• criitz@reddthat.com
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    5 days ago

    There’s a clear difference between the traditions behind Christmas/Yule and the purely capitalism-driven Valentine’s Day sales event.

    • ZeroCool@slrpnk.netOP
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      5 days ago

      There’s a clear difference between the longstanding traditions behind Christmas/Yule and the capitalism-driven Valentine’s Day sales event. And we all know it.

      Yes, like jolly old Santa Claus dressed up in his red and white suit as popularized by… Coca Cola in the ‘30s. You’re right, Christmas is totally different than Valentine’s Day.

      • criitz@reddthat.com
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        5 days ago

        It was celebrated for hundreds (or even thousands) of years before coke existed. Valentines day wasn’t.

        • ZeroCool@slrpnk.netOP
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          5 days ago

          Tell you what, how about you go google “The Feast of St. Valentine” and then we’ll pick this conversation back up. Sound good?

          • criitz@reddthat.com
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            5 days ago

            Hey, sounds good. Firstly I’d like to say there’s no real need to be so snarky. Even if we disagree, we should be able to have an engaging chat online without being rude. I don’t think anything I said was rude in that way, and if it seemed so I apologize. I’m easygoing, but if you want to convince people of your perspective, they might not always want to listen to what you have to say if you treat them like idiots.

            Secondly, I did Google it. And according to that, around 500AD Valentines day was originally established to honor the Saint, and then over the middle ages evolved into a more general celebration of romance. So, I’ll give it to you that it wasn’t just recently invented by Hallmark.

            However, I still maintain that I was correct. Obviously Christmas is now a nightmare of capitalism too, but a Christmas/Yule/Saturnalia/whatever celebration is both older, more steeped in real tradition, and has more meaning than the modern concept of Valentines, which is literally just about selling cards and flowers and jewelry. But I guess that’s subjective.

            • ZeroCool@slrpnk.netOP
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              5 days ago

              Secondly, I did Google it. And according to that, around 500AD Valentines day was originally established to honor the Saint

              Yes. So your claim that Christmas has been “celebrated for hundreds (or even thousands) of years before coke existed. Valentine’s Day wasn’t.” is incorrect. We’re done here.

              • criitz@reddthat.com
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                5 days ago

                OK, deal. You were more right and I was more nice, and it seems like that matches what we both wanted, so let’s take it as a win

        • ZeroCool@slrpnk.netOP
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          5 days ago

          Wanna know how I know you didn’t read that? Because it doesn’t disagree with me. Coca Cola popularized the modern depiction of Santa Claus.

          One might therefore fairly grant Coca-Cola some credit for cementing the modern image of Santa Claus in the public consciousness, as in an era before the advent of television, before color motion pictures became common, and before the widespread use of color in newspapers, Coca-Cola’s magazine advertisements, billboards, and point-of-sale store displays were for many Americans their primary exposure to the modern Santa Claus image. But at best what Coca-Cola popularized was an image they borrowed, not one they created.

          Notice how I didn’t say they created it, nor did I say they invented it? I said they popularized it.

    • Weirdfish@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      The basic point was that all holidays are made up. To suggest that xmass is less of a cash grab consumer fest than valentine’s day is insane.

      You dont see valentine’s day advertised in January, around here xmass starts the day after Halloween.

      • criitz@reddthat.com
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        5 days ago

        I don’t think Christmas is less of a cash grab per se, just that there’s at least some spirit under it, while (modern) VDay seems to be pretty purely consumerist