I have been on here a lot today, reading about the joys of "Christ in Christmas", or why people are "taking the Christ out of Christmas". Do people not realize that Christmas as we know it started as a Pagan winter holiday? And for the people who say it's "Christ's Birthday", have they never read the bible? While I don't raise sheep, I've always been told that they are hearded in the spring, not the dead of winter, and according to the historians who have studied the bible say "Jesus Christ" was born in the spring. When else would the shepards have been hearding their flocks like they were supposed to have been doing when Christ was born? When the Catholic church first began and they were trying to convert Pagans to Christianity they took over the Pagan holidays to make the conversion easier and so there would be less fighting the inevitable. Yule became Christmas Ostara became Easter and so on. *sigh* Why do people not work to understand where their traditions and rituals come from?
2006-12-25 14:19:46 · 14 answers · asked by panthergoddess_92499 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Lol, no. Not a Jehovah's Witness. I am Pagan though.
2006-12-25 14:29:14 · update #1
Christmas time is here. Atime of joy, cheer and merriment. Christmas is a special time for friends and family ties to strengthen and for people to come closer to each other. This special festive season ensures a feeling of anticipation, joy and cheer to the hildren. Like many other festivals there are many traditions associated with this lovely festival. Whether its the santa claus, christmas tree, mistletoe everything has a special significance which is rooted deep in the history. Lets explore the importance of each and every christmas symbol
MISTLETOE AND HOLLY
Mistletoe is considered to be a kind of magical plant which has no roots of itslef rather it lives on the the other tree to which it attaches itself. Druids used mistletoe to celebrate the coming of winter. They would decorate their homes with it. They used it for various purposes. As a healing plant it was suppose to cure everything from infertility in woman to poison ingestion. Scandinavians also thought of mistletoe as a plant of peace and harmony. They associated mistletoe with their goddess of love, Frigga. The custom of kissing under the mistletoe probably derived from this belief. The Druids viewed holly - with its cheerful propensity to remain green in winter - as a sacred plant, designed to keep the earth beautiful even as north winds howled and snow blanketed the landscape. They wore sprigs of holly in their hair when they went into the forest to watch their priests cut the sacred mistletoe. The early church banned the use of mistletoe in Christmas celebrations because of its pagan origins. Instead, church fathers suggested the use of holly as an appropriate substitute for Christmas greenery.
POINSETTIAS
Poinsettias derived its name from Americas first ambassador to Mexico - Joel Poinsett. The plants brought to him were considered symbolic to the star in Bethelem by the Mexicans. This is how it came to be associated with Christmas. Its a prized flower for the festive season 'cause no other flower make such a brilliant show of bright red throughout the festive weeks of December and January.
The legend of the poinsettia comes from Mexico. A charming story is told of Pepita, a poor Mexican girl who had no gift to present the Christ Child at Christmas Eve Services. As Pepita walked slowly to the chapel with her cousin Pedro, her heart was filled with sadness rather than joy. Not knowing what else to do, Pepita knelt by the roadside and gathered a handful of common weeds, fashioning them into a small bouquet. Looking at the scraggly bunch of weeds, she felt more saddened and embarrassed than ever by the humbleness of her offering. She fought back a tear as she entered the small village chapel. As she approached the alter, she felt her spirit lift as she knelt to lay the bouquet at the foot of the nativity scene. Suddenly, the bouquet of weeds burst into blooms of brilliant red, and all who saw them were certain that they had witnessed a Christmas miracle right before their eyes. From that day on, the bright red flowers were known as the Flores de Noche Buena, or Flowers of the Holy Night, for they bloomed each year during the Christmas season.
SANTA CLAUS
Its just right to say that santa claus is one of the most awaited thing in christmas. The man with a bag full of gifts and a smily face - this is our sweet Santa Claus. He comes riding on a sleigh driven by the reindeers led by RUDOLPH. And along with the reindeer and the sleigh came the jingle bells and Elvin, the elf, who looks after Santa's Rudolf.
The day before christmas is a day of joy and fun for the kids who hang their stockings above the chimney in the belief taht santa claus will come and fill their stockings with some kind of gifts.
