Mothers day banned....

IS Mothering Sunday a 'Christian festival'? I thought it was an excuse for Hallmark to sell more cards. Does that mean that Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and Jews aren't allowed to appreciate their mothers on the same day?

Wasn't this the same teacher who introduced baa baa coloured sheep? I can't remember whether that was before or after her full frontal lobotomy. jude "Cacoethes scribendi" http://www.judesworld.net

good for her ... let's hope she also bans twee rot songs such as: Super mum you're wonderful and very underpaid, Super mum, you cook & clean, you're handyman & maid, If you put in a bill for all the work you do, There'd be an awful lot of wages due! (plus other verses about nose wiping etc.) this song used to incense me when i had to attend the gruesome mothers' day events at my kids' CofE school ... my kids still sing it to torture me ...

My manager got onto the authorities at her son's C of E school because she discovered they were making Halloween masks in art. "It's a pagan festival, and nothing at all to do with Christianity", she explained. Being the sort of person she is (Ian Paisley comes to mind), she managed to get the evil, corrupting practice stopped. I'm sure Harry Potter's also off the reading list by now. I haven't told her that I had a pagan wedding. She'd probably tell me I'm bound for Hell. Don't suppose it would make much difference if I tell her I don't believe in her superstitions.

Super mum you're wonderful and very underpaid...Urgh Last year I went to buy a card for my Mummy in the Post Office because at 49p they're the cheapest. But all the messages were utterly saccharine like "Mummy- you are so wonderful." "To the best ever Mum in the world" etc. They didn't have ones approriate for me, ones that said "Mother, I think that on occasion, you can be alright." jude "Cacoethes scribendi" http://www.judesworld.net

Blimey. You learn something new every day.

"Mother, I think that on occasion, you can be alright." Brill! :-))) You should start your own line, Jude! pe ps oid ... What is "The Art of Tea"? ... (www.pepsoid.wordpress.com)

"One parent, who did not wish to be named, said: "It means 95% of the children have not got an opportunity to make a card."" I wish all people thought like this. Then all you'd need to do to stop terrorism is get bosses to ban the manufacturing of destructive weapons in the workplace.

I have a lot of sympathy with her. It must have been a difficult decision to take and either way she's damned. I also have a lot of sympathy with anyone who objects to the celebration of Halloween. This is a particularly unpleasant and entirely fake tradition that has only sprung to prominence in the past 20 years or so in the UK. I don't object to its pagan origins but to the fact that it is extremely disturbing to open the door at nine in the evening to a bunch of people dressed like ghouls threatening to play a trick on you if you don't give them something. I live in south London not so far from where we have had three murders in the past four days. People walking around at night wearing a mask in an area like this is not so funny.

I agree with you on the 'trick-or-treat' thing, Bruce. That sort of bollocks originated in America and has been imported wholesale. It's corrupted the true meaning of the Samhain festival, in much the same way that commercialism has corrupted Christmas (or Yuletide). That wasn't what my manager was objecting to, though. It was the fact of its being a pagan festival - as are many Christian festivals, including all the quarter days. It's partly how Christianity sold itself so well to the pagans: you can still have your festivals - you just have to call them something else. Oh, and you have to change the names of your deities, too!

How did the Christians miss out on co-opting halloween? Had they run out of births and deaths to celebrate?

Peps, I am indeed thinking of bringing out a whole range of 'tell-the-truth' greetings cards; Mother's day: 'I suppose I could've done worse' 'To a reasonably nice mother' Father's day: ' Wishing you a disappointing father's day' ' To a competitive dad, may your day be better than mine' Wedding ' To the smuggest couple' 'wishing you many years of satisfying sex' Birth of a child 'congratulations but you're not the first couple to reproduce so can you stop talking endlessly about your offspring' 'See you in 18 years, have a nice life' Birthday friend (female) Wishing you a great birthday but a smaller gift from your fella than I got this year. Birthday friend (male) (blokes generally don't and shouldn't buy each other cards) jude "Cacoethes scribendi" http://www.judesworld.net

;-) And indeed... :-))) pe ps oid ... What is "The Art of Tea"? ... (www.pepsoid.wordpress.com)

I used to have to buy six Mothers' Day cards - one for my wife from me, one for her from the kids, then one each for our own mothers and another one each for "granny" from the kids. Expensive do, but well in the past as now I don't buy any.

All that political correctness pisses me off bigtime, but something that almost shocked me yesterday was the sight of 'golliwogs' on sale in a local shop. They were identical to the ones that Robertsons stopped putting on their jam-jars some years back, and come in three sizes, the smallest attached to a key ring and the largest 18" high. I thought that it was illegal to sell such things.

I'm pretty sure golliwogs aren't illegal. They're just not very popular anymore because they represent an old stereotype of black people we don't really sign up to these days. I hate these stories. Muslims ruining Christmas and so on. Half of them are made up so Daily Telegraph readers can snort, "It's political correctness gone mad...what's this country coming to? This country's going to the dogs, hoodies, blah blah blah, I've a mind to leave..." Yeah, well don't let me get in your way. That baa baa green or whatever sheep story is highly apocryphal, and if it's based on any fact at all, it was blown out of proportion my the then Thatcher-loving press: Loony left councils are the perfect distraction from conversative-party screw-ups. Shameless, playing the Christian card. Isn't it funny how people are suddenly getting their knickers in a twist about "Christian" festivals just because other faiths get their way on a few things? Don't remember anyone giving a cack before. NOBODY considers mother's day Christian, and this woman -- I'll bet anything -- hates other religions much more than she loves Christ. "It means 95% of the children have not got an opportunity to make a card." Here's a thought: get dad to remove his head from his tory backside for just enough time to help his kid make one at home. Kids should be learning stuff at school anyway, not pissing about making cards. As for Halloween: it didn't travel well from America, where the focus is on family fun. That was extricated from the British version, so we were left with thugs wearing their normal clothes extorting money and sweets and smashing windscreens in.

"As for Halloween: it didn't travel well from America, where the focus is on family fun. That was extricated from the British version, so we were left with thugs wearing their normal clothes extorting money and sweets and smashing windscreens in." LMAO!! I had a GREAT time on Halloween as a kid; we had excellent parties, got to trick-or-treat *without* an accompanying grownup as there was general consensus back then that most people were NOT serial killers or paedophiles; and very seldom, actually, did we do any 'tricks' as we got wadges of candy from the neighbours! Halloween here is an insipid, watered-down joke. I feel for my kids.