im a non - christian...i always wanted to know this...well christmas is celebrated coz its jesus's b'day rite ??...the how does santa come in the scene ??...is it santa's b'day tooo ??...
2006-09-05 08:11:23 · 22 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
It's Pagan related:
Yule is celebrated on the Winter Solstice (December 22nd), on the shortest day of the year. Since the days get longer from this point in the year, Yule is a celebration of the returning sun and the rebirth of the God who died at Hallowe'en. As with Easter, the Christian story of the birth of Jesus fits nicely with the Pagan mythology of a God reborn. Traditions such as wreaths and Yule logs are remnants of the original beliefs. Gifts were exchanged at Yule long before the Wise Men offered their gifts to the baby Jesus.
When Christianity first started its growth, officials knew that in order to allow followers to continue to celebrate with the rest of the community, it was essential to choose dates similar to those already being celebrated by the village in which the believers lived.
It was also easier for early Christians to understand the new religion if it espoused some of the signs and symbols from the religion that they were accustomed to. In this use of similar dates, signs and symbols, Christian holidays grew out of Pagan roots and developed into the events that we experience today. Many of these holidays still have the flavor of their Pagan roots along with sharing the same or similar dates.
In the early Christian Church, the birth of Christ was not celebrated. During the first three hundred years of the religion the Church in Rome discouraged such a celebration, concerned that it would appear to be more like a Pagan ritual, than a Christian holiday. As church officials attempted to convert Romans to Christianity, many of the residents continued to celebrate a major winter holiday, "Saturnalia", which was a celebration that lasted a week, which celebrated the Birth of the Unconquerable Sun. This celebration consisted of parades, merry-making and gift giving. This celebration culminated on December 25th with a celebration of the winter solstice. Also celebrated in Rome around the winter solstice was Juvenalia, which was a celebration for children.1 Pope Julius I chose December 25 as the date that the birth of Christ would be celebrated with the hope that the choice of that date would be more easily accepted by the Romans.2
Besides the Romans, many other societies held celebrations around the winter solstice. The Norse, from Scandinavia celebrated a holiday they called Yule from December 21st, which is the winter solstice through January. Fredya the Norse goddess was known to present gifts to her followers. Their ceremonies were in celebration of the sun and the return of the light. In Egypt, extravagant parties were held to celebrate the rebirth of Horus. Their calendar was one that had twelve months all revolving around Horus. To honor Horus, they held a twelve-day celebration, with ceremonies welcoming the sun and praising the light. When the Babylonians became aware of this celebration, they held one of their own, honoring their own creator/sun god; Marduk. They called this celebration Zagmak and they believed that Marduk was the creator who made the world one of peace, order and beauty.3 In Germany, people honored the pagan god Oden during the mid-winter holiday. Oden flew through the sky to judge people and many people chose to stay inside to avoid his wrath.
The prevailing theme in all of the celebrations was the welcoming of the sun and the joy in the rebirth of the world. The Pagans viewed these celebrations of the return of the sun, as the fact that good will prevail over evil and the sun will return to the earth, which makes it easy to see how it could be adapted to the Christian beliefs that Jesus was born to save the world. Jesus Christ has been often referred to the "Light of the World" and it only seems fitting that the winter solstice when the sun appeared to return to the waiting world, that His birth was celebrated on that day. There has been quite a bit of controversy on the exact time that Jesus was born. Some believe that it was in March, others in September, but the choice of December 25th demonstrates a desire by early Christians to associate the day with a day honored by many as the day that the light was brought to the world. Since Jesus is often considered, "The Light of the World", this appears to be an appropriate day to choose for the celebration of His birth.
Santa is, in essence, a symbol of a Pagan God.
2006-09-05 08:22:39 · answer #1 · answered by ICG 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Santa Claus was a man that gave gifts to people, no necessarily children, because children weren't really a part of the christmas celebrations until the mid-late 1900's. He gave to family's that were needy. Everything else about the holiday is just because christians are greedy. The christmas Tree comes from the Pagans. When christianity came to be really big in the Medieval times, they would incorporate the Pagan things into their religion in order to convert them easier. Jesus wasn't born anywhere near where we celebrate it now, scholars think he was born in the summer. We celebrate it in the middle of winter because that's when the Pagan's would celebrate the winter solstace. Same with Easter. The bunnies and the eggs are a symbol of fertility. That's when the pagan's would celebrate the beginning of spring, and the regrowth of the crops.
2006-09-05 15:29:03 · answer #2 · answered by Emma 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Sadly the spirit of Christmas is well and truly dead. Last year I went to buy Christmas Cards to send to friends and could not find a single one showing the Nativity. Thousands with Santa and Victorian Winters but no Jesus.
