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I wasn't thinking of a Lag B'Omer parade, but a Lag B'Omer Bonfire and Picnic. On Purim, comes about a calendar month before Pesach (Passover), a parade with the vollies wearing all sorts of silly headgear and costumes and helping the kids to deliver the "Mishloach Manot" (= baskets of food and sweets), sort of like a reverse Halloween, would seem more appropriate, at least to me.
Chabad Stony Brook (sorry that is all I am familiar with) started an annual picnic 'Jewish Summer Fest' two years ago and it has been very successful. A Lag B'Omer festival -- complete with bonfire and vollies at the ready -- might be something for them to consider, too.
I believe any extension of festivities to be inclusive of other celebrations would depend greatly on the population of a particular group within the community. I, for one, would really love to see a Diwali celebration as well.
How can I have lost when you haven't answered my question?
Walter, you'll probably get an answer to yours sometime after you answer the question I posed to you: If the current practices offend you so much, instead of kvetching in an internet forum, why not start a grass roots campaign both here and in Montana to correct this egregious oversight?
1) No known species of reindeer can fly. BUT there are 300,000 species of living organisms yet to be classified, and while most of these are insects and germs, this does not COMPLETELY rule out flying reindeer which only Santa has ever seen.
2) There are 2 billion children (persons under 18) in the world. BUT since Santa doesn't (appear) to handle the Muslim, Hindu, Jewish and Buddhist children, that reduces the workload to 15% of the total - 378 million according to Population Reference Bureau. At an average (census)rate of 3.5 children per household, that's 91.8 million homes. One presumes there's at least one good child in each.
3) Santa has 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming he travels east to west(which seems logical). This works out to 822.6 visits per second. This is to say that for each Christian household with good children, Santa has 1/1000th of a second to park, hop out of the sleigh, jump down the chimney, fill the stockings, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left, get back up the chimney, get back into the sleigh and move on to the next house. Assuming that each of these 91.8 million stops are evenly distributed around the earth (which, of course, we know to be false but for the purposes of our calculations we will accept), we are now talking about .78 miles per household, a total trip of 75-1/2 million miles, not counting stops to do what most of us must do at least once every 31 hours, plus feeding and etc. This means that Santa's sleigh is moving at 650 miles per second, 3,000 times the speed of sound. For purposes of comparison, the fastest man- made vehicle on earth, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a poky 27.4 miles per second - a conventional reindeer can run, tops, 15 miles per hour.
4) The payload on the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium-sized lego set (2 pounds), the sleigh is carrying 321,300 tons, not counting Santa, who is invariably described as overweight. On land, conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even granting that "flying reindeer" (see point #1) could pull TEN TIMES the normal amount, we cannot do the job with eight, or even nine. We need 214,200 reindeer. This increases the payload - not even counting the weight of the sleigh - to 353,430 tons. Again, for comparison - this is four times the weight of the Queen Elizabeth.
5) 353,000 tons traveling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance - this will heat the reindeer up in the same fashion as spacecrafts re-entering the earth's atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer will absorb 14.3 QUINTILLION joules of energy.
Per second.
Each.
In short, they will burst into flame almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them, and create deafening sonic booms in their wake.The entire reindeer team will be vaporized within 4.26 thousandths of a second. Santa, meanwhile, will be subjected to centrifugal forces 17,500.06 times greater than gravity. A 250-pound Santa (which seems ludicrously slim)would be pinned to the back of his sleigh by 4,315,015 pounds of force.
In conclusion - If Santa ever DID deliver presents on Christmas Eve, he's dead now.
Most, if not all, of the Chanukah Menorahs placed (incorrectly, in my opinion) on public property are paid for with private funds.
The trivial costs were not the point I was trying to make. Maybe you should look in the mirror and revisit the definition of bigot before you fire away on the vollies and other groups holiday traditions.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Walter Greenspan
How can I have lost when you haven't answered my question?
Your question was answered by BucktheDog and a few others in the thread:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Buckthedog
Yes, it is, by people who understand their faith. Any Christian that thinks Santa has a place in the religion, needs to go back to Sunday School.
As for Purim, or Lag B'Omer. Get involved with your local FD, suggest it for those children.
I'm sorry, I don't know too many Jews in this area that celebrate Lag B'Omer. Do you? Honestly, do you light a huge bon fire in your yard (or anywhere else?)
I'd be all for your giant bonfire party. Until today, I was not even aware of this holiday. But don't you think that if the interest were there, that those Fire Districts would be doing it? I'm sure they would. Look at Boro Park in the video OBH posted...the interest in that community was large enough for the fire department to do it.
With that being said, today is Festivus... I'd like the Fire Department to allow those that celebrate this holiday to have full use of the fire poles in each fire house... These will be designated as the "Festivus poles" this season, where practices such as the "Airing of Grievances" and "Feats of Strength" can be practiced. Happy Festivus!
{ snipped} ...........In conclusion - If Santa ever DID deliver presents on Christmas Eve, he's dead now.
Merry Christmas everyone!
Which is probably a good thing for you, because you would get coal in you stocking and probably cry. I know Santa is alive and well and coming to my house, he always drinks the beer and helps himself to a second one, (he gets thirsty you know) , and he eats the sandwich we leave and all the reindeer oates are gone too, so there.
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