Posted on 12/09/2008 7:25:51 PM PST by hiho hiho
Many Christians think that Christians celebrate Christ’s birth on December 25th because the church fathers appropriated the date of a pagan festival. Almost no one minds, except for a few groups on the fringes of American Evangelicalism, who seem to think that this makes Christmas itself a pagan festival. But it is perhaps interesting to know that the choice of December 25th is the result of attempts among the earliest Christians to figure out the date of Jesus’ birth based on calendrical calculations that had nothing to do with pagan festivals.
Rather, the pagan festival of the “Birth of the Unconquered Son” instituted by the Roman Emperor Aurelian on 25 December 274, was almost certainly an attempt to create a pagan alternative to a date that was already of some significance to Roman Christians. Thus the “pagan origins of Christmas” is a myth without historical substance.
A Mistake
The idea that the date was taken from the pagans goes back to two scholars from the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Paul Ernst Jablonski, a German Protestant, wished to show that the celebration of Christ’s birth on December 25th was one of the many “paganizations” of Christianity that the Church of the fourth century embraced, as one of many “degenerations” that transformed pure apostolic Christianity into Catholicism. Dom Jean Hardouin, a Benedictine monk, tried to show that the Catholic Church adopted pagan festivals for Christian purposes without paganizing the gospel.
(Excerpt) Read more at touchstonemag.com ...
Thought I would post this in advance of those that yearly post their "Christmas is a pagan holiday" greetings.
Sooo...
Did pagans steal from christians the idea of christmas trees, flying reindeer, and a fat old bearded albino in a red velvet suit also?
Merry Christmas to FReepers and to the world in general :)
Cheers,
MM
It is believed they are under the impression they are flying.
Pagans did not invent reindeer.
To hiho hiho: ho ho ho ha!
Except he had no beginning.
Ok, so it’s not literally “flying” reindeer. It’s “high as a kite” reindeer. fine.
And christians thought up the fat albino driving 8 whacked out reindeer first, right? Presumeably “flying” reigndeer were preferred over the non “flying” because they ran faster? But it was christians that thought that up first, and the pagans borrowed it, correct?
Ever since Al Gore put Green Government Surplus Cheese in the Reindeer Food, we now see Chemtrails whenever they are making their practice flights. They are towing giant tin foil sleds to make them look like regular high flying aircraft, but that didn’t fool the Cookie Monster. Does anybody reading this dare ask where is is now?
The smaller dwarves spend all year long making crafts and toys for sale at Christmas to the big Norse people illegally immigrating from the South.
This, again, is all based on reality in the Far North.
Christians have been trying to get in on the good stuff for centuries.
BTW, the world's three largest religions, in descending order are Christianity, Islam and Santa Claus.
You did know about King Frosty, right? A real guy.
Cookie Monster is Dead! $8^0
Well, that depends on what your definition of *is* is ... /grin
Well, if that’s what your notion of Christmas is, well I pity you from the deepest reaches of my soul.
But this article says the pagans actually are borrowers from the christians. So apparently, christians invented the practice of evergreen tree worshipping on the night of december 24th. Then pagans stole the idea.
Never heard of king frosty.
Much more simply:
The Anniversary of the Feast of the Dedication of the Holy Temple of Jerusalem, which celebrated the Presence of the Spirit of God dwelling among Men, took place on 25 Chislev, which is the Hebrew month closely approximating December. (It’s the final day of Hannukah.) Christ declared that He was the Holy Temple, and that the Spirit of God dwelt in him.
Non-Christianized Jews abandoned the celebration after the destruction of the Temple, but the Spirit of God left the temple when Christ died on the cross, as signified by God by the destruction of the Altar and the rending of the Temple curtains. Those Jews thought the sacred observance misplaced. But Jesus didn’t: He visited the Temple on that day.
That’s because He is now the Temple, God Incarnate among Men. And so it is fitting to celebrate His Incarnation on 25 December.
Now if the moon was the heavenly body to count from why was it not what was used to lead those children of Israel in the Exodus. Nooooo they needed a real form of light.
A good article, but the Christmas haters have already started to post articles to debunk Christmas. I don't think they will have much success.
Also the shepherds were in the fields (Luke 2:8-12). Shepherds were not in the fields in the winter time. They are in the fields early in March until early October. This would place Jesus' birth in the spring or early fall.
It is also known that Jesus lived for 33.5 years and died at the feast of the Passover, which is at Easter time. He must therefore have been born six months the other side of Easter - making the date around the September/October time frames.
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