chukwudi44:

@aggie80

Do you know the months january, December had pagan origins ? are also going to do away with it?
January was derived from janus the roman god of gates , Februa is the Roman festival of purification,Mars is the Roman god of war. like wise all the other months followed similar patterns ahould we do away with these ? because of their pagan origin.

http://www.crowl.org/Lawrence/time/months.html

what are you talking about? when did i say to abolish christmas? i was trying to explaine the origin of christmas to fmk since he is claiming it is the roman version of woodstock. yeah i know the history of the modern calender as well as august was added by cesar so he could have a month to himself for his b-day. i know MOST christian holidays are rooted in "pagan" traditions.

Paroh_frey:

This only shows that you travel less and that you havent travelled thru amsterdamn in a long while -

Go from Nigeria thru Amsterdamn to London - you pass thru the machine in Amsterdamn as if you are a goat- and same where ever you are going to, connecting or originating.

please stop making comments you are not sure about.

I have been flying internationally for nearly 30 years. I have had connecting flights throughout the US and Canada as well as Paris, Beijing, Rio, London, Oslo, Madrid, Moscow and Frankfurt to name a few. Never, I repeat never has there ever been a secondary screenings within any airport. If you switch airports in the city then there is a second screening process. If Amsterdam does a secondary screening within then they are an exception.

Paroh_frey:

The guy took a KLM flight from Lagos to Amsterdam, changed flights and headed for America- so, it is not Nigerian security system that should be blamed, blame the Amsterdamn system which can not detect whatever foul stuff he had on him.

when you have a connecting flight, you dont go through security for a second time. only when you FIRST enter an airport from the OUTSIDE do you go through security. once you are in the airport (flight to flight) there is no security check unless other passengers/flight crew make a complaint about something suspicious. if he flew out of nigeria (sounds like it from the news coverage) the fault of improper screening lays SOLEY on the the airport he used to fly out of the country (nigeria)

read the article well. it is an issue with forground lighting. withut proper lighting the system cannot work. it is designed to register only a face moving and to determin if it is a face or simply a person walking by it uses facial recognition softwar (measure spaces between features such as mouth, nose and eyes. if the lighting is not situated in a way to illuminate the face it will not work. though it would take softer lighting to do the same thing to a white person, it wont be able to track them either.

Bring your roller skates to Caracas, Venezuela, where they block the streets on Christmas Eve so that locals can roller-skate to church for Christmas service.

Don't swat the tree in Ukraine, where a fake spider and spider's web are placed on Christmas trees for decoration. It is believed that a spider web found on Christmas morning is a sign of good luck for the coming year.

On Christmas Eve in Norway, all the brooms in the house are hidden because it was believed that witches and evil spirits would come out on this night to steal their brooms for riding.

Make a wish when stirring in all the ingredients for Christmas pudding in England - but it will only come true if you stir in a clockwise direction.

In Japan, it's considered bad luck to give red Christmas cards or envelopes as funeral notices are usually written in red.

In Italy, locals celebrate Christmas - not by decorating a Christmas tree with tinsel and ornaments - but by decorating small wooden pyramids with fruit.

When in Belgium, you celebrate two Santa Clauses: St. Nicholas, the Santa that spies on children to sort them into naughty and nice; and Pere Noel, who does all the Christmas delivery work.

In Brazil, it's believed that Santa lives in Greenland, that the shepherds that sought out Jesus were actually women, and that the animals in the manger spoke when Jesus was born.

The oldest Christmas tradition in Estonia takes place on Christmas Eve when the whole family goes to visit the sauna together.

In Latvia, "Big Zimmer," the Latvian Santa Claus, brings presents not on just one day, but 12 days in a row. It's also here in Latvia that the Christmas tree tradition was first celebrated, although the holiday doesn't celebrate Jesus, but the re-birth of the Sun Maiden.

In the town of Urbania, Italy, an ugly witch named La Befana parades around town on her broomstick bringing gifts to children on Christmas Day. The tradition is believed to have come from the Vatican - who couldn't prove the existence of Santa Claus so decided to tell children that it was witches that delivered the presents.

During the Middle Ages, boar's head was known as a traditional Christmas dish. The custom began when a bear attached a student who saved himself by forcing Aristotle's books into the bear's mouth. The bear choked to death and the student cut off his head and brought it back to college.
In coastal towns like Brighton and in London's Serpentine Lake in England, many communities take part in a Christmas Day swim in frigid waters.

