have to eat the treats and whoever can go the longest without getting sick gets to open the first present.
Santa was a Communist though. Dressed in red, gave out everything for free and lived in a cold foreign country in the north.
Also have Traditional Values Campaign Against Xmas (on the basis that Paganism is the true traditional value system).
Quote from: Cain on October 28, 2008, 01:26:22 PM
Santa was a Communist though. Dressed in red, gave out everything for free and lived in a cold foreign country in the north.
:lulz:
This is great.
Quote from: Cain on October 28, 2008, 01:26:22 PM
Also have Traditional Values Campaign Against Xmas (on the basis that Paganism is the true traditional value system).
This is also good; much better than my idea. The motto for the campaign could be: "Christmas: the most Magickal Time of the Year."
meh. I always just go with the Solstice. UUs don't have ANY official holidays, so everything I celebrated growing up was an appropriation of someone else's thing, and I never really saw the point of celebrating anyone's birthday that I don't actually know.
Thumbing my nose at the longest night of the year always seemed like a more appropriate celebration than any of the other conveniently close holidays - even New Years always seems like it's at the wrong time to me. I'd put it some time in March, when the start of spring begins to be felt, the snow starts melting, and it actually FEELS like a new year, or on the solstice itself as a good point to start fresh with getting the shortest day of the year out of the way at the start.
All these deep-of-winter holidays are just appropriations of the pagan solstice celebrations anyway, so why not go back to the source?
Quote from: Manta Obscura on October 28, 2008, 01:34:01 PM
Quote from: Cain on October 28, 2008, 01:26:22 PM
Santa was a Communist though. Dressed in red, gave out everything for free and lived in a cold foreign country in the north.
:lulz:
This is great.
Quote from: Cain on October 28, 2008, 01:26:22 PM
Also have Traditional Values Campaign Against Xmas (on the basis that Paganism is the true traditional value system).
This is also good; much better than my idea. The motto for the campaign could be: "Christmas: the most Magickal Time of the Year."
Yours have merit as well. Basically, we make Xmas look as unchristian as possible, through various methods, then we put up signs saying "Winterval (or winter holidays) in [town] 2008 - Sponsored by the Discordian Society" and stuff like that. I know Winterval and tEh wAr oN cHrIsTmAs are huge bugbears over here as well, so that would really rile people up.
Quote from: Iason Ouabache on October 27, 2008, 10:08:36 PM
Ok, I'm pissed that Discordianism doesn't officially have a winter holiday like everyone else (Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Samhain, Yule, Solstice, Saturnalia, Festivus, Chrismukkah, Hogswatchnight, etc.). I suggest we do something about this. I want a lame excuse to recieve presents and spend time with my horrible family. Who's with me?
Also, let's have a war on Christmas. The secularists aren't doing a good enough job at it so far. Their trolling skills are almost non-existant.
Yes there is. Moosemas.
oh yeah, Moosemas!
Ratatosk re-discovers Moosemas (http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum/index.php?topic=14600.0)
Last year's Moosemas day celebration (http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum/index.php?topic=14788.msg467734#msg467734)
A friend found a copy of the Moosemas book at an occult store in Ottawa... if there's anything in it which wasn't posted I shall do so.
Quote from: Cramulus on October 28, 2008, 09:28:55 PM
oh yeah, Moosemas!
Ratatosk re-discovers Moosemas (http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum/index.php?topic=14600.0)
Last year's Moosemas day celebration (http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum/index.php?topic=14788.msg467734#msg467734)
Excellent! Now, the options are to spam this meme everywhere and make it a major Discordian holiday... or we do something else.
I think I'm going to run with this War on Christmas idea.
Step 1 will be a press release to the student newspaper.
Step 2 will be PosterGASM the fuck out of my college.
I think I'm going to go with the idea that a consumerist holiday distracts people from the eternal gods, and promote Saturnalia as the healthy alternative, in terms of Christian theology.
Maybe we could have students teach the professors to celebrate? Reversal of roles and all that?
It's kind of hard to be anti-Christmas without also being a little cliché. Christmas alternatives are kind of cliché, especially anything inspired by Seinfeld. I'm almost thinking that the most surprising thing we could do would be to actually acknowledge and celebrate Christmas, albeit with some original Discordian traditions.
I think we should celebrate the day that AKK taught us all the true meaning of Discordianism.
Man, you really have a grudge against him, don't you?
Wtf is AKK?
Jesus Christ.
Quote from: BADGE OF HONOR on November 05, 2008, 08:11:37 AM
Man, you really have a grudge against him, don't you?
You should actually check out his board, he's pretty hilariously insufferable.
Oh, I know. I tried to read that one thread...
I decree that every day this winter will be Help RWHN Shovel Out His House Day!!!
You are all compelled to join in the festivities.
There will be Hot Cocoa and Marshmallows!