Quote:
Originally posted by Optimist Prime
that is a whole lot of crazy
if they're christian why do they burn crosses?
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It's unfortunately "borrowed" from Scottish culture - ironicall yfrom Jacobite/Catholic Scottish culture for the most part.
The significance of using a burning cross was to announce that the Clan, and perhaps all Clans, where under threat from an "outside" source - the cross also more or less stating the need to put aside inter-Clan conflict and rally together to repell the threat from outsiders/heathens (Jacobites considered all non-Catholics heathens).
In order to gather/rally the Clan a messenger would be sent running with a burnt cross (sometimes dipped in blood to signify dire peril to all the Clans) - further the rallying point for the Clan would be marked by a large burning cross on a hill near the rally-point.
I'm sure you can draw the symbolic paralells... the ironic part I mentioned earlier is that the burning of the cross would have traditional be directed against the very people using it now.