The Pagan Origins of Christmas customs (The Queen Magazine 1924)

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Motherwit

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I’ve been slowly sorting through my parents family history boxes now that their house is sold. This is a magazine from 1924 called The Queen which one of my great aunts subscribed to, explaining the pagan origin of Christmas customs. It’s relevant because it didn’t scare the daylights out of Catholics in the past as anything pagan does today.

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Perhaps you can summarize?
There is no way to read that.
 
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Oh sorry, I’ve realized the zoom feature on my desktop doesn’t provide as clear a zoom as my phone. I’ll get to a transcription soon.
 
“It Didn’t scare the daylights out of Catholics in the past as anything pagan does today?”

What a very, um, strange statement. I know that catechesis hasn’t been that great in the last few decades but most Catholics my age (60s) are perfectly well aware that Christmas —not to mention Easter, wedding, and other ‘festive occasion’ customs have a pagan basis.

Wedding rings, you know, and what finger they’re on. Pagan Rome. Christmas trees, from old Germanic celebrations, along with the Yule log. Easter eggs and Easter bunnies. The list goes on.

But it’s usually the more ‘Bible-based’ ecumenicals who are ‘scared by pagans’ and who talk about the idolatrous Christmas Tree. Not Catholics.
 
stpurl said:
But it’s usually the more ‘Bible-based’ ecumenicals who are ‘scared by pagans’ and who talk about the idolatrous Christmas Tree.
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That’s not true! Kirk Cameron explained that the Christmas tree isn’t pagan!

:crazy_face:
 
stpurl said:
“It Didn’t scare the daylights out of Catholics in the past as anything pagan does today?”

What a very, um, strange statement. I know that catechesis hasn’t been that great in the last few decades but most Catholics my age (60s) are perfectly well aware that Christmas —not to mention Easter, wedding, and other ‘festive occasion’ customs have a pagan basis.

Wedding rings, you know, and what finger they’re on. Pagan Rome. Christmas trees, from old Germanic celebrations, along with the Yule log. Easter eggs and Easter bunnies. The list goes on.

But it’s usually the more ‘Bible-based’ ecumenicals who are ‘scared by pagans’ and who talk about the idolatrous Christmas Tree. Not Catholics.
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Except I was reading the traditionalist site Church Militant today and came across this thread.


Many Catholics are ‘scared’ of pagans, but in the past the Church realized God present in their worship prior to Christs coming and the value in the rituals to host the Good News of Christ.
 
Lest we forget the little meltdown people had over pachamama, including myself…
 
Bah. I thought you would probably make some kind of reference to ‘traditionalists’ somehow.

Setting aside that the pagan origins invoked customs that were secular and not a Mass. Gee, wonder why the Sarum rite didn’t carry on with Druid customs, or Japanese Catholics demand Shinto rituals at Mass. . .
 
In my Real Life, it’s the evangelicals and fundamentalists I know who have concerns over ye olde pagan customs, but the Catholics just shrug it off.

Some Online Catholics are a different story however.
 
stpurl said:
Bah. I thought you would probably make some kind of reference to ‘traditionalists’ somehow.

Setting aside that the pagan origins invoked customs that were secular and not a Mass. Gee, wonder why the Sarum rite didn’t carry on with Druid customs, or Japanese Catholics demand Shinto rituals at Mass. . .
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Are you in agreement with the Church Militant criticism of the Pope?
 
Know what is Pagan?
The names of the days of the weeks in English and many other European languages.
Cancel your calendar!
 
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Also, the very letters that everyone is using to write these posts are of pagan origin.
 
No. What I disagree with is slant and bias, on both sides.

I think that Pope Francis’ words and actions are often distorted by the media, and I don’t mean simply Church Militant. I mean the National Catholic Reporter as well. And I think that people have a knee jerk reaction because of that which leads to poisonous thoughts against their fellow Catholics who supposedly, based on their concerns over some actual event that is ‘slanted’ one way or the other, left or right, is considered to ‘prove’ that Pope Francis is ‘left’ or ‘right’ when he is neither.

Unfortunately just as some posters will immediately flare up to cast doubt on Pope Francis’ handling of an event (again based on biased media language) and call it left wing, there are as many who flare up with their assumption that any concern of an event is automatically a disparagement of Pope Francis, and obviously ‘right wing’ i.e. trad extremism.

And both are wrong.
 
We have had some past threads on here where people got affronted over the idea that some aspects of Christmas and Easter were originally pagan and were repurposed by Christians.

However, I think the Catholics who get bothered by that are in the minority. Also, I think part of the upset reaction is due to folks either having the “pagan origins” thing shoved down their throats by the anti-religious and also due to those who take it too far, such as suggesting Jesus himself is a reworking of a pagan god, or equating Pachamama to Mother Mary. It makes Catholics upset and defensive.
 
The publication seems to be about Christmas customs from different parts of the world. I didn’t see much reference to pagan origins of the customs, although there is some mention of the customs’ histories.
 
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I was shocked when that happened. It’s mind boggling that such things should occur at the Vatican of all places…
 
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