The right distance to religion

Religion can be a serious subject, at least for those who believe in it. However, the simple fact that religion exists (not God - religion) affects all of us. Before Christmas most shop windows are full of Christmas decorations on the continents around the North Atlantic, and, strangely enough, in places like Japan and China as well. We need excuses to party - and religion is not a worse excuse than your birthday. And that is the case even if the religion does not happen to be yours.

One of the strangest festivals of religious origins is the carnival. Originally it was supposed to be a time, when you partied and stuffed yourself before Lent that is introduced by Ash Wednesday. However, as more and more of us have stopped bothering with Lent, what remains is the party. It now often stretches into the supposed period of restraint that was the original reason for the party.

Well, who am I to complain? More people get happy from parties than from mortification. Some illustrations of the party bit can be found here.