Here are some commonly believed facts about Christmas:
1) Christ was not born on the 25th of December:
It’s commonly believed that the Catholic Church in trying to appease the pagan holidays of celebrating the winter solstice and the holiday Saturnalia (Festival of Saturn), mixed the birth of Christ to reside on these holidays. On the 25th of December the festival of Saturnalia would celebrate “The unconqureable birth of the Eternal Sun”. I think this if I were a church leader of the time, that would be a good day to meld the birth of Christ (Birth of the Eternal Sun). Saturnalia was a celebration of drunkeness, wine, “making merry”, and often times giving the gift of oneself (hint hint nudge nudge).
2) Mistletoe:
There are two references for mistletoe. One is that the Scandinavian goddess Friga after her son was killed by a mistletoe arrow (missle?), decided that mistletoe should never be used for violence again but instead as a symbol of love. In respect, people would hang the mistletoe in their houses and kiss under it. Another reference for mistletoe is that the Druid leader would climb a tree and with a golden knife and cut off mistletoe. It was believed that mistletoe possesd magical and curative properties. The Druid leader would then disperse the mistletoe to the people and they would hang it in their houses. Unfortunately usually a white bull or a person was sacrificed during the ritual to appease the angry Druid god that might become irritated that they took the mistletoe
3)Yule log:
This Scandinavians offered a log to the fertility god Jules during the 12 days of rite (which fell sometime around the winter soltice). Makes you wonder where we got the idea for 12 days of Christmas
4) Christmas Tree:
Well once again the Druids around the solstice would take an evergreen tree, bring it inside, and hang fruit on it and put food under it as an offering to the gods. The tree would symbolize reproduction, life and the everlasting bounty of nature.
I have a few friends that don’t celebrate Halloween in regards to its pagan nature and see no value in it. Even though Halloween brings communities together, makes kids laugh, multiplies candy, belittles evil, and is fun, celebrating such a holiday appears to question their moral Christian principles. I wonder if the Church had decided to incorporate Samhain (pagan holiday) and Christ’s birth if some Christians would be more apt to celebrate the holiday of Halloween. It does seem that Christmas (probably due to its commercial push and the multitude of Christian sheep corraled into the stalls of justification) is viewed primarily as a Christian Holiday, and therefore most Christians can celebrate the holiday without a sered conscious.
I suppose (once again) it’s all the Church’s fault. Trying to appease the lost pagan’s concerning their traditional beliefs. The bible said not to be unequally yoked, right? Maybe in the end we just “messed up” the pagan’s holidays and “messed up” what could have been untainted holy days set apart for God. Now at best we are doomed to Pagan Christianity and what’s more, what and where the church leads us.
“Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace and goodwill towards men.”
-Drew
Tags: Christianity, Christmas, Drew, Paganism
Drew,
I have some thoughts on this but I don’t have time to leave a well-thought out response right now….too much going on today with work and school. I will try to get my thoughts together and make a post in the next few days.
I am one of those people who doesn’t celebrate Halloween and am surprised that you don’t see the difference between “belittles” and “glorifies”. Looking forward to sharing my thoughts on the subject. Hopefully others will share theirs as well.
Blessings, BoB
It’s all about perception. We hang mistletoe, put up Christmas trees, throw on some yule logs and are defintely “merry” at Christmas time. All of these from one perspective glorify paganism. All of these from another perspective glorify God. All of these from another perspective have nothing to do with glorifying anything since life is about the present and the taints of the past are irrelevant; it’s just what we do. All of these from another perspective have been redemed unto purity and augment the birth of a savior (even though He wasn’t actually born that day).
Regardless, I am excited to hear your perspective and await in expectation the SMG (scripture machine gun). I am surprised that you are surprised of my differing view towards Halloween; You either give me too much credit as a Christian brother or your “white” perspective (Black or White) on Halloween can not assimilate my “grey” perspective concerning the holiday. Unfortunately, I fear that I would have been one of those ridiculous church leaders of old that would have sacrificed the “black and white” of when the Christ was born and moreso even incorporated the Messiah’s birth to cojunct with a pagan holiday in the hopes of “sucking in” the pagan. But then, I do like to party.