On Christmas Eve in Remedios, Cuba, locals celebrate Parrandas, a religious festival remembering the priests who would send altar boys into the streets to bang on pots and pans to awaken the townspeople for mass at midnight.

In France, on Christmas Eve, you put empty shoes on the doorstep or by the fireplace. It is said that The Christ Child will come during the night and put gifts in them.

If you live in the Netherlands, you put hay and sugar inside a shoe on the night before Saint Nicholas Day. Saint Nicholas' horse will eat the hay and sugar when they stop at your house. After the horse eats, Saint Nicholas repays you by filling your shoes with candy and tiny gifts.

In Spain, you put straw inside your shoes. The camels of The Three Kings will eat the straw. They will pass your house and leave gifts on Epiphany, twelve nights after Christmas.

In Italy you get your gifts in a large jar, called the Urn of Fate. It is said that a fairy queen flys down the chimney and fills each jar with gifts and goodies on Epiphany instead of Christmas. It was in Italy that the nativity scene became popular and spread through the Alps eventually making its way to the United States with German pioneers.

In some parts of Germany at Christmas you get gifts from a girl called Christkind. She wears a crown of candles and carries a basket full of gifts to the children. A dreadful demon called Hans Trapp goes with Christkind to deliver the gifts. Before Christkind gives any gifts, Hans Trapp waves a stick to threaten the naughty children.

At Christmas time in Sweden you might hear a thump at your front door or wake up the next morning to find gifts. It'll just be the old man and woman who go about on the night before Christmas throwing gifts inside children's front doors. No one in Sweden has ever found out who they are.

In other parts of Europe at Christmas time you might get a gift from a ferocious-looking man with a sooty face. It'll be Knight Rupprecht passing out gifts as he travels with Saint Nicholas.

Statuettes of well-known people defecating -- called "caganers" -- are a strong Christmas tradition in Catalonia, dating back to the 18th century. Catalonians hide caganers in Christmas Nativity scenes and invite friends to find them. The figures symbolize fertilization, hope and prosperity for the coming year. No public figure is safe -- not even the Statue of Liberty.

Our Christian friends are often quite surprised at how enthusiastically we Pagans celebrate the 'Christmas' season. Even though we prefer to use the word 'Yule', and our celebrations may peak a few days BEFORE the 25th, we nonetheless follow many of the traditional customs of the season: decorated trees, carolling, presents, Yule logs, and mistletoe. We might even go so far as putting up a 'Nativity set', though for us the three central characters are likely to be interpreted as Mother Nature, Father Time, and the Baby Sun-God. None of this will come as a surprise to anyone who knows the true history of the holiday, of course.
In fact, if truth be known, the holiday of Christmas has always been more Pagan than Christian, with it's associations of Nordic divination, Celtic fertility rites, and Roman Mithraism. That is why both Martin Luther and John Calvin abhorred it, why the Puritans refused to acknowledge it, much less celebrate it (to them, no day of the year could be more holy than the Sabbath), and why it was even made ILLEGAL in Boston! The holiday was already too closely associated with the birth of older Pagan gods and heroes. And many of them (like Oedipus, Theseus, Hercules, Perseus, Jason, Dionysus, Apollo, Mithra, Horus and even Arthur) possessed a narrative of birth, death, and resurrection that was uncomfortably close to that of Jesus. And to make matters worse, many of them pre-dated the Christian Savior.

Ultimately, of course, the holiday is rooted deeply in the cycle of the year. It is the Winter Solstice that is being celebrated, seed-time of the year, the longest night and shortest day. It is the birthday of the new Sun King, the Son of God -- by whatever name you choose to call him. On this darkest of nights, the Goddess becomes the Great Mother and once again gives birth. And it makes perfect poetic sense that on the longest night of the winter, 'the dark night of our souls', there springs the new spark of hope, the Sacred Fire, the Light of the World, the Coel Coeth.

That is why Pagans have as much right to claim this holiday as Christians. Perhaps even more so, as the Christians were rather late in laying claim to it, and tried more than once to reject it. There had been a tradition in the West that Mary bore the child Jesus on the twenty-fifth day, but no one could seem to decide on the month. Finally, in 320 C.E., the Catholic Fathers in Rome decided to make it December, in an effort to co-opt the Mithraic celebration of the Romans and the Yule celebrations of the Celts and Saxons.

