@endiminion: You don't seem to understand how democracy works.

@libellule: Read the above. And problem is, that you don't know, how fundamental the islamists are. Since christmas isn't islamic holiday, they could end it when get in to power. Why do you think that every christian holiday is so big number in the US. Thats because of the high percentage of religious people there. I hear people in the US even go to church. LOL

@outlawauron: People haven't abandoned god for islam (thats even impossible, since also islam has god), in Europe people just know how to deal with religion and don't believe in any god.

There's basically only christmas when sales get boosted, and maybe a small boost every time there's 3-4 days weekend, because of holidays, when people go visit their relatives across the country. People may buy a game for kids "back home". But since the holidays differs between countries, and games aren't the usual present, we are talking about very small increase.
Also the time when parents vacations start, portable games get boost because travel then and kids need something to do while travelling. But since the period is from june to august, it divides to a long period, so there's not a clear spike in sales. While home console sales boost month after the vacations end (remember the time period), when financial issues are again back on track and a small boost may also be visible when school starts sometime in august/september.

outlawauron said: Well, Easter won't be very big in Europe. Europe has abadoned God for Islam. The giant churches are now mostly tourist attractions now

Yes, we Europeans have started to realise it's better to form the basis of our spiritual lives on things that actually exist. Only a few places like Japan are clearly ahead of us in this, so I suppose we have something to be proud about.

The myth about Muslims taking over is something made up by American neo-cons desperately trying to spin the greatest intellectual shift of our age into something negative. I can assure you the day it happens is the same day Spanish is made the official language of the United States. =P

 

Sorry for going off-topic like that.

I don't believe you can make a similar list for Europe because around here every country has slightly different holidays. For instance you have one Independence Day for all your 300 million people, but here every single country has their own Independence/National/Whatever Day, as well as a crapload of other regional things. Christmas is an insane shopping spree everywhere, and all the traditional Christian holidays are roughly the same, but that's about it. Notably I can't think of a single country with an equivalent to your Thanksgiving, since none us want to remember the native peoples we drove of when we settled our lands hundreds/thousands of years ago. =P

XD at 'Eurabia'

But if we are going to talk about the pros and cons of religion and patterns of religious change, can you make a new topic about it? It doesnt actually belong in this topic at all.

@Parokki: It's not infact nonsense. The real problem is that the religious people have a lot more kids, on average, than us realists. If common non-religious family has less than 2 kids, the religious families have 10 instead. And, the more fundamental people is in the case, more kids they will have. In the US, it's the large amount of religious people who keep the population growing (unlike EU, which population decreases and in 50 years, US may catch EU by pop), among with the South-American immigrants.

@bdbdbd, any evidence of that?
Im sorry but I have never seen any evidence that within a society your religion is a factor on growth of a population.

Holidays are just not as important in the UK.

It's like, "Do we get a day off? No? Back to work then..."

Christmas is pretty much the only time, but it's mostly not religious.

And we don't have Independence Day/Thanksgiving/Columbus Day because we were never "founded".

Britain tends to the "I'm Christian, but I don't go to church, don't do the religious holiday thing, don't pray, don't help the poor and don't like the local religious leaders."

And there are very few Muslims. Most immigrants are from anglophone countries (US, Australia, Canada, etc.) and Eastern European countries which are very much Christian.

Again, religion is not a big thing, when I was over in the US I couldn't believe most people even went to church more than once a year.

 

 

""""And problem is, that you don't know, how fundamental the islamists are. Since christmas isn't islamic holiday, they could end it when get in to power. """""

==> stop watching FoxNews man ...
Most of Muslim are not "fundamental" (bad word) and just want to make their life as any occidental person.
"They" will never get the power because "they" dont exist as 1 entity.
Even more, the improved presence of Islam in France, HELP christianism A LOT MORE. In the 90s, religion was dying, but since 2001, catholicism is rising again because "white catholic european" are making a IDENTITY REFLEX that put them back in catholicism.
Saddly, mass media are making a lot of damage ...

"""""The real problem is that the religious people have a lot more kids, on average, than us realists. If common non-religious family has less than 2 kids, the religious families have 10 instead. And, the more fundamental people is in the case, more kids they will have"""""""

==> u dont show us any evidence BUT I agree with this.
But remember that the kid grow in a european place, whatever their origin, where they dont see Islam and prefer play PES on their Playstation. These kid will have, one day when they wil be adult, only 2 children, like the average.

kber81 said: In Poland we have one month with much higher sale of console/computer software/hardware. May - I would say people spent more on gifts during May than during holidays in December. The reason is simply - First Holy Communion (FHC). Time of this event is different in various areas but it's mostly in May. I remember my FHC very well... I became happy and proud Commodore C64 owner... If you are an 11 year old kid and you want PS3/X360/Wii you will get it. It's sure. This year Sony even made special announcement that they are very happy they was able to provide lower price of PSP before FHC...

Is it realy normal to get "things"for communion/ confirmation in Poland? In germany it's common to give money to the kid (a lot of money). Most of that is saved for the 18th birthday (To make a driver license, cover cost for university, e.g.).

 

Edit: My english sucks today, damm it. I need more sleep. 

Rath said: @bdbdbd, any evidence of that? Im sorry but I have never seen any evidence that within a society your religion is a factor on growth of a population.

I don't have the info to show, could find some, but can't right now. Keyword here is "fundamental". Of course you can believe in any flying spaghetti monster and live like any average joe. But if you a fundamental (go to church, listen to your religious leaders etc.) you do live by your religion and most of them don't want people to use birth control. @libellule: I don't watch Fox news. As i said, it depends on how fundamental they are. If you take guidance to your life from your religious leader, for example Lord Sidious (current pope, if someone asks), you pretty much do have more kids, than the average non-religious guy. The diffence is easy to see in non-religious western countries with high welfare. Basically the population grows only in 2 type of countries, are either low welfare countries or have high level of fundamental religious people. And in Russia (low welfare, non-religious) population is decreasing. I didn't see you point in increasing number of catholics, is it any better? Religion is religion, no matter what you call it. Still, you need to know what religion means in Europe, it's not fundamental as i defined it. It's more like you'd state being a die hard Wii fanboy, and still buy only PS3. How the kids will take their religion and culture, depends on what kind of environment they grow, with increasing number of religious people, they will more and more be in touch with their religion, which means that religion becomes more important to them. And when it come important enough, they start to live by their relion. Meaning that if the religious population grows slowly enough (compared to others), religion doesn't take a stand among people, but if it reaches the critical mass, it will turn people to religion.