Is Chrismas Pagan or Christian?
A classic controversy is whether Christmas, Easter, and Halloween are acceptable for Christians to celebrate. It is alleged that since these holidays are pagan in origin, then they are not Christian. This reasoning is stupendously flawed.
Christians have a habit of taking things and giving them new meanings. The earliest Christian depictions of the Jesus are
1)A fish
2)A swan
3)Jonah and the Whale
The earliest depictions of Jesus are modeled after art of Apollo. Later they are modeled after Zeus. These are pagan gods. But the Christians gave their own touch. They had an almost obsession with slipping in coded messages that only the learned would notice.
Does any of this make Christianity pagan? No. The best way to see this point is by taking it further. It's the long standing tradition of Christians to take things and redefine them. For example, the word "God" is a pagan word that refers to Odin, Thor, Fre, Loki, etc. But no one thinks of that word as meaning anything other than some sort of all powerful perfect being today. Christianity has successfully redefined this word. The success is so complete that if you tell someone the word is pagan, they will very likely not believe you. They may very well get offended.
Therefore the issue with Christmas boils down to whether Christians have successfully redefined the holiday. This is where things get interesting.
Christmas is the celebration of Jesus' birth. Christians "probably" did not place their celebration at December 25 to rival the solstice festival. And no one then would have called the pagan celebration that anyway. At any rate this view is damaged by the fact that the calendar is filled with pagan festivals. Any date you pick is always going to land something from Germany, Scandinavia, the Celts, the Romans, Babylon, Egypt, etc. The Jews had an ancient belief that a prophet must always be conceived on the day of his or her birth. (Yes there are ancient female prophetesses.) In 305 AD, the worst and final Roman persecution of Christians was going strong. But after an incredible turn of events, by 312 the emperor Constantine himself supported Christianity in every way, which very much included money.
A controversy was raging among Christians at this time. In fact many had raged in centuries past and then passed away. The current one surrounded a man named Arius. People couldn't agree if Arius taught Jesus was God or not. During the era of persecutions, it was difficult for Christians to just "have a meeting" and discuss anything. At that time Christians couldn't even have church buildings. So after Constantine was a Christian, in 323 the first ecumenical council was called. This word means that all of the churches in Christianity met together. And Arius was given a hearing. Once his position was clearly stated, everyone voted against him except the people who came with him. After he spoke, everyone realized he clearly thought Jesus was not God. But his followers literally got romantically involved in the family of Constantine. After his death, they got the emperor to order that all church leaders be Arian. And they persecuted the Nicene Christians to the death. Eventually, Julian became emperor. He converted to paganism and brought the persecution of all Christians back, but rather mildly. Finally, Theodosius was the ardent Nicene Christian emperor. He actually persecuted pagans as well as Arians. We must note that these persecutions were ineffective. Both paganism and Arianism lived on just fine.
There was only one other issue to be discussed at the council of Nicea. When was Easter? Once they decided on March 25, then they followed the old Jewish belief about conception. Nine months after March 25 is December 25.
There are two separate pagan celebrations that Christmas draws from. The Romans celebrated Saturnalia. Saturn was the god of time (Greek Chronos). The Roman new year started in March. But the solstice was a time that they corrected their calendars which got further and further off over time. This festival involved giving presents, including toys for children. But it was really about how Rome brought back the golden age when Chronos, not Zeus ruled. Gambling was allowed for the festival. Slaves were allowed to speak disrespectfully to their masters. They chose a "King of Saturnalia" by lot. His job was to make proclamations that were crazy or strange. And then everyone had to obey them. Generally speaking, Saturnalia was a time or crazy partying and getting drunk. It was like Mardi Gras in New Orleans with role reversals and going crazy in public.
Then there is the pagan festival of Yuletide to the north. The Germanic peoples were never successfully Romanized. "Yule" refers to the month but it lasted from part of November into part of January. At this time of year they sometimes had a big bonfire in the woods at night. They would also burn the Yule fire. You cut down a tree and feed it into the fire slowly over the twelve days. You don't cut it up. They would also decorate a tree in the woods, even with balls. They also brought magic plants for health into the house, which included evergreen branches. This was the time of year when animals were slaughtered. Without abundant crops like corn, fertilizer, and modern farming machines, you couldn't keep all your animals alive over the winter. You had to kill some and salt whatever meat you weren't eating then. So the festival involved eating freshly slaughtered meat. They were enjoying the fruits of their work during the growing season. Children would go door to door singing for people. They believed Odin would ride the skies on some animal or even an animal drawn sleigh. He would reward the good and punish the evil. He would give toys to children. We will talk about Santa Claus later. Let's make this abundantly clear. Yuletide was celebrated with multiple days and nights of alcohol consumption. As in, they just kept drinking the entire time both night and day. You should get the picture of Yuletide now. This is the one time of year you eat fresh meat instead of salted. You get super drunk for days, the kids play and it's a big party.
