Have a Merry Happy.

Season’s Greetings to all! And if you still reckon these seasons according to traditional ways, then Merry Christmas! Also - Happy New Year, Happy Hanukkah, may your Yule Log burn brightly, may St. Nicholas have undue compassion upon you, may you even have a Festive Saturnalia (if you - or perhaps some of your acquaintances- [or relatives] consider you to be pre-Christian), just - not TOO festive; and if you are Buddhist, you might just want to sit quietly, and think about it - or maybe think about something else - or maybe even nothing at all.

The word "merry" has gone through quite an evolution. Originally, back around 600 B.C. it simply meant "short", then due to some mischief of a derived factitative verb, it came to mean "to shorten", and from there evolved into a usage describing "pleasing", "pleasant", "enjoyable", "agreeable", "delightful" and THEN, around 1600, "mirth" crept in, and "merry" began to go giddy. Now, if you're "Merry", then you've probably gone a little bit too far. (All of the preceding is an elaborate corruption of the Oxford English Dictionary.)

But to get back to serious matters, If Christ was actually born according to the details related in the New Testament, when shepherds had brought their sheep back in the hills after the winter was over, then that birth really must have taken place some where around the middle of April. Astrologically, one author places it on April 17, 6 BC. (Michael Molnar, The Star of Bethlehem: The Legacy of the Magi. Rutgers University Press, 1999. ISBN 08135-270-5) Dr. Molnar bases his concept on belief that the Maji were not astronomers (there weren’t any back then) but they were astrologers. And if you will read his book he points out a “fantastic combination” of astrological signs around April 17, 6 B.C. I have corrensponded with Dr. Molner and pointed out to him that there is a corresponding assertion in a book on Gnani Yoga written by Yogi Ramacharaka in 1906. Dr. Molner said he was not aware of that.

Then there is Santa Claus. Our modern model has evolved over many centuries. Perhaps the oldest male deity in European history is a cagy guy known as the Horned God. Images of him date back to prehistoric cave drawings in Lascaux, France. He appeared as Pan Pangenitor to the ancient Greeks, and as Cernunnos to the Celts, and as numerous other horned or antlered fertility deities across Europe. On the eve of the Winter's Solstice, he was believed to impregnate the cold, dead Earth Mother, so that she may resurrect and give birth to new, green life in the spring.

The celebration of the Solstice was officially forbidden by the Christian Church, but continued on among peasants and even wealthy nobles. Finally, some 350 years after the supposed event, Pope Julius I acquiesced and created the holiday we now know as "Christmas", substituting the birth of Jesus for the veneration of the Pangenitor in an attempt to transform that quite substantial pagan holiday into a Christian one. Still, the figure of the Horned God survived into the character we today know as "Santa Claus," the "Old Man of the North," the ancient, furry, man in red who is borne aloft by a team of horned bucks and "delivers the goods" to the entire planet in one magical night.

Well, that’s just food for thought. But - may we all have a Happy Christmas Day, A Merry New Year’s Eve, and a Fantastic Year to Come!

John.