Was Christmas A Pagan
Holiday and Is it Again?
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Not Biblical history but just an interesting thought to this author.
What is
being said is that Christmas is not a legitimate Christian holiday
because (a)there was a pagan holiday on that date, in fact
multiple
pagan holidays around the world on that date so it wasn't about Christ
and (b) non-Christians also celebrate the holiday today so that today
it still isn't about Christ. What's a Christian to do? Should
a
Christian celebrate Christmas? Let's look at some history now.
While
Christmas has become a major celebration, for most Christians in
the beginning it was only one of a number of masses celebrated for
Christ and not necesarily the most important. It was
a mass
for Christ's birth or Christ-mass. It is the recognition of
God
becoming as man in all ways except sin. It is not a birth
date
but a birth that is celebrated. (There is no month or day date
given in the Bible but enough clues are given to place it to within a
year or two on the Bible timeline.) The date was chosen for
symbolic
reasons.
The December 25 date may have been selected by the church in Rome in
the early 4th century. At this time, a church calendar was created and
other holidays were also placed on solar dates: "It is cosmic
symbolism...which inspired the Church leadership in Rome to elect the
winter solstice, December 25, as the birthday of Christ, and the summer
solstice as that of John the Baptist, supplemented by the equinoxes as
their respective dates of conception. While they were aware that pagans
called this day the 'birthday' of Sol Invictus, this did not concern
them and it did not play any role in their choice of date for
Christmas," according to modern scholar S.E. Hijmans 1
author of Sol,
the sun in the art and religions of Rome, 2009, pp. 587–588
Was it to convert pagans to Christianity, to allow them to keep
celebrating pagan holidays if they would convert?
There are many theories surrounding Christmas, such
as the belief that it was created simply to convert pagans and/or
replace the pagan celebrations around the winter solstice. The problem
with these theories is two-fold. First, there is a lack of evidence.
There was no big push in early church to create a birthday celebration
for Christ. Of course, the church was and is "in the business"
of spreading Christianity so there is no doubt that the early church
fathers wanted pagans to convert and wanted celebrations to honor God.
Second, pagan worship practices were
seasonal and on-going. That is,
almost any date or time frame could be said to be a pagan "Holy day.
That Christian Holy Days would clash with and even replace pagan days
was inevitable.2
Christmas today. Christmas is being celebrated around the
world by people and cultures with no belief in Christ, people who
retain the gift-giving and family get-together traditions but do not
bring Christ into it. The US federal government closes for a
paid
holiday on both Thanksgiving and Christmas holding that to do so is not
necessarily an endorsement
of the Christian religion.
Should
Christians celebrate Christmas? As always, the heart of the
matter is the heart. Why do you celebrate it? Is it to
celebrate
a birth rather than a birthday? If so, what does it matter
why
other people do it or what other peoples and cultures might have - or
did have- a celebration on that date?
Christmas
article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas
accessed
12/22/2010
Where and how did Christmas start?
accessed 12/22/2010
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