Happy Jesus Circumsion Day aka. New Year!
In my unending attempts at collecting useless knowledge, which usually maintain a historical slant, I discovered something new. Well not really new, if history is accurate this little fact is actually 2008 years old. But it is new to me and one I have NEVER even heard the smallest suggestion by even the devoutest of Catholics.
In an attempt to be politically correct, something my friend Velvet Verbosity will smack me across the face for even suggesting as a behavior modification, I may have stumbled across an even more controversial salutation.? Happy Jesus’ Bris Day or Happ Jesus’ [tag]Circumcision[/tag] Day for those not hip to the Hebrew.
What is amazing is that I never made this connection. I feel like we get so caught up in the hullabaloo of Christmas that we forget to take the religion out of it or at least take the Christianity out of it.
[tag]Christmas[/tag] is supposed to be the celebration of Christs birth.? Argue this or not, it doesn’t really matter because societally we celebrate this day for this reason (at least theoretically).? I know that many of us celebrate Christmas for the family tradition or the gifts or because we like the pretty tree or because it is simply habit, and really what else would we do on this day.? Well, again, I guess we could go ask a Jew or a Buddhist…but then I know a lot of Jews (and Buddhists) who participate in Christmas as well. What I am trying to illustrate is how ingrained into American culture is the? celebration of Christmas.? There are businesses who make their money for the entire year in this one season. The biggest shopping day of the year, black Friday, is in preparation for Christmas.? The reason black Friday is named as such is it puts all accounting back into the black (or positive cash flow, for those of us who aren’t in school for an MBA or are not accountants or have never opened QuickBooks).
When was the last time you thought about what [tag]Jesus[/tag]’ birth was like. Yes, we know about the stable and camels and wise men and the star and the hay and all the animals and the manger and blah blah blah. You can’t drive past a town center without seeing that little scene played out like the stork just dropped him in that manger instead of Mary struggling through hours and hours of hard labor. That angelic glow she has, that is really just all the sweat of 18 hours of labor in a barn with no epidural.
Anyway, so there is Mary and Joseph and their crew of animal hospital staff and she gives birth to a baby boy.? Lets not forget, Jesus is a Jew.? What are the traditions that follow the birth of a son in a Jewish family?? On the eighth day there is a Bris, a ritual circumcision performed by a [tag]Rabbi[/tag]. This tradition originates from Gods covenant with Abraham. Why I never thought that Jesus would have a Bris, I don’t know.? Beyond that, this is Jesus we are talking about, of course that day would have to be recognized. ? This is not the only reason for New Years, but it is one of them. I always suspected that [tag]New Years[/tag] had Christian ties, or in this case Jewish ties.? And what is a better way to celebrate than put on silly hats, drink copious quantities of alcohol, smoke too much, eat too much, watch a big ball covered in lights drop to the ground and smooch someone to scream HAPPY BRIS! to the world.
Holidays |6 Responses to “Happy Jesus Circumsion Day aka. New Year!”
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Oh geez, will you stop teaching me these things? There are just some things I don’t want to know, honestly. Now when I smooch someone (most likely a complete stranger due to the said copious amounts of alcohol) I just know I’m going to get an unwelcome flash of the big guy’s circumcision.
That’s uncalled for cruelty in my opinion. Is that really what you came here to do?
Hey, its not my fault you have a vivid information. You know what the PSA’s say… The more you know!
=)
Happy Hogmanay!
Oh Yippee! Yay fire festivals!
I learned this a few days ago as well and found your blog while looking for more information. I don’t reccomend that you start saying this unless you want to deeply offend some Jewish people. I’m also Catholic and have learned quite a bit. January 1 is generally believed to have been established by Julius Caesar as the new year when he established his claendar. That was about 50 years before Christ’s birth. The date floated back and forth between Jan 1 and March dates untill 1066 when William the Bastard became King of England. He moved it back to Jan 1 so that his coronation would coincide with Christmas and the new year with Jesus’circumcision. That date was later abandoned for March again until the mid 1500’s when Pope Gregory XIII established the Gregorian calendar. At the same time Gregory decreed taht Roman Jews would be required to “listen attentively” to the compulsary Catholic conversion sermon given in all Synagogues after friday services on pain of death. Jews were forced to pay a tax to fund a Catholic conversion center. New Years day was to be considered the day of the “birth of Christianity and the death of Judeism.” On New Years day in the 1580’s Gregory ordered the destruction of all Jewish sacred texts (Torah) and hundreds of Jews were killed. Thereafter, for the next hundred years or so, new years day was a traditional day for harrassment of Jews, burning of their texts,murder and torture.
As if that weren’t quite enough, December 31 is St. Sylvester day. Sylvester was a Roman Pope just before the Council of Nicaea. He convinced Constantine to enact vicious anti-semetic laws. So the day is doubly offensive.
I don’t know you, and am not trying to lecture. I didn’t know this until last week either, but, given the actual history, I wouldn’t be too quick to shout “happy Jesus’ bris day.
Amy
I wouldnt be quick to shout it either. I did know some of the other history, which I just learned, but not as extensively as you presented. thanks for sharing, that is very interesting. I was not aware of the highly antisemitic connotations of new years. It is interesting how what is seemingly an innocuous holiday can have such a deep history, rife with bigotry and disenfranchisement. I do know that the conversion of Constantine from paganism to Christianity has been a highly controversial event. Some believe that it was entirely a power play and that he remained pagan till death. Regardless he is highly responsible for the christian appropriation of many pagan holidays.
Another history of New Years is the Scottish tradition of Hogmany.
“It may not be widely known but Christmas was not celebrated as a festival and virtually banned in Scotland for around 400 years, from the end of the 17th century to the 1950s. The reason for this has its roots in the Protestant Reformation when the Kirk portrayed Christmas as a Popish or Catholic feast and therefore had to be banned. Many Scots had to work over Christmas and their winter solstice holiday was therefore at New Year when family and friends gathered for a party and exchange presents, especially for the children, which came to be called hogmanay.” One of Hogmany’s root words possibly comes from the Scandanavian word for Yule, which is the celebration of the winter solstice.
Thanks so much for writing such a wonderfully historic comment! Excellent! I hope you comment more in the future!