What are some of the Christian Holidays that involve Pagan Symbols? And what are they?

Answer 1

Christmas is full of pagan symbols, though the meanings have been changed over the years to be more in line with Christianity.

The Christmas tree is often explained as a Christianization of pagan tradition and ritual surrounding the Winter Solstice, which included the use of evergreen boughs, and an adaptation of pagan tree worship

Holly was considered the key symbolic plant of the god Saturn and the Saturnalia festival in Rome.

December 25 was considered to be the date of the winter solstice, a large winter holiday in Rome. Some think the Christians chose it as their day of worship to blend in during persecution in Rome and that is why many pagan traditions cropped into the holiday.

There are other examples of different plants (such as mistletoe) also.

I look at it this way. Christmas is like America. When immigrants came to American, they brought their old traditions and blended them into a big melting pot to make the current American culture. Christmas is the same. Christianity was new and many were coming to believe in Christ from totally different lifestyles. It only seems natural that all the different early Christians brought many different traditions from their past and it all got mixed together.

Answer 2

There's plenty of symbols and holidays Christians assimulated from various Pagan religions.

The Cross (Originally a symbol of the solar wheel)
The Fish (Originally a symbol of a woman's vagina)
The Dove (Originally a symbol of the Goddess Aphrodite)
The clasped-hands prayer position
The act of communion

The entire holiday of "Christmas" Originally known as Yule or Yuletide was the Pagan winter solstice celebration. The Scandinavians and Germanic tribes of Northern Europe celebrated this as the return of the sun from the long dark winter nights. Trees were decorated with candles, holly decorated doors, a Yule log was burned, and feasts were prepared along with the sacrifice of a pig, which is where we get the traditional Christmas ham. The mistletoe was used in both Norse and Druid celebrations. Obviously, as Christianity spread in this region, Scandinavian seasonal celebrations merged with the Roman's Pagan/Christian winter solstice holiday. It must also be noted that Odin, the primary figure in Norse mythology, had a hat and a big white beard had a flying 8 legged Horse instead of 8 flying reindeer. Odin at one point also had hung from a tree and had a spear wound not unlike the fate of Jesus.

Easter is another holiday that was stolen, not even the name was changed. The holiday is named after the Pagan Goddess Eostre, an Anglo-Saxon maiden-goddess of fertility. The Easter Rabbit is very interesting, and one of the oldest symbols of the Spring. In Indo-European mythology, the hare is sacred to the Goddess, being supposedly seen in the markings on the moon. In Germany, children were told that the Easter Hare would bring them eggs on Easter if they were good. This is the origin of our Easter Bunny. Eggs are an obvious symbol of rebirth. In the eyes and mind of men they seem to be a miraculous springing forth of life from a cold and dead object.

Answer 3

Many of them do because christianity, like ALL religions, intentionally used existing rituals and symbols to get across their teachings. Buddhism did the same thing, incorporating and leveraging existing beliefs and symbols as it spread. It's only logical. Too many people think that because of the pagan origins of christmas and easter that it undermines the validity of christianity. While I'm not a christian, this misinterpretation is very disappointing given that it reflects a lack of understanding of the basic dynamics at work.

Answer 4

Easter - Rabbits and eggs, old old symbols of fertility.
Christmas - Mistletoe was sacred to druids, Roman pagans (sacred to Saturn, who's festival occured around the same time as christmas does now) and is featured in norse mythology as well. Holly was also sacred to Saturn. The Christmas tree itself is highly pagan, as are yule logs, etc.

Just two holidays, and look at everything there. Then again, I don't follow one path, so I'm probably missing a lot of things there as well.

Answer 5

There are lots of Pagan symbols in Christian holidays!
Easter eggs - eggs were (are) symbols of fertility. Easter is celebrated around the time of Ostara.

Christmas Trees-a symbol of life continuing despite the "death" that winter brings. Holly, pine, & mistletoe were sacred to the Durids.

December 25 was (is) the birth date of Mithra, who was born of a virgin to save his people.

Many Saint's Days are also Pagan holy days.

Answer 6

The most significant pagan symbol used in apostate Christianity is the cross. The cross predates Christianity by thousands of years. The ancient Babylonians and the Egyptians had their own versions of the cross. The cross was pagan then and it's pagan now.

Answer 7

Once a pagan is baptized bythe church he ceases being pagan and is forever more a Christian.

Once a symbol is adopted for use by the authentic Christian Church, it also ceases to have a pagan meaning.

Get over it!

And so far as the Easter egg is concerned, eggs are symbolic of new life, which Jesus provides to all Christians.

The structure of the egg is also symbolic of the tomb, which could not contain the resurrected Christ.

Answer 8

All of the Christian symbols are taken from the Pagan religions.

A very popular spring holiday, Easter has roots not only in Jewish and Christian traditions, but also in ancient pagan beliefs known as Eostar. Although Easter is ostensibly viewed as a Christian holiday today, much of it is arguably more pagan than Christian — and many of the Christian elements have pagan parallels as well.Some Christians don’t celebrate Easter, believing that the Christian takeover of this pagan holiday resulted in an unacceptable adoption of pagan themes, beliefs, and practices.

