philosoraptor42

Especially Doctor Who ones - YAY!

Libby Purves from the Times has decided to have a rant on this and while there are many reasons to agree, her article doesn't touch on any of them:

"These perverted items have been around in the US since 1958 and in Britain from a decade later; but even 25 years ago they were not as universal as they are today: the Archbishop of Canterbury himself has casually said that “the Advent calendar means daily sweets and chocolates”. Now we see a few still being faintly religious yet calorific, and innumerable others offering chocolate Simpsons, Barbies, Star Wars, footballers, anything. Charities do them enthusiastically, and there are posh Belgian-choc ones for emotionally retarded adults.

"And they are all disgusting. Especially for small children, who are not yet corrupted into thinking that all wonder, all hope, all tradition and culture must be translated into cheap confectionery before it is worth having. Nothing against chocolate: it is the conflation with Advent that repels."

Oh dear Libby! Whatever will we do when religious events are being cheapened by chocolate. Hang on a minute! What blooming Christian festival isn't based around chocolate? What about Christmas ffs? Or how about *gasp* Easter?!?!!

Seriously, the argument that the meaning is taken out of religious festivals when you add chocolate to them, in the Christian tradition of all religious traditions, is wholly ludicrous!

And even if we look at other religions, let's take a glance at Sikhism where people are initiated by drinking Amrit (water with sugar dissolved in it) and regularly eat Karah Prahshad (a sugary food) at every service? For Sikhs the sweet food reminds them of the sweetness of God. Sweet foods are also a regular feature in Hinduism.

No, the argument against chocolate advent cards I would employ would be that it's very bad for young children to be given chocolate sweets every single day and, as Libby notes in her article, their are some obnoxious brats out there who are liable to ignore the tradition and scoff the lot. Certainly there are children who will open more than one door of the advent calendar, but they quickly learn that all the fun is gone if you open all the doors at once. Not so when your advent calendar is basically a sweetie tin within easy reach. So yes, you need to use a bit more discipline than normal to get children to respect the advent tradition and you might worry that it's a little unhealthy. But for some families it could still work in spite of this and who the hell is Libby to criticise?

Libby ends her article by saying:
I'd like to contrast this now with the words of a welsh minister:
Damn right! :)