Why did Christians stop celebrating Jewish holidays?

Question

And was Hanukkah celebrated by Jews in Jesus' time? I knew the history behind it many years ago, but I've forgotten. Jesus celebrated Passover, and other Jewish holidays, so why don't we? Is celebrating Advent good for Christians, since it wasn't outlined in the Bible? When was Advent started? Thanks!

Okay, thanks for the answers, but does anyone know WHY?

Answer 1

We stopped celebrating the Jewish holidays, because Jesus Christ's sacrifice overshadowed everything else. All Jewish holidays were started to remember the great things that God had done for them. For example: The Passover is to remind the Israelites that God led them out of Egypt. Christian don't celebrate the Jewish holidays, because Christ's atonement is the greatest single event in history. It is for that reason the we know only celebrate holidays having to do with Christ.

Answer 2

Jews excel at taking over organizations begun by other people, though usually they will wait to see what success it is having, what profit can be made from it, or whether it represents a threat to their power that should be defused by infiltration. The early Christian church was, in this manner, taken over by Jews, starting with Saul of Tarsus.

And then... something strange happened. Though an extraordinary degree of counter-revolutionary cohesion and mutual support, the Whites took their church back. To some extent, however, Jewish traditions and outlook were so ingrained in the church that they could not be removed. But otherwise the church began to evolve in non-Jewish directions.

These days, of course, you see even the biggest Christian leaders kowtowing to the Jewish gods-on-earth again, so maybe the Jews are regaining their ascendancy over Christendom. Poor Simon of Trent, shamefully stripped of his sainthood, when other martyrs, no more innocent than he, are allowed to keep theirs.

Nia's answer is wrong. Hanukkah is the Jews festival of lights and celebrates an alleged "miracle" (I'll adopt the ADL convention of using quotation marks to invite skepticism) involving a menorah that burned for two weeks on a day's worth of lamp oil - or something like that.

The legend goes that the Jews defeated the Persian empire by suborning royal treason. A patriot named Haman recognized the danger to his country posed by the Jewish presence therein, and he was going to have that danger removed. Instead, the Persian King Ahasuerus, besotted by a Jewish woman whom he'd recently married, chose his lust over his own duty and had Haman hanged. The Jews then went on the very rampage that Haman had tried to prevent. The Jewish holiday that celebrates this event, however, is Purim. Not Hanukkah.

Anyway the story is a Jewish revenge myth. King Ahasuerus never existed; he is a fictionalized version of the Persian King Xerxes.

The Seleucid empire suffered the usual disease that brings down empires. By conquest, a strong country conquers the surrounding region, thereby becoming an empire. It taxes the conquered territories and grows rich. Aliens from everywhere are attracted to the rich country because the living is good there, far better than the aliens could ever do for themselves at home, and as the result the Imperial country begins to suffer from an "immigration problem." The immigrants don't have the qualities that made the Imperial country strong in the first place, and, sooner or later, the population of the Imperial country declines so markedly in quality that they can't even maintain their hold on their territorial possessions, which revolt and break away.

Eventually, something or other finishes the job of stamping out a once-mighty empire.

It happened to the ancient Egyptians, to the Seleucids, to the Assyrians, to the Medes, to the Roman Empire, to the British Empire, and it is now happening to the "United States Empire."

The Jews didn't bring down the Seleucids at one stroke. If they had a hand in it, it was probably the boiling over of a pot which they had been long in the heating.

Answer 3

Most Christians aren't Jews. Most of us are Gentiles, or non-Jews. Hanukkah is a holiday that celebrates the Jewish defeat of the Seleucid empire, the survival of Judaism, and the re-dedication of the Jewish Temple. Same goes for passover. We're not culturally connected to it.
Hanukkah is a recent holiday. It is not mentioned in the Bible so no, they didn't celebrate it until later on.

Answer 4

Many Christian traditions are taken from the Jewsih holidays if one looks closely.

The Hanukkah celebration was in full force during Jesus' day. Hanukkah always falls on the 25th day of Kislev (the month usually corresponding with December)....sound familiar.

Answer 5

Early Christians were made up of Gentiles, Jews and converted Romans. Not all of them would celebrated jewish holidays. In fact, you used to have to convert to judaism to be christian, but someone (paul or peter, i think) finally said you didn't have to be circumsised to join. I think, around that point in time, the early christians stopped celebrating jewish holidays to make themselves different from their jewish neighbors. After all, early christianity was very simular to judaism.

Answer 6

The earliest Christians probably did celebrate all Jewish holidays, but later Christians decided it was best to differentiate themselves from Judaism and stopped, establishing new holidays and traditions.

Answer 7

To attract more worshipers it made more sense to include pagan holidays as opposed to Jewish ones. Of course there is the whole anger issue (because the Jews rejected Jesus).

Answer 8

As xtianity became infused with more and more gentiles the Jewish element was squeezed out and replaced by pagan holidays that the gentile converts were more familiar with.

Hanukkah was celebrated during Jesus' time. I believe if you look in John 10 it mentions that he was in the Temple during the "feast of dedication and it was winter". That would be Hannukah.

Answer 9

There was only one celebration that christians were told to celebrate by Jesus, this is the only one that is still binding on followers of the faith. That was the memorial ceremony of Jesus' DEATH.

Answer 10

I am a born again Christian. That does not make me Jewish or cause me to have to follow their customs. I in no way am disrespecting the Jewish faith in my post. Jesus Himself was Jewish. But through my accepting Jesus as my savior, I have been adopted into God's family..

Sadly... there are so many Jewish people who do not believe that Jesus was the son of God or the messiah. So what does their Jewish customs get them, if they do not accept Jesus as the son of God, and do not repent of their sins?

All we are to do is follow what God tells us to do, that will give us eternal life with Him in heaven, which is accept His son Jesus as our savior and share His word with the lost, so they too can obtain eternal life through Christ our Lord.