Hi everyone I had a questions on the issues of the holiday of Christmas but we first need to understand the roots of this holiday. Many of our modern Christmas traditions began hundreds of years before Christ . Some date back more than 4000 years. The addition of Christ to the celebration of the winter solstice did not occur until 300 years after Christ died and as late as 1800,what is the history behind these traditions?The Christmas tree is derived from several pagan traditions. The Romans decked their halls with garlands of laurel and placed candles in live trees to decorate for the celebration of Saturnalia. In Scandinavia, they hung apples from evergreen trees at the winder solstice to remind themselves that spring and summer will come again. The evergreen tree was the special plant of their sun god, Baldor.The practice of exchanging gifts at a winter celebration is also pre-Christian and is from the Roman Saturnalia. They would exchange good-luck gifts called Stenae (lucky fruits). They also would have a big feast just like we do today.Mistletoe is from an ancient Druid custom at the winter solstice. Mistletoe was considered a divine plant and it symbolized love and peace. The tradition of kissing under the mistletoe is Druid in origin.The Scandinavian solstice traditions had a lot of influences on our celebration besides the hanging of ornaments on evergreen trees. Their ancient festival was called Yuletide and celebrated the return of the sun. One of their traditions was the Yule log. The log was the center of the trunk of a tree that was dragged to a large fireplace where it was supposed to burn for twelve days. From this comes the twelve days of Christmas.Even the date of Christmas, December 25, was borrowed from another religion. At the time Christmas was created in AD 320, Mithraism was very popular. The early Christian church had gotten tired of their futile efforts to stop people celebrating the solstice and the birthday of Mithras, the Persian sun god. Mithras birthday was December 25. So the pope at the time decided to make Jesus official birthday coincide with Mithras birthday. No one knows what time of year Jesus was actually born but there is evidence to suggest that it was in midsummer.The Pagan Origins of ChristmasBy Royce Carlson Once understanding the truth behind christmas is it bad to celebrate it?
I don't think it is bad to celebrate Christmas. Obviously we will celebrate it in a different way to the world. I guess i would base my argument on the fact that the Lord instituted celebrations for Israel- Passover, Pentecost (celebrating the giving of the law) and the feast of tabernacles. The Lord told them to set apart special seasons to remember and celebrate these events. So why would it be wrong to have a special time of year to celebrate and give thanks to God for sending His Son into the world! Of course we should remember and celebrate it daily, but i find it particularly helpful to have Christmas as a time to meditate on the incarnation- i mean it just blows my mind every year!As for all the festivities, i think each man has to listen to the Lord and his own conscience on that. But lets use Christmas for the glory of God by getting out there and using it as the amazing God given evangelistic opportunity that it is and lets use it to remember, celebrate and worship our Saviou, the Son of God who became man for us, our Lord Jesus Christ!
_________________George Platt
Hi John,Careful how much credence you give to just one perspective, there is quite a bit more (or less depending on how you look at it) history and adaptation to what we have today.Here is an old post put together for just this time of year;[url=https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=8498&forum=35#64731] ~ Christmas Links at SermonIndex ~[/url]
_________________Mike Balog
Here4Him wrote:I don't think it is bad to celebrate Christmas. Obviously we will celebrate it in a different way to the world. I guess i would base my argument on the fact that the Lord instituted celebrations for Israel- Passover, Pentecost (celebrating the giving of the law) and the feast of tabernacles. The Lord told them to set apart special seasons to remember and celebrate these events. So why would it be wrong to have a special time of year to celebrate and give thanks to God for sending His Son into the world! Of course we should remember and celebrate it daily, but i find it particularly helpful to have Christmas as a time to meditate on the incarnation- i mean it just blows my mind every year!As for all the festivities, i think each man has to listen to the Lord and his own conscience on that. But lets use Christmas for the glory of God by getting out there and using it as the amazing God given evangelistic opportunity that it is and lets use it to remember, celebrate and worship our Saviou, the Son of God who became man for us, our Lord Jesus Christ!
The Quakers, of course, took this to another level and refused to refer to the days of the week because they all had pagan connotations. The months of the year posed them similar problems with January to June all named after pagan gods.We can sit loose to this things without too much difficulty.Here is a list which may interest you, I don't think it is comprehensive...Apollos, Mark, Epaphroditus, Epaphras, Junia, They were all named after pagan gods and never changed their names.
_________________Ron Bailey
Here we go again...What did Paul say about eating meat sacrificed to idols? If you can eat it with thanksgiving, eat it. If you can't, dont partake.Krispy
What did Paul say about eating meat sacrificed to idols? If you can eat it with thanksgiving, eat it. If you can't, dont partake.
