Enjoying those hamburgers on the grill this Labor Day Weekend?, page 2

Great thread OP, good to know about these things, even though I'm a Kiwi I found that very interesting, lied to again...actually that makes me wonder about the meaning of NZ's Labor Day

Have to look into that?

REPLY TO - AlreadyGone - you had me snorting beer, good onya mate...

It is very interesting to look into some of the origins and meanings behind these "established" holidays, not sure if you've heard this before...

Let me ask you some questions first,

Why does Santa Claus wear a red and white costume?
Why does Santa Claus have little dwarf/Gnome like helpers?
Why does he Climb down a chimney?
Why does he travel in a sled pulled by Reindeer?
Why do we hang decorations in a pine tree at Christmas time?
Why do we hang socks in front of the fire at night, at Christmas time?

Now llet me tell you a story to help shed some light on the answers...

The pine tree is a very common tree in the mountainess villages and wilderness areas of siberia.
A convenient mode of travel between these mountainess villages is a sled, pulled by reindeer.
These villages have truncated roofs on their houses, meaning their houses have a large pyrimid shaped roof with the top cut off, this acts as an outlet for the smoke from their fires and also as an entrance, in that they climb in and out of their houses through the hole in the roof - the chimney. This is because in winter they can't use the front door as theres 13 feet of snow on top of it...it's cold in Siberia.
As in many native and isolated villages or "tribes" they have someone who is the "medicine man" or "wise one" and what's often refered to as a Shaman, of whoms job it was/is to see things others can't and venture into other worlds/dimensions to seek answers from the gods, spirits, angels, pick your word, using a plant medicine.
Now in these mountainess villages, it s the shamans job, once a year, at a certain time of year, to jump on his sled and head out into the wilderness, being pulled by the reindeer to search amongst the pine trees for a special type of mushroom, called the Amanita muscaria, which just happens to be red and white, having small white dots all over the top of it's umbrella. While the shaman is collecting these mushrooms he hangs them in the pine trees to dry while he continues to pick more mushrooms.
Once he has filled up a couple of sacks of mushrooms and taken the dried mushrooms from the pine trees, he heads home.
When he gets home he lights the fire and hangs all the mushrooms that didn't dry during the day in "socks" in front of the fire to dry overnight.
Then early the next morning he travels to all the peoples houses climbing down their chimneys delivering his presents in the form of dried, ready to eat Amanita muscaria mushrooms, leaving various amounts according to the number of people in the household.
When his sacks are all empty, he heads back home to have his own christmas treat.

Incidently, people often see little people, dwarfs/lepracorns (is that the right spelling?) fairys or Gnomes while under the influence of this entheogin.
And we often see little Gnomes and fairys associated with/or in pictures with the little red and white mushroom?

Hope you enjoyed the story and have answers to some of the rituals, customs etc, associated with Christmas.

Of coarse, Xmas is a cake recipe of borrowed ideas, not to mention the Santa - Satan thing...Oh too late I did

[edit on 5-9-2010 by Mythkiller]

[edit on 5-9-2010 by Mythkiller]

[edit on 5-9-2010 by Mythkiller]