Bill O'Reilly didn't invent the war on Christmas. It wasn't started by a bunch of Godless Liberal Atheist activists trying to shove their Santanic agenda down your throat. The war on Christmas has historical basis....It started in 1607 in Holland!
The creeps who were trying to destroy Christmas weren't godless atheists either, they were the Calvinist Protestant Leaders of the Dutch Republic, who in their zealous efforts to stamp out "papist idolitry" and "Baal Worship" tried to ban the Feast of St. Nicholas. The feast of St. Nicholas was a Dutch Tradition. They claimed a special affection for him and cookies and candy and special treats were very much a part of the culture. It was a childrens festival and children occupied a very special place in Dutch Culture.
In 1607, Delft banned the sale of gingerbread men and Dordrecht succeeded in banning the festival altogether in 1657. In Amsterdam, the officials made the sale of special gifts and candies and idolotrous dolls illegal in 1657. Finally on December 4th, 1663, the magistrate finally published a proclamation banning the festival and imposing a 3 guilder fine for any violation. They even banned the traditional Speculoos cookies because they had figures stamped into them.
This was the straw that broke the camels back! No Sinter Klas? No Speculoos? No presents? Suddenly, Amsterdam had a riot of enraged 11 year olds on its hands. The children were encouraged by their parents to riot because the authorities would never dream of lifting a finger to harm the most precious possession of the Republic!
The results? Next year Sinter Klaas was back handing out presents and everybody had ginger bread and a good time.
The irony is that the Religious Right saw Christmas as a sinful holiday that had to be suppressed. 350 years later? You can't make these people happy! They were born to make us miserable and impose their stupid rules on us!
The picture is of the traditional Sinter Klaas and his helpers...the ones who punish bad children, The Black Peters......
4 comments:
m,
I suppose we can't go to the "Christmas is a festival that co opted prior pagan ones" can we?
Thank you, I have not thought abut the Black Peters for a while. Perhaps they will arrive at BillO's house.
TLGK
From Engineer of Knowledge
Hello Microdot,
Of course Bill O'Reilly didn't invent the war on Christmas but he has manipulated this into a major revenue aspect for himself. His whole platform is to whip up fear, hate, and unjustified outrage to keep the weak minded or just those who are looking for someone to blame for their own short comings in life. These are the ones who will keep tuning into his show to bolster up their own self loathing hate so they can keep projecting it onto others when the Jerry Springer show is not on.
It is a constant that there will always be people needing to impose their will and viewpoint onto others. This has been from the beginning of time to the end.
Right, EoK, O'Reilly whole gig is exactly that. The frightening thing about it is that there are millions of people who actually are 'motivated' by his tripe.
Microdot- those black Peters are an interesting bit of early racism, even before the colonization of Africa got going.
I think O'Reilly is hilarious. On my infrequent visits to the States I always tune in and find it amazing that people, like my father, like him.
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