2007-12-01 22:54:19 · 25 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Holidays ➔ Christmas
Yeah, the fact that it's on the 25th of December. Christ was not born on that date. The church wanted to disrupt a popular pagan winter celebration and birthday of several of their gods, so it invented this birthday of jesus. The christmas tree is a direct holdover from those pagan celebrations.
2007-12-01 22:59:20 · answer #1 · answered by whotoblame 6 · 4⤊ 1⤋
Most of the responses to this question are indeed "no-brainers". People have not used their brains but have simply swallowed myths propagated on many web-sites instead of doing a proper investigation.
FACT. There is no genuine original historical evidence linking any of our Christmas customs to any pre-Christian pagan religion. None whatsoever. Including the date.
Christmas tree : earliest reference is 15th century. Probably derived from Mediaeval mystery plays featuring Adam and Eve through to Christ. aka The Paradise Tree.
Yule : No evidence of any pagan religious festival called "Yule" in Celtic or British countries. It is the name for the time of year and there is one Christian era reference to a mid-winter feast in Ireland but no mention of it being religious.
Solstice : The date of Christmas does not and never has coincided with the Solstice.
Roman festivals : Saturnalia was a week before Christmas. Natalis Invicti was inaugurated in the late 3rd century - years after 25th December had been proposed as the date of Christ's Birth.
Mistletoe: Only appears at Christmas in the 17th century . Reason unknown.
Can I sugggest people try and find the ORIGINAL HISTORICAL SOURCES for their stories about paganism and see how far they get. Nowhere more than likely.
2007-12-02 10:28:34 · answer #2 · answered by greenshootuk 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Lol yes just a bit of it.
The date was stolen from the Roman Pagan worshippers of Mithras who was one of their most popular gods.His birthday was on December 25th.The date of Jesus's birth isn't mentioned in the Bible but he certainly wasn't born in the winter.He is a prophet (but not the last prophet) in Islam and the Qu'ran says he was born in the summer.Jehovah's witnesses say he was born in October.
The idea of a child being born to a virgin has appeared in loads of religions.As has the idea of a child having one mortal parent and one god (or goddess) parent.
The decorated tree and yule logs and feasting and drinking and partying and giving gifts-all part of Yule celebrations which were celebrated by the Norse,Saxons,Celts and lots of other European Pagan traditions.
Santa is based on a winter spirit from Pagan mythology too.
Basically however nice Christmas may be it wasn't an original idea-even 2000 years ago.None of this means Christians can't celebrate Christmas but they sure can't talk about Pagans stealing it lol.
2007-12-03 21:43:13 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 1⤋
All of them, the date itself was originally a pagan holiday that the church could not make go away, so it just took the date over. Most Christian symbols are originally from pagan origins. For instance, that little fish symbol that people put on there bumper, it was originally pagan.
During the first couple hundred years of Christianity's creation, churchs moved around alot, and took over and lost space as they moved around from a pagan church, started with an M (cant remember). Because of this over 100's of years the twos symbols joined, with eventually Christianity winning out.
To look at it very closely, the birth of Jesus himself has pagan origins, well egyptian anyways, by way of Horus.
2007-12-02 07:04:25 · answer #4 · answered by Blind Squirrel 3 · 3⤊ 1⤋
All Christmas "traditions" have roots in paganism. That is a no brainer!!
Few people realize that the origins of a form of Christmas were pagan & celebrated in Europe long before anyone there had heard of Jesus Christ.
2007-12-02 06:59:47 · answer #5 · answered by MICHAEL H 1 · 4⤊ 1⤋
Its not exactly Pagan its Celt and Gaelic in the UK. The Germans would decorate a tree and bascially Christmas is a celebration of the dark days of winter. By bringing in a tree its bringing warmth and light into a house. So all you Happy Muslims can enjoy Chrismas cos its not a religious festival only an ancient festival.
Oh yes bring yer Teddy's
2007-12-02 07:00:35 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
Actually pretty much all of them do.
Our christmas is actually the winter solstice, the church just stole it off the pagans to make it easier to convert people to their religion, since the holidays would be the same.
You can look up more on the winter solstice on google or something, it's a far nicer celebration than Xmas, xmas is just a tainted version of the real holiday.
Oh, and jesus was actually born in the spring, not in december. Both scientific and religious scholars agree. So there you go.
2007-12-02 06:57:51 · answer #7 · answered by myleslr 5 · 6⤊ 1⤋
Paganism is actually one of the oldest know religions. The Christmas tree itself is of pagan origin.
2007-12-02 06:58:20 · answer #8 · answered by Peita 2 · 4⤊ 2⤋
I think so the Yule Log and Christmas tree plus having the feast on December 25th
2007-12-02 07:14:51 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
Just a little bit!
and many of the others have commercial origins!
(from the Modern Santa to Christmas cards)
"The Holly and the Ivy" is a wonderful old carol giving a Christian overlay on older symbols.
The use of evergreens at the midwinter festival is pre-Christian.
2007-12-02 07:02:08 · answer #10 · answered by Pedestal 42 7 · 4⤊ 2⤋