-Caveat Lector- http://www.faz.com/IN/INtemplates/eFAZ/docmain.asp?rub={F040FFD3-897B-46DF-9603- 752DD6405389}&doc={7EDD9465-6601-4DD5-8372-BBC3A1671777}
Please use your browser's print function to print this page. Thank Luther By Elise Kissling Christ may have been born on Christmas Day, but here in Germany people celebrate on the 24th. This is a sorry situation for expats, since everything is over before it's supposed to begin: presents, goose, the works. Christmas is referred to by its bureaucratic name: “the first holiday,“ a reference to the two work-free days following the 24th. Stocking stuffers are unpacked weeks in advance on a special holiday called Nikolaus Day. But how can you read your kids Dickens' “A Christmas Carol“ under these circumstances? “Twas three weeks before Christmas and all through the house.“ Or: “The boots were all lined up in front of the door with care in the hopes that Saint Nikolaus soon would...“ There's more. While the festivities have been pushed forward, the Christmas tree is put up just hours before the children dive for their presents. While the tree is receiving its holiday face lift, the kids are banned to their rooms, sometimes for hours. You see, it's not Santa who brings the presents to German children but the Christ Child himself. This, anyone will tell you, is authentically German and supposedly less commercial and more in tune with the real spirit of the holiday season than that big red man Uncle Sam is trying to push on the rest of the world. Admittedly, the prevalent image of Santa Claus, designed and marketed by Coca Cola in the last century, is gaudier than the slender image of the Christ Child that most German children have in their heads (there is no uniform picture of the Christ Child; it's left to the imagination), but did the Swiss really have to start a grass roots movement to get rid of Santa? In reality, it's the Christ Child who did away with Santa, not the other way around, and it happened right here in Germany during the Reformation. When Martin Luther exiled the saints he also banned Ol' Saint Nick. But since children protested against losing their presents, Luther gave them the Christ Child, a figure borrowed from the French! Ironically, the biggest proponents of the Christ Child today are Catholic. Many Protestants have readily exchanged the elusive angel-like figure for the hearty man from the North Pole. After all, they'll tell you, the Christ Child is a Catholic invention. Dec. 6, 2002 © Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 2000 All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part is prohibited. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
