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Mr Kong



Last Updated: 7/19/2008

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Age: 29
Sign: Virgo

Country: UK

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March 19, 2007 - Monday 

Current mood:  complacent
Category: Life
Tag, You're It. I've been tagged...apparently I'm now honour-bound to list 8 things that are true and 8 things that are false. About me. Can you guess which ones are otherwise? OK, Here are the rules.

1. Each player starts with 16 (8 true and 8 false) random facts/habits about themselves.

2. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their 16 things as well as post these rules.

3. At the end of your blog, you need to choose 8 people to get tagged and list their names.

4. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them
they're tagged and to read your blog.


1. I caused one of my primary school teachers to suffer a nervous breakdown following an argument about a spelling test.

2. I am allergic to strawberries.

3. When playing kiss-chase at school I would catch girls for the other boys because I was afraid the girls would punch me if I tried to kiss them.

4. When I was eight years old I accidentally caused a bomb-scare when I left my dads briefcase in the lobby of the MoD headquarters in Whitehall, London.

5. The first girl I ever kissed was called Jo Bowers and I was 16 years old. Her nickname was 'blow-job Bowers'.

6. I have an IQ of 135

7. I lost my job at the Royal Seven Stars hotel after telling a particularly hostile member of the public what they could go and do to themselves if they thought I was going to magically produce a vacant room for them from one of my bodily cavities.

8. I once walked eleven miles in the middle of the night because I didn't want to sleep on someone's floor.

9. When I was younger the only job I could imagine myself doing when I grew up was an Inventor.

10. For years I would not eat chicken noodle soup. This was because of the phrase "use your noodle", meaning brain. I thought it was chicken brain soup.

11. I once went paintballing with a blind girl. She didn't enjoy it so much.

12. I once wrote every derivation and slang-term for the female reproductive organs on a steamed-up mirror at my grandparent's house after taking a bath. I then forgot to wipe it off before leaving the bathroom.

13. I turned down an interview with MI5

14. I once hitchhiked 22 miles to get chips and gravy from a takeaway. I slept that night in the annexe to a hospital mortuary.

15. A person I studied with for my degree, and for whom I wrote the occasional essay for, is now earning three times more than I am. Lesson learnt.

16. Whilst living in Northern Ireland I successfully talked my way out of a beating from a catholic gang by affecting an Irish accent and pretending I was someone else.

Go on then! Sift the pulp fact from the pulp fiction and maybe win a conceptual prize!! I might post the answers with explanations some time tomorrow. I might not.

Excelsior!

I was tagged, so now I tag:

1) The Steve Kelly
2) Amy
3) Craig
4) President Cookie
5) Amphlett and Candy
6) Luke
7) KGSL
8) Paul


Currently watching:
Borat - Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (Widescreen Edition)
Release date: 06 March, 2007
7:04 PM 
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December 24, 2006 - Sunday 

Current mood:  curious
Category: Religion and Philosophy
Well, it's almost the end of the year and we're all exhausted from having spent money over the last few weeks like its an olympic event, so I thought I might offer some light reading material whilst you're gaily supping your seasonal wines and nibbling on your festive nuggets.

I'd heard whisperings that the Christian Celebration of the Birth of Jesus of Nazareth might  have some correlative links with certain Pagan and/or other festivals that traditionally take place over the same period, so Ive done a little digging around and this is what I've found:

Christmas Trees
"In the pre-Christian era the oak was the sacred tree for the Germanic peoples. Legend has it that the missionary to the Germans, St. Boniface, in order to stop sacrifices at their sacred Donar Oak near Geismar, chopped the tree down (725 A.D.). He is said to have replaced the oak with a fir tree, adorned in tribute to the new-born Christ. Ironically, the evergreen tree has been ascribed magical power by the Germanic peoples as a representation of fertility. Today, the fir and its next of kin enjoy the highest degree of popularity. The Christmas tree custom has spread across large parts of the world."

Father Christmas
"The church also placed Christ's birth at the time of the winter solstice and fostered as the bringer of gifts St. Nikolaus, the bishop of Myra in Asia Minor, who died on December 6, 343. Christian symbols and earlier historical layers of Germanic mythological figures began to meld, or to live side by side. Consequently, the old German God Wotan, riding the wild skies with his retinue, emerged out of the pre-Christian past. To this day Nikolaus traditions vary as widely from region to region as his guise and name. He appears as St. Nikolaus (mainly in Catholic areas), Klaus, Nickel, Sünnerklas, Seneklos, Pelznickel, Knecht Ruprecht, Weihnachtsmann and Christkindl (in mostly Protestant areas). He is afoot or astride a white horse, a reindeer, a mule, or even a goat. More diverse than those of the saintly Nikolaus are the many legends and traditions surrounding his often wild companions: the Zwarte Pitt, Hans Muff, Schimmelreiter, Krampus, Leutfresser, Rumpelklas, Schmutzli. A religious myth whose source was in a Semitic nation, was subsequently developed by a Mediterranean people, and finally superimposed on the quite alien mythologies of the Northern Europeans. The result is a wide array of coexisting customs, Christian and Germanic.

