Aside from Hannukah what other holidays are celebrated around Christmas?

Answer 1

The Pagan celebration of Winter Solstice (also known as Yule) is one of the oldest winter celebrations in the world.

Ancient people were hunters and spent most of their time outdoors. The seasons and weather played a very important part in their lives. Because of this many ancient people had a great reverence for, and even worshipped the sun. The Norsemen of Northern Europe saw the sun as a wheel that changed the seasons. It was from the word for this wheel, houl, that the word yule is thought to have come. At mid-winter the Norsemen lit bonfires, told stories and drank sweet ale.

The ancient Romans also held a festival to celebrate the rebirth of the year. Saturnalia ran for seven days from the 17th of December. It was a time when the ordinary rules were turned upside down. Men dressed as women and masters dressed as servants. The festival also involved decorating houses with greenery, lighting candles, holding processions and giving presents.

The Winter Solstice falls on the shortest day of the year (21st December) and was celebrated in Britain long before the arrival of Christianity. The Druids (Celtic priests) would cut the mistletoe that grew on the oak tree and give it as a blessing. Oaks were seen as sacred and the winter fruit of the mistletoe was a symbol of life in the dark winter months.

It was also the Druids who began the tradition of the yule log. The Celts thought that the sun stood still for twelve days in the middle of winter and during this time a log was lit to conquer the darkness, banish evil spirits and bring luck for the coming year.

Many of these customs are still followed today. They have been incorporated into the Christian and secular celebrations of Christmas.

Answer 2

I'm not a pagan, but I AM a comparative theologian so I'll take a crack at this. There are many celebrations around the world that predate the Christian, most of them having to do with the annual seasons. This is the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. It's a little tough for us to comprehend the fear of the dark which plagued our ancestors, but try this. Go into a room with no windows. Turn off the lights and stuff something into any cracks that might show light. Then just sit there for a few minutes and try to imagine how it must have felt to have that EVERY night except when the moon is full or nearly so and there are no clouds to dim it. Then imagine the grunts, growls and snarls, the death shrieks of prey being caught by nighttime predators and you may begin to get an inkling of how scary this time of year was. There's no food except what you've foraged and preserved during the summer and if the sun doesn't come back and do its schtick there won't be any food again, EVER! Now THAT'S scary! Once our ancestors got to thinking that there were beings of a higher order who might be urged, cajoled, placated or maybe even blackmailed into getting the sun back on track, it was a short step to designing rituals intended for just that outcome. And so the various winter rites were inaugurated. As people got more numerous and more in tune with the seasons, they began to realize that the sun was almost certainly going to start sticking around longer and longer, but the prevailing idea was that it was working so well because they were doing something the gods liked, so they kept on doing it, refining the rites, adding different things and generally trying their best to pretend that they could somehow control the world by their antics. Eventually these celebrations began to merge as more and more groups of people had more and more contact with one another. Then along comes Christianity. And the winter solstice is a really big deal by then. The problem for the early Christians: how to invite converts and give them the Good News in a comfortable way that'll cause them to want to listen and join. Answer: celebrate Christ's birthday, borrow all the old symbologies that won't shock the Christians and alter their meanings slightly to highlight the importance of this date vis a vis Jesus the Savior. It worked rather well, actually. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Answer 3

There are many festivals and celebrations on or near the December 25th date. These include the traditional cultural holidays of Yule, Hannukah, and Ramadan, and the modern holidays of Kwanzaa and HumanLight.

Answer 4

Kwanzaa (or Kwaanza) is a week-long Pan-African festival celebrated primarily in the United States, honoring African American heritage.[1] It is observed from December 26 to January 1 each year.

The Islamic New Year is on January 10th.

Answer 5

hey you,lol I only know of one other and that is off of Seinfeld, do you guys get that show in England? well anyway George's day celebrates his own holiday for Christmas it's call "the festivis for the rest of us" instead of a tree he uses a metal pole, and instead of loving attributes, they go around and tell each other what a disappointment they have been to each other,,,,it's really funny but at 6:45 am that's all I could think of xoxo

Answer 6

I celebrate the birth of a remarkable man who changed our perception of the universe.

Sir Isaac Newton, born 25th December 1642!

Answer 7

Winter Solstice....the return of the light and the sun pagans celebrate it around the 21st of Dec

Answer 8

Yule

Answer 9

Kwanza and Yule

Answer 10

Christmas around the world!
http://www.the-north-pole.com/around/