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> This didn't compute with the typical nationalistic propaganda that passes for 'news'. "Nationalistic propaganda" told you that Eastern Bloc countries didn't

> This didn't compute with the typical nationalistic propaganda that passes for 'news'. "Nationalistic propaganda" told you that Eastern Bloc countries didn't celebrate Christmas, wat? The whole religious aspect of Christmas was extremely toned down of course, but even the communists didn't have the power to dismantle the Church (surveil and suppress they did though).

docmechanic 4y ago
Do you have a specific question, or are you just triggered to read 'nationalistic propaganda' in this context?
- flohofwoe 4y ago
  I'd be interested what country's propaganda claimed that Christmas (or the equivalent in the Orthodox church) wasn't celebrated in Eastern Bloc countries, because despite a number of exagerations in Western media of the Cold War era this seems a bit far fetched (having been exposed both to Eastern and Western propaganda in East Germany in my childhood). Christmas in the Eastern Bloc didn't have a 'religious undertone' anymore, but that's also been true for a long time in most civilized Western countries.
thriftwy 4y ago
Not sure about the rest of Eastern Bloc, in USSR the new year took on the big celebration with tree and feast. Which made the following (Julian) Christmas a small, quiet family holiday for people still exhausted by the large one.
- filoleg 4y ago
  You are 100% correct. NYE is the largest celebration of the year that ended up stretching for days somehow, with the tree and drinking and gifts and all. Only pretty religious people observed Christmas, and it wasn't something that was really even considered as a celebration, more like a minor religious holiday.
  - Maursault 4y ago
    What makes it strange is that Jesus was a Pisces. Christmas, Christmas trees, mistletoe, carolling, wreaths, and even gift-giving became part of the Roman cover-up of a pagan ritual occurring on winter solstice.

docmechanic 4y ago

Do you have a specific question, or are you just triggered to read 'nationalistic propaganda' in this context?

flohofwoe 4y ago
I'd be interested what country's propaganda claimed that Christmas (or the equivalent in the Orthodox church) wasn't celebrated in Eastern Bloc countries, because despite a number of exagerations in Western media of the Cold War era this seems a bit far fetched (having been exposed both to Eastern and Western propaganda in East Germany in my childhood). Christmas in the Eastern Bloc didn't have a 'religious undertone' anymore, but that's also been true for a long time in most civilized Western countries.

thriftwy 4y ago

Not sure about the rest of Eastern Bloc, in USSR the new year took on the big celebration with tree and feast. Which made the following (Julian) Christmas a small, quiet family holiday for people still exhausted by the large one.

filoleg 4y ago
You are 100% correct. NYE is the largest celebration of the year that ended up stretching for days somehow, with the tree and drinking and gifts and all. Only pretty religious people observed Christmas, and it wasn't something that was really even considered as a celebration, more like a minor religious holiday.
- Maursault 4y ago
  What makes it strange is that Jesus was a Pisces. Christmas, Christmas trees, mistletoe, carolling, wreaths, and even gift-giving became part of the Roman cover-up of a pagan ritual occurring on winter solstice.