I was told that Christmas and Easter, as well as many other christian holidays pagan?

Question

I was told that many christian holidays like Christmas and Easter are pagan holidays, but my husband doesn't believe me. Does anyone know for sure if they are or not? If they are, does someone know of a website that gives good information about it? I tried searching on yahoo, but didnt' find anything that gave good info about the holidays. Thanks!

Answer 1

Try these links:

http://paganwiccan.about.com/library/weekly/aa032503holidays.htm

http://www.2think.org/hii/holiday.shtml

Answer 2

these holidays are pagan oriented- your first clue is that they are not in the Bible. God outlines 7 feasts in the Bible- these feasts are pictures of Jesus and illustrate and outline the gospel. The common holidays Christians celebrate today are not. There are many many articles all over the web that explain what the feasts of Christmas and Easter were originally celebrating- here are some - you can then take the information here and do further research to confirm the origins of todays holidays:

http://www.lasttrumpetministries.org/tracts/tract1.html
http://www.zenzibar.com/Articles/easter.asp
http://www.endtimeprophecy.net/EPN-1/Articles/Articles-Pagn/easter-1.html
http://de.essortment.com/christmaspagan_rece.htm
http://www.locksley.com/6696/xmas.htm

Answer 3

The Catholic Encyclopedia makes the following admission:
“Christmas was NOT among the earliest festivals of the Church."
"On the Road to Civilization", page 164:
“The feast of Saturn, the Saturnalia, was a winter festival which lasted a week beginning on the twenty-fifth day of December, and was celebrated with dancing, the exchanging of gifts, and the burning of candles. The Saturnalia was later taken over by the Christians as their Christmas, and given a new significance.”

Answer 4

Actually the Pagan religion celbrates the equinox, such as the spring which falls around easter, winter, falls around christmas etc. However the images of satan come from the picture of a pagan god, and back in earlier times, after the christian's decided to persecute the pagans they took their image of a god and made it into their image of satan, which is also one of the reasons that pagans were called witches and burned for being satanists. There is alot of things about the pagan religion that people don't understand and really they never have. This a good site, she writes really informative books, I own two of them and they really open your eyes, even if you don't believe in the pagan religion. http://www.silverravenwolf.com

Answer 5

It's not true.

What is true is this:

Jesus died in 33 a.d.

Christianity was illegal - punishable by torture and death - for over 300 years after that.

Constantine made Christianity legal in 350 a.d.

So for those 300 plus years, Christians hid their celebrations among pagan celebrations.

Many Pagans claim Easter is a corruption of their fertility rite to the goddess Ishtar. This is not true.

Easter is simply a corruption of the Latin term Festa Paschalia. Festa = Easter.

Festa Paschalia is the Feast of Passover.

If we "stole" it from anyone, we "stole" it from the Hebrews. Passover has been theirs for some 5000 years.

We have further corrupted it by calling Sunday after Passover - Easter Sunday. In fact it is the Feast of the Risen Lord. Dominus Ressurexit.

It's a little bit difficult after hiding the celebration of the Birth of Jesus among pagan solstice celebrations for 300 years to turn around and say "Ok people. The Lion of Juda was really born in August. Christ's Mass has a new day..."

People would be a little miffed.

Answer 6

Christmas is based on the Roman holiday Saturnalia.

Not sure about Easter.

Answer 7

The celebration of the birth of Christ and the resurrection of Christ are obviously not Pagan. I would suggest that what some people have said is that the timing and some of the traditions (such as the Christmas tree) and giving presents to kids etc. have their root in another holiday that has nothing to do with Christianity. In that, they would be correct. However, that does not mean that the celebration of these days is not Christian as well. No one claims that Jesus was actually born on December 25th. No one claims that the day that we celebrate as Easter is the actual day that Christ was resurrected etc. In the end, the true meaning of either of these holidays is within every individuals heart. What does it mean to you? Is it a time of remembrance...or a time of gifts, parties, decorations, dying easter eggs etc.?

