Speaker 1: From UFOs two, Ghosts and government cover ups. History is
Speaker 1: riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
Speaker 1: learn the stuff they don't want you to know. Hello, everybody,
Speaker 1: thanks for tuning in. I'm Ben and I'm at and
Speaker 1: that makes this stuff they don't want you to know
Speaker 1: that as we record this, we're heading into one of
Speaker 1: the most popular holidays in the United States for sure. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and throughout the world there are a lot of places
Speaker 1: where this is a huge holiday. No, could we have
Speaker 1: a little bit of theme music to let people know
Speaker 1: which holiday we're talking about? I am wow, that was
Speaker 1: a great choice. No, Yeah, that was a good choice. No,
Speaker 1: you are superb producer, and I'm sure everybody could guess
Speaker 1: that that means this is an episode about Christmas. I
Speaker 1: wonder how that's gonna work with our creepy music that
Speaker 1: you know, we're coming out of our our creepy music
Speaker 1: that a lot of people tell us is weird and
Speaker 1: and too dark into that joyful thing that Noll just
Speaker 1: put in there. Well. Also, let's let's just be honest, Matt,
Speaker 1: A lot of Christmas music is creepy. Yeah, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: make a video where we just put some some music
Speaker 1: in there that's supposed to be joyful and happy, and
Speaker 1: just edit it with some really creepy imagery and see
Speaker 1: what happens. Why not chop and screw it and um
Speaker 1: remix it, which is an interesting segue into the story
Speaker 1: of Christmas. Now, a long time ago, you and I
Speaker 1: did an episode on the secret origins of Christmas. Right,
Speaker 1: that's correct, and it's actually going to be coming out
Speaker 1: on the same day that this podcast is coming out,
Speaker 1: So if you haven't yet, you should head on over
Speaker 1: to test tube or our YouTube channel and check out
Speaker 1: that episode because there's lots of fun information on the
Speaker 1: origins of this holiday. Most of our listeners are probably
Speaker 1: familiar with the part of the story of Christmas, right,
Speaker 1: how how it came became what it is today, which
Speaker 1: is um historically not the accurate birth date of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: It's the day when everybody gets together to celebrate. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're just kind of decided that this is this is
Speaker 1: the day we will use. And there's a reason that
Speaker 1: it was chosen, right, lay it on me. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: it goes back the the December twenty day goes back
Speaker 1: to the pagan tradition of the Solstice. Uh, there are
Speaker 1: a lot it was kind of a holy day, and
Speaker 1: there were a lot of celebrations that occurred right around
Speaker 1: that time and specifically on that day. Um. And then
Speaker 1: I guess the church decided, well, we're going to we're
Speaker 1: going to kind of be a competing market, or we're
Speaker 1: going to compete inside this market, and we're going to
Speaker 1: make our day bigger. Oh, and that we need to
Speaker 1: put in a disclaimer here. This is something we talked
Speaker 1: about when we first did our Christmas episode. If you
Speaker 1: are a Christian, if you if you believe in Jesus Christ,
Speaker 1: and you celebrate Christmas, none of the stuff that we're
Speaker 1: saying is necessarily disrespectful. It's certainly not meant to be.
Speaker 1: We're just talking about the historical evolution of Christmas. We're
Speaker 1: not talking about any of the spiritual side of it.
Speaker 1: But um, it is true that the reason the celebration
Speaker 1: occurs on December. You know, the reason it's in that
Speaker 1: area of time is because there was an earlier, pre
Speaker 1: existing holy day from a different faith, as you said, Uh,
Speaker 1: and the Catholic Church wanted to absorb that as well.
Speaker 1: What what that process is called is religious syncretism. And
Speaker 1: religious syncretism is not unique to the Catholic Church and
Speaker 1: the date of Christmas, right, No, not at all. You
Speaker 1: you kind of have to if you really want to
Speaker 1: look at it historically, you have to pull yourself out
Speaker 1: a little bit from the belief just to look at
Speaker 1: things historically and and religion like a lot of like
Speaker 1: really anything else. Um, it's part of a competing belief system,
Speaker 1: right and like UM anything from what you believe with
Speaker 1: about economics or what you believe about UM science or
Speaker 1: you know, history and religion. I'm just rambling. Or music.