Drew,
Here is my response to your post – http://oursearchfortruth.com/blog/?p=903
No SMG this time. I always learn the most though when I am in the middle of ctrl-c-ing and ctrl-v-ing scripture verses in rapid fire. Its like downloading a file straight from the mainframe!
Blessings, BoB
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I had a freidn Lewis McNeely that wrote a piece about Christmas and Santa and such and I agreed so much that I just would like to copy\paste his post here. (I’m sure he wouldn’t mind)
The Original was something he posted on Facebook.
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After discussion from the FB masses I had an epiphany. I had been asking the question: If the current meaning of a tradition or celebration is far removed from the original meaning then does the original meaning matter? In terms of good and evil, if the original evil meaning was what made something to be evil, would the now good meaning not now make that same thing good? Of course this is only in neutral cases where the act or celebration is truly neutral. For example; wearing a hat is neutral in terms of good an evil. But say… hats in Alaska were originally conceived as a way to identify with the dark underworld. Now in modern times, hats are simply a way to keep heat in. SInce hat wearing is spiritually neutral then it could only be its current meaning that determines whether it is bad or good. Take another example. Robin Hood (first registered democrat by the way. Just kidding.) says he steals from the rich to give to the poor. Since stealing is not a spiritually neutral action but a clearly immoral action, then no matter what meaning is assigned to it, it will always be morally wrong. Now lets bring it into the original discussion. Santa according to tradition and verifiable data without a doubt has his origins in evil paganism. But years later in the US, the meaning of Santa is entirely benevolent. Paganism is not the meaning assigned to him today. So because a kind old man bringing gifts to children is not an inherently evil action then the only thing that can determine whether the tradition is good or bad would seem to be the meaning assigned to it today by those who practice it.
Christians who do (and should) have an interest in the morality of the events they participate in many times struggle with whether an item, event, book or movie is going to be harmful to them or their children. My thinking is to look at from scripture. Is God opposed to it or the message it is trying to teach? Is the action itself noted as sin? Paul mentions there are some disputable matters that believers debate. Paul noted some of these as: whether we eat meat or only vegetables, whether one day is celebrated as a Sabbath or everyday. Here are his thoughts from Romans 14:1 Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. So what do we do with Santa? Well, I am convinced that the concept of a benevolent person bringing gifts to children around the worlds is harmless in itself. The issue to me is not whether or not it has pagan origins. The issue that I personally see as a problem with Santa is two fold; the first being the issue of lying to our kids. Some say that because the meaning is good the lying is acceptable. Well, in my family it is not. The other issue is Santa is certainly a distraction to the celebration of Christ’s births. Now here is the part that will really ruffle the fur on some sacred cows. There is nothing in scripture I know of that says Christians have to celebrate the birth of Christ. In fact, in taking communion we are celebrating His death. 1 Cor 11. For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. I do feel it’s totally cool to celebrate every aspect of the life, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet Paul said he preached Christ and Him crucified. Once again emphasis on the death part. So I am not certain that we as believers have to be so bent out of shape about Santa stealing away focus from a holiday that we actual stole from paganism in the first place. Do I think Santa should win out? No, not by any means. Yet I am not going to be upset at all the attention Santa gets for 3 weeks of the year when I can give 52 weeks of the year to celebrating the life of Christ.
So back to the origins thing. I like what Michael Morrison says here on http://www.wcg.org/lit/church/holidays/paganism.htm. He notes “So the question arises, How careful must we be in weeding paganisms out of our lives? Where do we draw the line? The answer is, different Christians draw the line in different places. We need to allow some diversity on these issues. Some conservative churches used to forbid wedding rings. Some forbid Christmas and Easter. They are careful to do what God says, and if God tells them to avoid paganism, then they carefully do it. Some are so careful that they err on the side of forbidding too much — but they err. They make commands about things that God doesn’t command. That is a sin”.
So bottom line to me is I think the meaning behind any spiritually neutral action or event is determined by the current meaning not the original. Emphasis on “spiritually neutral” No amount of changing the meaning of sinful acts will ever make those acts acceptable to God (or me).
________________
I couldn’t agree more! Well said. Thanks for sharing Josh,
Blessings, BoB
My thoughts (and some of his repeated)
The bottom line is…. It doesn’t matter.
