Germans Love David Hasselhoff/Mythology and Religion


 * Older Than Feudalism: In Classical Mythology, being a Smug Snake and savage warrior, the god of war Ares is The Scrappy to the Greeks. He got much more respect as Mars by the Romans (who saw a little bit of their own character in him).
 * "Much more respect" is an understatement. The Romans considered him second only to Jupiter/Zeus!
 * It helped that the native Mars/Mavors was a patron of farmers (a sort of harvest protector) as well as warriors. In some of the Latin texts Mars seems almost irreconcilable with Homer's Ares.
 * It would be somewhat more accurate to say that Ares was The Scrappy to the Athenians, from whom most of our information relating to Greek myth comes from. The Spartans loved him.
 * Considering how Buddhism originated in India, it's found more favour in the lands farther East than in its country of origin, mainly because many of its beliefs were absorbed into Hinduism in India, and also because Buddhists don't adhere to the Vedas.
 * This makes Buddhism a Big in Japan phenomenon.
 * And among New Age Retro Hippies.
 * Christianity deserves a mention as well, seeing as how "Never Accepted in His Hometown" was applied quite literally -- no thanks to various events in world history. (Although Middle Eastern and Palestinian Christians do still exist,they are minorities).
 * On the other hand, this wasn't always the case: much of the Middle East save the Arabian Peninsula and Iran were primarily Christian until that other thing came around. Even these two locations had a large number of Christians.
 * Modern Nazareth is full of Christians... It’s pretty fun to walk around there during Christmas.
 * This trope is very much played straight with the fact that Jesus was a Jew in the Kingdom of Judah preaching to other Jews about Jewish issues. Then was claimed to be the Jewish Messiah and deified -- by everybody else.
 * Spiritism is largely forgotten in Europe since early 20th century, but retains a huge number of followers in Latin America, especially Brazil.
 * It's also a recognized denomination in Canada, with an "official Church" organized in the Province of Alberta. Which is Hilarious in Hindsight, considering former Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King's obsession with spirits and mediums.
 * Hellenic reconstructionism is way more common in the U.S.A. and Australia than in Greece. The influence of the Greek Orthodox Church (and the lack of complete religious freedom) is responsible for that.
 * Similarly, Kemetic (Egyptian) reconstructionism, while uncommon in the West, is almost unheard of in Egypt.
 * While you might think this is because Egyptian law forbids apostasy (converting away from Islam), you'd be quite mistaken, for three reasons: 1. The Egyptian law against apostasy requires that somebody other than the government raise a complaint; this requires money and time, and so you would only do this if you were quite annoyed at someone. 2. The sorts of people who would be interested in Kemetic religion in Egypt are mostly Copts, whose elites tend to be more closely attached to Ancient Egypt than their Muslim counterparts; Copts are not forbidden from changing their religion. 3. We said "elites," because Egypt is a lower-middle-income country, and most people, Muslim and Christian, are too concerned with day-to-day affairs to worry much about reviving ancient glories. Oh, and their revolution. Don't forget their revolution.