Do you believe Christmas is a pagan holiday?

Question

I was looking into the JW and they believe that Christmas and most Christian holidays are pagan. Can you provide proof that is is true or false? Any references besides the Bible....

Answer 1

After reading all the replies from everyone it is very apparent to me that holidays should NOT be practiced. Then again, I'm one of Jehovah's Witnesses lol

1 Corinthians 10:20, 21 says it most clearly:
"No; but I say that the things which the nations sacrifice they sacrifice to demons, and not to God; and I do not want YOU to become sharers with the demons. 21 YOU cannot be drinking the cup of Jehovah and the cup of demons; YOU cannot be partaking of “the table of Jehovah” and the table of demons. "

When practices are so deeply rooted in paganism how does it bring glory to our heavenly Father?
The Bible explains that as well:
"And no wonder, for Satan himself keeps transforming himself into an angel of light. 15 It is therefore nothing great if his ministers also keep transforming themselves into ministers of righteousness. But their end shall be according to their works." -- 2 Corinthians 11:14, 15

Satan has always tried to blind people to the true importance of many matters. And he often succeeds.
But by reading the Bible we can make an informed decision.

Good question.

Answer 2

Christmas isn't a Pagan holiday it's a Christian one!

Winter solstice is a pagan feast day. so is celebrated by Pagans, not Christians.

The religious nature of the holiday is dictated by those performing the ceremonies, NOT the date. nor it's history.

Confusion is because many of the customs from the Winter solstice got adapted into Christmas because they occurred at about the same time of the year.

Same applies for many other Christian/pagan festivals.

But lets just take it to the extreme. For pagans EVERY day is/was a special day. That might cause some problems for JW's if they wont hold a holiday on a day that has had a pagan festival on it.

Primary Source references difficult to get hold of as they are hidden away in Archaeology departments etc..

(Come on Pagans! All this fighting over who's holiday it is EXACTLY what the Christians did all those centuries ago. Haven't WE learnt something from history!)

Answer 3

Nobody knows the exact birth date of Jesus, except that it was not in the wintertime (shepherds could not have been feeding their sheep outdoors in wintertime in the Middle East where it would have been freezing cold). The reason Christians celebrate Jesus’ birthday on December 25 is because a Roman Emperor Constantine, who supposedly became a Christian, chose that day for socio-political reasons. Jesus’ Resurrection Day (otherwise known as “Easter” unfortunately) is correct, however. But, the word “Easter” is a pagan terminology. “Easter” derives from the word “Eostre” or “Eastre” which is the name for a fertility goddess of the Saxon people in Northern Europe. Other variations of this name are: Ostare, Ostara, Ostern, Eostra, Eostre, Eostur, Eastra, Eastur, Austron and Ausos. The egg is an obvious symbol for fertility. The egg used to be colored just red – for blood. Many pagans used to worship the Easter goddess around the same time of Jesus’ Resurrection. And again, for socio-political reasons, the two occasions were meshed into one celebration. People hardly know the difference today. It's a shame.

Answer 4

When Emporor Constantine changed the offical religion of the Roman Empire from Paganism to Christianity in the 4th Century AD, he kept the traditional holidays, such as the Winter Solstice (Dec 25), which celebrated the return of the sun god (They were 3 days off, not a bad guess!). They changed this to Christ's birthday, because they didn't want anymore practise of paganism.

Easter is based on Easther, an Anglo-Saxon ritual of fertility to celebrate the coming of spring. Since they were moon worshippers instead of sun worshippers like the Romans, it is determined by the moon. They made up some stuff about it being the same full moon since Christ rose to make it more appealing to the moon worsippers.

Answer 5

There are no references to Christmas in the Bible. Actually the Biblical account of Jesus' birth in Luke 2 says Mary & Joseph went to pay taxes & she delivered baby Jesus. As most research shows, the time of year taxes were paid was the season after winter.. which would be spring, (not those EXACT words though). I have not researched the celebration of Christmas & do not have the insight to respond about it being a pagan holiday. I do know that if it is "supposed to" celebrate the birth of Christ, it is celebrated at a different time of the year when He was born. As far as what a JW believes I am not one & can not respond to what they believe.

Answer 6

I think we need to be clear on the difference between being a pagan (or Jewish, or whatever) holiday and coinciding with someone else's holiday. For example, there are a great many religions that have a holiday near the winter solstice (December 21 or 22), and there are also a great many that have a holiday in the early spring.

I think it is true that when Christianity was being developed, the dates for certain holidays were chosen to coincide with local pagan (i.e., country folk) holidays in order to make it easier for those people to either convert or make a convincing fake of conversion. "Look, guys, you don't have to give up your Solstice celebration; we'll just change what we are celebrating about." And since the evidence suggests that Jesus, if he was born at all, was NOT born in the middle of the winter, they could choose any day they wanted for the annual celebration of his birth. Choosing the day when the sun is noticeably returning toward those in the northern hemisphere made a lot of sense.

Answer 7

You have to realise two things:

1. There are many aspects of Christianity that are derived from Pagan traditions. As one of my school instructors once said, if you ever want to see services to the ancient Greek gods were like, just go to a...Catholic mass.

2. This should not undermine the reality of the core messages themselves. The fact is that almost all traditions we and ideologies we hold to be important are compilations of many elements, some spiritual, some quite worldly, and by and large, most religious people of the Western world have a large degree of acceptance of this. If this weren't so, all the Christians today would be shutting themselves off in some solemn monestary, such is most obviously not the case, thus most religious people have at least a moderate reconsiliation of that which is from their own traditions, and that which is elsewhere.

Many of the festivities of what is now Christmas originated in previously non-Christian functions such as the Yule. Most of us see these things as harmless, and great fun,I can't imagine Christmas without the English carols, candy canes, and such, and wouldn't want to.

Besides, the Birthday celebration is also said to be of Pagan origin, how many people in the modern world are opposing birthday cakes on those grounds?

Answer 8

confident the real roots of Christmas are pagan and no person is familiar with the real date of Christ's delivery. regardless of if, what we in usa of america have fun on the instant isn't a duplicate of the pagan roots. that's what got here around from Europe the custom that began there. whilst individuals have fun this holiday they do no longer seem to be figuring out with what exceeded off whilst the naming of Christ's delivery became first instituted by using Constantine as a Christian holiday on the real day of pagan worship.

Answer 9

Christmas, Halloween, Easter and Valentines day all have roots in pagan tradition. This isn't a debatable issue. If you Google any of these holidays and the word pagan at the same time, you will get volumes of information testifying to it. When the Christians of the past used to spread the word of God, they were not peaceful about it. They would move into an area, try to get people to convert and any of the local pagans who didn't, were slaughtered. Then in an attempt to completely wipe out any traces of the native culture and religion, they would integrate their holidays with those of the pagans. If you are a Christian, I hope you are not this clueless about your religions bloody past, because when we forget our mistakes, we are bound to repeat them.

Answer 10

Christians borrowed many of their traditions from the pagans yes... the christmas tree, wreaths, and yule log. in easter bunnies and eggs are pagan symbols of their spring rituals.

Edit: one of the old Christian recruiting tricks was to make their relgon look very similar to another ie the pagans. christmas, easter, halloween. even adopting a version of the pagan or celtic cross as their own. then smearing the old religon ie making satan look very much like the pagan God.

The story of the birth of Jesus can be found as far back as 2500 BC. its the same as an old story the egyptians told based upon how the stars align at the winter solstice. their Sun God Horas was also born on dec 25 from a virgin mother named mary.

actually the main man in about 30 different religons all share dec 25th birthdays..... pretty cool coincidence huh?