christmelicious

Tonight at pub quiz night:

Question: What are the names of 4 people who have federal holidays?

Our answer: Martin Luther King, Jr., Columbus, George Washington, and Abraham Lincoln (well, they got clumped into President's Day...)

Correct answer: Martin Luther King, Jr., Columbus, George Washington, and Jesus Christ

H'okay lady (the quizmaster tonight was a woman). We considered Jesus Christ as a joke, because unlike Jesus (please don't let me start any fights) Abraham Lincoln was a real dude. And even though we no longer celebrate Abe's birthday, one can consider President's Day to be Washington's AND Lincoln's day among other things. Christmas has a rather contraversial origin. In fact, we considered Santa Claus over Jesus Christ.

Here's the thing (wikipedia entry as reference...)
Christmas Tree --> Pagan origins
Christmas occuring in December --> to appease Romans who loved their winter solstice festivals
Ye olden Gregorian calendar dates --> translated to arbitrary Julian calendar dates (unlike Hanukkah, which has the guts to just be whenever it should traditionally be)

Anyway, I'm not arguing that Christmas is a celebration of Christ in some way, whether or not the holiday or date itself is relevant. I'm just typing this out so I can go to bed happy from the Jackie Chan Visa commercial. 'Nite. :-)