Do atheists celebrate Christmas?

Question

If so,why?

Answer 1

Acutally, Christmas was orginally a practice performed by the Ancient Greeks to celebrate the coming of winter. That would make it a pagan holiday. Also, Jesus wasn't even born on that date. Also, since when did giving each other presents represent anything related to Jesus? What about Santa Claus? They question should be aimed at Christians. Why do Christians celebrate Christmas?

Answer 2

I really am appalled by the lack of knowledge shown by the people attempting to answer not just this question, but there general knowledge about the subject.

Yes, Christmas did take over a pagan festival but why? well simple. After the conversion of the Roman empire to Christianity, they simply had no idea when Christs birth was, no one ever kept a record of such things. So they simply decided to celebrate it on a day they were already used to taking time off to celebrate. It makes perfect sence.

Secondly, those who said they dont believe in santa clause or never have done, will be deeply dissapointed to find out that he actually was a real person that did exist. This would be Saint Nicholas who lived in Asia minor, what we would call Turkey today. He felt the need to help out poor families in his area and so decided to go around and put small bags of money down chimneys of poor families, especially those which had girls and couldnt afford a dowry. As it happens, when he through down a bag into a chimeny once, the girl living there had her stockings over the fire place to dry and the bag of money landed in it. Which is why we give presents in stockings.

But to answer the main question. Atheists dont celebrate Christmas religiously, i think this is obvious, otherwise they wouldnt be atheists. But what choice do they have but to celebrate it since everyone else is? besides, its a good excuse for them to get drunk and have some time off work.

Answer 3

Until the year 321, Christmas didn't exist. Then the Roman empire nationalised the western Christian church, made the Pope head of the civil service etc etc.

The Romans had two celebrations in December. There was the pagan festival of Saturnalia (Saturn was the god of the underworld) where you ate too much and got drunk. That was about December 17. And there was the Mithraist celebration of the birth of Sol (the sun god) on December 24. The Romans weren't going to give up this much fun, so the Christian church had to take it on board.

We have no idea when Jesus's birthday was. Palestinian jews of the time didn't celebrate them. There was (ands still is) a celebration of Christ's revelation (Epiphany) on 6 January. So the Roman church came up with the idea of Christmas where you get drunk about mid December, celebrate Jesus's birthday on 25 December (having this on Sol's birthday would have been a bit blatent) and sobering up about 6 January.

The Eastern church don't have the same festivities. They only celebrate 6 January.

If Christians can celebrate a pagan / Mithraist festival, why shouldn't other religions including Atheism.

BTW Have you ever looked in the Bible for the story of Jesus being born in a stable? Mithraism again!

Answer 4

Yes, but true Christians don't celebrate it because of it's pagan origins.

The date of December 25 for the celebration of Christmas is not the result of a strict chronological anniversary but, rather, of the Christianization of the festivals of the winter solstice that were celebrated in Rome.
How did the Romans celebrate the rise of the sun in the winter sky? - By feasting, revelry, and the exchanging of presents. Since church authorities were loath to abolish such a popular festival, they “Christianized” it by calling it the birth of Jesus instead of the birth of the sun.

Another disturbing question arises with regard to the nature of Christmas celebrations. If Jesus returned to the earth today, what would he think about the rank commercialism of Christmas? Two thousand years ago, Jesus visited the temple in Jerusalem. He was outraged by money changers and vendors who were taking advantage of a Jewish religious festival to make money. “Take these things away from here!” he said. “Stop making the house of my Father a house of merchandise!” (JOHN 2:13-16)
Clearly, Jesus did not approve of mixing commerce and religion.

Answer 5

Yes, because we don't want to exclude our children from such a public show of presentation. We take solace from the fact that Christmas was a Pagan Festival and nicked by Christianity, along with most of the other big Christian holidays.

Further, how many of you Christians attend Church and celebrate the way Christmas was supposed to be?

Answer 6

I am not an Atheist but I am also not a Christian. I think that Christmas is just a commercialized "Wal*Mart" holiday now days. I spend time with my family and give my child and other children in my family gifts but I do not buy for adults. I think some Atheists celebrate it because they dont see it as a religious holiday...just as a time to be around those you love.

Answer 7

What they are actually observing is the pagan feast of Yule, marking the Winter solstice. Yule celebrations at the winter solstice predate Christianity, and though there are numerous references to Yule in the Icelandic sagas, there are few accounts of how Yule was actually celebrated, beyond the fact that it was a time for feasting. 'Yule-Joy', with dancing, continued through the Middle Ages in Iceland, but was frowned upon when the Reformation arrived. It is, however, known to have included the sacrifice of a pig for the god Freyr, a tradition which survives in the Scandinavian Christmas ham.

The confraternities of artisans of the 9th century, which developed into the medieval guilds, were denounced by Catholic clergy for their "conjurations" when they swore to support one another in coming adversity and in business ventures. The occasions were annual banquets on December 26,

"feast day of the pagan god Jul, when it was possible to couple with the spirits of the dead and with demons that returned to the surface of the earth... Many clerics denounced these conjurations as being not only a threat to public order but also, more serious in their eyes, satanic and immoral. Hincmar, in 858, sought in vain to Christianize them" (Rouche 1987, p. 432).
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Connection to modern Christmas
Many of the symbols associated with the modern holiday of Christmas such as the burning of the Yule log, the eating of ham, the hanging of boughs, holly, mistletoe, etc. are apparently derived from traditional northern European Yule celebrations. When the first missionaries began converting the Germanic peoples to Christianity, they found it easier to simply provide a Christian reinterpretation for popular feasts such as Yule and allow the celebrations themselves to go on largely unchanged, rather than trying to suppress them. The Scandinavian tradition of slaughtering a pig at Christmas (see Christmas ham), and not in the autumn, is probably the most salient evidence for this. The tradition derives from the sacrifice to the god Freyr at the Yule celebrations. Halloween and Easter are theorized to have been likewise assimilated from northern European pagan festivals.

It seems odd on the face of it that atheists should be happy to celebrate a heathen festival while rejecting the Christian faith, but presumably they feel that they deserve to enjoy themselves at a gloomy time of year. After all, this life is all they have and if they cannot enjoy themselves at least once a year....

Answer 8

Yes Sir, we celebrate and have a great time doing it! We celebrate the holidays as a time for far flung family and friends (say THAT 5 times fast!) to gather together and renew old ties. We don't view it as a religious holiday.

We utilize the giving trees so that we may buy gifts for the residents of the hospitals and nursing homes, and for the disadvantaged kids who may not have much.

We even invite our Jewish friends in to help decorate our tree, and during Hanukkah we enjoy their celebrations.

Answer 9

Well we weren't very religious when I was growing up, but we always celebrated Christmas-I guess it was just because it was the social thing to do!

Answer 10

I feel that Christmas no longer has any meaning and it is so commercialised it makes me sick. But I am Christian, but we shouldn't celebrate the birth of christ once a year it should be throughout our lives. And no I never have and never will believe in Santa Claus.