Happy Christmas Chaps - Slightly off topic!!!

[This_Idiot]

Blimey Patrick, I didn't think my English was that bad !

I share your sentiment though, I am really happy to be able to speak with folks across the globe on a daily basis. To me, this is the REAL global community, and leaves behind the "initiatives" that politico's across the world are trying to implement. I'm especially happy right now that our cousins from eastern Europe are joning in.

BTW, on Brit time it is now officially Christmas, so once again I'll wish all of my friends out there in the ether the very best for the season.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS FOLKS !!!!!!

[Surfin'Dutchman]

CHEERS CHRIS AND EVERYONE ELSE
COULDN'T HAVE SAID IT BETTER MYSELF
THANX FOR ALL THE HELP AND INVALUABLE INFO
MERRY X-MAS AND A PROSPEROUS 2001

[Technoid]

Scandinavian Theology... Here we go!
I don't remeber the names of Tors (Thor) Goats.

Im pretty shure the names Donner & Blitzen are from germany as we in Sweden imported "Jultomten" from there.

Before "jultomten" we had "Julbocken" (Christmas(male)goat?!?) that where prakticaly the same as "Jultomten", "tomtar" was common through out the year and was often helping out on the farmland and if the farmers diden't set out a bowl of Porige they could get realy nasty!

That SantaClause wears red clothes commes from The CocaCola company's advertising.

In the begining "Jultomtar" wore all kinds of collored clothes.

But we Swedes hawe a realy crasy tradition:
Every christmas eve at 15:00 we all se A Disney christmas show from the 60's!

[This_Idiot]

'ere, Brian - This filly of Thors, would that be an 'orse then ?

ROTFLMAO

Chris

[Brian Ellis]

The thunder god went for a ride
Upon his favourite filly.
"I'm Thor", he cried!
The horse replied,
"Forgot your thaddle, thilly!"

(Sorry, couldn't resist it!)

------------------
Brian (the terrible)

[Fred H]

Thanks, Patrick...for your words about the languages. Your words warm my heart. It's not too easy for an old man, like me, to "think" english or to translate to english. Sometimes it's even difficult to think even swedish too. But I know, who the "Jultomten" is (as Technoid explained).
Thanks Chris for a nice forum, thanks Doc and thans everyone for ideas and help here at this, our, forum.
Now the Christmas, the Chanukka etc. are soon over. Am I late with my wishes? No. I am not. So let me join with my very best wishes for the season, and a Happy New Year to everybody out there.

Fred H

[Dr Mordrid]

Interesting. Our families tradition (for most of them anyhow) that Jultomten wore brown with a red hat and gave small gifts, candy and treats to the children on Christmas Eve. St. Nick visited during the night with the "big stuff"

Dunno about Coca-Cola being the source of the red outfit though as that tradition goes way-back in North America, well before the Coka-Cola ads. Those first appeard in the 1930's and were drawn by Haddon Sundblom, a Swedish artist. Red-suited Santa's were in our folklore well before that.

There are some interesting historical facts about St. Nicholas possibly show the source of the red outfit;

Nicholas was born in 280 AD in Patara, Lycia (now Anatolia). As an adult he first became a Christian Priest under the guidance of his uncle, the Bishop of Patara, and eventually was himself appointed the Bishop of Myra, also in Lycia. He traveled extensively and, having inherited the estate of his wealthy parents and having no need for it himself, began giving gifts of money and other necessities to the needy, particularly those with children, and other stangers.

In 303 AD the Roman Emperor Diocletian ordered the Christians to renounce their faith and worship Roman gods and idols. They refused. This angered Diocletian so much that he not only imprisoned but executed 20,000 of the reluctant Christians by burning them in their own churches. When this order reached Myra the Roman legion there not only imprisoned the local Christians but Bishop Nicholas as well. While in prison Bishop Nicholas tended his flock, re-inforced their faith and reportedly presided over several miracles. Bishop Nicholas remained in prison until Emperor Constantine came to power in 313 AD.

Bishop Nicholas served in the First Ecumenical Council convened by Constantine in 325 AD and continued as Bishop of Myra until his death on (traditionally) December 6, 343 AD. The actual year is in debate, varying from 341 AD to 352 AD.

By 450 AD churches in Greece were being named in his honor. In 800 AD he was canonized as St. Nicholas. Since St. Nicholas was in fact a Bishop many subsequent traditions depicted him in red Bishops robes.

By the 15th century he was behind only Jesus and Mary as the most revered religious figure in Christianity with more than 2000 chapels and monasteries named in his honor. St. Nicholas has also been known as the Patron Saint of children.

All in all, not a bad fellow....

