Merry Christmas, ladies and gents. Have a happy holiday season.
Merry Christmas, ladies and gents. Have a happy holiday season.
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Merry Christmas from me, too, although here in Germany, presents are already opened on the 24th. :P
Well, here in Central Europe opening presents on the 24th is a custom that goes back to ~1510-1530 when Martin Luther decided, it should not be on a Saint's day, which was the 6th.
Really? I didn't know that. That's cool. I'm always interested in historical facts like that. If you've got more than keep 'em coming.
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Paul Reveire never shouted "The British are Coming" as he road into Lexington. At the time America was a newly made country and all the inhabitants were former British citizens who would as they lacked a country at present still consider themselves British making that statement very confusing. Instead he said "The Regulars are coming" referencing the British Regulars division which had been deployed to suppress the American uprising. He also said this in as quite a voice as possible telling everyone he encountered and telling them to pass it on as the area was being patrolled by Officers of the Crown and he did not want to alert them.
@Guess Who The majority of Christian demons are in fact gods from indigenous religions that ceased to be practiced after Christianity became dominate in there area.
That I did not know. Now I want to look up different Christian demons and see if I can recognize what deities they're based off of.
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For example Baal a Semitic fertility God sometimes associated with Hadad God of rain and storms is known in Christian mythos from the Lesser Key of Solomon as the First Demon of the Ars Goetia commander of 66 infernal legions and the first king of hell.
@Guess Who Though not strictly historical in many accounts of Arthurian legend Excalibur's scabbard had the ability to grant immortality from any wound inflicted causing said wound to never spill a drop of blood. Briefly it was possessed by the lover of Morgan La Fey Accolon but after Author killed him in battle (after taking the scabbard from him) Morgan stole it and disposed of it as revenge.
Another very interesting historical fact: Canada has never been defeated in war, if you don't count the seven year war, because, that's when the British took over and actually called it Canada.
Edit: I don't know if you can count the Korean War...
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Canada is literally right above the U.S. and yet the only thing I know about its history is: A. The War of 1812 began because we wanted to "help" Canada gain its independence when, at the time, they didn't want to be independent. And B. They were a part of the Allied forces during WWII.
Actually, that makes me wonder what the differences are between learning about WWII in the Allied nations compared to the Axis nations. Like, here in America we seem to love to brag about how great we were and usually spend months learning about the war, but how long do schools in Germany, Italy, and Japan spend on the topic? I'd imagine it wouldn't be something any educator would enjoy discussing and would probably be glossed over like schools do here when talking about thopics like the eugenics movement, but at the same time it was a pretty large and far-reaching event. And do they have different names for the factions? Pyro, do you mind sating my curiosity?
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Well, here in Germany we spend almost no time on the actual war. Most of it is how the war actually started and, of course, how the holocaust happened, including a mandatory visit to one of the death camps for students in grade 9. We talk about the people during the war, the lack of enthusiasm for war in Germany, even though we were winning at first. And then the bombings happened. And the bombings have a lot of relevance, because almost all of our grandparents were in some way victims of the bombings, lost at least one family member to the allied bombers, dive bombers and napalm runs. It is such a big topic and has relevance even today, because, just a week ago, a 250kg bomb, dropped from an american bomber, was found just a few meters down the road I live in. And last year a 1000kg bomb exploded in a lively neighbourhood in a giant ball of flame, on the other side of town from me, though.
Otherwise we focus on politics. How did the Nazis actually manage to gain power and how did they divide it up when Hitler took over.
"Never shall it be repeated", is the motto here.