Why do Born Again Christians still Celebrate Christmas?

Question

This question is out of season. Anyway, this is my concern. Because Christmas originated from paganism. and there are no Biblical precept on the celebration of Christmas. and early Christians never celebrated Christmas at all.

Answer 1

You are absolutely right, it is a pagan festival. It occurs nine months after Easter for a reason, and is to celebrate the birth of baby Baal, the sun god, born to Ashtoreth, the Queen of Heaven. Dec 25 is four days after the winter solstice for that reason - for that is when the sun "starts to return" [to the northern hemisphere].

The whole business of decking up a tree with silver and gold was criticized by Jeremiah (see Jer 10). That may have been rolled in from western European pagans who were into tree worship. (People today "knock on wood" to wake up the tree god.)

What the Roman Catholics did was to take the paganism they'd always had and simply paint some Christian looking titles over top. They've always done that, and they still are.

Except for the shepherds who witnessed the original birth, and the wise men a year or two later, nobody in the New Testament had any kind of a celebration of the Lord's birth. The exact date is not even given. There is no instruction in any of Paul's epistles to recognize it. Peter and John and James had nothing to say about it. And there's no mention of it in Revelation.

Still, it remains the one time during the year when unsaved people are loosely open to the Gospel. I know lots of very conservative, fundamental Christians who do celebrate it on Dec 25, so its not something I'm really going to worry about.

Answer 2

Correction: Celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior is NOT pagan, although certain secular traditions connected with the season may have originated with non-christians. That in no way means that as Christians celebrate Jesus birth that we subscribe to some of the more secular practices. We fully recognize that the commercialism of the season is not to be our focus.

The same goes for Easter. We often refer to it as "Resurrection Day" because that phrase describes what we are recognizing that time of year--not bunnies and colored eggs. That being said, some might still have egg hunts for the children and whether or not that practice originated with non-Christians, it has become part of tradition and something fun for the kids.

Whatever "pagan" connotations may have been associated with such thing have been lost to the annals of history. These things have more to do with tradition in this day and age than "paganism".

Answer 3

Celebrating in December definitely has Pagan roots. As early as 354 AD it was common for Christians to hold a feast celebrating Jesus' birth.

All Christians would do well to avoid all the commercialism of our modern secular Christmas.

Answer 4

And also: Easter comes from the name of a Roman goddess of Spring time. Dying eggs comes from a old pagan practice of celebrating the 1st day of spring and the Easter bunny is a rabbit because rabbits were the pagan symbols of fertility and when's a better time to get fertile than in the Spring? :)

The early church was eager to make themselves as appealing to converts as possible. So when priests and missionaries went into places and converted people, they tried to keep some of their traditions so they would be a little more at ease in their new religion.

So the church "baptised" the pagan Winter Holiday and the pagan Spring Holiday and called them "Christmas" (Christ's mass, the celebration of his birth) and "Easter when Jesus rose from the dead."

Nobody knows the real historic dates of either Jesus's birth or his death/ressurection. According to some scholars, Jesus was probably born around the spring equinox -- ironically, the time we remember his death and resurrection instead of his birth.

So yes, it's all very pagan. And no, it doesn't matter. The holidays of Christmas and Easter have exactly as much spiritual significance as each person puts into them.

Answer 5

You'd be surprised about how religions effect each other. The Pagans always celebrated a big winter festival. When Pagans became Christians, they still wanted the big winter festival, so they changed what the winter festival was about. They decided to use that time to celebrate the birth of Christ. It is actually fascinating and I find nothing wrong with it. I don't think Jesus would mind that we created this holiday to bring attention to the miracle of his birth.

Answer 6

So you think that the word "Christ" in Christmas has pagan origins? What are you nuts? Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Christ. (Ever notice the nativity scenes?)

So you got a problem with celebrating the birh of Christ?

Answer 7

I am born again and we follow traditions of men until God opens our eyes to the truth
Christmas was a time of many pagan celebrations and Jesus only asked us to celebrate the Passover in remembrance of Him
almost all the man made holidays are rooted in paganistic origin
if you research it on the 'net you will find the deception of man made holidays
God's Holidays are in the truth book, the Bible

Answer 8

Don't give us that garbage about Christmas coming from paganism, we don't buy it. Christmas is celebrated by Christians as Christ's birth day, even though it might not be the exact date (and probably isn't). The main thing is celebrating the wonderful gift of Jesus!

Answer 9

The Christmas my family celebrates is deemed the birthday celebration for Christ, nothing to do with pagans. A family tradition from long, long down the line. God knows what is in our hearts so we are not worried about what you think about it.

Answer 10

Christmas, as the birth of Jesus, didn't originate from Paganism. The date isn't even the same.

You do not know that they didn't celebrate the virgin birth...they probably did, and you know...Jesus never said "buy gifts and put them under a Christmas tree" but I never told my parents "get me a cake and ice cream and presents and invite everyone I know so I will get lots of money"...did I?