There was never much pretense that the date they finally chose was historically accurate. Shepherds just don't 'tend their flocks by night' in the high pastures in the dead of winter! But if one wishes to use the New Testament as historical evidence, this reference may point to sometime in the spring as the time of Jesus's birth. This is because the lambing season occurs in the spring and that is the only time when shepherds are likely to 'watch their flocks by night' -- to make sure the lambing goes well. Knowing this, the Eastern half of the Church continued to reject December 25, preferring a 'movable date' fixed by their astrologers according to the moon.

Thus, despite its shaky start (for over three centuries, no one knew when Jesus was supposed to have been born!), December 25 finally began to catch on. By 529, it was a civic holiday, and all work or public business (except that of cooks, bakers, or any that contributed to the delight of the holiday) was prohibited by the Emperor Justinian. In 563, the Council of Braga forbade fasting on Christmas Day, and four years later the Council of Tours proclaimed the twelve days from December 25 to Epiphany as a sacred, festive season. This last point is perhaps the hardest to impress upon the modern reader, who is lucky to get a single day off work. Christmas, in the Middle Ages, was not a SINGLE day, but rather a period of TWELVE days, from December 25 to January 6. The Twelve Days of Christmas, in fact. It is certainly lamentable that the modern world has abandoned this approach, along with the popular Twelfth Night celebrations.

Of course, the Christian version of the holiday spread to many countries no faster than Christianity itself, which means that 'Christmas' wasn't celebrated in Ireland until the late fifth century; in England, Switzerland, and Austria until the seventh; in Germany until the eighth; and in the Slavic lands until the ninth and tenth. Not that these countries lacked their own mid-winter celebrations of Yuletide. Long before the world had heard of Jesus, Pagans had been observing the season by bringing in the Yule log, wishing on it, and lighting it from the remains of last year's log. Riddles were posed and answered, magic and rituals were practiced, wild boars were sacrificed and consumed along with large quantities of liquor, corn dollies were carried from house to house while carolling, fertility rites were practiced (girls standing under a sprig of mistletoe were subject to a bit more than a kiss), and divinations were cast for the coming Spring. Many of these Pagan customs, in an appropriately watered-down form, have entered the mainstream of Christian celebration, though most celebrants do not realize (or do not mention it, if they do) their origins.

For modern Witches, Yule (from the Anglo-Saxon 'Yula', meaning 'wheel' of the year) is usually celebrated on the actual Winter Solstice, which may vary by a few days, though it usually occurs on or around December 21st. It is a Lesser Sabbat or Lower Holiday in the modern Pagan calendar, one of the four quarter-days of the year, but a very important one. This year (1988) it occurs on December 21st at 9:28 am CST. Pagan customs are still enthusiastically followed. Once, the Yule log had been the center of the celebration. It was lighted on the eve of the solstice (it should light on the first try) and must be kept burning for twelve hours, for good luck. It should be made of ash. Later, the Yule log was replaced by the Yule tree but, instead of burning it, burning candles were placed on it. In Christianity, Protestants might claim that Martin Luther invented the custom, and Catholics might grant St. Boniface the honor, but the custom can demonstrably be traced back through the Roman Saturnalia all the way to ancient Egypt. Needless to say, such a tree should be cut down rather than purchased, and should be disposed of by burning, the proper way to dispatch any sacred object.

Along with the evergreen, the holly and the ivy and the mistletoe were important plants of the season, all symbolizing fertility and everlasting life. Mistletoe was especially venerated by the Celtic Druids, who cut it with a golden sickle on the sixth night of the moon, and believed it to be an aphrodisiac. (Magically -- not medicinally! It's highly toxic!) But aphrodisiacs must have been the smallest part of the Yuletide menu in ancient times, as contemporary reports indicate that the tables fairly creaked under the strain of every type of good food. And drink! The most popular of which was the 'wassail cup' deriving its name from the Anglo-Saxon term 'waes hael' (be whole or hale).

Medieval Christmas folklore seems endless: that animals will all kneel down as the Holy Night arrives, that bees hum the '100th psalm' on Christmas Eve, that a windy Christmas will bring good luck, that a person born on Christmas Day can see the Little People, that a cricket on the hearth brings good luck, that if one opens all the doors of the house at midnight all the evil spirits will depart, that you will have one lucky month for each Christmas pudding you sample, that the tree must be taken down by Twelfth Night or bad luck is sure to follow, that 'if Christmas on a Sunday be, a windy winter we shall see', that 'hours of sun on Christmas Day, so many frosts in the month of May', that one can use the Twelve Days of Christmas to predict the weather for each of the twelve months of the coming year, and so on.

