The Christmas Wars

I find the absurdity of this comment mildly offensive. Since causing me mild offence is no less am attack of my sense of well-being than breaking into my home, shooting off my kneecaps and then pissing in my mouth as I howl in agony, I have alerted the police already.

This is a bad example. The 'kers' in 'kersfees' doesn't originally come from 'kers'. It's derived from 'Kerst' - and in Dutch they still sometimes call it 'Kerstfeest'. So it does tie back to Christ, even if that isn't how Afrikaaners interpret the word today.Edited by caffeine, : No reason given.

Sorry for not clarifying, but it has everything to do with Christianity. The Dutch word for 'kers' is 'kaars'. 'Kerst', on the other hand, is an old word for 'Christ'. If you have a look at the Afrikaans wikipedia article on Christmas, it begins thusly:

quote:

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Kersfees, vanuit Kerst, 'n Middelnederlandse naam vir ‘Christus’, en dus letterlik Christusfees(..)

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and in case you're not trusting of Wikipedia, you can read a selection of various Dutch etymological dictionaries here.

I don't know about Luther's views on Christmas, but during the religious conflicts in 16th and 17th century Britain Christmas was a hot potato issue - their 'Christmas wars' make the modern American version seem tame. The Puritans were, indeed, opposed to the celebration of Christmas, as they saw it a popish festival with pagan trappings and, most importantly, an encouragement to licentiousness and sin.During the time of Puritan theocracy in the interregnum, the celebration of Christmas was banned, along with gambling, theatres, sport on Sundays, and most things that might be considered fun.The origins of the Father Christmas figure, who has nowadays become mixed up with the Santa tradition, comes from anti-Puritan satires; with the jolly old man symbolising feasting and celebration at Christmas.