The annual Independence Day parade is coming back to Great Falls this summer, after last year’s event was canceled due to Covid restrictions.
Because last year’s festivities weren’t possible, organizers plan this year’s to be the biggest yet, with a larger parade route, special guests, and a fly over from a C-130 with the Montana Air National Guard to kick off the parade, followed by helicopter fly-overs every 20 minutes.
At 11 o’clock on July 4th, the parade will start at the intersection of 1st Avenue South and Park Drive North. It will then continue down 1st Avenue North, turning on 8th Street, and circling back down Central Avenue.
Most Americans will gather around “the Christmas tree” on December 25th without having any idea why we practice this tradition or where it came from. The truth is that the Christmas tree and the decorations we put on the tree have ancient roots in pagan fertility traditions.
In ancient times, the goddess Asherah was known as the “Queen of Heaven”. She was worshiped by many civilizations in the Middle East.
One of the symbols most closely associated with Asherah was a tree. The ancient Canaanites and Phoenicians viewed the tree as a symbol of male fertility.
The purpose of the fertility tree in ancient times was to display the symbols of fertility.
The pole, balls, and tinsel (phallus, testes, semen) represented various aspects of male fertility, while wreaths were always made in a circle to represent female fertility.
But isn’t the Christmas tree a Christian thing?
Actually the Bible doesn’t say anything about a “Christmas tree”, but it does warn God’s people against putting up carved wooden idols like the other pagan nations were doing.
Jeremiah 10:1-4
Hear what the LORD says to you, O house of Israel. This is what the LORD says: “Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by signs in the sky, though the nations are terrified by them. For the customs of the peoples are worthless; they cut a tree out of the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel. They adorn it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter.”
Pagan nations would always decorate their idols with silver and gold and place them in a place of prominence within the house in order to be seen and/or worshiped by the owner or the guests.
Most people think that December 25th first became a holiday when some Catholic guy decided to make that day the celebration of the birth of Christ. But that is just not true. Before Christmas was ever invented, December 25th was known as “the birthday of the unconquered sun” and it was celebrated as the birthday of pagan gods such as Mithras, Attis, Sol, Dionysus and others.
Most people also do not realize that Yule is the name of a major pagan holiday that is celebrated today by thousands upon thousands of people around the world.
In fact, a major U.K. newspaper recently had this headline: Ancient Yule festivals lie behind much of our British Christmas.
Yule was celebrated by the pagans of northern Europe from late December to early January for centuries. When you offer “yuletide” greetings you are acknowledging this celebration. Yule logs were traditionally lit to honor the god “Thor”. The holiday would continue until the Yule log burned out, which could take as many as twelve days. Thus this is where we get the “12 days of Christmas”. Even an early form of Santa Claus can all be traced back to ancient Yule celebrations.
Another one of the pagan pre-Christian festivals was called Saturnalia.
Saturnalia was a holiday when the Romans commemorated the dedication of the temple of their god Saturn, which was on the 17th of December and the festival would last for a whole week until the 23rd of December.
Green ivy and holly were common symbols of “Saturn”, the Roman deity.
Later on, the Romans also started holding a festival on December 25 called Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, which means “the birthday of the unconquered sun.”
In the year 350 A.D., Pope Julius I declared that “Christ’s birth” would be celebrated on December 25th from then on.
Apparently his rationale was that he was trying to make it easier for pagan Romans to convert to Christianity.
But the historical Jesus was not born on December 25th.
It would have been far too cold for shepherds to be out with their sheep at night during that time.
The truth is that it can be demonstrated that Jesus was most likely born during the Feast of Tabernacles.
Are you ready for even more stuff you didn’t know about Christmas?
E-Mantra is Emanuel Carpus, hailing from Constanța on the Black Sea Coast of Romania. His career spans over 20 years, during which he has released 10 full albums across international labels like Melusine Records (Romania), Suntrip Records (Belgium), and Altar Records (Canada).
“Drifting 2” was released on October 26, 2024, featuring tracks like “Carbon Based Thalassophile” and “Mystical Journey in the Mushroom Fields”. This album, like his others, showcases his ability to blend ambient sounds with trance elements, creating an immersive listening experience.