Remembering that most Christmas customs are ultimately based upon older Pagan customs, it only remains for modern Pagans to reclaim their lost traditions. In doing so, we can share many common customs with our Christian friends, albeit with a slightly different interpretation. And thus we all share in the beauty of this most magical of seasons, when the Mother Goddess once again gives birth to the baby Sun-God and sets the wheel in motion again. To conclude with a long-overdue paraphrase, 'Goddess bless us, every one!'

http://www.2think.org/hii/holiday.shtml

Christmas, Yule and the Winter Solstice
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When: Friday, 25 December 2009 (All day)
The 25th of December is associated with the birth of Christ and the celebration of the nativity, but it is also an amalgamation of pagan festivals and traditions dating back before the birth of Christ.

To our ancestors the shortest day (21st December) marked the lowest ebb of the year, but it also marked the day when the sun was reborn, gradually growing in strength to the Midsummer Solstice. Many ancient standing stones, stone circles and other monuments are aligned with the winter sunrise on the 21st of December. The most famous being Newgrange in Ireland, where a finger of sunlight shines along the dark entrance through a narrow aperture above the monument's entrance. Other sites are correspondingly aligned to the Midsummer sunrise, highlighting the importance placed on these two dates.

Ghost of Christmas: John LeechYule was the traditional name for the celebrations around the 25th; the festival lasted for twelve days, which are now the twelve days of Christmas. The origin of the word Yule seems originate from the Anglo Saxon word for sun and light. Most likely regarding the rebirth of the sun from the shortest day. In many places fires or candles were kindled to burn through the twelve days that marked the festivities. Another fire tradition was that of the Yule log, lit from the remains of last years log at sunset on the 25th of December. The Yule log was often of Oak or Ash, and the burned remains of it were thought to guard a home against fire and lightning. The ashes were also sprinkled on the surrounding fields to ensure good luck for the coming years harvest. The largest remaining part of the log was kept safe to kindle next years fire. Fraser in his book 'The Golden Bough' suggests that Midwinter was a major fire festival in ancient times, and it is highly probable that the Yule Log was a remnant of that tradition.

Many of the symbols of Christmas echo its aspect of rebirth and hope in darkness. Holly was thought to be important because it retains its greenery right through the winter months, and as such is a symbol of summer life in the winter starkness. Holly was the male symbol of this greenery, and Ivy was the feminine, the two often placed together as a symbol of fecundity at the dark end of the year. There was also a belief that evergreen plants and trees were refuges for the woodland spirits through the winter months.

The Christmas tree may have also been a symbol of the above aspects, although Whistler in his 'English Festivals' suggests that the tree is a carry over from the Roman festival of Saturnalia, when pine trees were decorated with images of Bacchus. The tradition of setting up a Christmas tree within the home is generally traced back to Prince Albert who started the practice in 1841. Mistletoe is another plant associated with Christmas; sacred to the druids, its importance can be traced back to Celtic times, although the original reason for their significance is now largely forgotten.

Christmas is a holiday shared and celebrated by many religions.
It is a day that has an effect on the entire world.

To many people, it is a favorite time of the year involving gift giving, parties and feasting. Christmas is a holiday that unifies almost all of professing Christendom.

The spirit of Christmas causes people to decorate their homes and churches, cut down trees and bring them into their homes, decking them with silver and gold.

In the light of that tree, families make merry and give gifts one to another.

When the sun goes down on December 24th, and darkness covers the land, families and churches prepare for participation in customs such as burning the yule log, singing around the decorated tree, kissing under the mistletoe and holly, and attending a late night service or midnight mass.

What is the meaning of Christmas? Where did the customs and traditions originate?

You, as a Christian, would want to worship the Lord in Spirit and in truth, discerning good from evil.

The truth is that all of the customs of Christmas pre-date the birth of Jesus Christ, and a study of this would reveal that
Christmas in our day is a collection of traditions and practices taken from many cultures and nations.

This was done long before the birth of Jesus.

It was noted by the pre-Christian Romans and other pagans, that daylight began to increase after December 22nd, when they assumed that the sun god died.

