Hot Button Topics (religion, politics, sports)

[SleepyD]

Ah, religion.
Not sure what to talk about, but being of Filipino ethnicity, the default religion is Roman Catholic, of which I am a member.

I guess I'm fairly religious, but I keep that close to my heart. Most people don't know unless they ask me. I've noticed that among the otaku crowd and among the young scientist/engineer crowd, I'm a rather rare sort. Not to mention I am Jesuit-educated, so I am more than willing question my religion.

As it stands, there certainly are questions, but since the Church is open to change, albeit very SLOW change (see: Copernicus/Galileo, Vatican II), I've found no real reason to leave. Faith in God and Church is still intact.

My cousin is Mormon, btw. Although, I'm pretty sure he converted so he could marry his girlfriend. He doesn't talk much about religion, but he hasn't changed anyhow, so I don't see anything wrong with it from that perspective. haha

[Nichi]

@Kari: Your mentioning of a "finding oneself" phase reminds me of my own personal one; trying to find somewhere I belong. I suppose I finally found it, since I'm planning on a cross-country move :3

I generally can't stand Jehova's Witnesses, mostly due to the ones that go door-to-door, although one of my dad's former coworkers from the hospital was one, and he was a pretty cool guy in my opinion; he wasn't the type to try and convert his coworkers, and had respect for their beliefs.

Granted, I'm not fond of the kind of people who feel the need to force their religion onto others; regardless of what it might be, or what the other person's beliefs are. Even when I still identified as Christian, I still had other Christians trying to force their beliefs onto me because I seemed depressed. There was no way that could be because of working a soul-crushing job where it felt like most everyone hated my existence; it had to be that I wasn't part of their religion >_>

[alfonso_rd_30]

@ Sleepy in my case my religion is my family's motto on the side of my dad "Praise God thoough work..."

but I am as catholic as the anyone save the amish my church is dividing between holding out a shovel, handing concrete to my dad and granddad or doing some of the work myself and typing away in my laptop...

[NejinOniwa]

Jesuits eh. Interesting. Most of what I know of them is that they used to be the Pope's private spy force back in the day...

An amusing thing to note is that the majority of Swedish feastdays and much of their celebration are, in fact, pagan - and nobody really cares much about the christian ones. The most important theme in our holidays remain, getting piss-drunk.

The "big" holidays in Sweden are Midsummer, Midwinter/Yule, New Year's and Walpurgis (30th of April/1st of May). Yule ("Jul" in swedish) has of course been set upon by the christian tradition like bloodhounds, but the big elements remain the same. Yes, the Advent is a purely christian tradition, but on the other side, Lucia is just a pagan tradition stamped with a random Italian saint and released back into the wild. While there's no sacrifice to be spoken of, the enormous feasts around the blot (Julbord) remain.
Midsummer is originally a fertility festival, and whatever the christians may think of it we still erect a 20 meter tall pole with 2 balls hanging from it every year, and dance around it like silly people and get piss-drunk and screw each other in the aftermath of that.
New Year's is the festival of bombs and explosions. Oh, and getting piss-drunk.
WALPURGIS (Valborg) is the festival of making an enormous fucking bonfire and getting piss-drunk. Uppsala is the national capital of this holiday, where it has been partitioned into a few easy-to-remember feastdays:
"Skvalborg" on the 28th, where the students start ramping things up and drinking their heads off.
"Kvalborg" on the 29th, where the students keep the pressure up and most notably half of the city's non-student population leaves town in order to avoid the chaos. They are of course replaced by more students elsewhere.
Valborg on the 30th, when the chaos is complete, with the annual river bash (people build floats and enter them in a rafting contest down the Fyris river in the middle of the city-center), the outrunning, and of course, bonfires everywhere. This is the day to be in Uppsala.
"Totalborg" on the 1st of May, when half the people are still hung over, half the others are out being political and the rest of town starting to trickle back home. This is pretty much the after-party to 3 straight days of partying, and it's crazy.

I'll give you coverage of it later

Nobody really cares much about easter except for the fact that you get a few days off work or a week off school, and you get an excuse to buy insane amounts of candy. Be ware - we do our Trick/Treat games on Maundy Thursday. You also paint eggs, hide candy-filled eggs and eat a lot. Oh, and let's not forget - get piss-drunk.
Halloween et al...nobody really cares, unless someone they knew died recently.

What are the big holidays where you live?

[Simonorged]

On the topic of holidays, Christmas trees, it is a Christmas tree, NOT a holiday tree.
People don't use one for any other holiday, so instead of sugar coating it, why not call it what it is.



Also that bonfire thing sounds like a lot of fun.
You get to burn things.


And another thing. God does not say personally(and you can dispute me on this) that he is a man. In fact he doesn't mention his personal gender once.

