The Pagan Roots of Christmas

[mattbraunlin]

The Pagan Roots of Christmas​

And why who the heck cares

Jesus was not born on or near December 25th. That is pretty much established fact. So why do we celebrate the birth of our Saviour on a date which is not his birthday?

The Christmas season, from beginning to end, is rife with pagan influences. The lighting of candles, holly branches, the Yuletide log… all of these things and more have their roots in pagan holidays like Yule and Saturnalia. Much of this stuff was adopted and repurposed by the Catholic church upon Rome's conversion to Christianity, to sate the pagan leanings of the empire as Rome's version of Christianity was adopted throughout the conquered world.

So yes. Christmas is, from its traditions to its date, a pagan holiday. So how are we, as followers of Christ, meant to reconcile the ancient Jewish reality of our faith with the ungodly travesty that is Christmas as we know it?

The answer is simple: Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year.

I LOVE Christmas! I love everything about it. I love the music, I love Santa Claus, I love decking the halls with boughs of holly, I love the white Christmas which we were never meant to have. And I have precisely zero guilt in reveling in this thoroughly pagan celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior.

Why?

Because… you know… come on!

God can make profound use of our sins and failures, and there is no more wonderful example of this than the Christmas season. At this point in the 21st century, when I find myself feeling uneasy about the pagan roots of Christmas, I hear God saying, 'Oh, shut up. I don' t care, and neither should you. Ultimately you are celebrating the birth of my Son, and that is what matters.'

That is the wonderful thing about our Lord: he is a thief. As the Creator of the universe, he is perfectly at liberty to steal whatever he wants from the world and give it to his followers, to be used as we see fit.

Halloween is very similar. Its origins are massively pagan. But God, in his sly and clever thievery, stole this horrible holiday, and transformed it into an evening where little kids can dress up as their fantasy heroes and get buttloads of candy from smiling grownups.

And if you think there is anything wrong with that setup, how miserable you must be.

Don't you just love Christmas? Don't you just love the bright, cheery feeling it gives you?

Well, keep it up. Don't let the weird, twisted origins of Christmas trip you up for a second as you celebrate the birth of our Saviour, as you set up the elf on a shelf for your little ones, as you bawl your eyes out during It's a Wonderful Life, or anything else that old grumps might condemn you for.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

 

[tim-from-pa]

Yeah, tradition dies hard, doesn't it? And to top it off, we have anti-god characters out there in the government that rather do away with anything Christian, including Christmas (they don't know, do they?) so given it's attacked, it must be wholesome. It's sort of like the "enemy of my enemy is my friend" idea. And yes, God can supposedly take paganism and convert it to something clean just like the woman Jesus protected from stoning due to her adultery and then told her to go away and carry on... well, not exactly but you catch my drift. So yes, with all this going for it, Christmas will be around for a while. Now pass around the coffee and the pumpkin pie.

 

[Tenchi]

Well, a better approach to discussing this issue might be to actually reason with folks about the subject of Christmas rather than calling those who disapprove of it "miserable," and "old grumps," and to offer "It's the most wonderful time of the year" as your answer to concerns about its ancient, pagan connections. Some don't think it is "the most wonderful time of year"; they think it's an entirely pagan thing and thus quite abhorrent. A "just come on already!" response does not address their concerns at all. It's just facile dismissiveness to reply this way, which does nothing to allay their concerns. And casting God in the role of a sly thief doesn't give weight to your argument but seems to me, instead, to denigrate God. Yikes.

I love Christmas. Why don't the ancient pagan connections to the celebration of Christ's birth disturb me? Mainly because the whole "ancient, pagan roots" argument is a form of the Genetic Fallacy, which argues that a thing is discounted, or disallowed, on the basis of its origin. As in the case of Hallowe'en, this fallacious thinking is at the core of the "Christmas is pagan!" view.

