Does anyone know where Christmas and Easter Originated?

Question

People celebrate a lot of holidays without knowing their origin. They celebrate because their families have always celebrated can anyone tell me where christmas and easter originated and how they became christian holidays

Answer 1

It’s been said that the Roman Catholic Church made Christmas officially fall on Dec.25th, partly to make a Pagan holiday called "Saturnalia" celebrated a couple of days later less popular.No one really knows when Christ was born, we just remember His birthday on that day. Because of persecution of the early Christians from the Pagans, the date of his birth cannot be known with certainty, but Dec. 25th was being observed as early as the 2nd A.D., so it isn’t impossible that this is on or close to the correct date. There are three reasons the ancient Christians decided to celebrate Christ’s birth on this day. One reason was the Roman Empire recognized Dec. 26th as the birth of Mithras. In protest, persecuted Christians began to celebrate the birth of Jesus the day before. Another reason Christians derived this day to be the birth of Christ is that Jewish tradition held that a prophet died on the day he was conceived. Since we know Christ was crucified during Passover, which is close to April, counting down 9 months would take us to December, if they thought He was concieved in April. Another reason (and perhaps the most important) was that the Jewish festival of C'hanukka was celebrated for the very first time on what would hae been the equivalent of Dec. 25th on the Western calendar. C'hannuka is a festival of lights. We Christians too, celebrate Christmas with many lights. Christmas is simply our C'hanukka, just as Easter is our Passover. Christians should celebrate Christmas for these reasons if nothing else.

Some folks think symbols of the heathen past have worked their way into Easter celebrations, such as colored eggs, bunnies, baby ducks and other newborn animals. However, in the book Stations Of The Sun, historian and author Ronald Hutton says he discovered many things about Easter like those just mentioned were added during the Christian Era, and have no connection to ancient Paganism. It's just Witch-ful thinking, and misinformation! There is no conclusive evidence of any festival or holiday connected to the spring solstice in ancient Pagan times. The reason Christians celebrate Easter in the springtime is because we know from the scriptures that Christ’s death and resurrection happened after the Jewish holiday of Passover. It wasn’t done to stamp out some Pagan springtime holiday! "Easter" is just an Old English word for "Spring", the time Easter occurred. There is the false idea that "Easter" is the name of a Germanic goddess and this is why the word "Easter" is the same in German and English. Many Wiccans are quick to quip that Easter is an ancient Pagan religion, and that even the very name is derived from the name of a Pagan goddess. However, Caedmon Parsons, an Eastern Orthodox and scholar of Middle Age writings, clarifies the true history of the word Easter. Apart from a misinterpretation of one mention in St. Bede's scientific treatise, De Temporarum Ratione, there is absolutely no mention of a Germanic goddess with a name in any way resembling the word Easter. Every other recorded use of the term is in a Christian context. In an article on the true origins of the word and holiday "Easter", he notes:

"Every other recorded use of the term is in a Christian context. Rather than the term being derived from a goddess, the supposed goddess is derived from the term. She was postulated by certain 19th century Germanic scholars in an attempt to explain the etymology of the word. These same scholars (foremost among them the Grimm brothers, famous for their folk-tale collections and less well-known as the discoverers of the ‘Indo-European’ linguistic family) had a very definite nationalist/ethnic agenda in which they were trying to rediscover the "real" roots of German culture. Thus the folk-tale collection's avowed purpose was to search for ‘survivals’ of pre-Christian Germanic religion and culture."

Every ancient recorded instance of the usage of the word "Easter" has definite Christian connotations. So the Pagan goddess "Easter" is as non-existent as the Easter Bunny!

Sadly, a lot of Christians also cling to misinformation about Easter and Christmas. Much of this due to books like "Babylon Mystery Religion" by Hyslop...a book short on scholarship but deep on speculation and imagination. The book has been discredited by serious scholars, and only the Jack Chick types accept it nowadays.