As the night dawns and the christmas morning comes children just cant wait to check what has santa left for them in their stockings. Thus Santa Claus in his red attire is quite famous and is a big charm amongst the children.
THE CHRISTMAS TREE
One of the most important tradition that is associated with Christmas is the Christmas Tree. It is an evergreen coniferous tree which is decorated with sweets and lights in the spirit of christmas.
The tradition is most widely observed in the parts of the Northern Hemisphere, where Christmas falls at a time when days are short, and temperatures often below freezing, with snow covering the ground. The Christmas tree began to appear in Germany as early as 700 AD. According to one legend the Christmas Tree symbolizes the Trinity and points upwards towards the God. While the light, gift and decorations on the Christmas tree mean heaven; love and charity respectively.
Even the decorations on the Christmas trees draw their root in traditional values. The crystal balls symbolizes the fruit of redemption, the electric light or the candles are ancient symbols that stand for the triumph of spring over the darkness of winter. The light also symbolizes the light that Jesus Christ cast upon the lives of the people. The Holy, when it flies down to earth, is believed to take the shape of a dove. The dove symbolizes the Holy Spirit, while the bell symbolizes the joys of life.
THE CHRISTMAS STAR
The spirit of christmas, the spirit of christmas celebrations - that is what christmas star is associated with. It is the hope for success, hope for a good fortune. This star symbolizes high ideals for oneself.
Before entering the Promised Land, Moses warned the Israelites to, "take heed, lest you lift your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, you feel driven to worship them and serve them, which the LORD your God has given to all the peoples under the whole heaven as a heritage." [Deu 4:19]
Islamic tradition claims that when Abraham was born, he was hidden in a cave because Nimrod sought to slay the newborn patriarch, just as Herod sought to kill the infant king, Jesus. After fifteen years, Abraham emerged from his cave and, seeing the evening star, believed it was God. He almost worshiped it, but the star's light grew faint and disappeared from sight. He realized his error and declared he would not worship any transient god. When the moon, and then the sun arose, Abraham mistook them for God and very nearly worshiped these bodies. However, they also faded and fell. Finally, he realized that his LORD was the invisible and never-changing God who had created the heavenly lights. Later, God swore to Abraham, "I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven..." [Gen 22:17, 15:5; Exo 32:13; Heb 11:12; Deu 1:10, 10:22, 28:62; Neh 9:23] Abraham's belief in this promise was credited to him as righteousness. [Gen 15:6] This same promise was passed down to his son, Isaac. [Gen 26:4]
CANDLES
Candles are symbol of individual's life force, or the light he or she offers to the world. They represent spirituality, devotion, faith, longing, and the life devoted to a single, generally spiritual passion or aspiration. They symbolize the passing years of a human life as it slowly burns or melts away. Because of their phallic shape, candles were commonly used in marriage and fertility rites. In these rites they may represent the innocence of virgins.
BELLS
Bells represent Joy and Sorrow. They are a symbol of creativity and harmony; the creating Word, and the music of the spheres. [Gen 1; John 1:1-4] High in the towers, suspended between heaven and earth, bells and especially their clappers, represent communication and suspension between heaven and earth, or humans and God. Even today, on Christmas Eve, these bells may be heard ringing at midnight. In other European towns, the ringing of bells from churches that were swallowed up by earthquakes during worship services may be heard by putting one's ear to the ground on Christmas Eve.
CANDY CANE
The symbol of the shepherd's crook is an ancient one, representing the humble shepherds who were first to worship the newborn Christ. The white color of the Christmas candy symbolizes the Virgin Birth and the sinless nature of Jesus. The hardness of the candy symbolizes the solid rock, the foundation of churches and the firmness of the promises made by God. The candies are made in a "J" shape to represent the name of Jesus and the shape of the staff of the "Good Shepherd". And the three red stripes on the candy represents the Trinity and the blood shed by Christ to let us have the promise of the eternal life.
One story that is often told about the origin of the candy cane is as follows:
In the late 1800's a candy maker in Indiana wanted to express the meaning of Christmas through a symbol made of candy. He came up with the idea of bending one of his white candy sticks into the shape of a Candy Cane. He incorporated several symbols of Christ's love and sacrifice through the Candy Cane. First, he used a plain white peppermint stick. The color white symbolizes the purity and sinless nature of Jesus. Next, he added three small stripes to symbolize the pain inflicted upon Jesus before His death on the cross. There are three of them to represent the Holy Trinity. He added a bold stripe to represent the blood Jesus shed for mankind.
