I've never seen any pagans complain about holiday-stealing the way people of some other religions do. We celebrate lots of pagan holidays in America, and I was wondering if Pagans feel like we're stealing their holidays.
2007-12-03 12:20:50 · 24 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
not at all...i don't mind sharing.
happy yule/christmas/hanukkah/kwanzaa...and any that i missed!
2007-12-03 12:26:14 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 5⤊ 2⤋
We don't complain because complaining is useless. We do tend to point out the pagan origins of holidays that have been stolen - Christmas, Easter, etc. When someone insists that Christmas and Easter are only Christian holidays - then you might see pagans and heathens get a little irritable.
Personally, yeah, Christianity stole the holidays but we have to tolerate it and point out the history when appropriate.
Added: Charles - my ancestors celebrated Yule until 1100 CE - who says that we can't go back to what they believed? WE'RE around to say their holiday was stolen and we reclaim them.
2007-12-03 12:30:23 · answer #2 · answered by Aravah 7 · 5⤊ 3⤋
Some do. Especially if you say “Jesus is the reason for the season”, then you’ll stir up a few complaints, but for the most part there is still a lot of pagan symbolism in the holidays, so as a pagan I feel quite comfortable with it. If you wish me a Merry Christmas I’ll wish you a Happy Yule.
2007-12-03 12:29:50 · answer #3 · answered by starlightcwa 3 · 7⤊ 3⤋
I hear Pagans complain about Christians stealing holidays all the time. I don't agree with them. The origins of most of our holidays, both secular and religious, are only a couple hundred years old and thus have nothing to do with pre-Christian religion. There's a lot of urban legend when it comes to holiday origins.
2007-12-03 12:33:05 · answer #4 · answered by Nightwind 7 · 1⤊ 5⤋
Are you kidding me?
My fellow whiney-a$$ pagans whine about it all the damn time!
Tragic that there really isn't any direct conection between modern paganism and ancient paganism - so its not even like we were there to have the holidays stolen from us!
2007-12-03 12:26:37 · answer #5 · answered by conchobor2 6 · 8⤊ 1⤋
My only complaint is when people completely deny any pagan roots in holidays like Christmas or Easter.
2007-12-03 12:28:01 · answer #6 · answered by ultraviolet1127 4 · 5⤊ 3⤋
Todays "Pagans" are not the Pagans who first celebrated The Return of Light back in pre-history days . Nor can any of them trace a linage back to the real Pagans .
2007-12-03 12:33:11 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 5⤋
No we don't. It's a great way of integrating some of our own beliefs and practices into the mainstream religions. :-) They can hate pagans all they want but the truth is their own beliefs and practices actually have pagan origins.
2007-12-03 12:30:18 · answer #8 · answered by Anathema Device 4 · 6⤊ 3⤋
I only dislike the fact that they take the Holidays and don't tell anyone where it came from. After all pagan Holidays were here first
2007-12-03 12:25:24 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 7⤊ 5⤋
It irritates me when people don't do their research definitely.
But people should celebrate whatever they want. I am kind of glad that we share holidays in common, maybe one day it can bring some of us to see that we are not so different.
Holidays are a time of good will and family, so I think it's great that everyone have that.
2007-12-03 12:25:27 · answer #10 · answered by MiaOMya 4 · 4⤊ 4⤋
I've seen them mention it, but I do too. I don't think many feel that it was stolen, as in.... Give it back! More along the lines of: Hey, if you want to believe that's how your holiday came to be, so be it. But I know better!
2007-12-03 12:31:04 · answer #11 · answered by I, Sapient 7 · 6⤊ 3⤋