Answer 2

As you've said, both Christmas and Easter are an amalgam of quasi-Christian made up beliefs, and pagan religions. They are a mixture. Yet I do like to sing 'Silent Night, Holy Night' and sure enough I like to sing them in December, not in April. And at Easter, I love to sing 'Christ the Lord is Risen Today..ay....'. Whether they are holidays or rituals, I wouldn't know. I think rituals are more like something legalistic. And likely not even Christian at all. So, doing that moves you further away. Many believers do gather on these days, but they wouldn't be as likely to gather at rituals in current religions, so I'd say you were then in danger of moving away if that's what you're coming to. But maybe I'm misunderstanding.

Answer 3

I know this is a very old post... but I hope you read

Truth or Tradition? Why some Christians do not celebrate christmas
(http://christiannews.net/2012/12/22/truth-or-tradition-christians-who-dont-celebrate-christmas/)

Answer 4

Christmas originated from the European Pagan celebration of the Winter Solstice. the shortest day of the year.

Easter originated from the European Pagan celebration of Beltane, A fertility festival, hense the rabbits and eggs(fertility symbols).

Christmas became a christian holiday when Pope Gregory 13 declaired it a celebration of the birth of CHrist. this was a clear attempt to make conversions easire for the Pagans, and to eliminate the Pagan holiday at the same time. they tried to absorb all aspects of Paganism into their culture. they built churches on top of Sacred groves. they destroied many ancient holy sites. they covered all but 1 of the 4 major holidays.

but do not take it from me, look into it for yourself there is plenty of information out there.

Answer 5

pagan traditions renamed for political reasons.
Easter is the worst- a festival for the goddess Ishtar- orgees were held, the next year babies born as a result of these orgies were sacrificed and eggs were dipped in the blood of these babies, these eggs were hidden for siblings and family members to find- wow- not too different from the traditions today - there is a lot of stuff to Christmas - it wont take much research to find out the pagan origins of the yule log, christmas tree, cherub angels, mistletoe, holly, etc.
There is not one mention of celebrating these feasts in honor of Jesus in the Bible. The Bible gives us clear instruction regarding the feasts we should be observing- The feasts that God ordained are not only perfect, they are perfect pictures of Jesus, they are celebrations of every aspect of His life and purpose AND they are for us- a rehearsal for the marriage supper of the lamb.
I for one want to be rehearsing the right thing and there will be no eggs, bunny reindeer or elves at that feast.
Christmas and Easter never have and never will have anything to do with Jesus, His birth, death or resurrection.
The birth of Christ was never commanded us to celebrate but observing the Feast of Tabernacles will give us an understanding of His coming as Jesus came and Tabernacled amongst us- what is wrong with and missing aobut this perfect feast, ordained by God that we feel we need to give it up in exchange for a pagan feast of the flesh?? Passover is the perfect picture of Jesus' death , burial and ressurection, it is a celebration of our redemption and salvation- why exchange this for a feast that is all about fertility and child sacrifice? I don't think God made any mistakes in His instructions regarding the observations of feasts and He warns us of offering up strange fire. We have been deceived into believing that the feasts of God are Jewish feasts, a simple study of Deuteronomy and the life of Jesus will dispel this myth- we have been deceived into believing that God has wiped away the law and order and allowed anarchy and for us to call what is unclean and pagan in origin to be made clean by our own hands.

Answer 6

Does anyone know where Christmas and Easter Originated?

Probably-I certainly do.

Answer 7

Christmas = birth of Jesus Christ.
Easter = Resurection of Jesus Christ (rose up among the dead) after crucifxion

Answer 8

Wiki has a really short article on both.

Basically pagan holidays (Mithras for Christmas and Eastre for the other one) that early christianity borrowed and layered their own holidays over em.

Answer 9

Birth of Jesus

and Ressurection of Jesus

Answer 10

Christmas came from Yule and Easter from the German goddess Eostre. Look it up....