2006-12-27 14:42:41 · answer #1 · answered by dnt4get2luvme 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Every religion borrows from earlier religions and beliefs system. Wicca has more taken from ceremonial magic such as the Golden Dawn and Thelema than from any supposed Ancient Cult of Wytchcrafte (Margaret Murrays theories, BTW, were largely wrong). Christianity borrowed from a number of older pagan religions. Those religions borrowed from even older ones--the Romans, for example, pretty much engulfed the Greek ways, as well as many of the other cultures they conquered.
Modern pagans need to quit complaining about how "Christians stole our holidays!" We're not ancient Celts or Mithraists, and we're just as syncretic as anyone else. Pagans quite happily call the Four Watchtowers (Golden Dawn) while eating cakes and ale (while sacrifices are ancient, this particular manifestation is pretty much taken straight from Christianity's wine and wafers) and believe in reincarnation (Hinduism and Buddhism). We may also participate in sweat lodges (various Native American cultures) and pound on drums in three or four-beat patterns (much of modern pagan drumming stems from African drumming styles brought to America by Mickey Hart, the drummer for the Grateful Dead). And some pagans even work with the Kabbalah (Judaism).
Stop worrying about what the Christians are doing, and pay attention to your own path. Older does not necessarily mean better, nor does it confer legitimacy.
2006-12-26 11:50:46 · answer #2 · answered by Lupa 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
According to the dogma of the Council of Nicaea organized by the pagan Emperor Constantine, the Trinity, consisting of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost existed as a single God for eternity and, therefore, could not have been born or begotten. Neither could any part of the Trinity have died, been dead and buried or risen from the dead since God always was and always shall be world without end yada, yada, yada.
Christians adopted the trinity because other religions had it and Constantine found it easier to sell universally to consolidate his imperial power. Sounds normal, sounds simple.
The adoption of pagan holidays is rather normal when trying to sell a new religion; keep the fun stuff and add another layer of dogma.
When bigotry is finally overcome and Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and other murderous religions are viewed as a vestige of our barbaric past, we will probably keep seasonal holidays as part of our cultural tradition because they are fun. And because merchants make lots of money and that is our real god.
2006-12-25 14:31:51 · answer #3 · answered by valcus43 6 · 2⤊ 1⤋
You need to do a little homework. First of all, the Christian celebration of Dec. 25th came before the Roman holiday - it was the pagans who 'stole' Christmas, and not vice versa. Second, the whole sheep in winter thing is the ONLY piece of evidence against the fact that Jesus was born in late December or ealy January. The spring birthday was invented because people mistakenly dated the death of Herod the Great wrong.
2006-12-25 14:31:26 · answer #4 · answered by NONAME 7 · 1⤊ 5⤋
Utuk, if I am correct, I believe you got the first part right.
But I KNOW you got the 2nd part wrong.
Jesus was born on April 6th.
Source:
Divine revelation through the Prophet, Joseph Smith.
2006-12-26 12:15:04 · answer #5 · answered by dr c 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They really don't care. They do it because they like to.
Just like halloween. No one ever said that was holy.
Jesus was 33 1/2 years old when he died at passover so that makes his birthday around September. Just for the record.
They put Christ into it to give it a air of respectable appearance.
2006-12-25 14:25:24 · answer #6 · answered by Ruth 6 · 1⤊ 2⤋
Jehovah's Witnesses are Christians; they teach that Christ was and is divine and of the same nature as God.
Jehovah's Witnesses teach that no salvation occurs without Christ, that accepting Christ's sacrifice is a requirement for true worship, that every prayer must acknowledge Christ, that Christ is the King of God's Kingdom, that Christ is the head of the Christian congregation, that Christ is immortal and above every creature, even that Christ was the 'master worker' in creating the universe!
