since when is christmass a religions event?

[NotSoLoneWanderer]

why simply since the crusades! don't believe it? we'll kill your family,burn your village and eat your babies in order to prove that our lord exists.

Catholic Church: More like we'll capture the holy lands to occupy the in which our holy book took place and we'll promise the soldiers that any sins committed are forgiven and passage into heaven is assured. Just wanna make sure you know that the it was the Catholic church not the soldiers but undoubtedly many of them enjoyed the rape. Some were brainwashed into thinking this was the right thing to do.

 

[Laser Priest]

I celebrate Presents Day around that time.

It's the day when families join together and offer sacrifice to appease my wrath.

 

[Vhite]

If you live in USA it is another celebration of consumerism. If you are christian you probably celebrate Jesus' birthday and if you are pre-christian pagan you probably celebrate you hate on christians for stealing your holiday.

 

[Ieyke]

Yes, Christmas is a Christian holiday. It literally means "Christ's Mass".

Part of the reason the Roman Empire fell apart was the Emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity and the subsequent adoption of Christianity as the official religion.
In doing so, they began to adopt existing pagan festivals and customs and renamed them, and re-purposed them as Christian traditions, thereby making it easier for people of other religions to accept Christianity taking over. They basically kept doing the same thing and just called it something else.
In effect, the Roman Empire made Christianity into an unstoppable juggernaut at its own expense. Where the Empire would quickly fracture and crumble, Christianity would go on and on and on and on. There's irony for ya...

Thus, Saturnalia (the Roman festival honoring Saturn and the winter solstice) became Christmas, and it is from there that the traditions of gift-giving and merrymaking come. Christmas also absorbed traditions from a variety of other winter festivals such as the Roman New Year from which comes the tradition of greenery, lights, and charity, and from Germanic pagan feasts we get things like Yule Logs and various foods traditions.

Notably, the Norse god Odin became Santa Claus, and his eight-legged flying horse, Sleipnir, became Santa's eight flying reindeer. During the 12-day festival of Yule (which would become "Chirstmastide" AKA "The Twelve Days Of Christmas") Odin would lead a hunting party through the sky, and along his journey children would place their boots, filled with carrots, straw, or sugar, near the chimney for Sleipnir to eat. Odin would then reward those children for their kindness by replacing Sleipnir's food with gifts or candy. The tradition persists today as leaving cookies for Santa and hanging stockings by the chimney to be filled with candy and gifts.
That then became entangled with legends of Saint Nicholas of Myra/Sinterklaas(the Dutch name for him), which is where he got his name.....and finally the Coca-Cola Company got a hold of him and popularized the bright red suit that has now become the iconic image of the figure.




Christmas is the finest example of how Christianity pretty much ripped off anything and everything they could...

 

[Switchblade 327]

Well, Christmas as a give a present to someone day is entirely comercial.

But christmas as a celebration of of Jesus as a figure of christianity has been going since the 4th century.
And yes, lately only the hardcore christians remember the meaning of christmas in a truly pure way.

I thought that Christmas was a pagan holiday, originally, that the Christians allowed them to keep celebrating while they were busy slaughtering pagans into changing their beliefs, because violence seems to be the one thing consistent across all of Christianity's existence -.-

Christmas is the finest example of how Christianity pretty much ripped off anything and everything they could...

Ha, I guess Christianity is the Steve Jobs of religion!.. Except with a lot more genocide...

 

[DarkRyter]

It's been commercialized into secularism. Just as all Holidays should be.

 

[Conza]

alright this is somthing that bugs me,

aparently...if your not christian...you dont celebrate christmas? is this an american beliife or somthing?

anyway let me exaplain

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

but that aside....

as far as Im concerned christmas thease days generally has nothing to do with religion..no really, my family is not religous....most of Australia is not religous and we (and I imagine alot of Australia) celebrate christmas.....(aside from going to mass of coase)

you know what christmas is? its a comercial holiday, its the itme of year when kids get presesnts, and its the itme of yeah adults stress out, put up with family or eat/drink themelfs into oblvion (or all three)

last time I checked jesus hardly had anything to do with it aside from the nativity plays we somtimes has...thats it, mostly it was about santa

Ok a few things to pick apart here.

Christmas was originally another holiday, which the Christians stole, not compete with, they just stole the celebration.

Secondly, Australia, almost all of it, does celebrate christmas, but the event for the past 40-50 years has been celebrated mostly without jessy boy being involved, correct.

So in conclusion, it is mostly commerical, and the latest sensus when it comes in will hopefully confirm that 40%ish of the population (including the old, as we have an aging population), are christian, but I'm sure double that will be celebrating christmas.

 

[Xanadu84]

Christmas is a holiday that celebrates the Birth of Jesus. People have come to celebrate it as a general good will, present giving holiday. The origin is Christian. Yes, the reason why it was placed on the day it is placed is because when a Christian group took over a pagan town, they wanted to throw in a bunch of familiar bits into the celebration of their God to entice these potential converts into throwing there lot in with Jesus. Doesn't matter what they call the God in question, they still get to party and exchange gifts. Which sounds insidious until you realize that those pagans that the Christians converted, once upon a time, put THEIR holiday on top of some OLDER religions holiday and did the exact same thing. That's just how culture works.

 

[bootz]

A lot of the winter holidays just come from the fact that your celebrating the fact you Survived and lived though the longest night or nights of the year (hence all the lights/candles chasing the night away).

Your now half way through the dark. Back in the day without all the new heating systems, Surviving winter was very hard and not a guarantee.

Most of you year was pretty much making sure you have enough food and fuel to survive. I can understand celebrating when your work pays off and you're alive.

