[geeks] Goodbye, I guess

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

On Sat, 1 Sep 2007 15:40:18 +0100
Mike Meredith <very at zonky.org> wrote:

 
> In fact the RCC does include some local elements in services (and the
> canon of saints) ... European catholics might be somewhat bewildered at
> some South American services.

Then you have things like Saint Bridget.  She was once a fire-queen of the
celts.  19 priestesses protected her shrine for like 2000 years, and now for
the last 1000 or so, 19 nuns have protected her shrine.

It was a simple matter of converting a local minor diety into a saint.  The
church did that all over the place.

I think Saint Brittany was once a forest goddess.

A lot of religions are at least partially syncretic, even if that wasn't
originally the intention, and even if parts of it frown up on it.

Of course, in America, you have Southern Baptists protecting these odd
little oval rings all over Virginia and North Carolina.  

I'm not totally familiar with the ritual, but it involves overpowered
horseless carriages and lot's of beer and chicken.

It's mostly harmless, except for the occasional human sacrifice, though
that's been toned down a lot in later years.




-- 
shannon / Asus A8N5X - Opteron 170 at 2.5GHz | But you know, a little Sun Ultra 1
-------'  2GB RAM - nVidia 7900GS         | is doing all the hard work...