Speaker 1: That's something that people argue about all of the time
Speaker 1: with absolutely I'm gonna say it. Musicologists are irritating, you know.
Speaker 1: It's just it's an opinion. That doesn't make it a fact.
Speaker 1: The only fact is is your opinion whether or not
Speaker 1: that band is good. Buddy layoff. And when we when
Speaker 1: we talk about this sort of stuff, the point you're
Speaker 1: making about UH competing belief system is interesting because UM
Speaker 1: in the evolution of religions and cultures when they encounter
Speaker 1: each other, especially in previous centuries, one thing that we
Speaker 1: see is that the competing UM aspect of it is
Speaker 1: secondary to this sort of melding and blending. So for instance,
Speaker 1: when the Catholic Church goes to South America, then they
Speaker 1: and the Caribbean, then they recognize, right finger quotes, recognize
Speaker 1: this God or this God is actually oh, this is
Speaker 1: this saint, um, And oh, don't worry. You have been
Speaker 1: worshiping this saint, and so you've been kind of different. Yeah,
Speaker 1: just called it a different thing and arose by any
Speaker 1: other name would smell as sweet. That's that's the that's
Speaker 1: that's the gist of it. And religious syncretism isn't necessarily bad.
Speaker 1: It is tempting, of course, um, to think that this
Speaker 1: is some sort of degradation of a religion. Right, It's tough.
Speaker 1: You just gotta you kind of have to decide to
Speaker 1: not look at it that way. If you really believe,
Speaker 1: you just have to. I think I think you really
Speaker 1: need to have both of those thoughts going at the
Speaker 1: same time. If you are a believer, Um, you just
Speaker 1: have to understand that this is just the way history works,
Speaker 1: is it the way or religious organizations do things sometimes,
Speaker 1: And and that's a great point now before we get
Speaker 1: too far side tracked into religious syncretism, which you know,
Speaker 1: I find fascinating uh, due to my travels in my
Speaker 1: sketchy past where I where I participated in some of
Speaker 1: this stuff firsthand. Um, one other thing that was hold on.
Speaker 1: We're going to have to go into more of that, Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: firsthand for the end. Okay, alright, alright, So one thing
Speaker 1: we should go into when we're talking about Christmas is
Speaker 1: that Christmas in the United States has some traditions. They're
Speaker 1: very strange and not necessarily related to, um, the birth
Speaker 1: of a God. You know, like the the Yule log. Yes,
Speaker 1: that was another tradition right there, having a very large
Speaker 1: log that would burn for a good amount of time
Speaker 1: that would keep you overnight basically warm. Also the Christmas tree,
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, what it is a weird idea of chopping
Speaker 1: down a tree to put into your house to then
Speaker 1: decorate and celebrate around. It doesn't seem to have much
Speaker 1: at least symbolism from a Catholic or from a Christian standpoint. Um. Again,
Speaker 1: it goes back to the syncretism. I feel like we're
Speaker 1: just making a podcast on religious syncretism. Well, we also
Speaker 1: want people to check out the video if you haven't
Speaker 1: had a chance to do it yet, and we can
Speaker 1: speak in Christmas, we can go ahead and wrap this
Speaker 1: up like a present. Huh oh, I'm terrible at that,
Speaker 1: but I'm disappointed at by my own joke. I'm sorry everybody,
Speaker 1: but the as we wrap us up and go off
Speaker 1: to prepare for our own holiday stuff, um, I will
Speaker 1: leave us with a story about what one of my experiences.