How about lets celebrate Jesus all year long and let Christmas be whatever. You may read the Christmas story and worship OR you may jump up and open presents and get all wrapped up (or unwrapped) in gifts and food. WHO CARES.. Is the family that gives glory to God on Christmas day better than the family that doesn’t? The Bible says nothing about celebrating Jesus’ birth only his Death and Ressurection. As for my family we will give glory to God everyday that we can celebrate Jesus in birth, life, death and resurrection everyday we can. Christmas to us is more about the presents, family and GOOD FOOD. And I personally think God likes those things. Of course it’s all about the heart and relationship with the Father.
of course that goes without saying around here.
Again…agree. I responded with a new post regarding this topic, specifically comparing Halloween and Christmas…because I agree with Lewis when he says:
“Christians who do (and should) have an interest in the morality of the events they participate in many times struggle with whether an item, event, book or movie is going to be harmful to them or their children. My thinking is to look at from scripture. Is God opposed to it or the message it is trying to teach? Is the action itself noted as sin?”
In both my Halloween and Christmas posts I make an effort to explain why ‘I’ do or don’t celebrate a particular holiday. My goal is not to force that on others but to create dialog to spawn thought, because we can (and should) have “an interest in the morality of the events we participate in”.
Blessings, BoB
Hi Everyone!!!
Merry Christmas!!! Peace, joy and love overflowing to all!!!
I absolutely love this time of year – because I am Catholic and part of the universal church, in the sense of “according to the totality” or “in keeping with the whole” of the church that Christ Himself established prior to returning to Heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father – and for which He gave His life on the cross, and for which He will return for in the future. I give thanks for this time of the year, and every day of the year, because as a Catholic I celebrate the life, death, resurrection of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and with His Church on earth await and look expectantly forward to His sure return. We Catholics call this the season of Advent (making present the ancient expectancy of the Messiah, for by sharing in the long preparation for the Savior’s first coming, the faithful renew their ardent desire for his second coming) and as we are reminded of His birth (and I don’t really care exactly what day it did take place on – I am just most thankful that He did willingly come to earth to give His life for all mankind – desiring that none should perish) we are also reminded that we are to “LOOK UP” and eagerly await His certain return – at the direction of the Heavenly Father – when the trumpet sounds – and will join with the church triumphant (already in heaven) – and at the same time with those who don’t believe – as every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord!!!
I actually would never put the word “pagan” with the word “Christmas” – they just plain don’t go together – since Christ is in Christmas and He most definitely is not pagan.
How one celebrates is of their own free will – and since God gives them “free will” – then I will leave it to Him to address or “judge” their choice and the consequences of it.
We personally don’t rush around shopping till we drop – spending $$$ we don’t have – and getting stuff that everyone already has enough of. We give our lives as gifts – by visiting others and bringing them the gifts that you can not buy – like joy, peace, love, grace, mercy, encouragement – and share real food made by our own hands with love and blessings added that come through prayer and thanksgiving for the goodness of God.
I will add some of that SMG (Scripture Machine Gun) as this is how the Scripture reads from my Bible on the verse that you did mention Drew -
Luke 2:13-14
And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel (the one from verses 9 – 12), praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” I heard a pastor preach a sermon on this Scripture verse and the inaccurate way that the people of the world use it today, and I hurried to my Bible to look it up and there is was – just like I typed it above….”and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” See – the pagan have even twisted the Scripture to make them feel good about how they celebrate – and who else do we know that tried that tactic in the desert about 2000 years ago – and that is probably why many are dry and thirsting right now – parched from all that shopping and rushing around. I think I would rather sit down and take a drink from the “living water” Himself and celebrate that He is My ALL and ALL – EVERYDAY!!!
It surely does sound like the birth of Christ was a time of celebration – good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
Like I said before – the exact date is not of great concern for me – but the good news of great joy and the arrival of a savior who is Messiah and Lord – now that is something to celebrate – everyday of the year, and since someone chose December 25th as a special once a year celebration – great – at least once a year it may cause some to consider or reconsider His birth – and just what it might hold in store for them.
Blessings!!!
Kathleen