A very Personal Seasons Greeting

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MuchachoNL
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A very Personal Seasons Greeting

Post by MuchachoNL »

'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
Muchacho was thinking, pondering even, and wondering too
For what Christmas greeting to send, what should he do?
Should he ask for adresses, to send them with regular mail?
But he soon realized it was to no avail.
Because most people he knew were living abroad,
So sending Mr. Postman was not a good thought.
An e-card perhaps, wouldn't that be cool?
So he searched and he searched in that wicked cesspool.
A cesspool I said, you heard it quite right,
because there's just too many: it would take him all night.
Countless of cards with animals, people, kids and trees
But none of them came even close to appease.
For the messages were not personal, the images too plain
So searching for an e-card appeared to be in vain.
A personal message, that's what he should make
So he started rhyming and he'd need a picture to take.
While playing on his iPhone he found a nice App,
Photofunia it was called and from there it was made in a snap.
He saw the render, took a picture of himself
The app did the rest: truely Santa's little helper-elf.
A quick run through Photoshop for fine-tuning a while
And done was Muchacho, you should've seen him smile.
So with no further ado I present this 'card' with delight.
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

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Freudian Slip: When you say one thing, but mean your mother... err... another.
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Don Alexander
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Re: A very Personal Seasons Greeting

Post by Don Alexander »

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE!!!

:ymhug: :ymhug: :ymhug: :ymhug: :ymhug: :ymhug:

Sure got a chuckle out of that, Muchacho - great work! :-bd
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Azrael
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Re: A very Personal Seasons Greeting

Post by Azrael »

Indeed I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas. :ymhug: :ymparty:
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sanzo
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Re: A very Personal Seasons Greeting

Post by sanzo »

Hey, what about a Festivus for the rest of us? :p
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Re: A very Personal Seasons Greeting

Post by BlairFan »

Thanks Muchacho NL, and Merry Xmas and Happy New Year to you too! (Sinter Klaas rules!)

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Re: A very Personal Seasons Greeting

Post by GothPoet »

HAPPY HOLIDAYS :D
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Re: A very Personal Seasons Greeting

Post by Paul »

Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday or however you choose to celebrate the season. :)

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MuchachoNL
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Re: A very Personal Seasons Greeting

Post by MuchachoNL »

BlairFan wrote:Thanks Muchacho NL, and Merry Xmas and Happy New Year to you too! (Sinter Klaas rules!)
Thanks, Remind me to tell you somewhere later that Sinter Klaas and Santa Clause are not the same...

Well, actually they are, but somewhere along the line we Dutchies forgot that our Colonials introduced Sinterklaas to America and we adopted Santa Clause as Kerstman right next to (the same) Sinterklaas....
Ok, I started it, so I better finish it now. No point in telling you half a story.


Sinterklaas is a holiday that involves a Saint and his helpers, called Black Petes (Zwarte Pieten)
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You can see by his outfit that it has a VERY religious touch to it.

On december 5th Sinterklaas (Saint Nicholas) comes to check if you've been naughty or nice, and leaves a gift through the chimney for those who have been good.
Those who have been bad get a branch of some small bush... don't know the english name.
Those who have been very bad supposed to get shipped off to Spain together with Sinterklaas to work on the gifts for other kids the entire year.
December 6th is the actual nameday of Saint Nicholas of Myra.
Though Myra was a Greek city it is now a part of Turkey, I still don't know why we say he comes from Spain though...
It was celebrated in Eastern Europe originally, but around the 13th century it came to Western Europe.
The Black helpers were added somewhere around 1850 as far as we know.

So that's how the holiday Sinterklaas was "born".
We know that in the 4th Century, Emperor Constantine the Great (or Constantine I) declared December 25th as a celebration of Jesus' birth to unify his European Empire.
He had some Greek countries under his command, a big part of Egypt, and the entire western European half.
The Greeks and Egyptians celebrated the day of their Gods Helios and Ra on December 25th, the Teutons celebrated Jul-fest, the Catholics didn't have any big celebration yet (Easter was, and still is, a far more important holiday on the catholic calendar) and so they refused to worship and celebrate other Gods.
Constantine solved this by consulting a few bishops and they found out that Sextus Iulius Africanus described the birth of Jesus on a date that didn't fall far from December 25th, since Palestinian winter isn't nearly as cold as a West-European winter.
Around the same time the Catholic Church was making a calendar for the celebrations, and Constantine I insisted that December 25th should be the celebration of Jesus Christ.
The Bishops approved, he had his Empire unified again, celebrating on the same day.
But still: Around the 13th century it was still 'just a feast', eating, drinking, music, prayer, laughter, dancing.. etc.
No icons yet.

17th Century... years after Columbus discovered North America.... 1602 to be exact:
The Government of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands hired the UEC (United East-Indonesian Company) to find a way to North America via India and claim every discovered place for the Republic.
1609: The English Henry Hudson (on UEC's pay-roll) accidentally discovered parts of the USA and Canada, claimed them for the republic and named the Hudson river and Hudson bay.
Anywho: New York was found, claimed and colonized some years later. (It was then called New Amsterdam).
The Dutch colonists tried to 'sell' Sinterklaas to the locals.
That worked out a wee bit different then they'd expect.
At first it worked, the Dutch government sold New Amsterdam to England, they renamed it to New York.
And that's where the change began: Father Christmas had a green robe in England, and he didn't wear a hat.
So Sinterklaas was transformed to Father Christmas.
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As time went by the story changed, he was now originated from the North Pole, and had helper elves.
His sled was pulled by reindeers, etc.
Green robe turned into a red suit, and the tall man changed into a chubby man over time.
Thomas Nast drew this picture in 1881 for Harper's Weekly which actually made Santa the way he is today.
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By the time the Dutch people knew what was going on (We completely forgot that we brought Sinterklaas to America) we saw a new festive character that celebrated the birth of Jesus Christ (I don't need to dissect the word Christmas into Christ Mas, do I?) and we merrily adopted this new festive character.
Some Sinterklaas 'followers' protested, but discussions now (2010) are to get rid of Sinterklaas and adopt Santa Clause instead ... talk about a strange world ;)
Freudian Slip: When you say one thing, but mean your mother... err... another.
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