Christmas has nothing to do with Christianity, never did. The pagans made it an the Christans stole and renamed it. Now it's a commercial holiday celebrated by most people regardless of religion. People like getting gifts and spending money, why not celebrate it?
I am an atheist, and as much as you can call it "celebrating" Christmas, I do too. Family comes over, maybe some gifts get exchanged, I dunno, it is different every year. But in all my life have I NEVER felt any connection towards it being a "christian" holiday to the point of hannukha being jewish for example.
You don´t hear hannukha songs in TV or radio or ads for what would make the perfect hannukha gift, now, do you?
Well, maybe in Israel...I dunno...
And Santa Claus (as he looks today at least) was an invention of Coca Cola, of all people...really, look it up. That´s why he wears red and white, it is the company colors...Saint Nicolas would be ashamed.
Well, maybe it is because I am german (Weihnachten doesn´t even contain the word Christ), but it is essentially "That day" where you pretend to be nice to everyone, your family comes over and you share a nice time together. The birth of Jesus was on the 26th anyway, as far as I remember.
My knowledge of Christian fiction is somewhat lacking, but I think it's theorized that Jesus was born in the summer. Mary and Joseph were on their way to the city to pay their taxes when Jesus was born. Though no dates were given, historically, people paid their taxes in the summer months.
It was originally a pagan holiday, anyway.
Just because someone is an atheist doesn't mean they want to be grumpy and ignore holidays, they just don't believe in those holidays religiously.
Wasn't Jesus supposed to have been born sometime in the summer, though?
Meh, I just see it as a lovely 'festive' time of the year in which one can be happy and the family gets together. And watch the Doctor Who xmas special, of course. I'm not religious in the slightest.
I'm an atheist, my whole family is atheist heck 70-80~ of my country is atheist but still most of us celebrate christmas just without the going to church and jesus being born stuff but with all the presents, santa and families getting together because well only a fool can't find a reason to PARTAAAY
Just had a debate about this, in my opinion Christmas is about bringing people together, so if we make Christmas exclusive to Christians and force out non-Christians then it isn't Christmas.
I think Christmas is no longer just a religious holiday I believe in god but I know several atheists who celebrate X-mas and some of my other Christian friends do not think they should be celebrating if they do not believe in Christ but I believe it has gone past that to just a holiday to come together and show each other we care.
You clearly haven't read the Bible well enough to be judging such matters - note Genesis XVI:11 "and God made punctuation, and he saw that it was good."
OT I'm not especially religious or an atheist but I don't really see Christmas as a exclusively religious event. It's always made a lot of happiness in my family and as has been said before, what's the harm in celebrating something that brings happiness to yourself and others, particularly in these less than optimistic times.
Whats not to love about christmas?
Shit, I'm as agnostic as it gets, and I friggin LOVE it!
Family
Eggnog
Presents
Eggnog
Ham
Eggnog
Laughing at dad when he insists on reading Mark before opening presents
Eggnog
Getting shit face with friends and singing carols even though none of us knows the words
EGGNOG (with rum)
Its a festive drink that has enough sugar in it to drop a diabetic moose, and great for mixing with rum.
You can buy it in stores here, but only around this season.
There's also a gazillion recipes for making it.
Try this one: http://www.eggnogrecipe.net/easy-eggnog-recipe.html
Christmas isn't a christian holiday. It wasn't from the beginning, and isn't now. I live in the most non-religious country in the world, Sweden, and we're all crazy about christmas.
I think Christmas is no longer just a religious holiday I believe in god but I know several atheists who celebrate X-mas and some of my other Christian friends do not think they should be celebrating if they do not believe in Christ but I believe it has gone past that to just a holiday to come together and show each other we care.
I did not tell anyone what they can or cannot be doing. If you read what is said I said I thought it was not a religious holiday. And only some of my friends are Christian I have friends from many religions.
Christmas is stolen from the Pagan religion, and everything about it today has been warped and reshaped by capitalism, from gift giving to the red and white Coca Cola Santa.
I still celebrate christmas and I'm atheist.
Or should I avert my eyes from all the Christian symbols on display?
Like those traditional Christian Pine Trees
or the lights that adorn said trees
or the holy honey-baked ham?
The meaning behind it may be Christian but the actual Holiday kinda isn't.
Uhh, that's either one of the most ignorant statements on theology I've ever read, or you're trolling.
I honestly hope it's the latter.
For the record: Yes, Christmas was originally a pagan holiday.