“E-Mantra vs Ritual Space – Space Rituals” came out on October 12, 2024, indicating his ongoing exploration of space-themed ambient trance music, which might delve into themes of cosmic emptiness or vastness, aligning with the concept of “emptiness” in a thematic sense.
Given his genre focus, E-Mantra’s exploration of “emptiness” might not only be philosophical but also sonic and thematic. In music, especially genres like ambient and trance, “emptiness” can be represented through minimalism, long sustains, and vast soundscapes that evoke feelings of space, void, or inner peace. His work might offer listeners a meditative escape, where ’emptiness’ becomes a canvas for introspection or an auditory journey into the cosmos, reflecting themes of vastness, infinity, or nothingness.
Emanuel Carpus uses various platforms like Bandcamp, SoundCloud, and Instagram to share his music and connect with his audience. His Instagram (@emantra_official) as of the latest information shows he has a significant following, indicating his impact within the electronic music community.
The images used are made by Kagaya Yutaka and Shu Mizogushi, the movie part is from Outlander and Avatar.
If you like the images and the music, be sure to show your support by visiting these artists:
On October 29, 2020, “I feel very confident that Joe Biden will be elected president on Tuesday,” Pelosi, D-Calif., said at a news conference at the Capitol, while acknowledging counting votes may continue past Nov. 3.
“On Jan. 20, he will be inaugurated president of the United States.”
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has said there’s a “next generation of Windows” coming soon:
“Soon we will share one of the most significant updates to Windows of the past decade to unlock greater economic opportunity for developers … Our promise to you is this: we will create more opportunity for every Windows developer today and welcome every creator who is looking for the most innovative, new, open platform to build and distribute and monetize applications. We look forward to sharing more very soon.” – Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella
After Microsoft’s announcement about the “next generation” of Windows, concept videos of what the new Windows 11 might look like started popping up all over the place —
I’ve worked in tech for over 20+ years, and when in 2015 Microsoft stated that Windows 10 was the last operating system you would ever need, the red flags popped up.
Adobe Systems Inc. made strikingly similar statements in 2012 as I recall, and in 2013, Adobe Systems Inc. transitioned to a SaaS (software as a service) business model.
Adobe abandoned Creative Suite, and went all-SaaS with the Creative Cloud replacement.
SaaS means that instead of purchasing the software you are using, you rent it, paying a monthly rental fee.
Microsoft operating system version builds have been just as slow and clunky as their Internet Explorer browser has been over the years. Microsoft’s new browser Edge is built on the open source code of Chromium, and it runs much faster and is more secure. When I first used Windows 10, I had a sneaking suspicion that Microsoft had started using open source in it’s base code.
Microsoft’s activation keys are now all digital (in the cloud) — All of Microsoft industry services reside in the cloud and are all SaaS. You can’t purchase Microsoft Office Suite any longer, but you can pay a monthly fee to use Microsoft 365.
Microsoft Azure is all cloud based and a monthly fee is required for it’s use.
Currently, the only real software properties that Microsoft owns that are not 100% cloud based are Microsoft Windows 8.1 and Microsoft Windows 10. (Microsoft Windows 10 Enterprise is currently 100% cloud based, and a monthly subscription fee is required in order to use it)
Saas licensing is usually double the cost for business and triple the cost for private of what the current conventional licensing would be.
In 2018, the Israeli government refused to renew it’s Enterprise Microsoft licensing due to Microsoft shifting it’s Enterprise services to the Saas cloud and doubling the price. Eventually, after a few months, Israel and Microsoft came to terms on a more reasonable price for the service.
“Israel’s government signed a new software supply deal with Microsoft on Tuesday, three months after saying it would not renew its contract with the firm due to a change in license terms that would have doubled its price.” – Reuters
I’ll make a best guess that as soon as Windows 8.1 reaches EOL (end of life) in 2023, Microsoft will move all of the Windows 10 operating system to the cloud and charge a monthly subscription fee for use after that.
If all of this plays out like I’m pretty sure it will, how likely would you be to pay Microsoft a monthly fee for software that you’ll never own?
Uncovered the truth about the 2020 election
On October 29, 2020, “I feel very confident that Joe Biden will be elected president on Tuesday,” Pelosi, D-Calif., said at a news conference at the Capitol, while acknowledging counting votes may continue past Nov. 3.
“On Jan. 20, he will be inaugurated president of the United States.”