General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: All this talk about Co-opting pagan rituals is starting to sound a wee bit over the top.... [View all]WCGreen
(45,558 posts)It's about what has been happening since our ancestors grouped together to try and make sense of the world. When they did, they created rituals and legends and tales of origin that served that grouping of people.
When you settle down and plant crops in an area, there is a lot more free time to devote to thinking about the world around you. The Mysteries of life, if you will.
This happened all over the world, wherever there was a culture developing.
As the eons piled up, many of these sects, if you will, were taken over by others and the others adopted the gods and traditions of the vanquished just like the Christians did when they spread like Kudzu across Europe.
So for thousands of years, pagans were battling against other pagans and gods were killed off or usurped, traditions were destroyed and then reconstituted in another form. One thing is that they all have stuff in common. From the first person who looked at the sky and saw there was a connection between the way the sky changes and when planting was best, religions were born.
What I think is people place too much emphasis on the Christians as if everything was hunky dorry and everyone was great until the Christians came to be. It's just not the case.
They killed maimed and destroyed cultures and traditions or co-opted them. That's not what I am saying didn't. In fact up until about ten years ago, I felt the exact same way about this.
And again, I am not a Christian. I'm just looking at this as human being with a connection I can feel to those who lit the light to rejoice that another season cycle was finished and another was about to begin.