After the Protestant Reformation the celebration of the Feast of St. Nicholas on Dec. 6th diminished in those countries affected, except for in the Netherlands. Their celebration of his feast has remained strong to this day.

The Dutch "Sinterklass" (St. Nicholas) is the basis of much of the North American Santa Claus tradition because it was the Dutch who settled New Amsterdam, aka: New York City. Even then New York City was the media center of the region. Because of this much of Santa's appearance comes from Sinterklass, including the red Bishops robes.

The costume evolved to the modern form during the American Civil War when a political cartoonist named Thomas Nast tried to cheer the spirits of Union soldiers by drawing a gift bearing Santa Claus in a red, white and blue fur suit. The blue got lost but the red and white remained.

The Dutch tradition of giving gifts on the Feast of St. Nicholas (Dec. 6th) eventually blended into the massive gift-giving of Christmas Day, Dec. 25th.

Dr. Mordrid


[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 26 December 2000).]

[Brian Ellis]

Chris

I don't know about it being an 'orse. More likely a Norse

------------------
Brian (the terrible)

[This_Idiot]

Hi Brian,

Glad you spotted the intent

[Elie]

I second and third Chris, It's nice to have friends from around the world.
Chris, I think to date (and I'm not being biased here) this forum is one of the most pleasant, most informative site I've visited to date, and it wouldn't be so without all you folks that visit here and provide that level of knowledge to all of us


Soooooooooooooooooooo
What did Santa bring you for Christmas????
I got a set of underwear from my Mother in law, and a Cigar kit from the wife

Merry Christmas everyone!!
Elie

[This_Idiot]

Hi Elie,

Glad you had a good Christmas, I hope the underwear fits ! What's a cigar kit ? I thought they came ready made, I can't imagine trying to piece one together myself from tobacco leaves !

As I'm an enthusiastic cook, I got several cookery books, which will keep me entertained for weeks. My daughter also made me some special oil, with infused garlic, rosemary (from my own garden) and chilli. Can't wait to try it !

But mainly, my beautiful wife gave me a force feedback wheel & pedal kit and F1 2000. Haven't had too much time to play yet, but I did manage to beat Schumacher this afternoon at Monza (albeit with all the driving aids on).

Chris

[Elie]

Hi Chris,

Christmas was great, My mothers cooking was as usual.. AWESOME!
Boy can she cook a feast, you name it, we had Turkey, Greek foods and Middle Eastern as well. I still have tons of left overs

A Cigar kit, includes a cutter, a pocket leather cigar holder which holds 2 mid sized cigars, and lastly a cigar lighter, that's what I like the most, it's like a freakin torch

Believe it or not, my friends wife also got him a force feedback wheel and pedals from Logitech, Hey why can't I have a wife like that eh?
I already have a set, but it's the old Thrustmaster Formula T2, time for a change

Also try Sports Cars GT, excellent graphics, nice cars mailny Lemans stuff, and pretty accurate.

Enjoy your gifts.
PS: the underwear fits

Elie

[This_Idiot]

Hi Elie,

Luckily we managed to forgo the full family Xmas this year, since my younger sister and her family are out in Germany (Bro in law Andy is in the forces out there), and my parents are visting my elder sis in mid-wales. So I had to do all the cooking myself again (bliss, I know how I like it !). Moira (wife) and Angela (daughter) did a lot of prep work with cakes and suchlike (not my forte), but I deal with anyting savoury.

The FF that I got is MS' own - Haig and I had a discussion a week or so back in which he recommended the Guillemot Ferrari set, but hey, this was a cool present and works OK! Gimme a couple of months to get used to F1 2000 and I'll be a diva again. I'll try and get hold of a copy of that Sports Car that you recommended tho. I've also got an old copy of Network Q RAC rally (pre FF wheels) which is a killer game but sooooo damned difficult to ge right !

BTW, I also got a pair of Chickenrun boxers which fit just F&D !

What happened to your ICQ ?

Cheers

Chris

[Elie]

Thanks for reminding me Chris.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm back on ICQ (now that I have a Linksys Router) and the number is 31221990.

Also get this, I have Roger Wolco, which is a free little software package that allows you to talk to one another even while your playing games, it allows for multiple users to chat at the same time (bandwidth permitting) just let me know and I can setup a server to chat anytime.


I'll get F1 2000 and we'll race over the net one day, I'll even give you a chance to practice, how's that

Cheers,
Elie

[This message has been edited by Elie (edited 27 December 2000).]

[This_Idiot]

Hi Elie,

Can you confirm that ICQ number ? I did lookup on it and it didn't look right...


Dunno if you can play F12K over the net, I'll try and fnd out. BTW I'll be going broadband at the end of jan (at weekends anyway - still have to put up with BT during the week )