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Original poster

to be cross with my elderly fil about the meaning of easter

585 replies

nickschick · 04/04/2010 21:18

Bit tongue in cheek really.

FIL was today bemoaning the fact that he couldnt go to tesco for his cigar supply as they were shut for Easter.

Its only Easter he said they could have had usual Sunday hours ,its not like Christmas or anything.....

ONLY EASTER?????? i SHOUTED - JESUS DIED ON A CROSS FOR US!!!! EASTER IS MORE SPECIAL THAN CHRISTMAS - YES EASTER IS IMPORTANT.

and that sais dh is why you should never discuss religion with a catholic especially not one who sat in a cold church for an hour and a half last night at the easter vigil.

OP posts:
roulade · 05/04/2010 08:57

PeppaPig I don't know about Gaelicsheep but I certainly do all that on a Thursday night so i don't have to waste my precious weekend in a poxy supermarket!

shockers · 05/04/2010 09:05

Is trailing round the shops really a 'family' activity?

It was a beautiful day yesterday (for this time of year), in fact we all got sunburnt faces.
AND we saw a sparrowhawk catch a smaller bird and a weasel running along the bank of a ditch.... twas a good day

shockers · 05/04/2010 09:06

But not for the smaller bird...

ben5 · 05/04/2010 09:12

some shops were open easter sunday here but all were shut good friday. the big shops and shopping centres are still shut on a sunday in rockingham, just south of perth, australia. they open on sundays during school holidays but thats it.

fiveisanawfullybignumber · 05/04/2010 09:25

Faddle Great post, well said!!!
As for you non believers not affecting us Christian , you just want the right to shop.
DH was brought up Catholic, now attends CofE church with me and the DC's. He has a strong belief, yet has had to work Good Friday & today as he is a retail manager and doesn't have enough staff to be able to take those important (to us) days off.
So yes, all you self thinking, each for their own, don't care if I insulted the Christians out there HAVE affected our special time.
Please stop with the Christian bashing, I wouldn't dream of verbally attacking anyone elses non/beliefs. It's just downright rude and intolerant.

muminthemiddle · 05/04/2010 09:27

I think all shops should be closed Christmas day, Boxing Day, Easter Sunday and Easter monday.
Where I live some shops still close early on a wednesday and you just organise yourself to shop early, go shopping on another day.

I cannot believe the number of people who cannot cope without shopping every day.

Shops never used to open sundays and nobdy died.
Get a grip and do something else.

uniqueatlast · 05/04/2010 09:30

I'd also like to add that Easter was not originally a pagan festival that was highjacked by Christians. Easter is tied to the Passover.

shockers · 05/04/2010 09:44

I think that a lot of religious festivals are held at the times of pagan festivals because they are times of seasonal change. Spring is a time of rebirth for nature and so holds great symbolism.

Nobody knows when Jesus was actually born (although a lots of theologians think it was sometime in October) but the depths of December seemed a good time to celebrate symbolically as he is "The Light of the World". There was a pagan festival around that time too.

It's likely that Passover origionated in much the same way.

shockers · 05/04/2010 09:47

....and that is why Jesus was in Jerusalem when he was killed.

SolidGoldBrass · 05/04/2010 09:50

It's not, actually, been proven as a fact that a specific individual called Jesus was either born at Christmas (even some believing historians reckon it was a different time of year) nor that this specific individual was executed for sedition thus triggering 'Christianity' - and the 'rising from the dead' bit is definitely not a fact but a myth.

Greensleeves · 05/04/2010 09:51

and not even an original myth - nicked from the ancient Egyptians

runnybottom · 05/04/2010 09:58

Of course easter was a pagan festival first, just look at the name of it!

You all seem to think tha disagreeing with you is insulting you. Your religious stories are myths that don't make much sense to the rest of us. We are allowed to say so, you are so precious about it that you think everything is an attack.
And it isn;t about needing to shop every day, you are missing the point, its about one group of people saying that their idea about something is more important than everyone elses and that we can put up and shut up.

claig · 05/04/2010 10:02

there is a world of difference between the teachings of Jesus Christ and the druidic human sacrificing crap-peddlers, and the worship of the Pharoah and representation of gods as jackals which was prevalent in Eqyptian religious thought.

shockers · 05/04/2010 10:05

So if you non-Christians went to live in a Muslim country, you would expect to shop etc on their religious holidays? And have them serve you?
I'm just saying that shops closing for two days a year (and they weren't all closed anyway) is done as a mark of respect for some folk's religion.
Respect for others belief is a good thing surely?

shockers · 05/04/2010 10:08

SGB... to you it is a myth. To me it is a belief, dearly held.

SolidGoldBrass · 05/04/2010 10:09

I cannot think of any circumstances in which I would go and live in a theocracy. And I wouldn't, either, go on holiday to a place where there was no booze and I was officially less than human. However, in a relatively enlightened country with a nominal state superstition and a general societal acceptance that plenty of people have no interest in the state superstition and that's fine, I really don't see the problem with some people doing different days.

GoldenSnitch · 05/04/2010 10:10

Sorry claig. I don't see the diffrence

runnybottom · 05/04/2010 10:11

No, because that would be a different country. This is our country too, and we are the majority. Thats the whole point of the argument!!

I don't have a problem with the shops being shut. I don't even have a problem with respecting your religion. I have a problem with the sense of entitlement and the attitude that you are somehow more in the right and there is no room to even question the dominance of a religion that the vast majority of the population pay lip service to, if even that.

And how is their a world of difference claig?

claig · 05/04/2010 10:15

GoldenSnitch, I think the people who were sacrificed would have seen the difference

shockers · 05/04/2010 10:21

I take your point SGB.
I suppose that because I chose to believe (my parents don't), I don't feel as though I am part of any "State superstition".

claig · 05/04/2010 10:23

SolidGoldBrass, we have a tolerant society due to our Christian traditions. Our sense of justice and our belief that everyone is equal was largely due to Christ's teaching and the battles of religious thought in Europe. We challenged the fact that kings were divine and better than the people. The Eqyptians worshipped the Pharoah, the Japanese still believed that the Emperor was divine into the early 20th century. If you were born in Afghanistan, you would appreciate the freedoms that Christianity has helped to provide.

onagar · 05/04/2010 10:26

claig Mon 05-Apr-10 10:02:47
there is a world of difference between the teachings of Jesus Christ and the druidic human sacrificing crap-peddlers, and the worship of the Pharoah and representation of gods as jackals which was prevalent in Eqyptian religious thought.>

There is? how so? Are you not insulting someone elses beliefs to say that? what happened to respect etc.

Faddle, "without us stupid credulous christians, you wouldnt be having a bloody bank holiday full stop."

Of course we would. We already had festivals and holidays and christians just bolted on their bit.

Fact - a man called Jesus died on the cross.

That's unproven I'm afraid. Everyone thinks there is proof, but when anyone goes to look for it it turns out to be a vague story written by someone not actually there (and mostly not even alive at that time)

but even if a man died it proves nothing else. Romans were always executing criminals.

onagar · 05/04/2010 10:28

shockers, are you ok with shops closing on saturday too out of respect for those who see it as holy? or is it just YOUR day that counts like with claig?

runnybottom · 05/04/2010 10:30

YOUR christian traditions! You're not getting it are you?
Challenging the divine right of kings had nothing to do with christianity, what nonsense.

claig · 05/04/2010 10:32

onagar, I think we have to stand up and see the value in our faith and traditions. We don't believe in an eye for an eye, we believe in mercy, we don't believe in stoning people to death, we don't believe in slavery. Little by little we have removed many injustices from our societies because we couldn't square them with our religious faith.