I disagree. All religious festivals need anchors, otherwise they dissappear. There are thousands of religious festivals that have disappeared. You can find plenty of them in Roman and Greek literature. Festivals remain if they change to the new anchors as the cultures change. Even though it remains relevant, Christmas has moved from a pa…
I disagree. All religious festivals need anchors, otherwise they dissappear. There are thousands of religious festivals that have disappeared. You can find plenty of them in Roman and Greek literature. Festivals remain if they change to the new anchors as the cultures change. Even though it remains relevant, Christmas has moved from a pagan winter solstice ritual, to a Christian ritual, to a Commercial Materialist ritual. My point about Santa Claus is that in the future it could switch anchors to become a Political Materialist ritual. A change in anchors results in a change in MEANING. If you were ask young people today and young people 200 years ago if they knew what Christmas was, they would all say yes. But if you asked them the MEANING of Christmas, the two groups would give you very different answers. The anchor, and thus the underlying values represented by the ritual have changed. There are certain religious archetypes that are repeated throught almost all cultures that never really go away such as remembrance of the dead. If a religious ritual is important enough, it will be shifted to a new anchor or recreated as a culture changes.
I disagree. All religious festivals need anchors, otherwise they dissappear. There are thousands of religious festivals that have disappeared. You can find plenty of them in Roman and Greek literature. Festivals remain if they change to the new anchors as the cultures change. Even though it remains relevant, Christmas has moved from a pagan winter solstice ritual, to a Christian ritual, to a Commercial Materialist ritual. My point about Santa Claus is that in the future it could switch anchors to become a Political Materialist ritual. A change in anchors results in a change in MEANING. If you were ask young people today and young people 200 years ago if they knew what Christmas was, they would all say yes. But if you asked them the MEANING of Christmas, the two groups would give you very different answers. The anchor, and thus the underlying values represented by the ritual have changed. There are certain religious archetypes that are repeated throught almost all cultures that never really go away such as remembrance of the dead. If a religious ritual is important enough, it will be shifted to a new anchor or recreated as a culture changes.