Yule was a winter festival celebrated by Scandinavian and Germanic pagans. In pre-Christian times, Yule was held in late December or early January on a date determined by a lunar calendar.[1] With the coming of Christianity and the adoption of the Julian calendar, Yule was placed on December 25 in order to correspond with Christmas.[2] The terms "Yule" (Joul) and "Christmas" are often used interchangeably, especially in Christmas carols. In Denmark, Norway and Sweden the term jul is still the most common way to refer to Christmas. In Finland, Christmas is called joulu, in Estonia jõulud, and in Iceland and the Faroe Islands jól.

Yule is an important festival for modern Neopagans. Germanic neopagan groups attempt to reconstruct forms of the celebration based on surviving accounts of practices. Wiccans celebrate an otherwise unrelated holiday named Yule on the winter solstice (December 21 or 22).

Halloween is known and loved today as a time to wear costumes, go door to door asking for candy, and watch monster movies. But the holiday's origins go back centuries to the enactment of All Saints' Day, a Christian holiday. Along the way, it has also picked up traditions from Samhain, a Celtic festival celebrating the start of winter.

The name "Halloween" began as "All Hallows Eve." This became "All Hallow E'en," leading to "Hallowe'en," or Halloween. It was the evening before All Hallows Day, which was later called All Saints' Day. (In this case, "hallows" meant "saints.")

All Saints' Day, a feast for all martyrs and saints, was celebrated on November 1st for the first time during the 8th century, but customs varied regarding its observance. This date was officially established for all Catholic churches in 837 by Pope Gregory IV.

Starting in the 10th century, this feast was the eve of All Souls' Day, which soon came to overshadow it.

Answer 9

Many of the holidays we celebrate today are considered Christian, but the origins of many modern-day holidays are older than Christianity.

Christmas/Yule: The evergreen; the decorating of the evergreen; hanging of mistletoe; burning the Yule log; celebrating the birth of a deity; giving presents, etc.

Even non-Pagans use the term "Yule" around the Christmas holidays. Yule is celebrated on the Winter Solstice (December 22nd), on the shortest day of the year. Since the days get longer from this point in the year, Yule is a celebration of the returning sun and the rebirth of the God who died at Hallowe'en. As with Easter, the Christian story of the birth of Jesus fits nicely with the Pagan mythology of a God reborn. Traditions such as wreaths and Yule logs are remnants of the original beliefs. Gifts were exchanged at Yule long before the Wise Men offered their gifts to the baby Jesus.

Easter/Ostara: Decorating the living space with symbols of fertility, such as rabbits and eggs; decorating and dying eggs; easter egg hunts; pastel colors, etc.

The Christian holiday of Easter commemorates the crucifixion of Christ, and his rise from the dead into heaven. Then where do all the symbolism of bunnies, and eggs come from? It's more than coincedence that the early Pagans had a holiday to mark the Spring Equinox, called Ostara, usually celebrated around March 21st. With the return of spring, came the birthing of the farm animals for the year. Which is why we see bunnies, chicks, eggs and little lambs as symbols for this holiday. Part of the Ostara mythology involved the return of various deities from the underworld (symbolic of the end of winter). So it's not surprising that this holiday got enmeshed with the Christian story of the ressurection of Christ.

Groundhog Day:
Well, it's not specifically Christian or celebrated as intensely as the two holidays just mentioned, Groundhog Day is still part of the modern-day year. Candlemas (or Imbolc) is celebrated on February 2nd. Because spring is just starting to show itself at this time of year, there were various superstitions about predicting the weather, and how long it would be until the end of winter. The original idea was to watch for a hedgehog, but as people immigrated to North America, the tradition changed to a ground hog to suit local wildlife.

Hallowe'en:
Ok, everyone knows that Hallowe'en is a Pagan holiday, but there are many misconceptions surrounding what the holiday really means. Pagans call the day Samhain (SOW-en or sow-EEN). The old God dies on this day, and the Goddess mourns him until his rebirth at Yule. We use this day to honour and remember our loved ones who have passed on. In an effort to diffuse the interest in this heathen holiday, the Church created All Saint's Day (November 1) as a holy day to recognize all the Catholic saints. But it wasn't a powerful enough idea to wipe out the traditional Hallowe'en celebrattions. Ironically, many Christians do not approve of the celebration of Hallowe'en because of its Pagan origins, not realizing that almost all of the holidays they observe had Pagan beginnings.

Why are major Christian holidays layered on older Pagan festivals? The central reason is that as Christianity was struggling for acceptance in Europe, the country-folk would not give up their age-old traditions. By blending the old with the new, it was easier for the Church to convert the locals.

Answer 10

technically christians don't have holidays. they do however have days of rememberance, like ressurection day wich also falls on the pagan holiday easter. most things called christian holidays are really pagan holidays stolen by the catholic church, wich really is ok, since catholicism is a painted up version of paganism and is not to be confused with christianity