why do some christians..............?

Question

believe that christmas is an exclusive holiday for them? don't they know that christmas was celebrated long before christianity ever existed and that early christians adopted this celebration from ancient pagans?

Answer 1

Story of Christmas
A. Roman pagans first introduced the holiday of Saturnalia, a week long period of lawlessness celebrated between December 17-25. During this period, Roman courts were closed, and Roman law dictated that no one could be punished for damaging property or injuring people during the weeklong celebration. The festival began when Roman authorities chose “an enemy of the Roman people” to represent the “Lord of Misrule.” Each Roman community selected a victim whom they forced to indulge in food and other physical pleasures throughout the week. At the festival’s conclusion, December 25th, Roman authorities believed they were destroying the forces of darkness by brutally murdering this innocent man or woman.

B. The ancient Greek writer poet and historian Lucian (in his dialogue entitled Saturnalia) describes the festival’s observance in his time. In addition to human sacrifice, he mentions these customs: widespread intoxication; going from house to house while singing naked; rape and other sexual license; and consuming human-shaped biscuits (still produced in some English and most German bakeries during the Christmas season).

C. In the 4th century CE, Christianity imported the Saturnalia festival hoping to take the pagan masses in with it. Christian leaders succeeded in converting to Christianity large numbers of pagans by promising them that they could continue to celebrate the Saturnalia as Christians.[2]

D. The problem was that there was nothing intrinsically Christian about Saturnalia. To remedy this, these Christian leaders named Saturnalia’s concluding day, December 25th, to be Jesus’ birthday.

E. Christians had little success, however, refining the practices of Saturnalia. As Stephen Nissenbaum, professor history at the University of Massachussetts, Amherst, writes, “In return for ensuring massive observance of the anniversary of the Savior’s birth by assigning it to this resonant date, the Church for its part tacitly agreed to allow the holiday to be celebrated more or less the way it had always been.” The earliest Christmas holidays were celebrated by drinking, sexual indulgence, singing naked in the streets (a precursor of modern caroling), etc.

F. The Reverend Increase Mather of Boston observed in 1687 that “the early Christians who first observed the Nativity on December 25 did not do so thinking that Christ was born in that Month, but because the Heathens’ Saturnalia was at that time kept in Rome, and they were willing to have those Pagan Holidays metamorphosed into Christian ones.”[3] Because of its known pagan origin, Christmas was banned by the Puritans and its observance was illegal in Massachusetts between 1659 and 1681.[4] However, Christmas was and still is celebrated by most Christians.

G. Some of the most depraved customs of the Saturnalia carnival were intentionally revived by the Catholic Church in 1466 when Pope Paul II, for the amusement of his Roman citizens, forced Jews to race naked through the streets of the city. An eyewitness account reports, “Before they were to run, the Jews were richly fed, so as to make the race more difficult for them and at the same time more amusing for spectators. They ran… amid Rome’s taunting shrieks and peals of laughter, while the Holy Father stood upon a richly ornamented balcony and laughed heartily.”[5]

H. As part of the Saturnalia carnival throughout the 18th and 19th centuries CE, rabbis of the ghetto in Rome were forced to wear clownish outfits and march through the city streets to the jeers of the crowd, pelted by a variety of missiles. When the Jewish community of Rome sent a petition in1836 to Pope Gregory XVI begging him to stop the annual Saturnalia abuse of the Jewish community, he responded, “It is not opportune to make any innovation.”[6] On December 25, 1881, Christian leaders whipped the Polish masses into Antisemitic frenzies that led to riots across the country. In Warsaw 12 Jews were brutally murdered, huge numbers maimed, and many Jewish women were raped. Two million rubles worth of property was destroyed.