Imagine a baby boy born out of rape. His mother was sexually-assaulted, conceived and gave birth to him nine months later. His "father," having raped several women, is serving thirty years in a state prison. As the product of rape, a vile criminal act, and as the seed of an evil man, is the boy morally-foul, stained forever by the nature of his conception? Of course not. He had nothing to do with the manner of his conception or the character of his father and bears no responsibility for either thing. The thinking of the Genetic Fallacy, however, would argue that the boy's awful origin makes him awful, too: His father was evil and the act of the boy's conception was deeply wicked therefore the boy is also morally-abhorrent. It's easy, it seems to me, to see the serious faultiness of this sort of thinking in this instance, but, for some odd reason, the "Christmas is pagan" Christians can't see the parallel to how they think about the origin of Christmas.

Christmas today has nothing to do with paganism - at least, not for me and for hundreds of other Christians that I know. There is no connection whatsoever between my celebration of Christ's birth and ancient pagan rituals. The Christmas tree I cover with lights and tinselly garland remembers Christ, the Light of the World; the star at the top of the tree recalls the star the Wise Men followed to the prophesied Messiah; the gifts given and received emulate God Himself, who gave His only Son as the Greatest Gift to mankind two thousand years ago; the songs of Christmas rehearse the advent of the Incarnation into human history and the love, joy and peace we all may obtain in him. Where, then, is the paganism in any of this? The fact of the matter is that there is no more paganism in my celebration of Christmas than there is some sort of moral stain upon a child born of rape.

One can highlight the problem with the Genetic Fallacy by way of an "argument from absurdity," too: Ought I to refuse to wear pants, shirts and shoes because Hitler did? Do I abstain from arithmetic, or language, because every genocidal maniac in human history has employed both in their deadly conquest and eradication of others? The Genetic Fallacy would argue "Yes!" - as it does in the case of Christmas. But it is obviously silly - it's absurd - to answer this way. Were I to choose what clothing to wear on the basis of whether or not some evil person had worn them before me, I would have to go about naked. Even wearers of loincloths in primitive tribes have done evil! In fact, every evil person has gone about clothed in skin, bearing a nose, eyes and ears. Should I remove mine, then, so as to avoid any connection to evil? Again, obviously not. But it is this very sort of silly reasoning that is used to discount Christmas as pagan.

As far as I can tell, not only does simple reason defy the "Christmas is pagan" crowd but there seems to be both superstition and legalism at work in the rejection of Christmas as pagan. The letter of the law, a rigid appearance of conformity to "right living" to "God honoring" conduct, seems to be at the bottom of why some believers abstain from Christmas. This is often evident in the poorly-hidden disdain they have for fellow believers who continue to celebrate Christ's birth in the traditional Christmas way. And though the "Christmas is bad" folk can't effectively answer the Genetic Fallacy charge, this fact has no impact on their negative attitude toward Christmas. It's easy to imagine these same folk despising the child born of rape, waiting for the "bad seed" stain to show in the child's behavior, and cheering in vindication of their suspicion when the child does something naughty (as all children do).

Anyway, there is a better approach to the discussion of the "Is Christmas pagan?" question than to sneer at those who hold that it is, throw mere opinion at them, and cast God in a conniving light.

 

[jasonc]

While I get the post above ,I don't care for the commercialism of Christmas.

 

[Tenchi]

While I get the post above ,I don't care for the commercialism of Christmas.

Neither do I. In fact, as things are going now, the commercialism of Christmas, for the non-believer, is emptying the celebration of its sacredness, of its connection to the profundity of the Advent of the Incarnation into the world and as this happens, it's increasingly hard for non-believers to justify participating in Christmas. They can buy stuff from Amazon at any time, right? Why should they be harried into doing so by some empty "Holiday Season" that's really just gross consumerism dressed up in tinsel and pointsettias?

 

[jasonc]

Neither do I. In fact, as things are going now, the commercialism of Christmas, for the non-believer, is emptying the celebration of its sacredness, of its connection to the profundity of the Advent of the Incarnation into the world and as this happens, it's increasingly hard for non-believers to justify participating in Christmas. They can buy stuff from Amazon at any time, right? Why should they be harried into doing so by some empty "Holiday Season" that's really just gross consumerism dressed up in tinsel and pointsettias?

