I don't engage in "winter solstice celebrations," and I have zero issues with Christmas or Easter. What was the pagan imagery in your case?
As you know, the winter solstice is a calculation, the one day per year, for each hemisphere, where the respective pole is furthest from the Sun. I don't want to put words in your mouth, but is acknowledging the shortest day of the year (in terms of sunlight) a pagan practice to you or others here? If so, it's not "pagan," it's practical. There are limitless tangible benefits to planning around such an event.
If that's pagan, so is acknowledging the tides, or that leaves fall in autumn, or that temperatures fluctuate depending on time of year, or that planets have moons or other orbiting satellites. Is taking advantage of understanding time and cyclical patterns "pagan?"
My issues with religion overlap significantly with my issues with feminists, LGBTwhatever, BLM, etc., it's just often a matter of degree. Outsiders and non-believers are looked down on (case in point), transgressions by insiders are rationalized away or ignored or celebrated, explanations or claims of natural and social phenomena lack even the slightest pieces of convincing evidence, the tiniest worldview challenges result in zealous tribalism and denial, and censorship and silencing dissent are commonplace.
I also think religion is basically arbitrary and almost always a product of geography first, but people have a problem with admitting to themselves that it may mean they're susceptible to suggestion, so they get defensive. Just like every ideologue on the planet. Wait, it is a planet we're on, right? Or is that "pagan?"
As you know, the winter solstice is a calculation, the one day per year, for each hemisphere, where the respective pole is furthest from the Sun. I don't want to put words in your mouth, but is acknowledging the shortest day of the year (in terms of sunlight) a pagan practice to you or others here? If so, it's not "pagan," it's practical. There are limitless tangible benefits to planning around such an event.
I'm not sure if I'd call it a "pagan ritual", but the fart-sniffing here needs some sort of name.
I don't engage in "winter solstice celebrations," and I have zero issues with Christmas or Easter. What was the pagan imagery in your case?
As you know, the winter solstice is a calculation, the one day per year, for each hemisphere, where the respective pole is furthest from the Sun. I don't want to put words in your mouth, but is acknowledging the shortest day of the year (in terms of sunlight) a pagan practice to you or others here? If so, it's not "pagan," it's practical. There are limitless tangible benefits to planning around such an event.
If that's pagan, so is acknowledging the tides, or that leaves fall in autumn, or that temperatures fluctuate depending on time of year, or that planets have moons or other orbiting satellites. Is taking advantage of understanding time and cyclical patterns "pagan?"
My issues with religion overlap significantly with my issues with feminists, LGBTwhatever, BLM, etc., it's just often a matter of degree. Outsiders and non-believers are looked down on (case in point), transgressions by insiders are rationalized away or ignored or celebrated, explanations or claims of natural and social phenomena lack even the slightest pieces of convincing evidence, the tiniest worldview challenges result in zealous tribalism and denial, and censorship and silencing dissent are commonplace.
I also think religion is basically arbitrary and almost always a product of geography first, but people have a problem with admitting to themselves that it may mean they're susceptible to suggestion, so they get defensive. Just like every ideologue on the planet. Wait, it is a planet we're on, right? Or is that "pagan?"
I'm not sure if I'd call it a "pagan ritual", but the fart-sniffing here needs some sort of name.