Speaker 1: And I can't wait to hear this all right. So, um,
Speaker 1: A while ago, several years and years ago, I lived
Speaker 1: in Guatemala, and you know this. And in Guatemala there
Speaker 1: I lived in a part of the country called katel
Speaker 1: Tenango or j La, and in ja Lah. The Maya
Speaker 1: culture was never fully extinguished eradicated by the Spaniards. It
Speaker 1: was Can I say Spaniards on the air? Is that
Speaker 1: that's Spanish conquistadores. Okay, So years ago I lived in Guatemala,
Speaker 1: and I lived in a town called kate Tenango or
Speaker 1: j La. And in this town, which is in the highlands,
Speaker 1: in the mountain mountainous areas, uh, there is a large
Speaker 1: Maya population. And this population, thank goodness, was never fully
Speaker 1: eradicated by Spanish conquistadores, but they did have belief systems
Speaker 1: heavily affected UH. Most notably there is a figure called
Speaker 1: San Simon or Mashamon and Marshamon or San Simon is
Speaker 1: um nowadays worshiped in some churches sort of a patron
Speaker 1: sainted gamblers, adulterers and thieves and sounds like yeah, yeah
Speaker 1: and there um this this character has this story. The
Speaker 1: saint rather u has an amazing story of evolution because
Speaker 1: h originally the folklore's believe that Mashimon or what became
Speaker 1: San Simon was based and a mountain spirit named the
Speaker 1: mom and if I'm pronounced that correctly, my key jay
Speaker 1: is pretty off now, and then became Mashamon. And then
Speaker 1: when the Spanish came and the priest came, they said, oh,
Speaker 1: we recognize this guy. The story goes that they wanted
Speaker 1: to dilute the popularity of this this um this deity,
Speaker 1: so they said, yeah, you know, that's that is St. Judas,
Speaker 1: that is and Judas. Yeah, and you know Judas plays
Speaker 1: a horrible role in the Bible. Most denominations think, yeah,
Speaker 1: no spoilers, but check out the book and yeah and
Speaker 1: he uh. The thing was, this did not this did
Speaker 1: not alienate the Maya from from their culture, from their
Speaker 1: history with this deity. Instead, this was just something that
Speaker 1: they folded into it. And now San Simona is what's
Speaker 1: considered a folk saint, meaning that he's not canonized by
Speaker 1: the Vatican and by the Holy See. However, he's still around.
Speaker 1: And when I was in Guatemala, I had a chance.
Speaker 1: After a very strange experience, I ended up almost dying
Speaker 1: in a bus accident because you read busses everywhere, and
Speaker 1: uh yeah, and then immediately I headed off with some
Speaker 1: other people to go to this shrine where they take
Speaker 1: this deity out once a day or once a year,
Speaker 1: and um, because he hates the light. Really yeah, he's
Speaker 1: interesting and you make offerings of scars and um booze.
Speaker 1: He likes booze. And interestingly enough, I'm pretty sure that
Speaker 1: when Josh and Chuck were in Guatemala, Josh and Chuck
Speaker 1: from stuff that stuff you should know. I'm pretty sure
Speaker 1: that Josh visited San Simone as well. So sorry, I
Speaker 1: know I'm talking your ear office. It's great. I love it. Man.
Speaker 1: I'm sitting here like a little kid listening to a
Speaker 1: Christmas story around but we do have uh secret origins
Speaker 1: of Christmas, and that I have to ask you, what's
Speaker 1: the most surprising thing you learned about Christmas as we
Speaker 1: close out. I would say the most surprising thing I
Speaker 1: learned about it was just the furthest back history of
Speaker 1: the holiday season from the chronology of three fifty four.
Speaker 1: That was really interesting. We cover that in the the
Speaker 1: original episode that we made just to see. I was
Speaker 1: looking through that document earlier today and it's just fascinating.
