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#31
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Any boaters left here? Holiday light question.
I bought a couple of strings of holiday lights last night. Talk about a tough item to buy with any meaningful electrical info, wow. I finally found one brand of lights (100 itsy bitsy lights on a cord) with packaging that included a note about a 3-amp inline fuse. Aha! Now that's something I can relate to. I'll figure two strings, drawing no more than 6-amps. I won't be exceptionally bright, but then again I'm never expected to be all that bright. :-) The toughest part of these lighted boat parades is maintaining night vision. Sure as heck there will be somebody covered with bright white lights, 12 kW genset running hard to keep up with the load. |
#32
posted to rec.boats
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Any boaters left here? Holiday light question.
On 21 Nov 2006 07:54:28 -0800, "Chuck Gould"
wrote: I bought a couple of strings of holiday lights last night. Talk about a tough item to buy with any meaningful electrical info, wow. I finally found one brand of lights (100 itsy bitsy lights on a cord) with packaging that included a note about a 3-amp inline fuse. Aha! Now that's something I can relate to. I'll figure two strings, drawing no more than 6-amps. I won't be exceptionally bright, but then again I'm never expected to be all that bright. :-) The toughest part of these lighted boat parades is maintaining night vision. Sure as heck there will be somebody covered with bright white lights, 12 kW genset running hard to keep up with the load. What holiday are you celebrating with all these lights? |
#33
posted to rec.boats
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Any boaters left here? Holiday light question.
JohnH wrote: What holiday are you celebrating with all these lights? Same as most of the rest of the northern hemishpere; winter solstice. It's a holiday that celebrates light, both literally and spiritually. Most religious traditions put a particular interpetation or "spin" on the season. Since there were no such things as electric lights back when any of the major religions were founded, it would be silly to call them "Christmas lights" or by any other name with a religious affiliation. The primary solstice celebrations in the Western world are Christmas and Chanukah, so Have a Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Sensational Saturnalia, Bonkers Brumalia, Cool Yule, Blessed Sankrati, or whatever winds your clock. Might as well celebrate all of them, no point to miss out on a good party. One solstice holiday we don't hear much of anymore is Dies Natalis Solis Invicti. (Latin for "Birthday of the Unconquered Sun"). During the ascendency of the Roman Empire, one of the most popular gods was actually a Persian diety borrowed from Zoroastrianism. The god Mithras was sent by the chief god Ahura-Mazda to save the world after it had been corrupted by sinful men. Mithras was believed to have been born of a virgin on December 25, and some scholars make an incendiary claim that this legend was the basis for the somewhat more recent Christmas story that appears in two of the four official Christian gospels. Some of those scholars and others believe that Christmas was assigned to December 25 specifically to usurp the day from Mithras during that period of time when Rome was interested in making Christianity the official religion of the Empire. The two events I will be participating in are the Seafair Holiday Cruise (aka "The Special Peoples' Cruise) and a lighted boat parade sponored by a local yacht club. Of all the things to participate in each year, few are more rewarding than the Special Peoples' Cruise. We take developmentally disadvantaged kids and adults out for a boatride. Hundreds of boats participate, and we have a long parade that stretches clear across Lake Washington and back to Lake Union. It's quite a sight. For most of our guests, this event is one of the more exciting things that they get to participate in all year; and they are very grateful. To me, this cruise precisely encapsulates the true meaning of the solstice holiday season- whether any individual's particular religion honors Jesus, Yahweh, Mithras, The Goddess, Thor, Zeus, Apollo, or whomever. Or whether a person chooses no religious affilitation at all. So I'm celebrating winter solstice. The reintroduction of spiritual-light and the return of the sun. (at least if you live in the northern hemisphere). If you want to ask, "Does that include Christmas?" Absolutely! Solstice wouldn't be the same without it. And like most Americans, my solstice celebration will include a mixture of secular as well as spiritually significant symbols and events. Somehow, I don't think the kids aboard the boat or the spectators along the shoreline are going to care very much whether my particular perspectives on the season coincides with any or many of their own. :-) |
#34
posted to rec.boats
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Any boaters left here? Holiday light question.
On 21 Nov 2006 13:33:36 -0800, "Chuck Gould"
wrote: JohnH wrote: What holiday are you celebrating with all these lights? Same as most of the rest of the northern hemishpere; winter solstice. It's a holiday that celebrates light, both literally and spiritually. Most religious traditions put a particular interpetation or "spin" on the season. Since there were no such things as electric lights back when any of the major religions were founded, it would be silly to call them "Christmas lights" or by any other name with a religious affiliation. The primary solstice celebrations in the Western world are Christmas and Chanukah, so Have a Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Sensational Saturnalia, Bonkers Brumalia, Cool Yule, Blessed Sankrati, or whatever winds your clock. Might as well celebrate all of them, no point to miss out on a good party. One solstice holiday we don't hear much of anymore is Dies Natalis Solis Invicti. (Latin for "Birthday of the Unconquered Sun"). During the ascendency of the Roman Empire, one of the most popular gods was actually a Persian diety borrowed from Zoroastrianism. The god Mithras was sent by the chief god Ahura-Mazda to save the world after it had been corrupted by sinful men. Mithras was believed to have been born of a virgin on December 25, and some scholars make an incendiary claim that this legend was the basis for the somewhat more recent Christmas story that appears in two of the four official Christian gospels. Some of those scholars and others believe that Christmas was assigned to December 25 specifically to usurp the day from Mithras during that period of time when Rome was interested in making Christianity the official religion of the Empire. The two events I will be participating in are the Seafair Holiday Cruise (aka "The Special Peoples' Cruise) and a lighted boat parade sponored by a local yacht club. Of all the things to participate in each year, few are more rewarding than the Special Peoples' Cruise. We take developmentally disadvantaged kids and adults out for a boatride. Hundreds of boats participate, and we have a long parade that stretches clear across Lake Washington and back to Lake Union. It's quite a sight. For most of our guests, this event is one of the more exciting things that they get to participate in all year; and they are very grateful. To me, this cruise precisely encapsulates the true meaning of the solstice holiday season- whether any individual's particular religion honors Jesus, Yahweh, Mithras, The Goddess, Thor, Zeus, Apollo, or whomever. Or whether a person chooses no religious affilitation at all. So I'm celebrating winter solstice. The reintroduction of spiritual-light and the return of the sun. (at least if you live in the northern hemisphere). If you want to ask, "Does that include Christmas?" Absolutely! Solstice wouldn't be the same without it. And like most Americans, my solstice celebration will include a mixture of secular as well as spiritually significant symbols and events. Somehow, I don't think the kids aboard the boat or the spectators along the shoreline are going to care very much whether my particular perspectives on the season coincides with any or many of their own. :-) Yes, the Special Peoples Cruise looked to be a good time for all, at least that was the impression I got from looking at the pics from last year. I wonder if Santa Claus will show up again? http://tinyurl.com/y6y45n If you haven't seen the pics, they're pretty good. |
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