If Christmas, Easter...?

Question

If Christmas, Easter, Halloween, etc. are from "Pagan" origins... why do people who claim to be "Christian" follow and practice them?

Answer 1

You have bunched the wrong holidays. Christmas is a Christian celebration of the birth of Christ, and has become secular for merchandising, not pagan. Easter is a Christian celebration of the Resurrection of Christ from the grave. The secular world again has merchandised it's meaning. Halloween is the eve of the celebration for Catholics All Saints day. Halloween is also merchandised but as pagans, the demonic world would come out on All Saints Eve to play tricks on ppl should they not give them offerings, this became treat as we know it today. There is a difference in pagan holidays and Christian holidays that have been tainted by commercialism.

Answer 2

While it is true that many of the origins of these holidays has pagan origins, today, Christmas celebrates the birth of Christ. and Easter celebrates the resurrection of Christ. The more pagan elements are those that glorify man.... such as the giving of gifts and Santa Clause. As a Christian, we choose not to draw attention to the more pagan elements and instead uplift the part that is glorifying to the Lord. Easter celebrated by bunnies and egg hunts and dressing up does not draw attention to the resurrection of the Savior. The egg is a true representation as it was part of the Jewish seder meal and is therefore an important part of Easter.... which I would rather call Resurrection Day. The term Easter originates from the sun god Estar...
As for Halloween, it started out as a celebration of a Hallowed evening... and has degenerated into a satanic holiday which no true Christian should celebrate. Because it is now a religious holiday.... public schools also have no business celebrating it. It is important that we understand why we celebrate each event and carefully teach our children the true meaning of the seasons.

Answer 3

It was much easier to blend Christian holidays into the holidays of those being converted. The Return of Light became Christmas because it was a holiday to the ancients already. By keeping many of the ancient beliefs ( evergreens, mistletoe, etc) and the time of year, the winter solstice, it was much easier claim that was the time that the new God was born.
In the same way, Easter was called The Rebirth. Flowers popped up, baby birds and rabbits were born. The Christian church brought their God back to life at that exact time, vary convenient.
Halloween is an ancient idea, and is now celebrated as a fun holiday. It has nothing to do with any modern religion.
You might find some problem with the church re-enlisting pagan holidays for their own use, but it worked for many hundreds of years. After all that time, I believe the church can claim those days for their own.

Answer 4

Both celebrations have become nothing more than a mockery and commercial enterprise for society, at least in the NA market. Easter was an original pagan celebration for the onset of Spring and the Godess Ashtar / Eostar, that which represents rebirth or Spring. If you trace history records, it happens to coincide with the time of Christ's death but that is all. As for Christmas, Christ was born around the end of what we would call summer or early autumn and not in December. Even in the middle east, shepherds are not watching their flocks by night in December. They close shop by what we call October at the latest. Both major holidays line up perfectly with ancient Pagan celebrations for the God of Winter Solstice and the Godess of Spring. The 2 most important influences of the Pagan culture. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. That's what the "Christians" were up against at the time and so that's what they compromised to. Forget the myths. Do the research. And accept that Christianity is just as corrupt as any other religion out there. It's all politics. Always has been, always will be.

Answer 5

As far as Christmas and Easter are concerned that were originally winter and spring solstice pagan holidays that a christian king could not get people to stop celebrating, so he decided to Christianize them. We have no idea what dates Jesus was born or died on. Halloween is still a pagan holiday but it was turned in a children's holiday in the 20th century during the births of the baby boomers.

Answer 6

Christmas in and of itself is a celebration of Christ's birthday. The pagan part of it come in through some of the traditions followed during that season. The same thing holds true for Easter. It celebrates the resurrection of Christ but the bunny and eggs and such is the pagan part.A great many christians do not celebrate Halloween because it has nothing to do with Jesus at all. However it is a fun time for your children to dress up and get candy.

Answer 7

Great question! Traditions of men can still be used to bless others. We should be very careful how we follow Pagan holidays and which ones. Jesus was not born on dec 25, the resurection has nothing to do with eggs and bunnies, and Halloween should just be outlawed in public schools like Christmas since it is from a "religion" of another source all together. God can use man's traditions for good too.

Answer 8

The current celebrations are the result of a merging of new and old practices, and also Halloween is still considered bad by some formes of Christians.

as to Xmas and Easter the main thing is the timing of them within the year(however I'm lost about the rabbits and eggs too). the exact time of JC's birth and death have been lost to time, however since the Pagans had parties at the Winter solstice, and vernal equinox, the church just set those dates as the birth and death of JC to make Christianity more accpetable.

Who among us doesn't know that when founding a new religion it chases away the recruits if you take away the parties that they have under their current one.

Answer 9

maybe because this is written in Colossians 2:16
"Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. " I don't really know just a guess, I do not see the "holidays" like I use to except Resurrection Sunday aka "Easter" but either way it goes I don't see gift giving as a bad thing and I do not see sharing my faith in Christ on these days a pagan in anyway.

Answer 10

When the good friars were trying to get the pagan folk to convert it was easier not to take the good people's holidays completely away from them so they paterned the new christian holidays around long held standards of the day. If that freaks you look into where easter eggs came from, and the christmas tree originated.