Why do some christians using this site desperately protest this fact?
no-one is saying that THEY are celebrating a pagan festival, just that the date and much of the imagery of the modern christmas festival pre-dates their faith.
2006-12-14 04:38:26 · 13 answers · asked by badger_shaman 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Holidays ➔ Christmas
yay i love this question!!! Its usually asked in response to an uneducated religious person posting a question previously such as 'why do people celebrate christmas if they don't believe in god?' i love rubbing their noses in it! Saturnalia, yule, whatever.There are so many religious sectors that believe its unholy to celebrate christmas anyway we should be booting the church out of our midwinter festival. But Christmas is such a personal thing- all things to all people- I think I'll let them off.
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL x x x
2006-12-14 06:21:24 · answer #1 · answered by Miss Emily 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
What you say is true..I am Christian and I have to admit it. But most Christians don't realize that a lot of our traditions are based on Pagan rituals...The early church Incorporated these practices into Christianity so that Pagans would join the Church... its sad to say but true...I know that the Christmas tree and all the lights are derived from the Pagan festival of lights and the Easter bunny and eggs are from the Pagan fertility festival. I cant explain to you why I still chose to practice these traditions on our Religious Holidays other than to say this... As long as I remember the true Christian meaning of our holidays and as long as I don't worship the lights and eggs and so forth there is no harm in displaying all the beautiful decorations that have evolved and taken root in our observance, then there is no harm.
The key is not to worship the decorations...plain and simple.
2006-12-14 04:53:36 · answer #2 · answered by Adrienne C 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You need to ask THOSE Christians to find out, don't you. I'm a Christian and I agree that the whole thing goes back to Saturnalia, a Roman pagan festival. So what? Biblical scholars figure the actual daet was some time near the harvest. That would be a good time to tax the citizens. Here's a question for you; Whay do pagans celebrate Christmas instead of just calling it "Our annual paganistic excuse to show how stupid we are."
2006-12-14 04:53:51 · answer #3 · answered by Bill G 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
When Christianity basically "took over", it took with it a lot of Pagan Holidays, symbols.. and turned them into their own. Christmas Day is just one of them. It is hard to change the mind of someone who belives strongly in their religion , even if there is "irrefutable proof".
2006-12-14 04:56:11 · answer #4 · answered by ? 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The notion that our current Christmas traditions are borrowed from earlier pagan traditions is innocuous at best. If we put up streamers at a wedding ceremony, do we claim that this was stolen from birthday parties? Does it matter? Not in the least.
Christmas traditions definitely co-opted pagan symbolism...this was a way to ease the transition from paganism to Christianity for the early church. Yawn. Nothing in our Christmas celebration comes from the Bible anyway except for the Nativity.
Who cares if Christmas trees, snowmen, reindeer, etc. are not Biblical? They are nice and fun and draw attention to a season whose real reason is Jesus, the birth of our Lord and Savior. If the date is off or if we choose to commemorate this using a set of intrinsically benign symbols borrowed from pagans or any other quasi-spirituality, it DOES NOT INVALIDATE THE HOLIDAY PURPOSE in any way, shape or form.
So, in short, your facts are interesting, yet irrelevant.
If someone drew a picture of you and that's all we had to remember you by...but the picture didn't exactly look like you or was drawn on paper made by somebody who hated you, would that either invalidate your existence or render our memorial meaningless? Of course not.
This exaggerated use of the "pagan ruse" is equally acerbic and thoroughly vacuous.
2006-12-14 04:51:13 · answer #5 · answered by none 2 · 1⤊ 2⤋
The fact that what you stated is true has no bearing on the meaning of the Christmas celebration that christians particiapte in. THe christian church decided to celebrate christmas on dec 25th to counteract the pagean festivals that happened around the same time.
2006-12-14 04:46:49 · answer #6 · answered by Louis G 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
If you choose to believe something, then you're not going to like others telling you that it isn't true.
What proof do you talk about, anyway? Is there any really "irrefutable proof" of anything that happened that far back in history? I don't think so, or Jesus would be nothing more than a misunderstood, half-alien, carpenter.
2006-12-14 04:40:20 · answer #7 · answered by shoby_shoby2003 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It is quite simple - Christians are totally and utterly intolerant of anyone who does not follow their faith!!
Just look at this site. Every other faith, atheist and whatever is happy, inclusive and tolerant wishing everyone happy holidays or happy Christmas etc.
Who are the only dissenters? Who tries to hijack it solely for their own religion? How very, very unchristian!!!!!
But it is nice to see a few apparently good Christians showing tolerance in their answers!
2006-12-14 04:58:48 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Given that there is irrefutable PROOF that you are trolling, why does it matter? The real question is why religion gets under your skin so much if Christianity isn't your belief system. It would seem to me that you are asking this question more to show that your beliefs, or non-belief is more valid. I submit that this question is only proof of your bigotry. I am not disputing the factual content of your question, just the phrasing and tone.
2006-12-14 04:54:11 · answer #9 · answered by Supplicant 3 · 1⤊ 2⤋
Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Men.
God doesn't care what faith you are, as long as you HAVE faith.
I know this doesn't answer your question.......here.. *hands you an eggnog*.....
Merry Holidays Liebchen.
2006-12-14 04:41:25 · answer #10 · answered by PrincessPlum 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