Answer 8

ALL the rites of modern Christian religions, as Christian as they'd like to be considered, have had their origins in the pagan realm!!! Just do a little bit of research and find out for yourself!

Answer 9

Well, sort of... Church leaders took pagan holidays and "Christianized" them, so that people could enjoy the holiday for the right reasons. Kind of like how a lot of churches today have a "Harvest Party" or something on October 31st, if they are against Halloween.

Answer 10

Yes they are all pagan holidays includin halloween because they do not celebrate what they really mean to christians....the following web site will explain to you in detail.!

Answer 11

Yes, they are founded in Paganism.
Easter (a.k.a Ishtar):
A celebration to honor Queen Semiramis a.k.a ISHTAR (the mother-wife of the biblical NIMROD).
Semiramis claimed that she was immaculately conceived. She taught that the moon was a goddess that went through a 28 day cycle and ovulated when full. She further claimed that she came down from the moon in a giant moon egg that fell into the Euphrates River. Semiramis became known as "Ishtar" which is pronounced "Easter", and her moon egg became known as "Ishtar's" egg." The Queen became pregnant and claimed that the rays of the sun-god Baal had caused the conception. She gave birth to a son she named Tammuz. Tammuz was noted to be especially fond of rabbits, and they became sacred in the ancient religion. Ishtar's Sunday was celebrated with rabbits and eggs.

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Christmas:
The answer lies in the pagan origins of Christmas. In ancient Babylon, the feast of the Son of Isis (Goddess of Nature) was celebrated on December 25. Raucous partying, gluttonous eating and drinking, and gift-giving were traditions of this feast.
In Rome, the Winter Solstice was celebrated many years before the birth of Christ. The Romans called their winter holiday Saturnalia, honoring Saturn, the God of Agriculture. In January, they observed the Kalends of January, which represented the triumph of life over death. This whole season was called Dies Natalis Invicti Solis, the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun. The festival season was marked by much merrymaking. It is in ancient Rome that the tradition of the Mummers was born. The Mummers were groups of costumed singers and dancers who traveled from house to house entertaining their neighbors. From this, the Christmas tradition of caroling was born.
In northern Europe, many other traditions that we now consider part of Christian worship were begun long before the participants had ever heard of Christ. The pagans of northern Europe celebrated the their own winter solstice, known as Yule. Yule was symbolic of the pagan Sun God, Mithras, being born, and was observed on the shortest day of the year. As the Sun God grew and matured, the days became longer and warmer. It was customary to light a candle to encourage Mithras, and the sun, to reappear next year.
Huge Yule logs were burned in honor of the sun. The word Yule itself means “wheel,” the wheel being a pagan symbol for the sun. Mistletoe was considered a sacred plant, and the custom of kissing under the mistletoe began as a fertility ritual. Hollyberries were thought to be a food of the gods.
**The tree is the one symbol that unites almost all the northern European winter solstices. Live evergreen trees were often brought into homes during the harsh winters as a reminder to inhabitants that soon their crops would grow again. Evergreen boughs were sometimes carried as totems of good luck and were often present at weddings, representing fertility. The Druids used the tree as a religious symbol, holding their sacred ceremonies while surrounding and worshipping huge trees. (it is evidenced in Jeremiah 10:2-4 that this practice ws common long before Jesus' birth ["Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen.... For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not." ]
In 350, Pope Julius I declared that Christ’s birth would be celebrated on December 25. There is little doubt that he was trying to make it as painless as possible for pagan Romans (who remained a majority at that time) to convert to Christianity. The new religion went down a bit easier, knowing that their feasts would not be taken away from them.
Christmas (Christ-Mass) as we know it today, most historians agree, began in Germany, though Catholics and Lutherans still disagree about which church celebrated it first. The earliest record of an evergreen being decorated in a Christian celebration was in 1521 in the Alsace region of Germany. A prominent Lutheran minister of the day cried blasphemy: “Better that they should look to the true tree of life, Christ.”