Word: pagans
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...inevitable and probably for the best. Not many kids beg to be told a ripping yarn with a feline Messiah. The theological touches in the Lewis and Pullman books are things for adults to ponder--and, when the movie versions come out, to praise or protest. Remember when that pagan fable about Harry Potter appeared as a film? An anguished cry rose from certain Christian groups, but that didn't stop the movies from grossing billions, nor did the films noticeably corrupt the little ones...
...funny thing to have hanging under the branches of stately old Harvard trees. The tire swing has become the pagan totem of our spring rite, and we—its fanatics—flock to it out of simple glee or hipster irony. Like a hypnotic pendulum lulling away the vulgarities of everyday stress, the tire swing beckons us to Yardfest in a more complex way than the food monopoly and in a more subtle way than the rap stars. One can imagine Yardfest without the dining services’ cornucopia, without the spectacle of saccharine country and ironic...
...leaves me cold. It's a holiday that has no idea of what it's really celebrating. Or at least no idea of whom it celebrates: St. Valentine could be any of half a dozen Christian martyrs whom the early church recruited to clean up and bless pagan fertility festivals. Of the top candidates, the best known is a priest named Valentinus, who was beheaded by Emperor Claudius the Cruel on Feb. 14, A.D. 269. Upon slim evidence, whole layers of legend are stacked: that Valentinus performed secret weddings after Claudius banned marriage to prevent soldiers from deserting his armies...
...House of God!) and “Is it to scale?” (YES!). Aliza took pains to explain the careful reasoning behind our choice of structure: “We wanted to put the Christian element back into Christmas, extending it even to the possibly Pagan custom of gingerbread house making.” Marianne took pains to explain the careful reasoning behind Aliza’s choice of satire: “She’s Jewish,” she said, pointing.In the end, Notre-Dame came in second place, losing only to a pagoda over...
...Christmas Story--and the snarky holiday comedies that have followed it--inverts this moral. Here, the Christmas celebrated by the greater society is crass, stressful and risible. The movie opens with a crowd of kids staring slack-jawed at the pagan temple of a store-window display. (No, George--that's where my money is!) In the end, the characters discover an authentic holiday outside the usual traditions--as when Ralphie and family, their turkey devoured by the neighbor's dogs, discover "Chinese turkey" (Peking duck) at a chop-suey restaurant. It's the individual Christmas that matters. Bedford Falls...