h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The winter solstice is a bit harder to miss I expect .

Depends where you are... not much of it around here really.

Well, it's over here it was important for the Pagans and is certainly noticable. Plus normally drizzly and cold. Snow's much better

I agree... snow's wonderful! I can't wait for snow (if we have any this year, that is)!

There was snow in Sherwood Forest today . Was very pleased I thought to water-proof my cloak, excellant snowball defence.

!

I've got an excellent raincoat now, one of those yellow plastic macks that are lightweight and keep all the water out and make you look like, well, a large piece of yellow plastic with two legs... got it in a secondhand store in the States for 6$, and very happy about it.

from what I understand didn't the ancient Hebrews appropriate entire gods from the Caananites and either make them part of their own one or into demons
not that the Christians didn't do much the same thing converting pagan gods and spirits into saints and devils

Not sure... I do know that there was a Canaanite god named El, which is the Hebrew word for 'a god', which might have been the basis for the Hebrew belief; other entities are usually quite frowned upon in the Bible. And I remember that when we studied about the Abraham&Isaac story, we learned that the reason Abraham believed the command to kill his own son was for real and not a joke was that it wasn't a very exceptional practice back then. Actually, the Hebrew word for Hell, Gehenom, is derived from the name of the Valley of Hinom (Gey Hinom, more often called Gei Ben Hinom nowadays) in Jerusalem, where apparently children were sacrificed to the god Molech. *shrug* Everybody needs a hobby...

Whoops, time for class!

If I remember correctly Elohim was the Caananite god of Jerusalem (or what became Jerusalem) and when the Hebrews conquered Jerusalem his worship was integrated into that of Jehovah. That is what I read anyway. Don't imagine the author who wrote that was there in person

I suspect this is a bit inaccurate, as Elohim is the plural form of Eloha, which is another version of the word El (a god), and the Hebrew belief existed long before Jerusalem was conquered. Also, I think the god of Jerusalem was Shalem - that's possibly the source of its name: Uru Shalem = the city of Shalem. Some later Jewish commentators do say that Jerusalem = Ir Shalem (Ir = 'city' in Hebrew), but explain Shalem as another name for our God, and/or connect it to the words for wholeness/perfection/peace, which all come from the root Sh-l-m. So you can see how it could all work out.
Anyway, I don't doubt that we are not as original as we like to think...

I live a ways west of the southeastern bit of Canada that sticks down into the US, and we usually get snow in the winter - if it's above a certain level we get a day off of school, and once we had three days off in a row.

Oops, missed a whole page of conversation. We always get snow, anyway, is what I meant.

Know nothing about the current religious discussion.

I was wrong about that (checked in 1 of my encyclopedias)
but can't find the original reference which made me think it and its bugging me now

Ooh, I hate it when that happens...

What does your encyclopedia say?

Something similar to what you said (but I'm at work now so I don't have it here)

I wasn't completely off the mark! Yay!

A lot closer than I was anyway

Well, when you do get access to a credible source of information, I'd love to know what it has to say.

I shall try Milady
I'm pretty sure it came from one of the books on my shelves (as opposed to a library book) but I have a lot of history books

I'll look in an encyclopedia too, if I remember to do it.