Why is Christmas more important than Easter?

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BlueKumul

BlueKumul

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I mean, why does pop-culture emphasise Christmas more than Easter? Despite the Church teaching that Easter is the most important holiday.

The only reason I can think of is that Easter involves death, and modern people dislike thinking about death.
 
That might be part of the reason, but if Jesus had not been born, there would be no Easter. Christmas was more than the birth of baby Jesus - it was the
story of the Incarnation. How can that not be important?
 
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Maybe people need something fun when it’s cold and dark.
 
Unfortunately in the secular world Christmas = Sales. It’s all about money…
 
The Romans celebrated a feast of Titans on December 24/25, and gift-giving was a part of this holiday. Jesus might actually have been born in October, but the celebration was moved to replace the Titans holiday. Or so I heard.

Could Titans have been Satan and his host in disguise? If so, this is a great victory for Jesus to replace them. If only people remembered Him more during the celebration.
 
7_Sorrows said:
Christmas was more than the birth of baby Jesus - it was the story of the Incarnation. How can that not be important?
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Agreed. It is unique to Christianity, that God would become man so that we might be joined to him and share in his divinity.
 
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Christmas – the birth of Jesus – Alpha.
Easter – the death and resurrection of Jesus – Omega.

They’re actually equally important. Without the Incarnation there would have been no Resurrection and redemption of humanity.

I would say that both holy days should be considered on equal footing.
 
Anyway, in commercial Christmas celebrations there is very little Jesus. Santa Claus could be Cronos as well, nothing identifies him as a Christian saint.
 
Here in the UK Easter is heavily commercialized. Easter associated foods such as chocolate Easter eggs and Hot Cross buns go on sale the day after Christmas.
 
SeanF1989 said:
Here in the UK Easter is heavily commercialized. Easter associated foods such as chocolate Easter eggs and Hot Cross buns go on sale the day after Christmas.
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I would argue that in many European countries, Easter gets a bigger push than it does here in the States.

I agree with the points made in the article posted above, namely that people are more in need of a holiday in the middle of cold, dark winter (and in an agricultural society, people would actually have time to celebrate as they were unable to be working on the land) and that the birth of a child translates better to secular culture and celebration of childhood than does a profound mystical resurrection of a gorily executed adult.

I’d also add the following arguments:
  • in the 20th century commercial world, end-of-year sales take on a big importance, and Christmas is perfectly positioned for that;
  • Easter is a movable feast and not all Christians even celebrate it on the same day, making it harder to have a consistent planned sales effort that you could have if you know Easter is always going to be on April 10 or whatever;
  • The buildup to Easter has traditionally been Lent, which isn’t supposed to be a time for shopping and having Easter parties. I realize Advent used to be more penitential too, but somewhere that got changed into a time of joyous anticipation with a lot of pre-celebrating buildup.
 
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