since when is christmass a religions event?

[banegirl]

Don't really care about the religious importance of the holiday and just think it is a good excuse for family to get together, eat good food, share presents and just hang out a bit.

Not everything needs to be so complicated.

Thank you!

Speaking as a christian. I don't understand what all the fuss is about. Yes CHRISTmas. The celebration is designed to celebrate the birth of Christ but, it was a holiday combined with the winter solstice festival. Christian celebrate the birth of Christ, non-Christians celebrate family and gift giving.

I would just appreciate it if atheists could respect the celebration of the birth of Christ. I've never heard a christian say that non-Christians shouldn't be celebrating Christmas but, if they do, that is WRONG and they should be ashamed.


I am aware I'm a n00b

Happy Christmas!!!

 

[gigastrike]

...Umm...since always? It's kinda the birthday of Jesus and everything.

 

[Batou667]

Tl;dr but

1) Of course Christmas is religious, it has the words "Christ" and "Mass" in it!

2) Although, it just so happened to replace existing Pagan festivals that were held around the same time of year.

3) I think it's perfectly possible to be an athiest (or non-christian) and still be "culturally Christian" and celebrate Christmas.

 

[WeAreStevo]

now I dont actually know if chrstmases origins were christian Im a VERY sure it actually wansnt, I know baby jesus didnt have his birthday on the 25th of decenmber..and I think christians "stole" the date to compete with another festival

It was stolen from Pagans (like most Christian holidays).

It coincides with the celebration of "Yule" and the Winter Solstice.

I find it quite odd that people even consider this a christian holiday anymore seeing as it's all about presents, santa, and spending money...

But yes. Taken from pagans.

 

[ultimateownage]

People who "celebrate Christmas" but aren't christian are piggybacking on everything the holiday brings with it, but removing the religion from it. I.E. Those billboards.... "Jesus is the reason for the season". Because its an unfortunate trend, people want all the good things in life, but none of the work or responsibility.

I'm not celebrating Christmas, I'm celebrating Aengus-Is-Awesome-Mas. If you can rename a holiday, take all of it's traditions, and then claim it your own then so can I.
All of the arguments similar to yours fall flat when you take that into consideration.

Snip

I don't understand what you're trying to say. It's a fact that Christmas was placed on that date to interfere with the Pagan traditions of places Christianity had recently spread to. They wanted to replace Paganism, and so they tried to replace their stuff with Christian stuff and essentially force them into it. They didn't choose the 25th of December (The same date as Yule) because it's the 'happiest day of the year'.

I wish America let us asians celebrate Lunar New Year at home instead of at work >.>. Yet, there's a week off for a christian related holiday...

You get the time off at Christmas, so they don't want to give you more time off. Pretty simple.

 

[Trivea]

Christmas was originally a druid holiday, hence the trees, sort of like how Easter was a pagan holiday (fertility festival, kind of). The Christians pretty much ripped both of the holidays off to make them more religiously acceptable.

Some astronomer actually put the birth of Jesus Christ in April.

 

[Vault101]

now I dont actually know if chrstmases origins were christian Im a VERY sure it actually wansnt, I know baby jesus didnt have his birthday on the 25th of decenmber..and I think christians "stole" the date to compete with another festival

Someone may have already mentioned this, but you are correct. December 25th was the birthday of the Roman Pagan Sun God, Mythra (spelling?). It was later "adopted" by Christians as a celebration for the birth of Jesus to go along with Pagan traditions.

Since then, Christmas has become so commercialized it lost all meaning. I just find it hilarious when the hypocritical Christians shun non-Christians, or even better, Pagans, for celebrating the holiday.

"may have already mentioned this"? I have never had so many "quotes" at one time...

still I supose i was asking for it

 

[SamuelT]

...

Also, Santa is St. Nicholas, a Catholic Bishop. Just throwing that out there.

...

Nope!

The dutch, and inspiration for Santa, Sinterklaas is St. Nicholas. Santa I believe was inspired by this phenomenon and created by some company or other, I think it was Cola.

 

[Vault101]

Since when? Since ALWAYS. Like some other people said. CHRISTmas.

