People embrace Christianity, for soon thereafter you will have Gay Marriage

It's nearly the fourth Advent! 

I mentioned that we don't have the "traditional" 4 candles this year, just one massively big one, and I was cherry picking my traditions like a bad religious zealot does from his holy text - but it turns out that it was a tradition in England of olde to actually just have one big candle!  This actually stems from the custom of emphasising light in the darkest days of winter - asserting faith in the eventual return of the sun.

As the Solstice has now been and gone (December 21st for all you non witchyfolk) and the darkest and longest day of the year is now behind us, it is nice to have as much light and warmth as you can to remind you that before too long we'll be celebrating the return of the light (Imbolc).  I happily lit the candle, placed it in front of the Tree (of sorts...) and then switched on the Christmas Lights.

Goodbye Sun, see you real soon!

So I am always trawling the news, checking out how the world deals with it's diverse population.  I have straight friends who are always letting me know how okay it is to be gay nowadays.  They do not always think very hard about this. They possibly do not even consider countries other than the one they are currently living in but like Americans who view the rest of world as an extension of Disneyland, most of my straight friends will happily holiday in Dubai or Jamaica or wherever they fancy, and quite often then recommend such places "Oh you should try the food there... it's divine!".

I sometimes point out that if I actually lived in said country that I would most likely be beaten, killed or subjected to torture perhaps.  Even this doesn't necessarily stop them - they will point out that it is quite safe for Westerners in the resorts, etc. but I usually stop them there - it is never my idea of a fun time to willingly imprison myself in a resort for the entire duration of my holiday - in fact, resorts are not really our thing anyway.

So what countries do we travel to then?

Well, oddly enough, they tend to be Christian - or formerly Christian, now quite secular places.  And this got me thinking - is this a necessary step towards the enlightenment of society?   The Christianness? 

Should we be conquering all the nations that are not Christian into being Christian, then sit back, wait 200 years, add a pinch of democracy, allow other faiths and cultures to influence (including all the indigenous faiths that are nearly almost, but never quite entirely, eliminated when Christianity takes hold) and voila!  Gay Marriage!?

It sounds incongruous, especially when we consider that in any Marriage Equality debate held in any country over the last decade or so, it is often Christian "leaders" who voice the strongest (and most ridiculous) opposition to it. 

These are folks who claim not to be homophobic, but then go on about the FEARS they have of what will happen to society if marriage is extended to allow LGBTQ* folk as well as heterosexual couples.

Statistically, however, it shows that there is not ONE country that is not Christian that has embraced Marriage Equality.  Even Israel does not have it.  They may have a watered down version of a recognised union (and hey, this is better than getting thrown of a rooftop, right?) but it is still not equality - and nowadays, for me, it really needs to be.

This may well all change - I am really hoping it does.  I would LOVE to have a Buddhist, or a Muslim majority nation challenge the status quo and leap forward into a secular loving society - but that is unlikely to happen anytime soon.  Sadly, the most likely reason for this is because America always needs to have somebody they can fight against at any given moment.  I honestly think we could have achieved World Peace sometime last decade if we did not stupidly follow the warmongers (a.k.a. those making the most money out of weapons and war) into battle whenever they manipulated us to do so, but that is for another blog.

This one is about Jesus, and Christmas.  And quite frankly after all this deliberating and investigation, I'm going to include a little baby Jesus in my decorations around the tree this year after all.  Yup.  It is going to be a symbol of Marriage Equality - may it grow and spread and fill the world with joy and love.

Just like Jesus, who was, at least a little bit, gay.

The Zero of Advent

What's that?  Christmas decorations are up and people are adding seasonally charged holiday memes to their profile pics on social media?

Ah, it must be the zero of Advent.  You know, it's not the FIRST of ADVENT, when traditionally we actually start celebrating this ADVENTure - it's some time before (and if you're a department store or supermarket chain, apparently it can be just after or even just before, Hallowe'en!!!).

Most folks are aware (it is known) that the advents (there are four) are the previous Sundays prior to December 25th - in whichever month they may fall - sometimes the first of advent is the last Sunday in November!  This year, the first of advent will be on my birthday.  (this does not make me special or one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse by the way, in case you were wondering....).

Advent, comes from the Latin adventus - which loosely translated means "arrival (of a king)".  It's a translation of the Greek "parousia" and has become associated with the Christian belief that Jesus will return (supposedly shortly after those aforementioned four horsemen) and reign supreme on this planet and kick out all the competition and the Christians will rejoice because they always believed they were right all along and that all the other religions were wrong ('cept for Buddha, I suppose, who never was a deity but (in some of the stories) became a deity, so he'll probably come back at around the same time and he and Jesus will have to fight it out to prove who really rules the roost).

But enough of this silliness.  My version of Christmas has nothing to do with Christianity (anymore) and we don't even have four candles (we have one big one, and we'll light it whenever we feel like it, thank you very much).  It's a truly agnostic festival for us in the Fabulous Gay Apartment.  And because I don't know if there really is any great deity worth celebrating at this time of year, I can include whatever I feel like and whatever feels right.  For me, that means celebrating the  onset of deepest darkest winter.

So my second cousin, Ben,  has arrived in Blighty with friends (and now girlfriend) in tow, and for the first time I've actually been treated as a family member who must organise and prepare festivities.  Because the whole world closes from about the 24th December onwards - if you're not with family, well, you're not doing much until the world reawakens sometime after Boxing Day.

Ashton's (Ben's friend) got a Drone!

I've decided that we need to have a traditional English Christmas - but without Midnight Mass at the local CoE, so what on earth does that mean?

Luckily there is so much left within the traditions of Christmas that is not Christian, or that has been borrowed from a time before Christianity.  The whole Winter Solstice occurring on December 21, for example, surprising close to this birthday of Jesus that we end up celebrating, is a tad suspicious to me.

Celebrating the onset of winter makes great sense when you live in the Northern Hemisphere.  It really gets cold here, and the further North you go (where all our great pagan traditions stem from) the colder it is and the value of having a big celebratory feast prior to everyone holing themselves up for the next few months until the snow has melted is immense.  There was no guarantee that you would see these people alive again as not everyone survived a Winter back in the day.  So meeting up just before the real cold sets in, meeting up and drinking and being merry and exchanging love and gifts was not only eminently sensible but also very necessary. Celebrate the inevitability of the seasons.  Save up your firewood and create a warm space.  Then everyone goes home and if you survive until Imbolc in early February, well jolly good too.

Funnily enough, our home is already strewn with festive-like decorations - David strung up our chillies a few months ago, they hang from the curtain rails in our Fabulously Festive Gay Lounge.  They do suit the seasonality about to descend on us all as soon as tomorrow arrives!