Jehovah's Witnesses love and respect and honor Christ. They do NOT celebrate so-called "Christmas" because "Christmas" does NOT celebrate Christ; "Christmas" celebrates the pagan Saturnalia. Jesus was not even born in December. Nearly all so-called Christmas customs dishonor Christ.
(Jeremiah 10:2-5) This is what Jehovah has said: "Do not learn the way of the nations at all... 3 For the customs of the peoples are just an exhalation, because it is a mere tree out of the forest that one has cut down, the work of the hands of the craftsman with the billhook. 4 With silver and with gold one makes it pretty. With nails and with hammers they fasten them down, that none may reel. ...the doing of any good is not with them."
http://watchtower.org/e/19981215/article_02.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/20001215/
http://watchtower.org/e/20041215/article_01.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/19981215/
http://watchtower.org/e/rq/article_11.htm
By contrast, it's tragic that the one holiday Christ actually *DID* ask Christians to commemorate is entirely ignored by almost all of Christendom. It is, of course, the Memorial of Christ's death, sometimes called "the Last Supper" or "the Lord's Evening Meal".
(1 Corinthians 11:23-25, NWT) The Lord Jesus in the night in which he was going to be handed over took a loaf... Keep doing this in remembrance of me.” 25 He did likewise respecting the cup.. Keep doing this... in remembrance of me.”
(1 Cor 11:24, 25, NEB) "Do this as a memorial of me.”
Christ Jesus himself personally celebrated and explained the significance of that Last Supper to his followers (see Matthew 26:26-29). Christians who commemorate the Last Supper have done so on the same Jewish calendar date as Jesus did, Nisan 14, which generally falls between late March and mid-April. Interestingly, Christians in the centuries immediately after Christ's impalement were sometimes called "Quartodecimans" which literally mean "Fourteen-ers", because the early Christians were well-known for this true holy day.
How would Jesus feel to learn that the holiday he commanded was widely ignored, while his so-called followers chose to celebrate a pagan false god and their own traditions of men? We don't need to wonder.
(Matthew 15:6-9) You have made the word of God invalid because of your tradition. 7 You hypocrites, Isaiah aptly prophesied about you when he said, 8 ‘This people honors me with their lips, yet their heart is far removed from me. 9 It is in vain that they keep worshiping me, because they teach commands of men as doctrines.’”
Learn more:
http://watchtower.org/e/lmn/article_08.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/rq/article_11.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/20041215/article_02.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/20011115/article_02.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/20050101a/
http://watchtower.org/e/jt/
2006-12-26 01:57:56 · answer #7 · answered by achtung_heiss 7 · 1⤊ 2⤋
panther: Your research is accurate. Consider this. Pagans used knives to sacrifice people to their gods. Now; using your line of reasoning, would it be correct for people to stop using knives because od the pagans' practices of the past? Quite a few of the things we all do, everyday, involve some form of past pagan practice. The days of the week for example, are all derivatives of pagan gods / goddesses.
2006-12-25 14:29:01 · answer #8 · answered by guraqt2me 7 · 0⤊ 3⤋
It doesn't bother me that they celebrate the way they do. What tends to get under my skin is when they tell me I'm going to hell for doing the exact same "rituals" they are doing.
2006-12-26 08:00:55 · answer #9 · answered by Kithy 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
ROCK ON!!! i love you for speaking up on this... i dont have any problem with christians as i say belive what ever stupid **** you want to but dont convert me or my ppl anymore... we were here first and i also have a couple theories on the bible... the first being that i think there were some mis-traslaions and that Mary just didnt want to be in trouble for being pregnate so she lied her *** off. soo that is what i think and on the last day of school i went up and down the halls screaming "YULE TIDINGS" at the top of my lungs!!! i acctually am soo open about it i have lost friends and converted one of my ex-boyfriends. he was atheist and i told him bout wicca and he was filled with such adrenalin that he is now getting deep into it and even thou we broke up i still teach him and want to help him with a right of passage. if you have any ideas on i let me know at
miss.delila@yahoo.com
2006-12-25 14:32:23 · answer #10 · answered by deerdrah 2 · 0⤊ 5⤋
Because a lot of people don't care to learn.
2006-12-25 14:25:26 · answer #11 · answered by Laura 5 · 3⤊ 1⤋