These ancients believed that the sun god rose from the dead three days later as the new-born and venerable sun.

Thus, they figured that to be the reason for increasing daylight.

This was a cause for much wild excitement and celebration. Gift giving and merriment filled the temples of ancient Rome, as sacred priests of Saturn, called dendrophori, carried wreaths of evergreen boughs in procession.

In Germany, the evergreen tree was used in worship and celebration of the yule god, also in observance of the resurrected sun god.

The evergreen tree was a symbol of the essence of life and was regarded as a phallic symbol in fertility worship.

Pagans regarded the red holly as a symbol of the menstrual blood of the queen of heaven, also known as Diana.

The holly wood was used by witches to make wands.

The white berries of mistletoe were believed by pagans to represent droplets of the semen of the sun god.

Both holly and mistletoe were hung in doorways of temples and homes to invoke powers of fertility in those who stood beneath and kissed, causing the spirits of the god and goddess to enter them.

These customs transcended the borders of Rome and Germany to the far reaches of the known world.

The question now arises: How did all of these customs find their way into contemporary Christianity, ranging from Catholicism to Protestantism to fundamentalist churches?

The word "Christmas"itself reveals who married paganism to Christianity.

The word "Christmas" is a combination of the words "Christ" and "Mass.

The word "Mass" means death and was coined originally by the Roman Catholic Church, and belongs exclusively to the church of Rome.

The ritual of the Mass involves the death of Christ, and the distribution of the "Host", a word taken from the Latin word "hostiall" meaning victim!

In short, Christmas is strictly a Roman Catholic word.

A simple study of the tactics of the Romish Church reveals that in every case, the church absorbed the customs, traditions and general paganism of every tribe, culture and nation in their efforts to increase the number of people under their control.

In short, the Romish church told all of these pagan cultures, "Bring your gods, goddesses, rituals and rites, and we will assign Christian sounding titles and names to them.

When Martin Luther started the reformation on October 31st, 1517, and other reformers followed his lead, all of them took with them the paganism that was so firmly imbedded in Rome.

These reformers left Christmas intact.

In England, as the authorized Bible became available to the common people by the decree of King James the II in 1611, people began to discover the pagan roots of Christmas, which are clearly revealed in Scripture.

The Puritans in England, and later in Massachusetts Colony, outlawed this holiday as witchcraft.

Near the end of the nineteenth century, when other Bible versions began to appear, there was a revival of the celebration of Christmas

http://www.lasttrumpetministries.org/tracts/tract3.html

Yule or Yule-tide is a winter festival that was initially celebrated by the historical Germanic peoples as a pagan religious festival, though it was later absorbed into, and equated with, the Christian festival of Christmas. The festival was originally celebrated from late December to early January on a date determined by the lunar Germanic calendar. The festival was placed on December 25 when the Christian calendar (Julian calendar) was adopted.

Terms with an etymological equivalent to "Yule" are still used in the Nordic Countries for the Christian Christmas, but also for other religious holidays of the season. In modern times this has gradually led to a more secular tradition under the same name as Christmas. Yule is also used to a lesser extent in English-speaking countries to refer to Christmas. Customs such as the Yule log, Yule goat, Yule boar, Yule singing, and others stem from Yule. In modern times, Yule is observed as a cultural festival and also with religious rites by some Christians and by some Neopagans.

KunleOshob:

Well we could be the ones to visit them! currently there is speculation that one or two of the moons of Jupiter could support life[simple life forms] and jupiter is not light years away.

look at my orriginal post. i said them visiting us as in alien abductions/close encounters/ufo's not us visiting fish on uropa

KunleOshob:

Then again we could be much more advanced than them, you never can tell.

in order to cross thousands of lightyears (at present would take humans nearly 1.5-2 years to travel 1 lightyear) to visit us they would obviously have to be more advanced

im surpriesd people think this was an accident. men and women have been known to leave thier child/children in the car beacuse they "will only take a sec" and dont want to carry the kid(s) along inside but cant leave them at home. dozens of children worldwide die every year in similar situaions

123greetings.com bluemountain.com

there is another thread that explains the holiday in detail. it is not demonic, the christian church labeled it as such and replaced it with all saints day durring roman expansion of christianity

unfortunatly that is what they are known for, and have been for a long time. havent you watched austin powers? they make a point of giving him bad teeth and making fun of it.