[Chocofreak13]

good question nej! though it's a split question, as there are the "big holidays" and then the "holidays we celebrate".

this past year was a miserable one, but i can remember the previous year and give you the rundown of that.

~new years involves my parents (or at least my mum since my dad's a bit of a party-pooper) going off to some random party/my uncle's new year's bash and coming home (him)/coming home rather late (her). i usually sit at home alone in front of the tv with cream puffs to watch the ball drop.
~valentine's isn't much celebrated among us outside of the obligatory box o' chocos (lol), but occasionally i bake cookies for people. and sit at home and snuggle my plushies and feel less alone.
~st. patty's day is a touchy topic for me; being so close to my birthday it usually outshines my day. i even used to get told 'you should dye your hair green for st. patrick's day!!" by some of my less than intelligent classmates in high school, so typically i sit this one out, usually sporting a green ribbon somewhere so i don't get harassed. >>;
~easter used to involve candy/egg hunts, but now it just involves icky brunches at my aunt's house and going out the day after to splurge on discount jelly beans.
memorial day usually passes without much fanfare. someone might have a cookout if the weather's nice. parades go on, but i haven't been to a memorial day parade specifically in years.
~4th of july is another touchy one because TECHNICALLY my sister was born on the 4th of july. (her birth certificate, however, says the 3rd, since she was born overnight.) my uncle peter always has a HUGE cookout on the 4th of july (he's toned it down in recent years because most of his guests are asshole mooches with no manners, but in the past he used to have huge meaty blowouts with several steaks, hot dogs, burgers, and he's even roasted whole pigs in the past.) we usually stop by these days (i've sworn off his holiday parties for a couple reasons...), they light off some fireworks and we go to the salem fireworks behind the high school. there's a large field and we bring chairs and blankets and it's always a good time.
~labor day occasionally has a cookout. sometimes. if the weather's nice.
~halloween used to involve trolling 2 towns in search of candy (and if i was shorter i'd still go, since we live down the street from the mansions that give out king size candy bars and toys), but these days it usually means forgetting to buy the candy till the last minute and then just saying "screw it" cause no one comes to our house anyway.
~thanksgiving is where shit gets real. huge holiday dinners at multiple family members' houses. giant turkey AND giant ham. mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, peas, carrots, corn, squash, beets, 2 kinds of rolls and bread, homemade gravy, banana bread, homemade pies and cookies, etc etc. i haven't nicknamed it "National Stuff Your Face Day" for nothing. (such an american holiday. the whole purpose is to stuff your face and then fall asleep in front of the tv.)
~Christmas is the biggest holiday of the year around here. preperations would begin before december was even here, and there would be much christmas music and complaining over how there wasn't snow and mall-closing shopping trips and wrapping and SO. MANY. COOKIES.
this past christmas, however, was miserable. considering this was the first christmas without my grandmother, who was both the pillar of the family and the driving force behind the holiday, it felt empty in many ways. as we adjust and heal, the holiday will get better. but this past year was just plain depressing.

@simon: that is a misconception. the original traditions of Yule involved bringing a tree into the house. the christians co-opted a LOT of traditions for their holidays. so yes, it's alright to call it a holiday tree. and i don't like you calling other people's views/manner of speech foolish. think before you speak, boy.

@alphonso: so worship through hard work? hard work is a good value to have, religious or not ^^

@pent: i call it a "finding myself" phase because i don't have a better word for it. it wasn't really a time of confusion or latching onto different things till i found what fits. i was youngish, and was becoming more religiously self-aware, so it was just finding what came naturally. shintoism did, but due to lack of access i found something else that came even more naturally. helps that i got my first pentagram in 5th grade. xD

[Simonorged]

@simon: that is a misconception. the original traditions of Yule involved bringing a tree into the house. the christians co-opted a LOT of traditions for their holidays. so yes, it's alright to call it a holiday tree. and i don't like you calling other people's views/manner of speech foolish. think before you speak, boy.

Will do.  I apologize if I insulted anyone, all I'm saying is that it's not tied to that many holidays, "holiday" is too broad a term.

If that was the case you'd see one on Valentines Day, or Easter or groundhogs day or even New years, people have probably done that for the fun of it.

[Chocofreak13]

actually, we drove by a house that still has the tree up. :3

[Nichi]

In my family, this is how it typically rolls:

- New Year's: We don't really do anything anymore. We had a tradition of going to see a movie in theaters on New Year's Eve, but that fell by the wayside after a while. So, now I typically do something on into next year...although 2012 into 2013 was the first time since about '06 that I didn't do anything, since I was feeling sick (Part of me regrets missing out on Changeling, but because I was forced to work a closing shift plus I was running a fever and couldn't really concentrate, there was no way I could have pulled it off)

- Valentine's Day: We never did anything special for it. Maybe mom and dad would go out for a nice dinner, but that's about it

- St. Patrick's Day: Baked potatoes for dinner. Hell yes -w-

- Dogwood Trails Festival: Not really a holiday, but a weekend-long festival in my hometown, which happens in early spring. We always went to the parade when I was little, and we'd often wonder around downtown during it (Where they have a small flea market, with people selling really cool stuff you can't easily find any other time of year).