Speaker 1: It was basically a picture book that this that this
Speaker 1: guy had made for him, a wealthy man had made
Speaker 1: for him, and not much of it exists or I
Speaker 1: don't think any of it is surviving now today. But
Speaker 1: that was one of that was the first place that
Speaker 1: it was mentioned, the idea of this this holiday. Um,
Speaker 1: it's not really surprising. It was just I guess it
Speaker 1: was just cool. Yeah, And I forgot to mention, I
Speaker 1: know we should have at the earlier but there there
Speaker 1: there's more than one St. Nick. There are multiple guys,
Speaker 1: and I think they based the St. Nicholas is often
Speaker 1: attributed to a Greek saints in so correct. Yeah, there
Speaker 1: are several others that then get wrapped up into this
Speaker 1: one guy that we call St. Nicholas now and they're
Speaker 1: all these different stories about you know, we talked about
Speaker 1: it and throwing the coins into um, a needy family's home,
Speaker 1: and that's where the stockings came from, because he allegedly
Speaker 1: put him in a stocking. Um. There was a great
Speaker 1: picture I found. It was a painting of one of
Speaker 1: the st Nick's saving a I think he was he
Speaker 1: was he was a prisoner of some sort and he
Speaker 1: was going to be executed and he was staying the blade.
Speaker 1: It's a painting of I guess a time when this
Speaker 1: one of the saints saved a guy from being executed.
Speaker 1: It was an awesome painting on some on some straight
Speaker 1: up Gandalf, thou shalt not totally man, He's just not today.
Speaker 1: So um, it's it's weird because we are often we
Speaker 1: we often grow up, at least in the States, associating
Speaker 1: the idea of this jolly obese man with a snow
Speaker 1: white beard who goes into your house at night, but
Speaker 1: it's okay because he leaves things for you. Um. And
Speaker 1: it's it's astounding that Coca cola is uh so so
Speaker 1: inextricably intertwined with the story of the modern Santa Claus.
Speaker 1: Because I know some people will write to us about that. Um.
Speaker 1: We I think we explore some of that in our
Speaker 1: episode do we mention that a little bit? Well, maybe
Speaker 1: we'll do another one Where does Santa Come From? That's
Speaker 1: going um so while we're off to work on that,
Speaker 1: let us know what you think. Check out our shows,
Speaker 1: drop us a line on Facebook and Twitter where conspiracy
Speaker 1: stuff at both of those places. Please do tell your
Speaker 1: friends this show when you're sitting around, like right now,
Speaker 1: if you're listening to this alone in your room, after
Speaker 1: you've been hanging out with family all day, you should
Speaker 1: go downstairs. Maybe, Uh, I don't get your dad or
Speaker 1: your mom or your sister, your brother, get somebody and
Speaker 1: be like, hey, you should check this out. This is
Speaker 1: crazy show that I really like. Uh, you can show
Speaker 1: them our video, show them the video, share it on Facebook.
Speaker 1: It'll be awesome, and tell us what they think, even
Speaker 1: even if they don't like it. But Matt, what do
Speaker 1: you what kind of emails do you want to receive
Speaker 1: this time around? Well? I do want to know. I
Speaker 1: want to know the most heartfelt or the most thoughtful
Speaker 1: gifts that you got for somebody this year. I want
Speaker 1: to know about that. I want to know why, like
Speaker 1: why you got what it was and why you got
Speaker 1: it for that person. Does it need to be a
Speaker 1: Christmas gifts? Who can it be? No? Just like or
Speaker 1: maybe just the kind thing you did for somebody, okay
Speaker 1: at some point in the year. That's what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: is you do something kind for somebody, just randomly, or
Speaker 1: for somebody you know really well, or just for some
Speaker 1: do you at the grocery store. Just do something cool
Speaker 1: and let us know the story. We may just read
Speaker 1: it on air. You can write to us directly. Our
Speaker 1: email address is conspiracy at Discovery dot com. From more
Speaker 1: on this topic, another unexplained phenomenon, visit test tube dot
Speaker 1: com slash conspiracy stuff. You can also get in touch
Speaker 1: on Twitter at the handle at conspiracy stuff