Christmas, Music, Garrison,

[jesse_the_k]

Full disclosure: we are 100% bah humbug at our house. I'm culturally Jewish and personally athiest. MyGuy was double-dipped Baptized and left organized religion with junior high. Christmas means Asian food and avoiding family members. No presents, no singing, no hits, no runs, no errors.

When we started listening to A Prairie Home Companion in 1977, it was cool and retro. Unfortunately Garrison Keillor decided around a decade ago that he could really sing, and now it's just annoying.

Even worse was his column this week asking the non-Christians to stay away from Christmas. In particular, why are these annoying Jews writing those annoyingly secular holiday tunes (like White Christmas and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer).

That bastion of Hebraic effete East-coast elitism, the NYTimes, followed up with Michael Feinstein's story of complaints because his Christmas program included too many Jewish songs.

Nicely matched, both linked at this TIME blog from James Poniewozik's Christmas is Too Jewish? Oy Vey.

But the real reason to follow the link is the fabulous Saturday Night Live animation, where the genuine Darleen Love sings "Christmas Time for the Jews" in all her Motown glory.

Comments

[redbird]

Is he going to explain to all his Christian friends that they get to work on Christmas, now, since he chased the non-Christians away and we're no longer offering to trade shifts in the hospital, driving buses, or serving Christmas dinners to those who don't want the hassle of cooking?

[jesse_the_k]

Yeah, when I was a kid I knew about Shabbos Goyim but wondered why there wasn't a reciprical term for what you describe. (If there is I'm sure you can school me!)

[redbird]

If there is a single term, nobody told me. But I grew up knowing that every Jew in the New York Police Department worked Christmas, and in return none of them had to work Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur.

[capri0mni]

I grew up culturally Christian,* but with a strong dash of Pagan thrown in, even before I knew there was such a thing as the Neo-Pagan movement; I think I was no older than 7 or 8 when my mother explained that the reason we celebrate Christmas at this time of year was because of the Winter Solstice, and that's why we have wreaths and trees and yule fires and give gifts.

In my late adolescence / early youth, I went all the way into polytheistic neo-paganism. But ever since then, I've been coming to realize I don't believe in any deity in any way that is described in any religion I've encounted so far -- I do have my own beliefs, but if I try to describe them, most people would say "that's not a god." So I'm just calling myself atheist, these days, to keep things simple(r).

As for "Non-Christians, keep away from Christmas"? Boy, that is a humbug (translation: "nonsense")! In early Christianity, "Christe mass" was a minor holiday. Easter was the biggie. December 25th only became big after Christian missionaries encountered other cultures, who were already celebrating the day. The fact that Chanukah is also celebrated at this time of year is a coincidence, but is also older than Christmas. Keep away from your holiday, Kiellor? Ahem. Non-Christians were here first! So either play nice, or go away, yourself.

*("un-programed" Quaker, which is silent meditation, and, in my family, at least, not at all Christ-centric)

[jesse_the_k]

My only formal religious training was in the Society of Friends. (I attended Quaker camps and a NJ meeting as a teenager.) Friends provided shelter from many a storm, and also prepared me for decades of consensus decision-making.

(also icon love!)

[capri0mni]

Re: Icon -- thanks! It's actually an idea I stole from Deaf Vlogger Patti Durr. She's got a spoof channel on Youtube called the Rotten Potatoe News, where she reports on press from the B.S. Association: "The un-official non-organization dedicated to spreading B.S."

In a couple of vlogs, she reports that the BSA wants to end facial expression in ASL, because it makes hearing people uncomfortable. And in another, she announces that The BSA has awarded its annual "Wow, That's Fabulous!" award. (She used to have a full synopsis in her info section, but it's not there, now.. In any case, I loved the idea, and thought it needed to be spread around.

It seemed particularly appropriate for this topic (If I had as many icons in DW as I do in LJ, I would have used my "Io, Saturnalia!" icon)

Re: Quakerness. My father's parents were orthodox, I gather. But we were mostly non-observing. I pretty much absorbed the religion / philosophy through osmosis, and through reading the family subscription to Friends' Journal. Not having humans around to Meet with (nearest neighbor was 1/2 mile away), I'd hold meetings with the trees, outside. Paganism was a natural result. And one my mother, in particular, was proud of, so...

Unrelated meta

[redbird]

The links in your crossposts to LJ are broken/not being translated to actual links to Dreamwidth: they try to take me back to my own livejournal and produce an error message because there is no file of that name within redbird.livejournal.com.

Re: Unrelated meta

[jesse_the_k]

Thanks so much for letting me know!

[emceeaich]

WTF is it with Keillor?

[jesse_the_k]

Too much julglögg?

[capri0mni]

Maybe. But that doesn't explain his annoying Christianness at other times of the year...

(He used to feature a much wider array of music, as I recall; now, it's nearly all gospel, all the time, and he will insist on joining in, even when his voice is a bad match.)

Oh, and, in Garrison's honor, here's a non-Christian holiday greeting that's been around since before Mary was a twinkle in Anne's eye...

You're right

[jesse_the_k]

I do think he's becoming more evangelical as he ages (returning to his youth in the Plymouth Brethren).

Given my anti-clerical upbringing, it took me a while to understand that people with very deep religious/spiritual convictions can resist the urge to proselytize.

I'm disappointed Garrison seems to have forgotten that fundamental cooperative skill.