- Easter: We typically meet up with family (Most often mom's side) and have a nice dinner, and also exchange birthday gifts (Since so many of the birthdays of the grandchildren on mom's side are in April). When I was younger, we did have Easter egg hunts, but those died off over time. We sometimes meet up with dad's side, but when we do, it's much smaller.

- Independence Day (4th of July): Most often, dad fires up the grill and makes cheeseburgers and hot dogs. We occasionally meet up with family for their barbecues, but it's not as often as it used to be.

- Halloween: For years I never got to take part in it, because of grandma ruining the holiday for dad by scaring him with the story about the guy who poisoned some candy. I did trick-or-treat for a while when mom finally decided "screw it; let's go meet up with your cousins and have some fun", which was enjoyable mostly for wearing a costume. Nowadays, since I rarely have an opportunity to go out in costume, I mostly watch old episodes of Are You Afraid of the Dark, or go all-out with cheesy horror movies such as Amityville IV (The one with the demon-possessed lamp killing people) or Killer Klowns from Outer Space.

- Thanksgiving: This is where things get complicated. I often have *two* Thanksgivings; typically meeting up with my dad's family for lunch, then meeting up with mom's family for dinner that night. Sometimes we don't meet with mom's family, though; since they often travel out of the way to meet up with relatives who, while knowing all about my aunts and their kids, seem shocked when they learn that mom got married and has two fully grown kids, which leads to me feeling out of place :\

- Christmas: While things have never been stable with Christmas on my mom's side (Sometimes we meet up before or after for gifts; depending on everyone's work schedules and holiday plans), my dad's side has a long-standing tradition going way back of everyone gathering together on Christmas Eve night and having a nice dinner before opening presents. It's always nice; as my grandpa makes damn good banana pudding, plus I often enjoy getting gifts for people (Although, I find it easier to shop for friends and my sister than anyone else; so while I often start Christmas shopping as early as August or September, I often don't have it finished until a few weeks before Christmas)

[Simonorged]

I was born on St. Patrick's Day

Sorry if I'm coming off as a religious asshole.

[Chocofreak13]

i want banana pudding. :00

i forgot, there's 2 town festivals that we may or may not participate in:

The Strawberry Festival, which occurs about mid June. it used to be better, but since they've located everything at the new library it's sort of gone downhill. nowadays we really only go for the book sale, if we go at all.

Salemfest occurs sometime in mid-to-late September. there are various activities scattered throughout town, but since it usually occurs on a saturday we don't usually go, sadly. this past year was an exception, since i was over at my grandparents' on that saturday and managed to walk away from the book sale with 42 books/VHSes for $4. -w-

@simon: coo-oool. :0

[SleepyD]

Jesuits eh. Interesting. Most of what I know of them is that they used to be the Pope's private spy force back in the day...

Haha, can't say I've heard that, but soon after the Jesuits were founded they were a significant force for reforming the Church from the inside. See: Counter-Reformation. And at one point they were persecuted against by the Pope, so Jesuits have had ups and downs with their relationship with the Vatican.
There's also a very strong missionary streak with them, and were rather successful in doing so, like in Japan with St. Francis Xavier. Their success makes me think that they did not just preach blindly, they tried to understand the culture they were trying to convert first. (Damn good success too, since even after Japan closed itself off and actively persecuted Kirishitan Japanese, the descendants were still faithful even after 200+ years without western contact)

I feel this sort of culture of questioning and understanding (and a little bit of the military origins too) still permeates their educational efforts, and I am a product of said education. I would not trade it for anything else.

actually, we drove by a house that still has the tree up. :3

We bring down the tree at the Epiphany, which is generally the Sunday after New Year's for us. Unless we're lazy for some reason. haha

[Chocofreak13]

i get the feeling either these people were lazy, wanted to leave it up for the winter or just liked having it around. at least it's not like the people that have the icicle lights still up in july. :\

i wasn't aware epiphany was a holiday. :0

as for jesuits, while i respect the desire to question everything and understand other cultures, i've never been fond of missionary cultures. the only good things to come of it was updated technology/medical treatments being given to cultures in the dark about such things. conversion, that i've never been fond of. i'm not fond of persecution, either, though.

[Nichi]

I actually have a miniature (Roughly 6-inch) Christmas tree up year round. Granted, the decorations are stored away; so it's just a decorative shrubbery the rest of the year

[Chocofreak13]

i keep my little silver one out year-round....but that's mostly because i use it with my dolls and i don't feel like stashing it away when none of their other stuff is stashed away.