What It Was All About
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0Let’s take this one step at a time. Am I implying that the Judeo-Christian God is frivolous? Yes. Am I implying that he is so frivolous that he would sacrifice his only son just so he could get his hands on some prime holiday real estate? You can bet your ass I am.
Ever noticed that with the New Testament comes a more loving and peaceful God? It’s because he finally had some vacation time.
I wonder if God has ever been on a Caribbean Cruise…
People always be talkin’ about how Christian holidays really aren’t Christian holidays. Looking at the historical record, that is pretty apparent. We have no real information on when Jesus was born though some scholars think it was probably in the Spring or in September. Nearly all of them agree that it was not December 25th. There was a long history of celebrations on the 25th before Christianity arrived on the scene. The Babylonians were known to party hardy, the Romans celebrated Saturnalia, and the Pagans of Northern Europe celebrated Yule. To get non-believers to convert to Christianity, the Christian leadership decided to adopt these times to celebrate various holidays with a more Christian spin. Some of them came about pretty early (the celebration of Jesus’s birth in December started around 350 with Pope Julius I) and others were added later.
This is pretty common knowledge at this point.
One of the interesting things to note about this is that the Christian God would almost certainly not have been cool with all this. One of the primary traits this God possesses is Jealousy (with a capital J). He states, “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God…” and later continues, “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.” Celebrating the holidays (for all intents and purposes) of Pagan deities seems a bit contradictory to that message. While you may not be explicitly worshiping those particular deities, it is, at the very least, a bit strange to be celebrating their holidays. This is especially true seeing as the Jewish people (the roots of Christianity) had their own holidays specifically for their deity that Christians could have observed as well.
Regardless, the celebrations and rituals many people observe today are rooted in more history than they realize. That’s pretty cool when you think about it.
Let’s not worry about the weird contradictions that can sometimes bring up.
In other news, I saw Scott Pilgrim VS the World and found it strangely entertaining. It’s cool to see a comic artist with an interesting idea finally see some main stream success. I recommend going to check it out before it leaves theaters, it’s definitely one of those films you want to see on a big screen. And if you haven’t already, read the comic.
Also, I’m going to be at the Small Press Expo with William on September 11th and 12th! It will be taking place at the Bethesday North Marriot Hotel & Conference Center in Maryland. If you’re going to be in the area, stop by our table and say hello and I will give you a high five!
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loved Scott Pilgrim, it was 6 awesome books and an awesome movie. (the plots really start to separate from the third book on though)
Aw, you mean he wasn’t a cat back then too?
I love how the Pagans just meet up with god at some secluded glen to trade for holiday time. Glad the deal went smooth, otherwise there might have been a shooting.
I don’t think that’s a random place. it looks like stonehenge. also: best. comic. EVER.
I’m curious to see when Christianity gets replaced & if it’ll happen in our lifetimes.
Gotta say.. ‘love how quickly you have God agreeing to the terms proposed.
God being jealous and us using pagan holidays might not be so incompatible. Think about it. You’re God, and all these people are worshipping these other gods, and nothing short of direct intervention is gonna change that. Since you abandoned the hardcore stuff a while before, you decide to infiltrate the other religions sneakily. You take over their holidays, and in some multi-century Xanatos gambit you make everyone join your religion and worship you and forget all the other gods. So I think he’d be cool with it because He/we just usurped all the other religions and their holidays for him.
Just as planned.
Except then Consumerism appeared and stole your holidays and started shoe-horning bunnies and fat guys in red suits who break and enter and commit reverse Grand Theft presents into everything bringing back the pagan overtones by some further Xanatos gambit by the displaced gods (or maybe that’s just what the god of consumerism wants us to think). God probably isn’t too happy about this. The holidays he worked so hard to get are being supplanted by freaking Tickle Me Elmo.
Speculation is fun.
hahaha Awesome comment.
i really don’t know how to follow up that last comment, but i think this is one of my favorite strips though. i got into an argument with my very religious friend because they refuse to believe that dec. 25th was anything other than jesus’s birthday, even though it was proven that it was previously used for other holidays for other religions. i tried arguing that it was just to cover up those said holidays and then they just refused to listen
I thought that last panel was going to say soul in the end.
