Sunday, November 18, 2012

Count to ten

Recently, my best friend Ann, was getting married. It was the most unfortunate wedding I have ever seen. The bad luck started very soon. At the moment the taxi arrived at the airport I noticed that, I didn't take my dress from home. I had to get back to my flat. Of course I got back to the airport late. However I was calm because I had some extra time for unexpexted events. While I was waiting for antoher flight I remembered a stupid superstition. Some people belive that when you are getting back for something you have left you must sit and count to ten in a place where you left this thing. It should push away the bad luck. I haven't done that, of course, and the dark forces got revenge on me.
When I arrived I got a taxi to get to the hotel. I don't know how, but the driver got lost! It turned out it was his first day at work. I called Ann to get the directions, but the taxi driver was so clumsy and slow that I decided to drive stright to the harbor. Ann's fiance, Peter, organised their ceremony and wedding reception on a boat. I was never able to get on with this man and I considered this idea extremly stupid. I wasn't wrong.
We all got on board, set out and the ceremony started. In fact, would have started if Ann hadn't got ill. Someone decided to get her a drink to make her less tense on a big day. Alcohol and rocking of the boat caused a catastrophe. All the guests waited an hour. It started to rain. Everyone got wet, angry and cold. Finally after about two hours we went under the deck.
When I got back home I was exhausted. Ann got divorced two years after this luckless ceremony. 
So remember... always count to ten.

Monday, November 5, 2012

This awful, pagan holidays!


"Poland's Catholic Church has warned that modern Halloween rituals risk promoting the occult." BBC News announced. 

Halloween is getting more and more popular, but why Christians in Poland condemn this holiday? It is considered as pagan, occultic due to its celtic origin and form.
There is one drawback in such reasoning. It is an unpopular topic but lots of Christian traditions and holidays has a pagan origin, for instance: Christmas, Easter, Semik and All Souls' Day.

Christmas- the date of this holiday 25th of December was chosen because of Roman holiday called Saturnalia. Once it was a holiday of  winter solstice. (The Christmas Encyclopedia)  

All Soul's Day - was established as a counterweight to the pagan cult of the dead. So in fact it is like a Christian equivalent. 

Easter - "The Westminster Dictionary of the Bible says that Easter was originally the spring festival in honor of the Teutonic goddess of light and spring known in Anglo-Saxon as Eastre, or Eostre. In any case, the Encyclopedia Britannica (11th Edition) states: 'There is no indication of the observance of the Easter festival in the New Testament.' " btw rabbit and eggs are pagan symbol of fertility.

Semik "is an ancient Slavic fertility festival celebrated in early June and closely linked with the cult of the dead and the spring agricultural rites." Wikipedia

It' s just a curiosity of Christian history. I suppose there must be more causes for this religion not to accept Halloween. I just hope those are better motivated. For me, as an agnostic, there is no rational cause of forbidding it.