So in many ways these festivals of Saturnalia and Yuletide sound a lot like Christmas. But ultimately they are celebrations of the passing of time with a big party. In other words, we still do the exact same thing and call it New Years Eve. But Christmas has taken on some sort of distinction from this. We tend to separate Christmas from drunken revelry in our minds today. What happened? To us, the spirit of Christmas is about family, giving, and love for all others. This is where the story gets more interesting.
When George Washington crossed the Delaware in 1776, he did it on Christmas night. This was a sneak attack. He assumed the Hessian soldiers would all be drunk. He was right. So when exactly did Christmas become a time not to get drunk? A man named Charles Dickens wrote a story called "A Christmas Carol." In this story, he redefined the holiday to really be about what we think of it as today, family, giving, and love for all others. He is generally credited with changing the concept of Christmas in this way.
The gigantic influence of Dickens is on par with Shakespeare, Dostoevsky, Dante and the like. The Harry Potter stories are referred to as "Dickensian" because their story structure is traditional. This modern concept of Christmas can be summed up in the Christian virtue of charity. Charity is an invention of Christianity. Dickens skillfully left out any direct references to Jesus in his story. But the story is centrally focused on charity throughout. Christianity has so successfully sold the world on charity that people get offended when you say who invented it.
The Romans practiced something called Liberatas. They gave to people with the belief that someday they person would repay them. This more often than not was giving to a rich person. The Christians innovated a new thing called Charitas. The link to the greek charitos is interesting. Every time you read "grace" in the New Testament, it is really this word. The Christians were focused on Christ. Christ's work of salvation was an act of charity for us, not what we deserved because we worked for it. Christ were even commanded His followers to literally treat the lowest person in the world as though it is Christ, the literal God of the universe.
No other culture believed in this. The Muslims did practice charity, but they were heavily influenced by centuries of Christianity. The Indian religions all believed in Karma. Under this, the situation you are born into is what you deserve. You must suffer to pay for previous sins to move up. Therefore giving to help others was forbidden. In China they believed that if the poor are not poor then there would be no order in society. They feared the anarchy of breaking down divisions. So the rich often took what the poor had. Capitalism even started to form in the 10th century, but the court Mandarins ruled it a threat to the Confucian order and took everything. In the ancient Americas slavery was brutal even to the point of actually eating people like livestock. No culture believed in Charitas except the Christians. We do not know the history of all cultures, but what we do know always supports this.
There are a few final things to add. The word "Christmas" refers to an actual church service on Christmas day. I'm making a guess in the dark here. But probably Christians made it a point to go to church as an alternative to getting drunk. Santa Claus appears to be an amalgamation of three things. First, there's Odin. Second, clearly he is based on St. Nicholas, who actually gave presents to children. And third, the Coca Cola company did successfully redefine this guy to have more to do with spending money.
Christians have a habit of taking things and giving them new meanings. The earliest Christian depictions of the Jesus are
1)A fish
2)A swan
3)Jonah and the Whale
The earliest depictions of Jesus are modeled after art of Apollo. Later they are modeled after Zeus. These are pagan gods. But the Christians gave their own touch. They had an almost obsession with slipping in coded messages that only the learned would notice.
Does any of this make Christianity pagan? No. The best way to see this point is by taking it further. It's the long standing tradition of Christians to take things and redefine them. For example, the word "God" is a pagan word that refers to Odin, Thor, Fre, Loki, etc. But no one thinks of that word as meaning anything other than some sort of all powerful perfect being today. Christianity has successfully redefined this word. The success is so complete that if you tell someone the word is pagan, they will very likely not believe you. They may very well get offended.
Therefore the issue with Christmas boils down to whether Christians have successfully redefined the holiday. This is where things get interesting.
Christmas is the celebration of Jesus' birth. Christians "probably" did not place their celebration at December 25 to rival the solstice festival. And no one then would have called the pagan celebration that anyway. At any rate this view is damaged by the fact that the calendar is filled with pagan festivals. Any date you pick is always going to land something from Germany, Scandinavia, the Celts, the Romans, Babylon, Egypt, etc. The Jews had an ancient belief that a prophet must always be conceived on the day of his or her birth. (Yes there are ancient female prophetesses.) In 305 AD, the worst and final Roman persecution of Christians was going strong. But after an incredible turn of events, by 312 the emperor Constantine himself supported Christianity in every way, which very much included money.
A controversy was raging among Christians at this time. In fact many had raged in centuries past and then passed away. The current one surrounded a man named Arius. People couldn't agree if Arius taught Jesus was God or not. During the era of persecutions, it was difficult for Christians to just "have a meeting" and discuss anything. At that time Christians couldn't even have church buildings. So after Constantine was a Christian, in 323 the first ecumenical council was called. This word means that all of the churches in Christianity met together. And Arius was given a hearing. Once his position was clearly stated, everyone voted against him except the people who came with him. After he spoke, everyone realized he clearly thought Jesus was not God. But his followers literally got romantically involved in the family of Constantine. After his death, they got the emperor to order that all church leaders be Arian. And they persecuted the Nicene Christians to the death. Eventually, Julian became emperor. He converted to paganism and brought the persecution of all Christians back, but rather mildly. Finally, Theodosius was the ardent Nicene Christian emperor. He actually persecuted pagans as well as Arians. We must note that these persecutions were ineffective. Both paganism and Arianism lived on just fine.