FMK:


that is your version the zoo matter does not have impact with that event.

for gods sake do your research before spouting garbage!

www.quotegarden.com/christmas.html or ask.com

considering fossilized bacteria has been found on chunks of martian rock its a bit naive for anyone to think we are truely alone in the universe. as far as them visiting us? why would they? they would be much more advance then us and would probably find us barbaric and insignificant.

FMK:

i do not think So, this is a Pagans' Event people more exciting in drinking, Adultaring, using Drug etc, and since before in very begining with Roman Empire this was an Event to celebrate their gods venus, jupter, mars, Uranus and why this was transfered to be a God's Event ? but in my religion this was cancelled a long time Ago i never mind

Yule is the origin of Christmas tradions and had nothing to do with the roman gods, sex or drugs. it is the winter festival celebrating that spring is coming. yule is held on the winter solstice (shortest day of the year) and symbolises the "rebirth" of the plants, livestock etc.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7791571.stm

origins of the "star of Bethlehem"

IbrahimB:

So what type of environment will you recommend a parent to raise his/her child? I mean, do we deliberately bring down the hygiene level or in some way ensure our babies are exposed to germs?

If it's a scientific fact that poor hygiene improves the human immune system then, should we encourage I'm kind of confused. Or maybe "poor hygiene" wasn't the right phrase to use?

Some exposure to germs is good but no over exposure. Tap water is better for a child then distilled water. It is better to take a child out in public when it is a month or two old then to leave it at home away from people. Throwing your child in a dirty river is not good for the child. The baby/child has to develop immunity to common germs through exposure to them. Important point though is to mention some children are born without a functioning immune system and cannot be exposed to any germ like the “bubble boy”. Over exposure to germs can damage the immune system by making it hyper sensitive as well. Moderation is the key. Does the bathroom have to be sterile before your 5 year old can use it? No but it shouldn’t be filled with flies or have shit/pee on the walls either.

yes a persons sexual preferance is there own but as far as the topic goes its obvious the poster wanted to start an argument and has succeded otherwise he would have kept it to himself

Food allergies the ratio of food allergies to population by race is: 0-17 years. All. 3.8%. White. 3.8%. Black. 3.7%. Asian. 4.3%. Multiple race. 4.6%. Hispanic. 2.8%.  Courtesy of the office of minority health.  (link provided below)

minorityhealth.hhs.gov/templates/content.aspx?ID=5155&lvl=3&lvlID=319

There is evidence that breastfeeding for at least 4 months, compared with feeding infants formula made with intact cow milk protein, prevents or delays the occurrence of atopic dermatitis, cow milk allergy but has shown little difference in other allergies.  early introduction of solid foods however have been shown to increase some allergies like nuts and rice.  the main cause of allegies is still unknown to science.

I have noticed in Africa there is a "do not discuss health issues" mentality while in places like the us and Europe things are openly discussed.  There is little to no diff by race/location as far as allergies are concerned but a huge diff in the discussion of such.   

@ifez:Lactose intolerance affects 70% of blacks while only 15% of whites.  Medical research has shown that this is an evolutionary difference between the races.  Those ethnic groups where milk played an important role in the daily diet like northwestern Europeans have a lactose intolerance rate of 5% while those areas where milk played little to no part in the traditional diet like Native Americans have a lactose intolerance of nearly 100%.  This has nothing to do with a single generation worth of diet.  You are born lactose intolerance.

princekevo:

That is also why we always have low cases of all these their Bird flu, swine flu in Africa .

The reason there are low cases of flu in Nigeria or any tropical region is because of climate ONLY.  Viruses have a temperature range where they can survive just like most plants and animals.  The flu is a cold weather disease just as malaria is a warm weather disease.

Redsun:

African children on average,even with all the nightmares mothers face are born healthy and able but in the west,with all the cares and protections almost one in twenty births are in some way deformed or diseased

Birth defects are MORE common in developing countries especially things like cleft lip/pallet, spina bifida, malformed digits/limbs.  Take umbilical hernias.  They are virtually unheard of in the west and yet every single person in Nigeria knows at least one person personally who has one.  As far as developmental diseases like autism or cerebral palsy.  They aren’t more common in the west just more likely to be diagnosed whether because of better medical care or the shame mentality attributed.  Developmentally challenged children are usually referred to as “stubborn” or “slow” or branded as witches/demons in Nigeria.