The Origins of Christmas Customs

a. Nicholas was born in Parara, Turkey in 270 CE and later became Bishop of Myra. He died in 345 CE on December 6th. He was only named a saint in the 19th century.

b. Nicholas was among the most senior bishops who convened the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE and created the New Testament. The text they produced portrayed Jews as “the children of the devil”[11] who sentenced Jesus to death.

c. In 1087, a group of sailors who idolized Nicholas moved his bones from Turkey to a sanctuary in Bari, Italy. There Nicholas supplanted a female boon-giving deity called The Grandmother, or Pasqua Epiphania, who used to fill the children's stockings with her gifts. The Grandmother was ousted from her shrine at Bari, which became the center of the Nicholas cult. Members of this group gave each other gifts during a pageant they conducted annually on the anniversary of Nicholas’ death, December 6.

d. The Nicholas cult spread north until it was adopted by German and Celtic pagans. These groups worshipped a pantheon led by Woden –their chief god and the father of Thor, Balder, and Tiw. Woden had a long, white beard and rode a horse through the heavens one evening each Autumn. When Nicholas merged with Woden, he shed his Mediterranean appearance, grew a beard, mounted a flying horse, rescheduled his flight for December, and donned heavy winter clothing.

e. In a bid for pagan adherents in Northern Europe, the Catholic Church adopted the Nicholas cult and taught that he did (and they should) distribute gifts on December 25th instead of December 6th.

f. In 1809, the novelist Washington Irving (most famous his The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle) wrote a satire of Dutch culture entitled Knickerbocker History. The satire refers several times to the white bearded, flying-horse riding Saint Nicholas using his Dutch name, Santa Claus.

g. Dr. Clement Moore, a professor at Union Seminary, read Knickerbocker History, and in 1822 he published a poem based on the character Santa Claus: “Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in the hope that Saint Nicholas soon would be there…” Moore innovated by portraying a Santa with eight reindeer who descended through chimneys.

h. The Bavarian illustrator Thomas Nast almost completed the modern picture of Santa Claus. From 1862 through 1886, based on Moore’s poem, Nast drew more than 2,200 cartoon images of Santa for Harper’s Weekly. Before Nast, Saint Nicholas had been pictured as everything from a stern looking bishop to a gnome-like figure in a frock. Nast also gave Santa a home at the North Pole, his workshop filled with elves, and his list of the good and bad children of the world. All Santa was missing was his red outfit.

i. In 1931, the Coca Cola Corporation contracted the Swedish commercial artist Haddon Sundblom to create a coke-drinking Santa. Sundblom modeled his Santa on his friend Lou Prentice, chosen for his cheerful, chubby face. The corporation insisted that Santa’s fur-trimmed suit be bright, Coca Cola red. And Santa was born – a blend of Christian crusader, pagan god, and commercial idol.

Answer 2

Christmas is an exclusive Christian holiday. It celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. However, the time frame that Christmas falls in is a time for many to celebrate. Since the actual date that Jesus was born is unknown, December 25 was chosen by the early church, based on its correspondence with a pagan celebration. So, the current pagans may continue to celebrate their holiday at the same time as Christmas and Jews may celebrate their holiday and atheists may celebrate being alive or atheist on December 25, but you are not celebrating CHRISTMAS unless you are recognizing the birth of Jesus Christ, which is Christian.

Answer 3

Because Christianity has never expressed an original thought throughout its entire existence.

Christians hijacked the pagan winter holiday because so many people still celebrated the pagan feast while Christianity was still in its infancy. In order to gain popularity, Christ's birth was moved to coincide with the pagan holiday. The same applies to Easter. Actually, it applies to most celebrations and events identified as "Christian".

There's nothing like Christianity when it comes to ruining a good thing!

The whole thing's like a giant religious corporate takeover when you think about it.



P.S. QUANTRILL37: Thanks for the f'in encyclopedia's worth of info! Try posting a link next time! Ya a$$.

Oh, and JON: "Christ-mas" was a term that was created. Just because something doesn't have the same name doesn't mean it didn't exist beforehand. That's like saying "The New World" didn't exist, it's always been the "United States". So, you get a big, fat STUPID "DUH!" for that pearl of wisdom you posted!

