Regarding my previous question about Atheists and Thanksgiving....?

Question

I'm not trying to claim that Thanksgiving is a Christian holiday. It's a time to give thanks so for us Christians we naturally thank the Creator who gives us all good things.

Some of the answers have now presented another question in my mind. Many of you claim to celebrate Christmas and Easter with your families. Does that make you a hypocrite?

Not before you go attacking me I know you say that they were "originally" pagan holidays but they're NOT that now. Christmas is the time when we celebrate Christ's birth. The gifts given are meant to represent the gifts brought to the Christ child by the Wise Men. Easter is when we celebrate His resurrection from the grave. If you celebrate these holidays by gathering with your family isn't that hypocritical?

Many of you denounce us Christians because you say that churches are filled with hypocrites. Aren't you also guilty of that if you celebrate these now religious holidays to any extent?

Tirya....no, by the way we DON'T have the Easter Bunny come here and the eggs we color are to symbolyize the life and death of Christ on the earth. It's a special kit you buy with each color having a different meaning. The chocolate I buy is a cross, not a rabbit. So no, I'm not a hypocrite. I celebrate the true meanings of the holidays.

Answer 1

I feel your heart my dear, and I understand at holidays we relate them to God...he is the point of all our celebrations.

I understand what Christmas means to you. Its origins are pagan however. Its a fact. Jesus was not born in december but late september to early october during Rosh Hashannah, a jewish feast.

Bless you, you are entitled to celebrate Christ on a holiday, or a non holiday.

Love David

Answer 2

The gifts of Christmas were meant to be gifts for Mithras, actually. Christians pretty much swiped Christmas entirely from the Saturnia/Mithras cults, down to the symbols used. Same with easter. You cannot claim that just because Christians absorbed them that they are 'christian' holidays.

My family is going to celebrate with or without me. Is it hypocritical to set aside a day to make it particularly clear that I love them?

I don't give gifts 'to remember christ's birth'. I give gifts 'cause its a nice thing to do. Nothing stops me giving gifts other times of the year, it's just a good time to give gifts as a single whole cohesive unit. In fact, my non-christmas gifts usually cost more than the christmas gifts.

Easter is a holiday I celebrate just being with my family and the beginning of spring and summer. I don't care that some people are celebrating it as the day of the resurrection of their god any more than I care that many of my friends are celebrating Oestara by a bonfire and keeping to the traditions that it really means -- a celebration of fertility and the emergence of spring from winter.


For you, Christmas and Easter have a certain meaning. For my pagan friends, they have a different meaning. For me, they have a different meaning.

Who's meaning is right? Does it matter? If they're all celebrating it for their own reasons, none of them are hypocrites.

Answer 3

The time that you mark as Xmas is marking winter solstice, the longest night. From that time on the days are getting longer. It is a good calender day to mark. The roads have frozen and travel is again relatively easy. You will notice it is celebrated by almost every culture.
Easter marks the vernal (spring) equinox and the start of good weather and fresh food again. It is marked by celebrations for this. It is also a time to express hope for a good year in crop fertility and in animal fertility. Note the use of symbols of new life like early flowers, spring lambs and rapidly reproducing rabbits.
The only thing wrong with Easter is that it is defined by the Jewish lunar calendar, this is one of the mobile holidays, Its timing seems to float around because of the difference between the lunar and the solar calenders.
( I should not need to point out that the Hebrews followed a lunar cycle, a habit that the Christians carried on with which is why our solar calender is divided into approximations of the lunar month)

As roxy points out below the Christ birthday thing is a bit of a red herring. Until the Council of Nicea Christs birthday was generally taken to be March 25. Constantin reset it to December 25, which was the same as the Birthday celebrated by the cult of Mithras. (if you want to shock your mind look up Mithras and see how much Christianity owes to that cult.)

Answer 4

Christmas is barely even a religious holiday anymore. Christmas is about getting together with your family, bringing the kids to see Santa Claus, watching Charlie Brown specials, putting up decorations, giving out gifts, and all of that stuff... seriously, a kid can have two atheist parents and grow up celebrating Christmas every year and never even realize that it has ANYTHING to do with religion. It's a religious holiday if you want it to be but it doesn't have to be. And seriously, what's the big deal about non-Christians wanting to celebrate it? They're only hypocrites if they pretend to take part in the religious end of it -- they can participate in the festivities and the get-togethers. Why is that a problem?

Answer 5

Clearly, the holidays mean different things to different people, and it is not appropriate to say that one such meaning is more correct than others, regardless of the history of the holiday. At a Thanksgiving dinner some years ago, I was asked to offer a blessing; I said: "We are gathered together to celebrate our successes and joys of this past year, and enjoy the fruits of our labor." We celebrate Christmas in our household as a time for reunion and to give gifts (not unlike Muslims at Eid), but don't do Easter.

Answer 6

my my! rather defensive aren't you. now why would a nonChristian celebrating a holiday be a hypocrite? you admit some holidays have been usurped and are now considered Christian by Christians ... but it isn't so for everyone. some folks celebrate the original holy day in it's original meaning. does the fact that you celebrate a stolen holiday that originally had nothing to do with your god make you an idolater and a hypocrite? perhaps even a thief and a liar?

and you wonder why Christians are so often denounced as hypocrites. you example the reason on it's crux and seek to deflect the guilt onto others..

Answer 7

Christmas and Easter are Pagan Holidays as well.

Easter is NOT the day Jesus arose. That day is in the Middle of April of each year. December 25th is DEFINATELY not his birthday either. Most theogians agree on that. It's spring or fall.

Easter falls on different days for Eastern and Western Orthodox.

And in all fairness, atheists' family may be religious, they simply aren't. Why turn down a good family dinner and get together for no good reason.

The atheist simply doesn't say AMEN if grace is given, unless they are being very PC.

Answer 8

Since every part of both celebrations for me is secular then I have to say I'm fine with it. I won't be at midnight mass,I will be sending the children in my family gifts that say From Santa. The origins of all of these holidays have been so screwed up by one religion after another trying to take over that half of what goes into any celebration is unknown in origin to half the world. As you said many of the holidays Christians now claim are where they placed them to obscure previous religious rites,as for me I celebrate them mostly because I was raised with them,and have always rejected the religious aspects in favor of the secular holidays they have become,their origins are irrelevant to me.

AD

Answer 9

The festivals called Christmas and Easter by the christians are pagan festivals and always will be. The fact that christians took them over for their own purposes doesn't change this.
Easter is on a different date every year so how can it celebrate the resurrection, the easter egg is a fertility symbol.

Answer 10

To some people Christmas and Easter have nothing to do with Christ. One means shopping, gifts, food, trees and Santa Claus and the other means colored eggs, bunnies, chicks, baskets and candy. In many ways all that is still very pagan. Why not let others live with their beliefs and show them Christ's light within yourself and by your love which mean a lot more than Christian rhetoric.