From Austria here: Our national Christmas traditions are very strange, and I am thankful that my parents tried to strip away everything from the holiday that didn't point to the birth of Christ, since the other Austrian traditions don't. One year when I was in school, my teacher thought it would be a fun idea instead of a "Saint Nicholas" coming to bring us chocolate, to have a "Krampus" come instead. We still got chocolate, but the "Krampus" praised the troublemakers in a silly way, and rebuked the good kids. It was weird. Austrian kids write letters with a wish list to "the Christ-child". Sounds kind of like it might point to the birth of Christ, but look closer and it actually doesn't. Christ didn't remain a little child. The reason we celebrate His birth is because He is now the Kind of Kings and Lord of Lords. And then also the "Christ-child" is usually depicted as a little flying girl with golden curls... That is not Christ! Don't insult our Lord by reimagining Him to make Him a cute, silly fairytale. And then there's the endless amount of cookies we're expected to bake and consume throughout the entire season. Does it honor the Lord to ruin our health in such a drastic way? We still celebrate the Incarnation on December 24, since we don't know the exact day, but we try to question how we celebrate this significant event.
Amen! Great teaching! Please, put some more videos together concerning this topic.
Really enjoyed this one, it was enriching. Looking forward to upcoming videos!
From Austria here: Our national Christmas traditions are very strange, and I am thankful that my parents tried to strip away everything from the holiday that didn't point to the birth of Christ, since the other Austrian traditions don't. One year when I was in school, my teacher thought it would be a fun idea instead of a "Saint Nicholas" coming to bring us chocolate, to have a "Krampus" come instead. We still got chocolate, but the "Krampus" praised the troublemakers in a silly way, and rebuked the good kids. It was weird. Austrian kids write letters with a wish list to "the Christ-child". Sounds kind of like it might point to the birth of Christ, but look closer and it actually doesn't. Christ didn't remain a little child. The reason we celebrate His birth is because He is now the Kind of Kings and Lord of Lords. And then also the "Christ-child" is usually depicted as a little flying girl with golden curls... That is not Christ! Don't insult our Lord by reimagining Him to make Him a cute, silly fairytale.
And then there's the endless amount of cookies we're expected to bake and consume throughout the entire season. Does it honor the Lord to ruin our health in such a drastic way? We still celebrate the Incarnation on December 24, since we don't know the exact day, but we try to question how we celebrate this significant event.
Amen and God bless.