Are a lot of Christian or other religious festivals based on ancient Paganism ?

Question

I know about Easter now, thanks, but are there any others?

Answer 1

Yes, most if not all of them.
These are the Eight Sabbats

Hallowe'en(celebrated by some Christians)= Samhain, the first day of the Celtic calendar, new agricultural year. The time of year when the dead can return to the living.

Christmas(date altered slightly due to calendar differences)=Yuletide/Winter solstice, the shortest day and longest night when the powers of darkness are at their strongest.

Candlemass(I think is to do with Shrove Tuesday)=Imbolc, meaning milk. The time at which cows and sheep begin to lactate and give birth.

Easter=Eostrata, First day of spring, new life, fertility.

May Day=Beltane, End of winter and beginning of summer.

Summer solstice(no sure if there is a Christian celebration for this)=LithaBalance of power goes back to light from dark.

Harves Festival=Lammas, from Hlafmass meaning feast of bread. Marks the beginning of harvest and celebrates successful growth of crops.

Autum equinox(not sure of other religious celebrations here)= Mabon, midpoint between winter and summer. Marks the decline of nature(summer) and the coming of winter)

Samhain and Beltane mark the division of winter and summer.

Answer 2

All of them. Almost every tradition I find in Christianity has it's roots in paganism. Not just the holidays. Face it. Catholics(Christ, Mary, god), sounds a little pagan to me. Protestants(father son holy ghost) again a bit pagan if you ask me. But the holidays are the most obvious, as there has been a celebration in almost all European cultures in December that predates Christ. Then Easter don't you find it a little strange that its never the same day of the year, I think it's hilarious to think that there must of been some confused original Christians when they attempted to convert these pagans...they set a date no pagans show...maybe the moon wasn't just right that day, so they go with the pagans and "claim" its a wondering feast. And Halloween, how in the hell any christian could claim it is a christian holiday is beyond me( how many of those Christians dressed their children as witches last year) and sent them out to DEMAND candy. Not a very christian thing to do one would think. Plus all the skeletons and devil decor, how is that christian. But then of course we'll just say the next day is all saints day and clean up all the "sin" from the day before. Christianity has no true roots of its own. They couldn't come up with something original if they prayed for it.

Answer 3

Almost all Christians holidays and many secular holidays are based on Pagan holy days. Pagansim was the first and oldest religion, so every other religion came from it. Therefore almost every religion has at least one connection to paganism.

Some of the Pagan/Christian and Pagan/secular connections include: Christmas=Yule, Ground Hog's Day/Candlemas= Imbolc(AKA The Feast of Brighid), valentine's Day=Lupercalia, Easter=Ostara(Otherwise called Esther or Easter), MayDay/Beltane, Father's Day=Litha(Summer solstice), Halloween=Samhain, Veteran's Day=Matinmas,. There are probably more than what I have mentioned here.

Answer 4

Yup - Christmas. Christmas is based around pagan midwinter festivals.

The romans introduced all this as it's a whole lot easier to convert the countries that you invade to your own religion when they can keep celebrating at the same times that they are used to. The romans were also very good at absorbing other religions into their own, hence the virgin birth - virgin being impregnated by a God is found over and over again in Greek and Roman mythology.

Halloween is actually just a straight pagan thing - it's not a Christian festival.

Answer 5

Yes, Sunday is Christian day of worship but the pagan meaning is Sun day like sun worship. The reason this happened was when Christianity was introduced the festivals where chosen to conflict the least amount with Pagans.

Answer 6

Most if not all current Christian festivals have roots in Paganism. Although I only mean the dates of the festivals and the things that get done at the festivals - the core meanings of them (ie the resurrection, the birth of Jesus etc) are Christian.

Answer 7

yes actually most christian festivals r actually pagan in origin.when it came 2 converting the masses it was easier 2 let them keep the festivals but put the god slant on it - so easter, xmas,halloween r pagan.a lot of the symbolism used is pagan as well - think xmas tree, yule log, easter eggs, easter bunny...

if u look @ a calender ull find that theyre near events such as solstices

Answer 8

All of the Christian holidays are on/near the time of pagan holidays.

Long before Christ was born the people of earth celebrated at these times. Christianity just adopted the dates like every religion has from the beginning of time.

Celebration of Spring, Summer, Winter, and Autumn and the half way point of each celebration has been with us from the beginning.

Answer 9

Easter, Christmas and Halloween are Pagan.

Answer 10

Yes, Christmas is.
Also, the Catholic Religion have the "All Soul's Eve" on Halloween. The attempt was to draw attraction away from the Pagan and Celtic rituals of the day. Constantine wanted to have all people to be "Christians" so they tried to allow pagan rituals, in hopes they would burn out and be forgotten. It failed. They should have listened to Paul...

God's Word says to, "Abstain from all appearance of evil."