Day 87 Jan.12 2011

happy birthday little brother!

why do we celebrate things?  is an excuse to throw a party and "get together"?  what is the evolutionary purpose of a celebration?  is it a reminder on how to live?  do we forget to appreciate people, so we have to remind ourselves yearly to be grateful for the people close to us?

i was curious as to what cavemen would celebrate.  i did a little digging on the world wide web and found this:

"The best time of the year is the spring. The spring brings a renewal of many plants that you can eat, which attracts animals that you can eat as well. Spring brings longer and warmer days. Spring brings hope that you can your group can survive another year. The center, of course, is the Sun. The sun, whose time in the sky grows shorter and shorter as winter approaches, mysteriously turns around. Primitive man soon learned when exactly the days stopped getting shorter, and began getting longer. There were two specific days in particular that were extremely important to primitive man.

The time during the year when the length of day stopped shrinking, and began growing. This was considered the rebirth of the sun. Or every year, they celebrated the birth of the sun at this time. This is the Winter Solstice, or December 23.

The second important day of the year was when the actual length of the day overcame the length of the cold and dangerous night. This was celebrated as the day in which light overcame darkness. This is the Spring Equinox, or March 23.

These two pagan days of nature worship have worked their way into the major religion that has shaped the course of western civilization.

The first, the day when the days stop shrinking and start growing, or the birth of the sun, is now celebrated as Christmas, or the Birth of the Son.

The second, when the length of the day overcame the length of the night, or when the light overcame the darkness, is today celebrated as Easter, when Christ, the Son, rose from the dead. Good overcomes evil.

These two holidays, whose origins stem from worshipping the physical sun in the heavens, have transformed into two of the most celebrated days in the world, and have brought the same peace and hope and redemption that they brought to our hunter-gatherer ancestors thousands of years ago." (http://ezinearticles.com/?How-Did-Prehistoric-Man-Celebrate-Christmas-and-Easter?&id=2589341)

thought that was rather interesting...i'll leave it at that :)