There was only one other issue to be discussed at the council of Nicea. When was Easter? Once they decided on March 25, then they followed the old Jewish belief about conception. Nine months after March 25 is December 25.
There are two separate pagan celebrations that Christmas draws from. The Romans celebrated Saturnalia. Saturn was the god of time (Greek Chronos). The Roman new year started in March. But the solstice was a time that they corrected their calendars which got further and further off over time. This festival involved giving presents, including toys for children. But it was really about how Rome brought back the golden age when Chronos, not Zeus ruled. Gambling was allowed for the festival. Slaves were allowed to speak disrespectfully to their masters. They chose a "King of Saturnalia" by lot. His job was to make proclamations that were crazy or strange. And then everyone had to obey them. Generally speaking, Saturnalia was a time or crazy partying and getting drunk. It was like Mardi Gras in New Orleans with role reversals and going crazy in public.
Then there is the pagan festival of Yuletide to the north. The Germanic peoples were never successfully Romanized. "Yule" refers to the month but it lasted from part of November into part of January. At this time of year they sometimes had a big bonfire in the woods at night. They would also burn the Yule fire. You cut down a tree and feed it into the fire slowly over the twelve days. You don't cut it up. They would also decorate a tree in the woods, even with balls. They also brought magic plants for health into the house, which included evergreen branches. This was the time of year when animals were slaughtered. Without abundant crops like corn, fertilizer, and modern farming machines, you couldn't keep all your animals alive over the winter. You had to kill some and salt whatever meat you weren't eating then. So the festival involved eating freshly slaughtered meat. They were enjoying the fruits of their work during the growing season. Children would go door to door singing for people. They believed Odin would ride the skies on some animal or even an animal drawn sleigh. He would reward the good and punish the evil. He would give toys to children. We will talk about Santa Claus later. Let's make this abundantly clear. Yuletide was celebrated with multiple days and nights of alcohol consumption. As in, they just kept drinking the entire time both night and day. You should get the picture of Yuletide now. This is the one time of year you eat fresh meat instead of salted. You get super drunk for days, the kids play and it's a big party.
So in many ways these festivals of Saturnalia and Yuletide sound a lot like Christmas. But ultimately they are celebrations of the passing of time with a big party. In other words, we still do the exact same thing and call it New Years Eve. But Christmas has taken on some sort of distinction from this. We tend to separate Christmas from drunken revelry in our minds today. What happened? To us, the spirit of Christmas is about family, giving, and love for all others. This is where the story gets more interesting.
When George Washington crossed the Delaware in 1776, he did it on Christmas night. This was a sneak attack. He assumed the Hessian soldiers would all be drunk. He was right. So when exactly did Christmas become a time not to get drunk? A man named Charles Dickens wrote a story called "A Christmas Carol." In this story, he redefined the holiday to really be about what we think of it as today, family, giving, and love for all others. He is generally credited with changing the concept of Christmas in this way.
The gigantic influence of Dickens is on par with Shakespeare, Dostoevsky, Dante and the like. The Harry Potter stories are referred to as "Dickensian" because their story structure is traditional. This modern concept of Christmas can be summed up in the Christian virtue of charity. Charity is an invention of Christianity. Dickens skillfully left out any direct references to Jesus in his story. But the story is centrally focused on charity throughout. Christianity has so successfully sold the world on charity that people get offended when you say who invented it.
The Romans practiced something called Liberatas. They gave to people with the belief that someday they person would repay them. This more often than not was giving to a rich person. The Christians innovated a new thing called Charitas. The link to the greek charitos is interesting. Every time you read "grace" in the New Testament, it is really this word. The Christians were focused on Christ. Christ's work of salvation was an act of charity for us, not what we deserved because we worked for it. Christ were even commanded His followers to literally treat the lowest person in the world as though it is Christ, the literal God of the universe.
No other culture believed in this. The Muslims did practice charity, but they were heavily influenced by centuries of Christianity. The Indian religions all believed in Karma. Under this, the situation you are born into is what you deserve. You must suffer to pay for previous sins to move up. Therefore giving to help others was forbidden. In China they believed that if the poor are not poor then there would be no order in society. They feared the anarchy of breaking down divisions. So the rich often took what the poor had. Capitalism even started to form in the 10th century, but the court Mandarins ruled it a threat to the Confucian order and took everything. In the ancient Americas slavery was brutal even to the point of actually eating people like livestock. No culture believed in Charitas except the Christians. We do not know the history of all cultures, but what we do know always supports this.
There are a few final things to add. The word "Christmas" refers to an actual church service on Christmas day. I'm making a guess in the dark here. But probably Christians made it a point to go to church as an alternative to getting drunk. Santa Claus appears to be an amalgamation of three things. First, there's Odin. Second, clearly he is based on St. Nicholas, who actually gave presents to children. And third, the Coca Cola company did successfully redefine this guy to have more to do with spending money.
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