Why do non-Christians celebrate Christmas and Easter?

Question

arent those supposed to be Christian holiday's?
no rude answers, please.

Answer 1

The question is, why do christians celebrate christmas and easter ?

Christmas originated from yule, or winter's solstice. The twelve nigths ? Hah, those were yule nights, the night where the Wild Hunt rode out way before christ was born. The christmas tree ? That's a tree that's used to be set on fire by our ancestors.

Easter comes from 'ostara', also a pagan feast, having something to do with fertility, the eggs and the hare should give you a good guess...

Over here we also have Saint Nicolas, who basically is a christian perversed version of ODIN, the allfather.

Answer 2

I'm a Fundamentalist Christian.

The holiday's of Christmas and Easter are pagan holidays.

I believe that the dates were "appropriated" by the Catholic Church in order to take emphasis off of the Pagan holidays that you see listed in the other answers here.

Most non-Christians think that the knowledge of this would be a huge shock to Christians (again see the answers).

I teach my four kids about the background of the holidays. I also tell my kids that we choose to celebrate the death and birth of Christ at these times of year because of tradition.

We also do "trick-or-treat."

I can see no reason to keep my kids away from the "candy and presents" I just let them know what these holidays are all about.

non-Christians like presents and candy too!

Answer 3

Actually, I don't think most non-Christians celebrate Easter, other than a few pagans who celebrate the original pagan holiday on which it is based. I know I don't do anything special for Easter.

I celebrate Christmas because it's turned into a secular holiday, and I'd hate to be left out of the festivities. Plus, I like any day that can be an excuse to eat turkey.


My other favorite holidays are Halloween and Thanksgiving, so I like a mix of traditionally religious holidays and secular celebrations.

Answer 4

I am Jewish. I celebrate Christmas to show respect for my friends holidays. I give them gifts. They give me Chanukah gifts. I don't celebrate Easter but I did once take part in an Easter egg hunt as a boy.
I think the reason is that Christmas and less so Easter have become secularized. The real meaning behind the holidays has been lost to many in the average population.
Athiests often celebrate Christmas and Easter as well for the same reason, secularization.
I don't think to give non-Jewish friends gifts at Christmas, at least for me, is anything other than a sign of friendship and respect for their traditions.

Answer 5

christmas is also celebrated as a non-Christian holiday. it is by many around the world as a secular holiday and has been for centuries. as for as Easter. the Christians on the other hand borrowed the Easter holiday from the pagans and turned into a Christian holiday since it fell around the time that Christ rose from the dead. for many pagans Easter is still a pagan holiday and is celebrated as such

Answer 6

Actually the Christmas holiday time was always a pagan holiday and co-opted by the catholics as they tend to do. Even after being Christian-centered for centuries, Christmas became secular in England and stayed that way. The pilgrims came to the US in part to keep Christmas Christian.

Answer 7

Actually, Christians stole them from Pagans. Easter existed for many centuries before Jesus's alleged lifetime, and the Christian Christmas is clearly a derivative of Yule.

"Many of the symbols and motifs associated with the modern holiday of Christmas are derived from traditional pagan northern European Yule celebrations. The burning of the Yule log, the decorating of Christmas trees, the eating of ham, the hanging of boughs, holly, mistletoe, etc. are all historically practices associated with Yule. When the Christianization of the Germanic peoples began, missionaries found it convenient to provide a Christian reinterpretation of popular pagan holidays such as Yule and allow the celebrations themselves to go on largely unchanged, versus trying to confront and suppress them."

Answer 8

Why do the non-Irish celebrate St. Patrick's Day? They're just fun days of the year. I personally don't care much for Easter, but Christmas is always a great time. Regardless of the religious connection, it brings families closer together, and I don't think anyone could argue the importance of that.

Answer 9

Those holidays are tradition to most families. I think its a bit mean to be bought up without Christmas and Easter regardless of religion. If you are religious then it just has a different meaning to the holiday.

Answer 10

I'm an atheist and if my job wants to shut down and pay me not to come to work for a "holiday" they are not going to get any argument from me. Now as far as celebrating these days all I do is: give my christian relatives money as gifts and at easter I go to big drunk fest pool party a friend of mine has every year.