And many Christian theologians would argue that the pagan mystery religions of the time adopted the Christian date of Dec. 25th in order to stem the rise of Christianity in the region. No scholars have offered concrete substantiated proof that the date the pagans celebrated was Dec. 25th. It doesn’t matter why the date was chosen, simply celebrating it on Dec. 25th does not in and of itself make it ‘pagan’. Pagan is a blanket term which is equal to that of ‘unbeliever’. Christians celebrating Christmas (Christ’s Mass) on the 25th of Dec. certainly don’t fit the bill. Jews also have a winter celebration called “Chanukah” (from Maccabees) which Christ celebrated and took place at the same time as many of the pagan festivals, and we wouldn’t call Christ ‘pagan’ just for celebrating a holiday in the winter.
Absolutely! How many people do you know who go around celebrating “Saturnalia” on December 25th these days? If the Church were going to pick a specific day for any feast day, given man’s long history of various cultures and religions, she’d be hard pressed to find a date that wasn’t already taken.
It’s kind of the ole, “if you can’t get your savior’s birthday right, how can the rest be true?” If I remember right, Christmas did supplant some pagan traditions, but that doesn’t make the day any less special. A case can be made that Christ was actually born in the spring as shepherds wouldn’t be tending thier flocks in hills during the winter since there would be nothing for sheep to graze on at that time of year. We really have no way knowing the exact date of Christ’s birth. God chose not to give us that…presumably because it’s not that important. He did give us the miraculous way Christ was conceived and born into the world. Taking a day*(more like over a month if you count Advent and the 12 days of Christmas)* to celebrate that seems reasonable, and if one could choose a day that a people were used to celebrating before they were baptised…why not. The pagan holiday was not celebrating truth. Christmas is. Another thing you might point out is that Christmas isn’t our most important holiday. Easter is number one. IMHO Pentecost is far more significant than Christmas.
Total agreement here. Also have you noticed that Christmas is getting more Christ in the Holiday of holidays. There has been a difinate return to the real reason why we celebrate. :bowdown2:
Hi Semper Fi,
Melissa
As people have said, Christmas means what you want it to mean. It’s the glory of Christ’s Incarnation. Of course, for some, it’s just a good day to get lots of free stuff.
No one knows the actual date of Christ birth. Every day of the year was dedicated to some pagan god, some of them more than one. Any day you pick, you could argue that it was based on some pagan god. That doesn’t make it true.