Awesome comic, awesome explanation, Scott Pilgrim is awesomeness taken form.
Another theory on why God had Jesus killed: Jesus was pretty much becoming a god himself. That is a horrible way of putting it, let me explain. As a Jew, I understand that Christians pretty much worship the same God as I do, but I HATE when they say that Jesus and God are the same. It’s like they don’t know their own religion, and Jesus succeeded in creating one of his own. I don’t know if this explains it right, but I hope you get my idea.
Of course this Jewish holiday angle only works if you truly see Christians as successors to Jews. Historically what we think of a “Jewish” was developing in parallel. That is: BOTH Christians and Jews come out of a Hebrew background. One of them highly influenced by Hellenism and Greek philosophy. Jesus is quite obviously a Greek god (Son of god = Dionysus/Hercules) and a soteriologica tragic-mystery ala Orpheus or Persephone. Dude even has Katabasis… more than one if you count the tempting in the desert and the agony in the garden.
Both were influenced through the Hellenistic Neo-Platonic school of philosophy and isosophy. All throughout the Christian growth, there are the Pythagorean number puzzles and stochia, numerous symbols taken such as the Wheel of Chronos, turned into the sign of Christ through the P upon X, and the Gnostic… don’t get me started on that; and throughout the life of the Jewish religion, the adoption of the Greek culture was thrust upon them when Alexander of Macedonia came arumblin’ on through. The word for Synogoge; Greek: the system of using letters for numbers; Greek: I could even go out on a limb and say that a good deal of the Jewish mysticism is derived from the Graeco-Egyptian religious collaboration before and at the time of the god jointly worshiped Serap.
And Hal, only the Catholics pay homage to the saints. It’s a tricky kind of thing, but a lot of the Protestant movement was to get away from the idolatry of the saints and back into the big three.
It’s also interesting to note that people do, in fact, worship idols. Christian people, I mean. They say, “Oh, we are monotheistic”, but if you go to India and see the temples for the different gods, and then you go to Krakow or Paris and see churches dedicated to individual saints, you realize that it’s pretty much the same. Sure, the saints all work for God, but the many major and minor dieties of the Indian pantheon are all aspects of Brahma.
Also, what is this with statues of Mary and Saint Mark and Peter and all that stuff about the Cult of Saint Anne?
I say: Idol worship.
I really like this comic. It’s nice to know why Jesus *really* died. This is even better than the Gnostics’ version of events.
This comic has been nothing short of an amazing source of information for me. As many have said before, I’ve learned more from here than ever in my school!
And as Jimmy Page once said… Ramble On!
Why are they in Ireland?
That would be Stonehenge, England. Not Ireland.
however, I think you meant to write “Christian” rather than “Judeo-Christian” in reference to God sacrificing his son… ’cause that’s definitely not Jewish theology/mythology.
General note: the term “Judeo-Christian” is *way* overused. I think it’s an attempt at recognizing common ground, and can appreciate that. But 1) we Jews have our own identity, and the term can reinforce a sense of Jews as proto-Christians, and 2) people use it all too often in reference to things which aren’t actually Jewish, as above.
thanks!
You’re quite right that these current ‘Christian’ holidays really have nothing to do with Christianity as based on the Bible.
You’re also clearly quite aware that this appropriation of ‘holy days’ was the work of cynical men following their own plans and claiming that they were doing so in the name of Christ.
Which makes this comic even more blasphemous as it was written and drawn in the knowledge that God would not ‘be cool with all this’.
It’s a shame. I like your art style and humour, but not when it’s done in a deliberately ignorant way.
and force your youngest worshippers to hunt for colorful eggs in the name of eostre
Yes Scott Pilgrim forever. When you get right down to it, Christianity is like English, a bastard child of a social construct that takes after all of its older brothers.
@Seth, that just makes the comic even better! Appreciate the humor or move on.