Why do some people think it is amusing?

Question

... to spend 363 (and a quarter) days of each year critising Christian belief, then use our holy days to overeat, get presents, and blather on about men in red suits and bunnies with buckets of chocolate?
If you believe then celebrate. If you don't believe you can still celebrate.... But why do some people celebrate the birth and the resurrection of Jesus when they spend the rest of the year calling it all "fairytales"?

OK, watch me alienate all of the Christians and the athiests in one statement!
I can't answer why other people celebrate as Christians using pagan symbolism it is a mystery to me. But a few years ago before I became a Christian I was a pagan for a few years. I am happy to use Pagan symbolism because the Pagan belief is to worship our planet and care for itfor the wonders that it gives to us. The Christian faith is the same, but with the addition that we believe in and worship the God who created it as well. Christians can quite often be afraid of the idea of Paganism because it is mixed up with Wicca, but Paganism is nothing to do with witchcraft.
I also celebrate Hallowe'en. For me it is New Year, goodbye to the bad and hello to new beginnings, but with more of a basis than doing it because everyone has a guilty hangover and doesn't fancy any of that bad stuff they are meaning to give up anyway. Again it's not about Witchcraft - unless you work for Hallmark or Clintons

Oh bless, but I can count that 365 and a quarter days, minus Christmas and Easter equals 363 and a quarter thanks

Answer 1

Wow! That is a good question when you manage to rile up Pagans, Christians and Atheists! Oh my! The early Church leaders attached Christian holy days to Pagan festival times because they didn't want to compete with what were clearly popular celebrations. As for the meaning attached currently, holidays will have the substance or meaning that people give to it, so for some it's empty of meaning beyond eating and presents. This is true even for purely civil holidays like the U.S. Memorial Day, which is supposed to be about honoring and remembering the lives and sacrifices of veterans, but now it's just another 3 day weekend for most folks.

Answer 2

While some of the posts are mean spirited, most are correct. Early Christians seeking to obtain converts perverted their own religion to gain followers. The Easter bunny and the Easter eggs are both signs of Fertility used in earlier religions to celebrate the new life of Spring. Ever notice when Easter is celebrated??... It is always the first Sunday following the first full moon of Spring. This is so that it isn't celebrated on the full moon, when the old religions celebrated Estere's day.
It is pretty much the same with Christmas... "Pagan" holiday converted, and perverted, into a Christian holiday to win new followers and to fit into the society of that time.

Celebrated what you wish to celebrate, ignore the rest. It is unfortunately how many Christians approach most things. Take what one likes from the bible, ignore the rest.

Hope this post doesn't sound condeming, because it is Not intended that way. It is upsetting when people say that non-christians are hijacking their holidays when it is the other way around.
It gives the Christians something to celebrate a few times a year to make up for having such a boring religion the other 362 and 1/4 days.... Cause you forgot Halloween, which most Christians also celebrate.

Answer 3

People can make a day what they wish to make it. It doesn't bother Christians to celebrate Halloween when it is a Pagan high holy day called Samhein. If Christians do not want people to celebrate the Christian version of Easter or Christmas, then we need to seriously reinvent the calendar. The dates were placed to combat the converts that wanted to celebrate the Pagan holidays around the same time. Many of the times are Pagan traditions and have nothing to do with Christianity. Some Christians don't celebrate Easter or Christmas because of this very reason actually. But, alas, I go back to my original point. Many, MANY Christian families get a kick out of Halloween and think it is nothing more than a kid's fun day. This isn't true. It is the day in the Pagan calendar when the veil between the dead and the undead is the thinnest possible. It is one of the most important days in the whole Pagan calendar. Until Christians stop celebrating Halloween, I don't think we have any right to fuss at another religion's follower celebrating their own version of Christmas or Easter.