No-one knows when Jesus was born but in the 3rd or 4th century AD 'Christmas' was invented by early Christians trying to convert pagans to Christianity. They adopted 25th December as Jesus birthday because it corresponds with many pagan festivals and the idea was to confuse the pagans into thinking that Jesus was also the god they worshipped. It obviously worked because Christmas was born and the old gods have gone.
Santa is a made up mythical figure, supposedly, styled on the legend of St Nicholas, a minor Transylvanian king who used to give money away to the poor in wintertime. Remember 'Good King Wenceslas'. Santa Claus is the western name for St Nicholas and the myth of Father Christmas or Santa was born about 150 years ago to explain to children the reason presents are given at Christmas. Of course that is a relatively recent tradition probably no more than 200 years old. This was based on the gifts brought to Jesus by the three Wise men (or Kings) of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh.
2006-09-05 15:21:32 · answer #3 · answered by quatt47 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Dec 25th is not the birthday of Jesus. Actually the proper question is what is the relation between Jesus and Christmas. The 25th is the pagan celebration of the winter solstice... the Tree, the yule log... all that jazz is part of pagan tradition.
The connection you are looking for is the GIFTS. People began giving gifts on Christmas as a sort of reenactment of the wise men's gifts to the baby Jesus. St. Nicholas was well known for this tradition and if you corrupt his name it becomes Santa Claus.
2006-09-05 15:18:10 · answer #4 · answered by ChooseRealityPLEASE 6 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Santa is a variation of a European folk tale based on the historical figure Saint Nicholas, a bishop from Myra that is now present-day Turkey, who gave presents to the poor. This inspired the mythical figure "Sinterklass" who died on December 6th. As symbol of gift-giving, he is an important figure in the Christmas tradition throughout the western world, Japan and parts of East Asia. In eastern othodox traditions, Santa visits children on New Year's Day.
Despite Santa Claus's mixed Christian roots, he has become a secular representation of Christmas. As such, a small number of primarily fundamentalist Christian churches dislike the secular focus on Santa Claus and the materialist focus that present-receiving gives to the holiday. But this dislike has been going on since the 1600s.
Jesus was the son of God who's birth is celebrated when it is to offset other pagan religious celebration steeped in agricultural cycles.
Ho, ho, ho,
Billy!
2006-09-05 15:20:10 · answer #5 · answered by Billy! 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Santa is Saint Nicholas, which is how they got the name Santa, from Saint-and Nicholas, which whom he gave presents to children at Christmas time, during biblical times, and yes was a real person and is why we have a Santa Clause today. He took after Jesus, (Like Michael Jackson does today) and Obeying Jesus' words to "sell what you own and give the money to the poor," Nicholas used his whole inheritance to assist the needy, the sick, and the suffering. He dedicated his life to serving God and was made Bishop of Myra while still a young man. Bishop Nicholas became known throughout the land for his generosity to the those in need, his love for children.
He is related to Jesus, because of the good deeds he did during his lifetime for children, as did Jesus, and Michael Jackson of our own time does today, though who has also been crucified by different means of our own time and place as was also St. Nicholas who suffered for his faith, and was exiled and imprisoned for what he believed.
2006-09-05 15:27:54 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Santa has nothing to do with Jesus. Santa was somebody's idea to take the attention off of Jesus's birthday so people would forget that Christmas is about celabrating the birth of Jesus.
2006-09-05 17:27:26 · answer #7 · answered by Ellyn 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
christmas isn't the exact day of Jesus' birth, it's just a celebration ... So this guy, good ol' st. nick, took presents to the poor kids who didn't get presents on Christmas (which was around before Santa) cause they were poor, then everyone started giving their kids presents from Saint Nick-o-Laus (nicholas), soon called Santa Claus. yop. google it or something. I'm too lazy.
2006-09-05 15:16:17 · answer #8 · answered by Maybur 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The relationship between Jesus and Santa is quite clear... it is the same as with the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy and the Bogeyman. They are all characters of childish fiction. For some reason, though, some people never manage to outgrow the Jesus fiction.
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"When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called Religion." ~ Robert M. Pirsig
2006-09-05 15:21:58 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Santa is also known as Saint Nicholas, who apparently was a Saint (according to the catholic church, I think) who gave children presents at Christmas. However, he is completely unrelated to the religious holiday, he is merely an icon...much like the easter bunny has nothing to do with Jesus being raised from the dead.
2006-09-05 15:14:27 · answer #10 · answered by GLSigma3 6 · 2⤊ 1⤋