[mcg1969]

BTW isn't Christmas the TRADITIONAL time of celebration the birth of the Savior of the world?

Ah, this brings up an interesting point. Are we lying to our kids when we say that Christmas is the day Jesus was born? I mean, the truth is, we really have no idea what day Jesus was born. The best guess is that it was sometime in the spring, given that the shepherds were watching their flocks by night, which is something they did only when they were "in season" (the spring).

Do we have to tell our children, then, as soon as they can possibly comprehend it, that December 25th was in fact a strategic choice made by the 4th century church to counter interest in pagan Saturnalia celebrations?

[silverleaf]

Ah, this brings up an interesting point. Are we lying to our kids when we say that Christmas is the day Jesus was born? I mean, the truth is, we really have no idea what day Jesus was born. The best guess is that it was sometime in the spring, given that the shepherds were watching their flocks by night, which is something they did only when they were "in season" (the spring).

Do we have to tell our children, then, as soon as they can possibly comprehend it, that December 25th was in fact a strategic choice made by the 4th century church to counter interest in pagan Saturnalia celebrations?

You could tell your kids what our priest told ours last Sunday.

That the religious beliefs of societies who ruled the known world before the birth of Christ, were derived from paganism or variations thereof. And that pagan religions from the earliest recorded time, celebrated the winter solstice as a time for celebration, marking the earth's astronomical turn from darkness, back towards the light.

That Christians were a minority for several early centuries after the life of Christ. A minority living in a majority pagan world, and a minority that was threatened with death for its beliefs (read Fox's Book of Martyrs and the stories of the lives of the early saints...read about the deaths of Christ's original disciples..) Christians were a minority that was forced to outwardly conform to pagan societal customs and celebrations, while secretly gathering together to teach, to learn and to worship.

That when the pagan society of Rome and elsewhere was celebrating lights festivals in late December to honor its gods of nature, Christians could secretly celebrate, too......knowing that their participation in festivals of light represented, to them, the light of Christ entering into a dark world. That truly no one knows the date of Christ's birth. But why not have chosen the time of the solstice, the day the earth each year turns away from darkness and to the light?

Puts a far different "spin" on this issue - and perhaps a more historically accurate perspective - than that offered by sneering secular naysayers, and fundamentals of extreme views who regard tradition as a doctrinal antithesis of Scripture rather than an adjunct... and who seem to imply that early Christians merely coopted a pagan festival so they would have an excuse to party.