 

[2012 Wont Happen]

grumble grumble grumble i have too much time and angst on my hands so i post pseudo-edgy things about religious holidays on the internet because my knickers are too tight around my testicals to allow me to walk into a church and say that shit to the religious people's faces

i think i still might be a little buzzed from last night (at which point I was fuckfaced drunk) but the point still applies. this is just angst in a sea of angst in the bay of angst and we're sailing across it in the smh angstnaught

merry christmas, and to quote neutral milk hotel

"I loooooove you jesus chriiiiiiiiiiiist"

 

[JamesStone]

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, but none of the work or responsibility.

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.

Actually, as other people have said in this thread, Christmas was Yule, a pagan celebration of the solestice stolen by Christians to celebrate Jesus being born. And Jesus wasn´t even born on 25th December, the date was chosen to declare Yule a "evil and satanical" ritual.

Also, "piggybacking"? "people want all the good things in life"? Ohhhh, you are talking about Xmas, the capitalist adaptation of Christmas, aren´t you? You must be, because originally, no-one recieved presents on Christmas. That wasn´t what Chrismas was about, and the tradition of offering shit to other people started in the 1800´s or later.

Before you post, please inform yourself good sir. You have Google, so there´s no excuse to not to do it.

 

[Marcus Kehoe]

Christmas is actually a hybrid of the day Jesus may have been born and a pagan holiday made back when Catholics where attempting to convert pagans. Christmas is not the day Jesus was born, that's a fact.
And even if it was Jesus wouldn't want us to celebrate it. Jesus doesn't want us to take away any praise or faith away from god.
Also I don't believe in the holly trinity, where god and Jesus and the holy spirit are the same person. It basically says so in the bible that their all different.

 

[Ciaran Lunt]

every religon is a more appealing mish mash of other ideas the tree is from holand the fern lasted all year round so was a symbol of life carying on through the dark winter structured around a pagen holiday to celebreate the days becoming longer and the approach of spring.

 

[Paladin Anderson]

That's a load.

I'm an atheist and I LOVE Christmas.

I love the decorations, I love the cheesy movies and music, and I don't give a damn about the presents except that it's fun giving them out to my friends. Christmas is my favorite holiday and no one is going to tell me "You're not Christian you can't celebrate it"

On a further note, I'm PRETTY sure if you're going out on Black Friday to push, shove, and grab crap you're not celebrating Christmas the season of giving and joy, you're celebrating capitalism.

 

[Ieyke]

That's a load.

I'm an atheist and I LOVE Christmas.

I love the decorations, I love the cheesy movies and music, Christmas is my favorite holiday and no one is going to tell me "You're not Christian you can't celebrate it"

You can celebrate whatever you want. Doesn't change that Christmas is a Christian holiday.

I celebrate Saturnalia.

 

[JamesStone]

Yes, Christmas is in fact a Christian holiday to celebrate the birth of Jesus.

Ever wondered why it's called "Christmas"?

Giving presents to each other is just something that has developed over time.

actually, it was originally a Pagan holiday until Christians adopted it (or stole it, depending on your point of view) for themselves, sort of like how the Greeks adopted (or stole) the Roman's gods and gave them new names.

also, Jesus was not born on Dec.25 (if he ever existed at all). there is no exact date that is tied to Jesus' birth.


either way, there is pretty much nothing Christian about Christmas. the whole point of the holiday is to bring people together, and to give and recieve gifts.

Christmas is no more Christian a holiday than Halloween.

Wasn´t the other way around? Didn´t the Romans stole the Greek´s Gods? Zeus became Jupiter? Hermes became Mercury? I always thought it was that way.

 

[Belaam]

Well, the name comes from a Catholic holiday, Christ's Mass. But you won't usually hear Protestants insisting that you keep the Mass in Christmas.

The date, yeah, pretty much taken to pick up followers who worshiped other gods on the date and close enough to Solstice to pick up groups that did that too.

Various traditions within it come from a variety of sources, generally again taken from other religions to help convert followers.

In the contemporary world, yeah, it is mostly a holiday about gift-giving and finding emotional warmth with friends and family.

Only a very, very tiny number of Christians make it a day devoted more to their religion than the gifts, food, family, etc.

But for most, Christmas has as much to do with Christ as Thursday has to do with Thor.

 

[ThreeWords]

The Roman Saturnalia was celebrated on the 17th of December. You hear me? THE SEVENTEENTH.

u mad, bro?

I can't her what you type. Even if you write in capslock.

Regardless, I doubt the few extra days matter so much as sorta, y'know, coinciding the two so they are accepted as the same sort of idea...

Also, u mad

 

[TheRealLasor]

Jesus Christ wasn't born here, but the holiday was moved to shove out Paganist winter festivals.
It's still the celebration of the birth of the supposed savior.
And you give gifts because when Jesus was born he was given gifts by the Three Wise Men.
Furthermore the name is Christ's Mass. Meaning the day in which you visit mass for Jesus' birth.

 

[infinity^infinity]

Someone may have said this already, but, I am in a rush. Christmas has been a Christian holiday for quite some time now. It is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, it did not actually happen on the twenty-fifth of December though it was combined with a Celtic holiday to celebrate the winter solstice, I think. The gift giving comes from the fact that Jesus was given three gifts from three wise-men, gold, frankensence, and myr, because they were told by the angel Gabriel that he, Jesus, was the savior of their people, the Jews. Probably a lot of grammar errors and frankensence is probably spelled wrong, but that is the story I was told, growing up in a southern baptist church. Recently though, Christmas has lost a lot of it's religous connotations and has become a bit more secular as kind of the back-up holiday for atheists, agnostics, and generally non-religous households.