Why and how have ancient Pagan Holidays been incorporated into the "newer" religions?

Question

Please, no disrespect on my part. Please no disrespect on yours.

((((HUG))))

Namaste

Peace and Love

Answer 1

The Catholic church wanted to appease the pagans they were forcefully converting so they took their holidays and made them Christian. Many Christian saints are pagan gods and goddesses.

The church history book I got this information was written by a Catholic priest but I do not remember the name of the book. I gave it away a long time ago. But supposedly they knew the pagans would celebrate these days anyway so they felt better using them as Christian holy days.
BB

Answer 2

When people were converted..Let's say the Germanic tribes or the Celts. They excepted the Message, but they didn't lose their culture. The traditions they had were directed toward the Gospel..Old temples to "the Lady" were dedicated to Mary. The reverence for holy or evergreens or mistletoe were changed to reflect the new religious beliefs. The Catholic Church had no problem with this. It wasn't like people STOLE these things from Pagans..The Pagans kept these things as they converted to Christianity. In modern times things get absorbed from other cultures as we learn about them. In Los Angles you find non Hispanics celebrating "Los Dias de Los Muertos" which is thousands of years old. People of all nationalities celebrate St. Patrick's Day and Chinese New Year..It isn't a conspiracy.

Answer 3

The Christians wanted to convert people and knew it would help if people could still have celebrations and festivals at the same times they always had.

For example Eastre (aka Eostre or Ostara) the Saxon and Norse goddess of the moon and fertility has a big festival in spring.Eggs are seen as a symbol of fertility and springtime so they form part of that festival.Hares are sacred to Eastre (and many other Celtic and Norse deities).

So early Christians in England took this and bastardised it.The eggs stayed as a symbol of spring.Eastre's name was bastardised to Easter and the festival stayed though it became a celebration of Christ's re-birth rather than the yearly re-birth of the land.The hare was considered to be too obvious a Pagan symbol so it was turned into a rabbit,dressed in human clothes to look stupid and became what you will know as 'the Easter Bunny.'

Answer 4

Hi,
Interesting. Many of our Christmas customs for instance pre-dated the birth of Jesus and is a collection of age-old traditions. How did these find their way into contemporary Christianity? Christmas is a Roman Catholic word, a combination of ‘Christ’ and Mass. The Roman Catholic church, in old times, worked to absorb the customs, traditions and paganism of the masses, of whole nations, to try to increase their own numbers. In pre-Christian times one of the great feasts was the celebration of the winter solstice. The whole month of December was called Feast Month and this was later assigned to the feast of Christmas. Some believe ‘yule’ comes from the Old Germanic word Jol, meaning a turning wheel, the sun wheel, rising after the winter solstice. The Christians turned this month into a celebration of Christ’s birth at Christmas. The true date of His birth is not known. Trees, wreaths, holly, mistletoe that decorate our churches and our homes at Christmas all have pagan significance. The Lord never spoke of commemorating his birth but wanted us to remember His suffering and death. Christmas is an example of an ancient Pagan Holiday being incorporated into a newer religion.
Pollyanna

Answer 5

The newer religions weren't clever enough to come up with their own holidays. Actually, they had nothing to base them on since the new ones are manmade, which pagan ones were based on actual earthly events.

Answer 6

It made it easier to convert people if you use their original celebrations and mask them with different meanings.

Answer 7

morning digi-people wont stop celebrating so you change the offical reason to celebrate and then you can say its yours----smile and enjoy the day

Answer 8

cos lots of people didn't allow them before - like wiccans

Answer 9

They have to sell tickets somehow...