So, you have it backwards. You should be asking, since when is CHRISTmas, NOT a religious event.

People who "celebrate Christmas" but aren't christian are piggybacking on everything the holiday brings with it, but removing the religion from it. I.E. Those billboards.... "Jesus is the reason for the season". Because its an unfortunate trend, people want all the good things in life, [/B]but none of the work or responsibility.[/B]

So when you say "not just Christians celebrate Christmas" and "Christmas has become a secular holiday" You are wrong. Well over 50% of the US is christian.

I call bullshit....

1. christaina might get annoyed that comercialism had taken christmas over..somthing I can "sort of" understand BUT that does not give them anyway right to dictate how others celebrate christmas (keep in mind secular people arnt going to church, so I see now reason to be offended)

2. now work or responsibility???? what??? do you know how much effort goes into christmas? the cooking, the planning, the buying gifts, the stress? thats the thing alot of adults stress over christmas because its a big fucking deal to organise..and again I actually have no Idea what that quote has to do with religion...you think because your religious (dont know if you are but anyway) you somhow "work" harder for christmas? its that kind of self-rightiousness attotude that has NO real life relevance is what annoys me about some religious types

 

[ChupathingyX]

The name connects it to Christianity. That's seriously all you can come up with that makes this a Christian holiday? I already explained to you that the name is based on language not stone cold facts. If I celebrate Christmas and say I do it to celebrate the birth of Pablo Picasso does that make it so just because I can convince a few thousands to join me in it? I also find it funny that you, the person quoting me and removing all the text from it so you wont have to address it in full complains about me putting words into your mouth. So after obscuring what I say you accuse me of putting words into your mouth. How classy of you.

I am addressing it in full; it's just that you don't need to show the entire quote. I snip quotes all the time and no one ever says anything about it, it's a common internet forum/chat technique that many people do to remove the amount of space that is clogging up a page so that it runs better. I'm not snipping it as a sign of disrespect, just to simply make room.

Like I said before, about 4 times;

1. I'm not trying to say that only Christians should celebrate Christmas.
2. I was just explaining why some might think it is only theirs due to the name being connected to them.
3. No that isn't all I come up with, there are other reasons which I explained.
4. I'm not even a religious person, so I don't even care. I only came on this thread to make a half-assed comment with a hint of jest. Most people ignored it; some people agreed with it, some people took it too far.

 

[StarCecil]

I remember in my high school government class, around Christmas time, I said I was an atheist during a discussion and this gal started asking me questions.

"How do you celebrate Christmas? Why do you celebrate Christmas? Do you celebrate holidays?"

I was thrown for a loop. I seriously didn't think that anyone actually celebrated Christmas for religion's sake.

 

[Arkynomicon]

Don't really care about the religious importance of the holiday and just think it is a good excuse for family to get together, eat good food, share presents and just hang out a bit.

Not everything needs to be so complicated.

Thank you!

Speaking as a christian. I don't understand what all the fuss is about. Yes CHRISTmas. The celebration is designed to celebrate the birth of Christ but, it was a holiday combined with the winter solstice festival. Christian celebrate the birth of Christ, non-Christians celebrate family and gift giving.

I would just appreciate it if atheists could respect the celebration of the birth of Christ. I've never heard a christian say that non-Christians shouldn't be celebrating Christmas but, if they do, that is WRONG and they should be ashamed.


I am aware I'm a n00b

Happy Christmas!!!

Well, then there is also the fact that Christmas is a pretty harmless celebration so I don't know why people flip their shit over it.

 

[SilentCom]

Christmas started as a religious holiday although it is more commercial now than religious. The same goes with many other holidays. As a matter of fact, even the word "holiday" derived from "holy day" but now pretty much means vacation or time off to relax and celebrate.

Frankly, if people want to celebrate it as a religious holiday, then I find it perfectly fine as long as they don't try to force everyone else to celebrate it the same way as them. This also goes the same for celebrating it commercially.

 

[Ironbat92]

Simple, It's the day God son was born.

 

[DaJoW]

It's called Yule (jul) here, think I was a teen before I knew anyone associated it with Christianity. Since that goes back to the vikings, including several traditions associated with the holiday, I don't think Christianity can really claim "ownership" of it.

