Weeweechu!

One beautiful December evening Pedro and his girlfriend Rosita were sitting by the side of the ocean. It was a romantic full moon, when Pedro said, "Hey, mamacita, let's play Weeweechu."

"Oh no, not now, lets look at the moon" said Rosita.

"Oh, c'mon baby, let's you and I play Weeweechu. I love you and it's the perfect time," Pedro begged.

"But I wanna just hold your hand and watch the moon."

"Please, corazoncito, just once, play Weeweechu with me."

Rosita looked at Pedro and said, "OK, one time, we'll play Weeweechu."




Pedro grabbed his guitar and they both sang.....




"Weeweechu a Merry Christmas, Weeweechu a Merry Christmas,

"Weeweechu a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year."

Here's wishing you a Merry Christmas...
... and get your mind out my gutter!

Ah yes, we've passed the Winter Solstice, or Midwinter, recently. The days will start getting longer again. A long time ago in a galaxy far far away, in simpler times, when John & Jane Q Public had no idea about the rotation of Earth on its axis and its orbit around the sun, it was around this time that everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief - the world was NOT coming to an end, or at least, it was NOT going to be plunged into eternal night!

A celebration was definitely called for!

A festival which was later usurped adopted by the Roman Emperor Constantine in one of many changes made to bring more people into the fold.

So, no, Jesus was not born around this time 2005 years ago.

But it's been called Christmas for so long, I just consider it as the "official" birthday of Jesus as marked by the Christians. Doesn't detract from the "spirit of the season"... after all, reminders of life and vitality in a time of cold and darkness are always a cause for celebration, eh?

Of course, when you are in a country like Malaysia, that barely experiences changes in seasons (hot, hotter, hottest? humid, humider, humidest? rain, ranier, raniest?) let alone in length of days, such observances are simply not something traditionally done. All the fuss about X-mas and its white (as in snow) decorations in countries close to the Equator is a fantastic example of commercialism at its ugliest best.

Then there's the political correctness fuss about not offending non-Christians during this time of year by wishing people "Merry Christmas" and instead referring to the Holiday Season, sending people Season's Greetings, and whatever. Hmmph! I think that all this dancing around not wanting to offend people has gotten way out of hand... I come from a country that has public holidays for not only Muslim holy days but those for Chinese, Indian, Christian, Bhuddist, etc .. Christmas is just one of many holy days that Malaysians mark, if not celebrate. But on the other hand, I can also understand getting irritated at people who just assume that *everyone* "celebrates" Christmas, y'know?

Anyways. Here's Kenny Sia's take on the topic.

Here's a selection of other festivals that occur around this time of year:

Winter Solstice-related stuff
1. Dong zhi - the Chinese winter solstice festival
   
2. Karachun - the Slavic pagan winter solstice festival
   
3. Saturnalia - the Roman winter soltice festival
   
4. Yalda - Birth of Sun God Mehr - the Persian winter solstice festival
   
5. Modranect, or Mothers' Night - the Saxon winter solstice festival
   
   Others...
   
6. Hanukkah - eight day festival commemorating the miracle of the candles after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem
   
7. Kwanzaa - a week-long observance observed mostly in the United States from December 26 to January 1 honoring African-American heritage. (something more at The Ranting Raven's View From The Nest article "Sacrilege?"
   
8. Festivus - for the rest of us! ;-) had to see if anyone was paying attention!

Have a good weekend, everybody!