Part of the modern American picture of Christmas is that of a magnificent sleigh pulled by eight reindeer carrying a bushy-bearded Santa Claus. The eight reindeer have only been in Santa's service since 1822. That is when Clement Clarke Moore, of Troy, N.Y., wrote his decidedly secular "'Twas the night before Christmas..." Moore's knowledge of popular views of Christmas was based chiefly on the St. Nikolaus customs brought to the area by Dutch, German and Scandinavian immigrants. In the German-speaking countries, and Holland and Belgium as well, December 6 is the most distinctive children's festival of the year. The shops are full of many-shaped biscuits, gilt gingerbreads--sometimes representing the saint--sugar images, toys and other little gifts. On December 5, small children place their shoes on a window sill or in front of the door. If they have a fireplace they will hang their stockings there. In the morning they will find small gifts, an orange and an apple and a small toy.

Forty years after Moore first published his poem, the illustrator and political cartoonist Thomas Nast created the American image of Santa Claus, a combination of Moore's "jolly old elf" and the Pelznickel of Nast's native Bavarian Palatinate. Nast, the son of a Bavarian army bandsman, was born in Landau, in 1840, and came to New York with his parents at age 6. In 1862 he joined Harper's Weekly, primarily as Civil War correspondent and began to produce politically acclaimed cartoons and war sketches. He was asked by a publisher to illustrate a book of holiday poems that included Clement Moore's "A Visit from St. Nicholas." Combining imagery from Moore's verse, and his childhood memories of Christmas, Nast created a rotund, bearded, pipe-smoking figure in a woolly suit and cap, carrying a large sack of toys.

In many regions, and also in the U.S., the festivities originally attributed to the gift-giving St. Nikolaus have been transferred from December 6 to Christmas. The giver of gifts is the 'Weihnachtsmann' [Santa Claus] or the 'Christkindl' [Christchild, an angel]. The latter, misunderstood by Anglophones, became 'naturalized' as 'Kris Kringle'."

Yuletide/Yule Log
 "The Scandinavian solstice traditions had a lot of influences on our celebration besides the hanging of ornaments on evergreen trees. Their ancient festival was called Yuletide and celebrated the return of the sun. One of their traditions was the Yule log. The log was the center of the trunk of a tree that was dragged to a large fireplace where it was supposed to burn for twelve days. From this comes the twelve days of Christmas."

And...

"A special log was chosen on the eve of Yule, for the holiday fire. A small piece from last year's log is used to light the fire. The lighting of the fire was a festive family event, to hurry the return of the sun. Charred pieces from the fire would be kept to protect the house through the coming year. The woods most often sought for the Yule log were birch, oak willow or holly. Today, the Yule log is sometimes represented as a log cake instead. Or a small log is decorated with candles. The burning of the Yule log is a well-known tradition, but it's not often done outside of the Pagan community anymore."

December 25th
"At the time Christmas was created in AD 320, Mithraism was very popular. The early Christian church had gotten tired of their futile efforts to stop people celebrating the solstice and the birthday of Mithras, the Persian sun god. Mithras' birthday was December 25. So the pope at the time decided to make Jesus' official birthday coincide with Mithras' birthday."

Check out Mithra, seems he had a lot in common with the Messiah, except for predating him by around six hundred years.

Look out, here come the Romans...

"Saturnalia is one of the best known ancient celebrations of the Winter Solstice.Saturnalia was held in mid-December with feasting, gift giving and role reversal. The name comes from the Roman God Saturn, who ruled over agriculture. He was the main God honoured at this time, after the fall crops had been sown. Saturnalia lasted for several days (typically 7, but various officials changed the length of the festival on a few occassions). Saturnalia was the greatest festival of the Roman year, and was marked with great feasting, gift-giving, dancing, playing, and relaxing. Homes were decorated, work was suspended, and there was general merry-making done by all."

So when was Jesus born, I hear you cry:

"Jesus Christ was born on September 11th, 3 BC between 6:18 pm and 7:39 pm."
 
How's that for succinct! The theory that goes into all the working out to arrive at that time and date is too involved for me to drag out a choice quote, so if you're curious, and who wouldn't be, click up on these bad boys:

http://users.aristotle.net/~bhuie/birthday.htm
and
http://www.garone.net/tony/themaster.html

So, there you have it, the Roman festival of Saturnalia, The Persian Sun God Mithra, Germanic and Scandinavian Paganism and an American political cartoonist.
Obviously, this could all just be polytheistic tosh and unabashed glory-grabbing by the less in vogue practises of the day, but its a place to start if you, like me, would like to know why we do what we are told to do at this and other times of the year.

I claim no right of authority on behalf of any of these sources, I'm just a curious cat that likes to ask questions.

Seasons greetings to all, and to all a good rest.

-Mr Kong


Sources:
http://www.zenzibar.com/articles/christmas.asp
http://www.serve.com/shea/germusa/pagan.htm
http://www.near-death.com/experiences/origen048.html
Currently watching:
Family Guy, Vol. 1 (Seasons 1 & 2)
Release date: 15 April, 2003
9:39 PM 
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October 29, 2006 - Sunday 

Current mood:  working
Category: MySpace
What? Like you'd read them if I did!
Currently reading:
A Brief History of Time : From the Big Bang to Black Holes
By B/W Figures
Release date: 1988
1:06 PM 
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