If my head wasn't exploding, the irony of
this would be funny.
Yesterday Bill O'Reilly had a guest named Jon Meacham, deploring the "War on Easter", saying amongst other things:
"What do you think Benjamin Franklin and George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and James Madison would have thought about the ACLU, all right, Pledge of Allegiance, no God, Christmas icons out of the public arena? What do you think those guys would have thought about that?"
Video
here, showing two of those "icons" are Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny.
I'm sure Franklin and Washington would've been absolutely flabbergasted to realize that either one of these two symbols was Christian in the slightest, as they did not exist in 1776 (at least not in any widespread way).
The depiction of Santa Claus used by O'Reilly and by most Americans comes from a Coca-Cola advertisement. Before that, Thomas Nast drew a picture of Santa that was similar but this was 1885.
Before then, Santa Claus had a wide variety of depictions, most often a man in green looking like an elf or else a strictly religious figure based on the Catholic/Orthodox Saint Nicholas. Either way, it was considered primarily a European tradition to believe a sprite or elfin figure delivering presents and was not a universal practice in Washington and Franklin's time, nor was it the core element of Christmas as it is today.
Furthermore, in most Christian countries worldwide, the holiday of Easter is far more important than Christmas. This is primarily because the Bible itself never mentions celebrating the date of Jesus' birth, either when Jesus was alive or afterwards (apart from the actual birth ITSELF mind you). As with most Christian holidays, the pre-Christian traditions such as pixies delivering presents was amalgamated into Christian theology to become a hybrid celebration.
Easter is an even better example of this, with the word in English coming from the pagan goddess of fertility Eostre. Most other languages derive the name of the holiday from the Hebrew "Pesach" or Passover, since it occurrs at roughly the same time of year.
All of the "Easter" traditions such as eggs, the painting, eating and hiding thereof, the candy and the Easter bunny itself have absolutely nothing to do with Christianity. Eggs are a very obvious symbol of fertility, as is the rabbit, and once again is a carryover from pagan fertility rites and celebrations. Spring is quite obviously the time of year when the planet begins to issue new life, from trees budding to grass growing to animals mating.
It is incredibly ironic that O'Reilly and Meacham and the rest are really arguing that there is a "war on Christianity" which is really a "war" on the preservation of pagan elements of major holidays. It's always a little strange (to me) how people cling onto the pagan elements as the most important parts of any holiday, from a decorated tree to flowers at the altar to hiding eggs to a magical elf that delivers presents. If that is what people want, that's fine with me, but let's not call them Christian.
Cross-posted from the doubleplusungood crimethink website Flogging the Simian
Peace