why do we celebrate christmas?

Question

i like to know why do we celebrate christmas.

Answer 1

Many of our modern Christmas traditions began hundreds of years before Christ was born. Some of these traditions date back more than 4000 years. The addition of Christ to the celebration of the winter solstice did not occur until 300 years after Christ died and as late as 1800, some devout Christian sects, like the Puritans, forbade their members from celebrating Christmas because it was considered a pagan holiday. So what is the history behind these traditions?

The Christmas tree is derived from several solstice traditions. The Romans decked their halls with garlands of laurel and placed candles in live trees to decorate for the celebration of Saturnalia. In Scandinavia, they hung apples from evergreen trees at the winder solstice to remind themselves that spring and summer will come again. The evergreen tree was the special plant of their sun god, Baldor.

The practice of exchanging gifts at a winter celebration is also pre-Christian and is from the Roman Saturnalia. They would exchange good-luck gifts called Stenae (lucky fruits). They also would have a big feast just like we do today.

Mistletoe is from an ancient Druid custom at the winter solstice. Mistletoe was considered a divine plant and it symbolized love and peace. The tradition of kissing under the mistletoe is Druid in origin.

The Scandinavian solstice traditions had a lot of influences on our celebration besides the hanging of ornaments on evergreen trees. Their ancient festival was called Yuletide and celebrated the return of the sun. One of their traditions was the Yule log. The log was the center of the trunk of a tree that was dragged to a large fireplace where it was supposed to burn for twelve days. From this comes the twelve days of Christmas.

Even the date of Christmas, December 25, was borrowed from another religion. At the time Christmas was created in AD 320, Mithraism was very popular. The early Christian church had gotten tired of their futile efforts to stop people celebrating the solstice and the birthday of Mithras, the Persian sun god. Mithras’ birthday was December 25. So the pope at the time decided to make Jesus’ official birthday coincide with Mithras’ birthday. No one knows what time of year Jesus was actually born but there is evidence to suggest that it was in midsummer.

So, if you are celebrating any of the western traditions of Christmas this year, remember that you are actually enjoying the rituals and activities of several ancient religions whose traditions have been borrowed by the Christians over the years for the celebration of the birth of Christ.

Happy Holidays!

Answer 2

What we are suppose to be celebrating is the day the man was born who was sent by our Creator to lead us and save us from our wrong thinking and behavior, called sin. What we celebrate in America is a politically correct Christmas. This is a Christmas without Jesus Christ. This is a Christmas filled with false unrelated things. None them related to Jesus Christ, the knowledge he brought or where came from.

Answer 3

For Christians, its to celebrate the birth of Christ. But it has turned into celebrating over-decorating, over-spending on gift buying, over-partying, a frenzy of numerous indulgences far removed from the original reason. True, there are still acts of kindness performed and family get-togethers to attend church and share a meal and exchange small gifts, but basically, Xmas has lost its true meaning for most.

Answer 4

Christmas is Jesus Birthday. Christmas has gotten off the path. Now its all about Gifts and what we wont and we really should celebrate His Birthday..

Answer 5

to explain this i would waste a whole night, the best way put it simple is that it has been distributed by history in the making people in one country will share traditions with another making one or more religions more unique or more closely related for example pagen, and catholic they have alot of the same things like the christmas tree is from the pagen religion. in modernized time we celebrate it for the religion and being with or family as i was told when i asked the same question years back

Answer 6

To celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. Religiously speaking, that is. Not religiously speaking, we celebrate Christmas to decorate our houses and buy each other presents.

Answer 7

It honors Jesus Christ. You may research the history of the event if you like. I will toss a freebie for you and note that it is also a celebration of winter solstice in a way as well.

Answer 8

Christians are the people that moved it to coincide with the Pagan Festival to try and get people to convert, and they built churches on pagan sacred ground to try and involve them in the beginning, the christians would go through the front door the Pagans at the north gate, later this was blocked off as the Christians did not like the Idea of Pagans Gathering at the back door! If you look at older chuches you can see where they were blocked up, the stone used was different from the rest. It's important to me!

Answer 9

To celebrate and remember the birth of Jesus Christ. We give each other gifts because it's a birthday celebration! Obviously people have forgotten that and it's become very materialistic. (Santa is not the reason for the season!)

Answer 10

We celebrate Christmas because we are remembering the birth of Christ. You can read the infancy narratives in the Gospels.