Answer 4

Not all nonbelievers celebrate christian holidays. In fact, more or less, what you are saying is a fallacy. Your so called holidays are mostly based around previous pagan holidays. Christmas, for example, is just a rerun of the winter solstice. What the church did was take off the title and replace one of their own. Also, what would you call celebrating the ressurrection of jesus? Or how about birth? Certainly the Easter Bunny has nothing to do with the christ and neither does Santa Claus. The christian holiday has become benign. They are falling apart and succombing to secularism. Lastly, as I believe you must be talking about older people, you must realize that some atheist people will celebrate the holdiday purely to keep their children/family happy. This is called give and take. I hope you realize that all of this is more complex than you think and possible research it more before making generalizations.

Answer 5

Why do some people not understand that we don't "use" Christmas as the birth of Christ, but for what it is - a chance to be with family, to celebrate love and friendship? And I was not raised to believe in God, so Easter has always been about candy and bunnies, and Christmas was always about Santa when I was a kid.

Do you put up a tree? That's a pagan thing, not Christian. He wasn't even born on the day you use to celebrate his birth. Don't tell me you never got an easter basket as a kid, either. Heck, our local churches even have egg hunts. Why don't you just let it go, and do what you want, and let us do what we want?

Answer 6

Xmas = Yule, a pagan holiday, adapted by Christians because pagans wouldn't stop celebrating it. Jesus wasn't at all born on that day, you know...

Easter = invented 300 years after Jesus' death, to hide the fact that people were still celebrating the spring equinox

The greater part of all the saints = pagan deities, who pagans refused to give up, so they were turned into saints

And so forth...


So no, I'm celebrating my own holidays, and I don't think it's amusing that Christians actually believe those are theirs.

Answer 7

Welcome to corporate America. Where the Christian holidays become the Hallmark holidays.

It's a good point -- holidays in major religions have that problem. However, I think you are wrong about something, too. Most people who don't believe in Christianity but still celebrate Christmas are not celebrating anything Jesus-related. It's not exactly a religious holiday for them, you see, and becomes a holiday celebrating things like one's family.

I'm not Christian, and I don't celebrate Christmas, but just watch TV around the holiday season and you'll see that there are lots of special shows/movies about Christmas, but none of them do so religiously. It's not about Christmas at all, it is about the general feeling of the holiday season.

Answer 8

I think its celebrated because its been the norm for them (I'm included)

Years ago, most people were christians and went to church. Christmas was celebrated as the birth of Jesus. As christmas was advertised more (I once saw christmas chocolate that went out of date BEFORE christmas!) and people lost their faith, they still wanted to celebrate it as it was a family thing and presents were exchanged. Then this was passed onto their children who wanted to do it with their children.

I'm pagan, but I don't dislike christians (unless they are telling me I'm going to hell because I'm not christian and that). I celebrate Yule (by myself) then celebrate christmas with my family. We don't celebrate the birth of jesus really. But we use it as a day just to spend together, give each other presents, eat and have a laugh. I know we could do it any other nigh of the year (and we do get together and have a meal and that) but its just been the norm to do so.

Well, thats my thoughts anyway

Answer 9

Are you serious? People who don't believe in your god do not celebrate his birth or his resurrection.

Many celebrate the pagan or secular aspects of those days instead.

I am not Christian. I celebrate the renewal of life on Easter (it's original meaning) and I celebrate warmth, light and the joy of giving on christmas. Those days may be Christian holidays to you but they are different holidays to other people.

Where in the bile does it say to celebrate christmas by putting up a tree and lights and buying everyone a present? Where does it say to celebrate that day at all?

How about Easter? I don't recall reading about colored eggs or chocolate bunnies in the bible. Is there some place that says to celebrate the resurrection that way?

The fact is that they are not solely christian days.

Answer 10

Yes, your are quite right, all these people celebrating Christmas who do not tie it in with religious belief have taken the Christ out of Christmas and without him, there is nothing to celebrate. Why don't they stay at work, refuse presents which are meant as a symbolic offer replicating the gifts from the three wise men, and take time off at another point in the year ? As for Easter, without believing in the ressurection of the Lord, there is no Easter for non-believers so what are they celebrating - Cadburys cream eggs ?