Christmas trees have pagan history, they're not from Christian tradition.

I'm just happy to be able to FIND supplies at christmas time. When I first arrived we had to make everything to decorate a potted shrub because NOTHING xmas-related was available. For my own selfish reasons, that was worse for me. We would go to Amsterdam or European countries if we found cheap tickets because it felt so odd to celebrate when there was nothing celebratory going on around us.

Well duh--they started out as part of a Germanic winter ritual--but after having been associated with Christmas, they have evolved into a Christian symbol in the same vein as Easter eggs. My point was singing overtly Christian songs to celebrate an avowedly secular fete.

what's the story behind easter eggs? how did they come to be associated with easter? I never understood that...

A fondness for a certain bunny finds its roots in a pagan spring ritual called Eostre, from which the English and German names for the holiday are taken. Coloring Easter eggs began as part of a very similar ritual among Slavic tribes. However, as these peoples adopted Christianity, to better accommodate them, the heads of the church adopted that time of year to celebrate one of the major feasts, Pasqua (just like Christmas happens to fall around the same time of year as did Saturnalia, a Roman gift-giving holiday). Now, the Easter season fascination with baby animals and eggs are connected to Easter as symbols of rebirth.

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hey anne, you're lucky!! 12 years ago i was teaching at Uskudar American Academy and one of my colleagues, a second year teacher from the states, i think, almost got throw out of the country because she was teaching the kids (hazirlik) Christmas Carols!! yes, i know that these days it's not unusual to hear christmas songs in restaurants and on the radio, but teaching them to kids at a school formerly run by missionaries is/was a very dangerous thing to do!! she made the big mistake of sending home the words to the songs so the kids could learn them. many of the parents of those kids are well-educated and were quite alarmed.

ha! in these days of renewed islamism in turkey (and almost no where else in the moslem world!) i'd be a bit careful about teaching christmas carols....wonder what would happen if you got ecumenical about it and also threw in a chanukah song!

a_g

They would just be confused and say, "this isn't a New Year's song?!"

I don't want to stray off the topic too much here but I feel I must make a few comments here. I don't agree that Islamism is on the rise here in Turkey (and I am glad it is like that). Most of the people who voted for the AKP did so not out of their love for Islamism but due to the perceived charisma of R.T.Erdogan and also due to a perceived lack of a good alternative party. The 'real Islamist party' (Saadet Partisi) did very poorly in the last general elections (they stayed below 10 per cent).

I, as a humanist, feel that the real thing to be concerned about in Turkey is not rising Islamism but rising nationalism. Of course, Islamism is a worry for me too but I feel that the hard-core Islamists are pretty much under check in Turkey and that their number is not much of a worry.

Of course, anyone should feel free to disagree with me

Cheers,

Cem

i agree

Me too Cem. Well said!

i have a really hard time trying to convince my turkish friends and students that Turkey isnt gonna turn into an islamist state! i simply ask them if Turkey is in a better position now then before AKP came to power????

i believe it is. And its going in the right direction. Last time i checked, Turkey was a democracy right???

I agree with you too Cem,
I feel the rising nationalism is a problem but I have noticed it is them same in a lot of Balkan countries.

let's talk about this rising whatever in 2-5 years time.

i HOPE it's not an islamic agenda that's slowly sneaking in ...
i have a couple of friends in parliment who see it trying to happen..

i'm reserving judgement until it's clear what the present administration
is really up to...

i have met 'the man' and i don't like him one darned bit!!!

enough said...if Turkey is successful inspite of him and his
hidden agenda, i still say beware...but there's always the chance that
stronger forces will overcome the negatives..

don't forget, i live out here in the hinterlands...city politics and city
perspectives are very different. and never forget...ISTANBUL is NOT
Turkey!!

a/g

not that i'm an authority, i certainly am not...but i think that the egg represents the cycle of life or even 'eternity'...on continuity...

the greeks color their eggs red to symbolize the blood of christ. then they play this game where they try to crack the egg of someone else to see who will have a year of good luck.

it's all very strange!!

a/g

yes we do that too