Is the Christmass tree a Pagan ritual?

Question

I had seen and heard reference to this. And if so, isn't Christians adopting a Pagan custom and therefore a sin?

Answer 1

I'm afraid each of the first two answers are inaccurate. Yes, Christmas trees are a holdover from pre-Christian rituals in Northern Europe. But so is Christmas. Nothing in the Bible forbids Christmas trees, because the people who wrote it had no knowledge of what the Northern Europeans were doing at the time. The cedars of Lebanon are trees, but that's about the only connection they have with Christmas trees.
Christmas, like Easter, is the latest incarnation of ancient nature rituals that take place at the solstices and equinoxes, to commemorate the changing seasons.
In terms of sin, so long as you're not worshipping the tree, you're fine.

Answer 2

Yes it is. Look in the Britannica Encyclopedia's and they have tons of information on how all the custom holidays originated from Pagans. Since finding this truth out I no longer celebrate the holidays. Christians seem to over look that it came from Paganism. They rationalize that the celebration of Christmas doesn't have the same meaning as what the Pagans did in their day. It is very displeasing to God. Check out Ephesians 5:10,11. Look at Exodus 32:4-10. Notice what it says in verse 5- Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord. They made a golden calf, worshiped it and made sacrifices unto it-these are Pagan rituals- that the Israelites were adopting but changing the name. God punished them with death. But people would rather keep on with the tradition of man, than to listen to God's word. Amen.

Answer 3

Yes.
Christians incorporated many pagan customs. Shrewdly, they created a monopoly by debasing any other form of worship by calling it a "sin". Other religions have since followed suit in this tactic.

As far as a Chirstman tree being a sin, it is not false worship, so it really doesn't go against God's Will. A tree is not being worshipped. Christianity's goal in making pagan customs a sin was just to stop idolizing of "false gods".

Answer 4

I wouldn't call it a ritual per se, more like a custom. Just one of many adapted by christians to convert the pagans. Giving gifts on Christmas/ Yule (as the pagans called it), is also a pagan custom.

In fact, in the middle ages, Christmas celebrations were banned because they were "too pagan".

I also disagree with the definition of pagan as given above. I am as civilized and educated as everyone else, and in no way a "barbarian".

Answer 5

Well no. The Christmas tree was a German tradition of relatively late origin. We also get the term "yule" from the Germanic people. Granted that that word referred to a pre Christian holiday originally. I wouldn't worry about it, though. Pretty much every culture ever has had a celebration right around the winter solstice. I mean isn't that right about when you NEED one? In the northern hemisphere it's cold and dark and it's not like you can get anything done in an agricultural society right about then.

The one pagan thing the Bible calls a sin is idol worship. If you don't worship your tree, you're fine. Now about those icons. . . heh.

As for the Bible outright forbidding Christmas trees- uhmmm no, it doesn't. how could it forbid something that would be over a thousand years in coming? Yes the mesopotamian people saw the cedar trees as pure and holy. That hearkens back to pagan days, but the trees were never actually worshipped. The wood was used in whatever rituals were common to the people at the time.

As for it being a sin to borroow pagan things, religions just borrow from eachother. That's just how it is. As long as people learn from one another this will be the way of things. No religion sprang complete from the mouth of god. But if you're really determined to purify your religion. . . got your pencil? good. If you want to adhere to that- things you need to scrap are- The entire book of Genesis. All of it. It's Sumerian polytheist in origin. Anu created the world in just that way. Then he proceeded to ignore it. The garden of Eden was Ninhursag's garden. The rib was taken from the God Enki, and made into a goddess of fertility. The forbidden fruit was born from the pregnancy of one of Enki's daughters. The flood? caused by Enlil, to destroy humanity, whom he was angry with right then. Enki saved one family of good people because He felt this was wrong. Need I go on? Other things to be discarded: belief in Satan. He is, in origin, a Canaanite trickster sun god. The celebration of Easter. It is celebratory of the Babylonian goddess of passion Ishtar, who was in turn a combination of the earlier Sumerian goddess Inanna (whose husband gave us the Cain and Abel story and was raised from the dead) and the creature Lillitu. See what I mean about the borrowing? If you feel panicky about the pagan nature of certain things- what about the cross itself? Something similar happened to Odin, and a similar symbol is used in many cultures, worldwide. I could go on but this is getting long.

I really wouldn't stress out about the origins of your religion. If you feel that it is true and it fullfills a need in your life, then that is all that matters.

Answer 6

It's part of a ritual, but why would it be a sin? It doesn't act as an idol or false god in any way. It doesn't require a sacrifice. It basically symbolizes a gathering place where people can practice a way to observe the golden rule for an all too brief period. The sin is in the way it has become a commercial event where you give hucksters a lot more than they give back.

Answer 7

Jeremiah 10:2 Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. 3 For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. 4 They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. 5 They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.

This seems to say that they are of pagan origin

Answer 8

Yes!

Bible References:
JER.10; GAL.4:8-10; ISAIAH 40:20; REV.21:8.

Other references:
http://community.webshots.com/photo/185040640/1346571981049373547UVLlet
http://www.lcg.org/search/search.php?query=christmas&%24results_per_page=10&search=1

Valentine's cupid is the same god of Christmas.
http://community.webshots.com/photo/185040640/1274851102049373547oJRioR
http://www.biblestudy.org/basicart/valentin.html

THE HISTORY OF THE CHRISTMAS TREE
http://www.fabulousfoods.com/holidays/xmas/treehistory.html
http://www.christmascarnivals.com/christmas-history/history-pagan-christmas-tree.html

Answer 9

i comprehend that it is not. and you have no longer even controlled to %. up the nicely suited rubbish! you have mixed up the garbage approximately Christmas with the garbage approximately Easter (Astarte)!! stupid new child. in case you will placed up fairy thoughts, do a minimum of get the nicely suited fairy tale ! The Chaldeans did no longer carry yule. it fairly is Scandinavian or Germanic and became into no longer on December twenty 5th - it must be any date from early Decemebr to previous due January. It became right into a warrior's banquet. this is the summers whilst human beings do no longer decide to shuttle in Israel, it fairly is in simple terms too warm and dry, water isn't situation-free to discover, grazing is scarce. it fairly is known interior the middle East for shepherds to stay out with their flocks all twelve months around. Lambing time in Israel is December / January. The date of December twenty 5th became right into a variety of seen with the aid of Christians long earlier Constantine. Jews believed that the international have been created interior the spring and so Christians desperate that, as Christ became into the 2d Adam and commencing a sparkling era, he would additionally initiate, be conceived, interior the spring so the banquet of the Annunciation became into set to March twenty 5th, Christmas 9 months later. although the 1st written record of a Christmas social gathering on December twenty 5th is 4th century (c330AD), this is in a calendar so it fairly got here approximately a while earlier then. The date is mentioned with the aid of formerly writers. It became into no longer stated as "Christmas" till a lot later - whilst it reached England. It became into stated as Nativity of Christ - the beginning. there became right into a Roman pagan banquet on twenty 5th December yet no longer traditionally, it did no longer start up till the previous due third century - probably as an attempt to take over Christmas for paganism. seems such as you like it to take place now. Why do you like handy over the classic Christian social gathering of the arrival of our Saviour to paganism?

Answer 10

It says in the KJV not to have a Xmass tree.

Yes it was originally a pagan symbol for one of their gods.