help with anti catholic questions

[pgroverfam]

I am a catholic who is experiencing some difficulty defending our traditions of All Saints All souls days. We do celebrate Halloween. An old neighbor who used to be catholic has given me a book on why we should not celebrate Halloween because of it’s pagan roots. I know there are other christian celebrations that were once pagan that the church has given new meaning too but need help finding them. Does anyone know of these and their history? The wedding ring was once pagan symbol but the church changed it to a symbol identifying the sacrament. It changed it to a beautiful thing. Are there arny other examples?

 

[pgroverfam]

pgroverfam:

I am a catholic who is experiencing some difficulty defending our traditions of All Saints All souls days. We do celebrate Halloween. An old neighbor who used to be catholic has given me a book on why we should not celebrate Halloween because of it’s pagan roots. I know there are other christian celebrations that were once pagan that the church has given new meaning too but need help finding them. Does anyone know of these and their history? The wedding ring was once pagan symbol but the church changed it to a symbol identifying the sacrament. It changed it to a beautiful thing. Are there arny other examples?

 

[rarndt01]

I believe a little common sense is the rule of thumb here. Of course all saints day was vastly different than today’s version of Halloween. But it is how you dress the children up and let them pretend is what matters. Dressing up as spider man, a fairy, a ghost, or a clown is NOT evil. One should be more concerned in what your child sees and HEARS on TV. That is harder to control.
The same can be said for Christmas. What does it mean to you and your family. Is it a day of commercialism of what gift I'm going to get or is it a time of reflection of God's gift to the world? Is it a time for families and relatives to get together and enjoy each others company? You must decide. There sure is no real Santa Claus and I personally think when little children grow of age, they should be told who the true giver of gifts is and that is God, not Santa.

 

[hlgomez]

I am a catholic who is experiencing some difficulty defending our traditions of All Saints All souls days. We do celebrate Halloween. An old neighbor who used to be catholic has given me a book on why we should not celebrate Halloween because of it’s pagan roots. I know there are other christian celebrations that were once pagan that the church has given new meaning too but need help finding them. Does anyone know of these and their history? The wedding ring was once pagan symbol but the church changed it to a symbol identifying the sacrament. It changed it to a beautiful thing. Are there arny other examples?

The Catholic Church DOES NOT practice Halloween. All Saints day and All Souls day is not about halloween. It is true that pagans used to celebrate pagan practices in the same day of November, but the Catholic Church put the observance of the All Saints day and All Souls day to prevent pagans who became believers to be lured back to their pagan beliefs.

Pio

 

[mercygate]

pgroverfam:

I am a catholic who is experiencing some difficulty defending our traditions of All Saints All souls days. We do celebrate Halloween. An old neighbor who used to be catholic has given me a book on why we should not celebrate Halloween because of it’s pagan roots. I know there are other christian celebrations that were once pagan that the church has given new meaning too but need help finding them. Does anyone know of these and their history? The wedding ring was once pagan symbol but the church changed it to a symbol identifying the sacrament. It changed it to a beautiful thing. Are there arny other examples?

Does your friend celebrate Christmas? The Saturnalia celebrated at that time of year were pre-empted by the Church to commemorate the birth of Christ. In that regard, All Saints is not more “pagan” than Christmas. But he probably has no idea what the Communion of Saints is.

 

[Steve_M]

How about the celebration of the Anglo-Saxon goddess of the dawn (the east), spring, and new life. This goddess’ symbols were lilies, rabbits, and eggs. The celebration was called Eastre. You don’t have to think to hard to figure out what Christians turned this celebration into.

 

[mercygate]

Steve M:

How about the celebration of the Anglo-Saxon goddess of the dawn (the east), spring, and new life. This goddess’ symbols were lilies, rabbits, and eggs. The celebration was called Eastre. You don’t have to think to hard to figure out what Christians turned this celebration into.

Steve, I know you don’t mean “turned this celebration into.” Though the name remains, and rabbits & eggs remain in the secular celebrations of the season, the event celebrated by Christians is another thing altogether. It is, however, another example of how seasons and symbols are used across time and cultures in religious experience and expression. On this planet, all human beings share the elements we use to express and to experience God. It is no wonder that the symbols cross religious and cultural boundaries. After all, God gave every human being the ability to seek him, and in some measure to know him, even before he gave us the gift of revelation. Hence we share common “language” even in our primitive groping towards the fullness of truth. Otherwise, there could be no evangel.

 

[Kevan]

Where the local high school prom is known traditionally to be a celebration of debauchery, some churches today will provide a “graduation banquet” for their youth group and friends as an alternative to the local prom. This same strategy is how Christians in earlier ages came to celebrate Christian themes on pagan dates.

The problem arises when the “sanitizing” process is incomplete. Where can one find more filthiness per capita than in a Christian nation during “carnival” or Mardi Gras? The celebration arose as an alternative to pagan fertility rites, but now some of the “Christians” out-pagan the pagans.

There would be nothing wrong with celebrating All Saints’ Eve (All Hallows E’en) if the Druid paganism (sorcery, demons, witches, horror) were cleansed from it. But if not, then it cannot be justified. :twocents:

 

[Steve_M]

mercygate:

Steve, I know you don’t mean “turned this celebration into.” Though the name remains, and rabbits & eggs remain in the secular celebrations of the season, the event celebrated by Christians is another thing altogether.

They adopted the name and symbols from the pagen celebration. It is not uncommon in Christian histroy to allow the pagens to use their traditional celebrations as long as it has been changed toward worshiping the Christian God. The missionaries to the Angles and the Saxons took a traditional celebration that already existed, and with a few alterations turned it into what today we celebrate as Easter. The name and symbols came from this celebration. Of course the resurrection was already being celebrated, but this is where what we call “Easter”, not the resurrection, came from.

Are you also aware of the history of Christmas? It originally was celebrated much like Mardi Gras is today. At various times throughout history the Church as banned the celebration. The way we celebrate it today comes largely form Charles Dickens’ book A Christmas Carrol. Prior to that, it wasn’t a celebration about helping the fellow man. It was a party. Santa got his red suit from a Coke advertisement. This kind of information is usually only useful for Trival Pursuit and Jeopardy?

 

[renee1258]

Steve M:

How about the celebration of the Anglo-Saxon goddess of the dawn (the east), spring, and new life. This goddess’ symbols were lilies, rabbits, and eggs. The celebration was called Eastre. You don’t have to think to hard to figure out what Christians turned this celebration into.

I thought Easter was Latin for the Spring season? Can someone clarify that for me? Also many non-Catholics don’t realize that Easter is season of several weeks, not just a day.

It was common that has Catholicism spead, people kept local customs. They just applied it to their new religion. That is why Catholicism and Islam spead much quicker, then religions like Judaism. To convert to Judaism, it isn’t just religious beliefs but cultural customs that have to change.

Like the other person said, how much is this consuemr marketing? Hollywood has played up the evil side, by marketing their horror movies in October and Easter is hyped up to be just one day of marshmello chicks…

 

[MariaG]

Sure. Ask her if her church has a “Harvest Party” on Halloween. Most fundamentalist churches I ever went to do this to provide a Christian alternative to Halloween. Same thing the Catholic Church has always done, provide a Christian alternative to pagan beliefs.