Answer 4

From my observations, many Christians believe Christmas day truly is Christ's birthday & being that they are Christians, they have an even more special desire to celebrate His birth than non-Christians do, because they love Him & want to give to Him, & since He isn't here on earth right now in the physical form, they can't give Him a physical gift, so they give to others as though they're giving to Him (show extra-special love to others like when they do as if it were the other person's birthday). He teaches us to give... & that if we give to even the least (human beings whom we deem/think of as) unimportant), that we're giving to Him. It's been told by more than one minister that according to the bible, He wasn't actually born on Christmas day, but was born during the time of harvest (in the fall), then the wisemen etc arrived a year later, around Christmas time. Many people (many Christians included) don't really realize that the celebration was adopted from pagans & that they're not supposed to follow pagan rituals. However, people will undoubtedly celebrate the birth of Christ sometime, someway, somehow, therefore they'll no doubt do it December 25th, as is the customary day chosen to do it on, regardless of who chose it or why.

Answer 5

Probably did that when they decided to change the sabbath to Sunday, the pagan sabbath. Thing is, who cares? We don't know when He was really born, last I heard they thought it might have been in September, since that's when the census usually was, but no one really knows. If we want to celebrate the birth of Christ, and we dont know when it is, is there some problem you guys have with the date we use? Last I checked we've been celebrating Christmas on December 25, for hundreds of years, so why have a hissy about it now?

Answer 6

I need to know your source for believing that Christmas was celebrated before Christ.

Hopefully your source is not a book defamating the Catholic Church and accusing them of creating all evil. This book, which I will not name, has been retracted by its own author and another book written, explaining his wrongs of taking false and unsubstantiated writings and proclaiming them as true.

On the other side of the table, I am well aware and hopefully most Christians are also, that Christmas is not Christs actual birthday. Its just a day that we have set aside to celbrate the birth of our Savior. It has become very commercialized and that is why so many wish to celebrate the day without knowledge of what the day is actually about.

Answer 7

Yeah well they don't realize that 99% of the symbolism of Christmas is Pagan. Jesus wasn't even born in December. They believe a more accurate calculation would be around Easter, but the Winter Solstice was in December and it was easier if Jesus's birth coincided with the existing Pagan celebrations.

Answer 8

Yes, most Christians know that it was taken as a Pagan Celebration. Personally, I dont care about celebrating Christmas, with the tree and all that.

I could have a nativity scene and be satisfied with that.

I wish you well..

Jesse

Answer 9

OK lets slow down and look at the word. Christ mas, how exactly could it have existed before the belief of Christ. Maybe a similar holiday around the same time of year but not Christmas

Answer 10

my life is about showing people what god and heaven mean to Me.

god as it is summed up is god=g+o+d=7+15+4=26=2+6=8=h

thus god is in heaven.

and jesus himself said god will glorify himself in Him thus h is in him.

but in heaven if you draw bodies for the h and n then its two men carrying a casket. one with a cut off forearm. and the other represents god as h.
and he a V(5) en means god was 5 when the one they were carrying died and it's true that the n man was the h man's grand father. This is the true story of boy born Todd.

the Lamb who was SLAIN and who is the lamp also explained as,

Larrib=larrip squish those letters together and they are Lamb=Lamp

Thus They call him larri and since b=p means they are the same thing basically a DI Stitched together.

Thus it was said he DI'ed as SLAIN=SIL A I IV. as meaning IIII I . and D=IIII as the faint outline of IIII looks like a D.

And know this that Todd is also called Larri.

and the bible calls Him a KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS but only throne he has is in the washroom that the persians say is somehow bugged. So that is some sick perverts fun watching the h take a ****.

CHRISTMAS= C god RIST IVI(stitched together) AS

as in larri tod Stevens.n's IIII I .

the anserwer of your question.

Answer 11

You're only half right and a half truth isn't the truth. No one celebrated the birth of Christ prior to His coming so Christmas, as we know it, was not celebrated before Christianity.