And yes, Christianity, for all intents and purposes, took it over and made it into the celebration of Christ's birth.
Niether of those things 'disproves' Christ, Christmas, or Christianity.
I think it's hilarious when both conservative Christians and overly overt atheists bash heads over Christmas. Both need to realize that the exact date of Christ's birth isn't the issue. Even if Jesus was born in, say, June, who cares? The date isn't important, the event is. We celebrate is on Dec 25th. Get over it.
And another thing: The term Xmas. Who else here realizes that this started with the church? It's not removing 'Christ' from Christmas at all. The first book printed by the printing press was, you guessed it, the Bible and Christian literature. And the old printing presses were a very long, time consuming process. So rather then write out 'Christianity', the wrote 'Xianity', since the word 'Christ' in original Greek started with an X. It still means 'Christ', and it's still pronounced 'Christmas'. It was there to save space on paper, not remove Christ.
But Christmas is also a wonderful generic holiday for those who aren't Christian, because the holiday also promotes family, giving, selflessness, community, and just being happy. So you certainly don't have to be Christian to enjoy the holiday, and who cares that it was once a pagan holiday. If you want to celebrate it that way, knock yourself out. I'm celebrating the birth of Jesus with my family and friends.
Everyone just needs to get over it and enjoy the holiday.
Merry Christmas!
The end of winter and the return of life, the hatching of eggs, the birth of cute little baby animals.
You know, I'm really glad the U.S. has the Fourth of July, otherwise somebody would make up a story about how Jesus got his first pubes around the summer solstice.
Like the first post said: Christmas has nothing to do with Christianity, so anyone can celebrate it since it's modern incarnation and traditions have turned it (more-or-less) into a secular holiday.
Everything about it has been plagiarized from other pre-existing pagan traditions. The date of December 25th is very unlikely to be the day Christ was born since:
A: It's conveniently the same date as the Winter Solstice and early Pagan harvest festivals.
B: Modern scholars place Jesus' birth somewhere in the month of June.
The holly, ivy, and mistletoe are all Pagan fertility symbols, bastardized by Christianity as a political strike to allow the church to gain power and control in other regions since the church was much more a political power and system of control than it was a religion back then. The date is the same deal; early Pagans were convinced to believe in Christianity by telling them that they'd still get to keep their winter festival; they'd just be celebrating it for a different reason.
ioxles said:
Saint Nicholas is a Christian Saint, of East European (german?) origin, coloured by Coca Cola and dumped in the North Pole.
This is a common misconception; the red-and-white uniform Father Christmas wears today is actually because of the early illustrations by Thomas Nast, which is a reflection of the Dutch version of Saint Nicholas.
Early American settlers, being Puritans, rejected the English Father Christmas, but later Dutch immigrants brought traditions about St Nicholas, popularized through a poem by Clement Clark Moore, "The Visit of Saint Nicholas" (1822), now more usually called "The Night Before Christmas".
Moore describes the saint not as a bishop in a red cope, as in Holland, but as a fat man dressed in fur, driving a reindeer sleigh. He may well have been aware that in many European traditions, notably in Germany, St Nicholas is accompanied by fur-clad or gnome-like servants who carry presents for good children, but a birch for bad ones (known as Krampus); such images might seem more appealing than a saint in religious garb.
The dutch referred to Saint Nicholas as Sinterklaas. This was later changed to Santa Claus as it became more popular.
Parallels have been drawn between the legend of Sinterklaas and the figure of Odin, a major god amongst the Germanic peoples and worshipped in North and Western Europe prior to Christianization.
Since some elements of the Sinterklaas celebration are unrelated to Christianity, there are theories regarding the pagan origins of various customs of the holiday stemming from areas where the Germanic peoples were Christianized and retained elements of their indigenous traditions, surviving in various forms into modern depictions of Sinterklaas. Non-Christian elements in Sinterklaas that arguably could have been of pagan origin:
* Sinterklaas rides the roof tops with his white horse Amerigo; Odin rides the sky with his gray horse Sleipnir.
* Sinterklaas and Odin are both depicted with a long beard.
* Sinterklaas has a staff and mischievous helpers with black faces; Odin has a spear and black ravens as his attributes.
* It has been also claimed that the tradition of children placing their boots filled with carrots, straw or sugar near the chimney for the White horse of Sinterklaas goes back to pre-Christian North Western Europe, where children would place their boots near the chimney for Odin's flying horse, Sleipnir, to eat.
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