Ran Prieur linked to an essay by Barbara Ehrenreich on the decline of group dancing and other collective expressions of joy & celebration. Ran also links to this site about the Purtian ban on Christmas in 1600’s England. Good stuff…
The midwinter celebrations of yore owed more to the ancient bacchanals like Saturnalia, Yule and the like than they did to Christianity, obviously. If nothing else, they sound like they were a hell of a lot of fun.
The Moral Equivalent of War 