 

[mega48man]

well, christmas is about the birth of jesus, sooooooooooooooooo....

but i guess at this point that's just a lie. christmas, from a grumpy perspective, is about selling as much crap as the corporations can to make people believe the lie that they're going to have a magically happy christmas if they buy their products. but from a nicer perspective, it's about showing your freinds and family how much you care in the season of giving. either way, totally unrelated to jesus. the holidays should just be about gift giving. jews exchange gifts in hanukah (please don't be offended by the spelling), i mean, what's the big difference?

hey tell you what, invite your neighbor over for christmas and exchange gifts over some egg nog. do it. dead serious, just do it. you'll feel more warm inside than a shiny brand new set of golf clubs ever will, because no one plays golf.

 

[Cid Silverwing]

I'm an atheist and I celebrate, if only 'cuz I'm lucky the Norwegian language doesn't say "Christmas", but "Jul" (which is just "Yule").

Also, Christians trying to bring Christmas "back" to Christianity are just double thieves. Everyone knows they ripped off the Pagans 'cuz it's Winter Solstice and such.

 

[Yopaz]

The name connects it to Christianity. That's seriously all you can come up with that makes this a Christian holiday? I already explained to you that the name is based on language not stone cold facts. If I celebrate Christmas and say I do it to celebrate the birth of Pablo Picasso does that make it so just because I can convince a few thousands to join me in it? I also find it funny that you, the person quoting me and removing all the text from it so you wont have to address it in full complains about me putting words into your mouth. So after obscuring what I say you accuse me of putting words into your mouth. How classy of you.

I am addressing it in full; it's just that you don't need to show the entire quote. I snip quotes all the time and no one ever says anything about it, it's a common internet forum/chat technique that many people do to remove the amount of space that is clogging up a page so that it runs better. I'm not snipping it as a sign of disrespect, just to simply make room.

Like I said before, about 4 times;

1. I'm not trying to say that only Christians should celebrate Christmas.
2. I was just explaining why some might think it is only theirs due to the name being connected to them.
3. No that isn't all I come up with, there are other reasons which I explained.
4. I'm not even a religious person, so I don't even care. I only came on this thread to make a half-assed comment with a hint of jest. Most people ignored it; some people agreed with it, some people took it too far.

No, you haven't addressed my posts in full. You have addressed exactly the parts you quoted and little else and still you claim I am putting words into your mouth. You're clearly not able to find any real answers if you only repeat the same answers every time you're asked.
You mentioned the name (which I mentioned at once is only the case for one language).
You mentioned that Christians believe they celebrate the birth of Jesus, but ignored my question what difference it is to claim you celebrate the birth of Picasso.
You said it was an American thing, but you ignored my question about how a religion with middle-eastern origin with strongest support in Europe has a unique origin for a holiday in America.
You didn't respond to any of this and you still claim to respond to my posts in full.

 

[ChupathingyX]

You mentioned the name (which I mentioned at once is only the case for one language).

Well yeah because I figured that's what the topic was about..."Christmas". I also never said that no other celebration exists and that Christmas is the only one and it goes by no other name.

You mentioned that Christians believe they celebrate the birth of Jesus, but ignored my question what difference it is to claim you celebrate the birth of Picasso.

I thought that was rhetorical.

But to answer it, well it isn't, if you want to go ahead I'm not going to stop you

You said it was an American thing, but you ignored my question about how a religion with middle-eastern origin with strongest support in Europe has a unique origin for a holiday in America.

Actually I was referring to how Americans would call it "Christmas", at least the English speaking ones, and how some would believe that it is a strictly Christian event. Christianity originated in the Middle East but it has spread to other parts of the world.

You didn't respond to any of this and you still claim to respond to my posts in full.

Okay, well there are you happy? To be honest I don't even know why I needed to have a discussion, I honestly didn't think my post would cause this much hostility and anger over such a petty thing that I don't even care about.

Calm down dude, take a chill pill, a chillaxative, lay down and rest your head for a bit

It's all over now (I hope).