J
Jaypeeto4
Guest
I thought that the Aussie asked a valid question below, so I decided to start
a discussion of it:
**Why is it that Christmas, Easter and All Saints Day have been changed but religious celebrations of other religions are conservative and only available to the person practicing the faith? **
Remember that even in Protestant Australia, you live in part of what is known
as “Christendom,” where at least nominal Christianity is the majority religion.
This has been so for centuries. Thus, Christmas, Easter, etc., are well-known
well-established holidays, celebrated at least tacitly by nearly all people in those
Christian, or ONCE religiously-Christian, Societies. And Christians have ALWAYS given gifts on Christmas. So, the store-owners and media ALWAYS paid homage to Christmas.
AND, Saint Nicholas and the Three Wise Men have always been a part of the Christmas observances, not just recently, and their gift giving is what inspired the huge Christmas giving-of-gifts custom. So, Christmas has always had it’s big commercial aspect to it, since the earliest times. Santa-in-the-red-suit comes from the Coca Cola company, who first popularized that image of “Santa Claus,” which is a variation of the Dutch name for Saint Nicholas, a real Saint. So, technically, Santa Claus is real (though not an obese man in a red suit). Gift giving was also part of the pagan Saturnalias of ancient Rome, which Christmas REPLACED on the calendar, so the converts to Christianity kept up the gift-giving practice, but this time in honor of the Three Wise Men and of Saint Nicholas of Myra. But today, even though most “Christians” in America and Europe are NOT religious anymore, they STILL enjoy Christmas, the music, and the gift-giving,
so they still do it. But the songs are usually not the inspiring religious Christmas Hymns of yesteryear, but silly stuff like Jingle Bell Rock and nonsense like that.
Easter has the same history.
Christ arose from the dead in the Spring, at a time when the former pagans had used
to worship goddesses of fertility. As part of their former goddess celebrations, they used to color eggs and depict rabbits, both of which were previously fertility symbols. But drawing rabbits and coloring eggs are, in themselves, harmless things to do, not idolatrous, so the converts to Christianity, when observing easter instead,
were allowed to keep their colored eggs and bunnies. No harm, no foul.
BUT as the modern world has become more secular, those are ALL that the media tends to focus on.
Same thing with Halloween.
By the way, Halloween is ALL HALLOWS EVE, or the EVENING BEFORE All Saints Day. It is not, and never has been, All Saints Day itself. So there is no problem here.
The problem with Halloween today is, that in pagan times, followers of the Sorcery Cults used to observe Samhain and other pagan and Druid customs at this time of year.
Before Christianity came, it was popular in Europe to believe that the dead came out of their graves at the end of October to terrorize people, so the people would set out food-offerings to appease the vengeful spirits of the dead (who they may have wronged before they died, hence their coming back to take vengeance unless they were appeased by food and sweets offerings). This is where the custom of Trick or Treating originated, many centuries ago. But Christians knew that “poltergeists” weren’t the spirits of the dead,
but Demonic spirits masquerading as the souls of the dead. Hence, the use of costumes depicting devils, ghosts, and witches on Halloween. (The hook-nosed “witches” come from mideval woodcuts depicting “witches” flying around on broomsticks goint to
“sabbat” celebrations around the time of Samhain, same time of year as Halloween).
So, what’s happening today with three Christian festivals is sad, but not altogether shocking.
The focus used to be on Jesus Christ and on honoring His Birth, His Resurrection
and His Saints on these three holidays. But again, with the growth of secularism,
brought about BY people ceasing, in droves, to practice Christianity, the non-religious elements of these holidays are what have come to the fore in the popular culture.
So, PRAY THE ROSARY for the RE-conversion of Christians and the conversion of those who have never even been believers in the first place.
God bless,
Jaypeeto4
+JMJ+
PRAY THE ROSARY DAILY
a discussion of it:
**Why is it that Christmas, Easter and All Saints Day have been changed but religious celebrations of other religions are conservative and only available to the person practicing the faith? **
Remember that even in Protestant Australia, you live in part of what is known
as “Christendom,” where at least nominal Christianity is the majority religion.
This has been so for centuries. Thus, Christmas, Easter, etc., are well-known
well-established holidays, celebrated at least tacitly by nearly all people in those
Christian, or ONCE religiously-Christian, Societies. And Christians have ALWAYS given gifts on Christmas. So, the store-owners and media ALWAYS paid homage to Christmas.
AND, Saint Nicholas and the Three Wise Men have always been a part of the Christmas observances, not just recently, and their gift giving is what inspired the huge Christmas giving-of-gifts custom. So, Christmas has always had it’s big commercial aspect to it, since the earliest times. Santa-in-the-red-suit comes from the Coca Cola company, who first popularized that image of “Santa Claus,” which is a variation of the Dutch name for Saint Nicholas, a real Saint. So, technically, Santa Claus is real (though not an obese man in a red suit). Gift giving was also part of the pagan Saturnalias of ancient Rome, which Christmas REPLACED on the calendar, so the converts to Christianity kept up the gift-giving practice, but this time in honor of the Three Wise Men and of Saint Nicholas of Myra. But today, even though most “Christians” in America and Europe are NOT religious anymore, they STILL enjoy Christmas, the music, and the gift-giving,
so they still do it. But the songs are usually not the inspiring religious Christmas Hymns of yesteryear, but silly stuff like Jingle Bell Rock and nonsense like that.
Easter has the same history.
Christ arose from the dead in the Spring, at a time when the former pagans had used
to worship goddesses of fertility. As part of their former goddess celebrations, they used to color eggs and depict rabbits, both of which were previously fertility symbols. But drawing rabbits and coloring eggs are, in themselves, harmless things to do, not idolatrous, so the converts to Christianity, when observing easter instead,
were allowed to keep their colored eggs and bunnies. No harm, no foul.
BUT as the modern world has become more secular, those are ALL that the media tends to focus on.
Same thing with Halloween.
By the way, Halloween is ALL HALLOWS EVE, or the EVENING BEFORE All Saints Day. It is not, and never has been, All Saints Day itself. So there is no problem here.
The problem with Halloween today is, that in pagan times, followers of the Sorcery Cults used to observe Samhain and other pagan and Druid customs at this time of year.
Before Christianity came, it was popular in Europe to believe that the dead came out of their graves at the end of October to terrorize people, so the people would set out food-offerings to appease the vengeful spirits of the dead (who they may have wronged before they died, hence their coming back to take vengeance unless they were appeased by food and sweets offerings). This is where the custom of Trick or Treating originated, many centuries ago. But Christians knew that “poltergeists” weren’t the spirits of the dead,
but Demonic spirits masquerading as the souls of the dead. Hence, the use of costumes depicting devils, ghosts, and witches on Halloween. (The hook-nosed “witches” come from mideval woodcuts depicting “witches” flying around on broomsticks goint to
“sabbat” celebrations around the time of Samhain, same time of year as Halloween).
So, what’s happening today with three Christian festivals is sad, but not altogether shocking.
The focus used to be on Jesus Christ and on honoring His Birth, His Resurrection
and His Saints on these three holidays. But again, with the growth of secularism,
brought about BY people ceasing, in droves, to practice Christianity, the non-religious elements of these holidays are what have come to the fore in the popular culture.
So, PRAY THE ROSARY for the RE-conversion of Christians and the conversion of those who have never even been believers in the first place.
God bless,
Jaypeeto4
+JMJ+
PRAY THE ROSARY DAILY