My church is a high church .we light the adveny candles and explain why . It's beautiful

 

[Tenchi]

My church is a high church .we light the adveny candles and explain why . It's beautiful

Sounds lovely!

 

[jasonc]

I believe the Anglican , episcopal and Catholics ,reformed all do this . Methodist might as well .

 

[Tenchi]

We hold a Christmas Eve candlelight service.

 

[jasonc]

We hold a Christmas Eve candlelight service.

It's done about after Thanksgiving and up to Christmas.each candle has a meaning .

My church does a Christmas service last year should be broadcasted

 

[Christian Saboteur]

The myth of Father Christmas or St Nicholas is an old pagan tale and he was depicted wearing green.It was Coca Cola who gave him a red suit in a massive advertising campaign and he became known as Santa-an anagram of Satan
Satanism and Satanic rituals have grown exponentially since the media blitz of the Red Santa.This subliminal method instils in the mind pattern that a mystical,non human can enter people's homes.He will be good to them only if they behave in a certain way during the year.The red costume speaks for itself-red is the color code for entry into the Astral planes.Red is the color code used by the Goddess during Reptilian ritual to invoke Astral entities.
Of course, Santa lives at the North Pole,which is the entry point into the inner Earth,and the underground Reptillian Society.He has short little elves that do his work,symbolic of the small Grey's with a group mind pattern.The flying reindeer and sled symbolise the interdimensional craft used to enter there.Children are advised to leave Santa a snack for his arrival,representing a sacrificial offering to a powerful god.In addition,the commercialism surrounding this artificial Christmas holiday is designed to extract any religious intentions as well as enrich an already wealthy global elite.
All the major symbols of 'Christmas',including the tree,Holly and mistletoe,come from Pagan festivals.

This excerpt was taken from David Ickes book,....."Tales From The Time Loop".Remember,Mr.Icke is an atheist,but he offers some interesting food for thought.

 

[Tenchi]

Mr. Icke was a nut, apparently.

 

[Christian Saboteur]

And on the other side of the coin;
The Moabites would offer their screaming children to the lap of the metal statue of Molech,in the hope that this would please their idol God and grant them their desires for the following year,The scene turned into a bloody mess,with the screams of helpless children echoing throughout the entire surrounding.
Today that part of ritual sacrifice might have changed,but there is still similarity.During the Christmas season,people all around the world take their children to sit on the lap of a stranger called Santa Claus,whom their infant kids don't know.Children are usually afraid to sit on Santa's lap,and if you notice they usually start screaming during the process.
It is still a mystery why children cry when Santa holds them.I think that,as a result of their heightened senses,infants probably sense a demonic entity when they encounter someone dressed as Santa.
And they built the high places of Tophet,which is in the valley of the Son of Hinnon,to burn their sons and daughters in the fire;which I commanded them not,neither came into my heart....Jeremiah 7:31
That that was on Molechs head looked like a Santa hat.
These were excerpts were taken from Makewetalknow.com,The Dark History of Santa Claus.
Don't misunderstand me,I celebrate Christmas just like everybody else,and I enjoy the season.But when you discover possible origins of modern day traditions and etc,it can be quite interesting.

 

[Christian Saboteur]

And on the other side of the coin;
The Moabites would offer their screaming children to the lap of the metal statue of Molech,in the hope that this would please their idol God and grant them their desires for the following year,The scene turned into a bloody mess,with the screams of helpless children echoing throughout the entire surrounding.
Today that part of ritual sacrifice might have changed,but there is still similarity.During the Christmas season,people all around the world take their children to sit on the lap of a stranger called Santa Claus,whom their infant kids don't know.Children are usually afraid to sit on Santa's lap,and if you notice they usually start screaming during the process.
It is still a mystery why children cry when Santa holds them.I think that,as a result of their heightened senses,infants probably sense a demonic entity when they encounter someone dressed as Santa.
And they built the high places of Tophet,which is in the valley of the Son of Hinnon,to burn their sons and daughters in the fire;which I commanded them not,neither came into my heart....Jeremiah 7:31
That that was on Molechs head looked like a Santa hat.
These were excerpts were taken from Makewetalknow.com,The Dark History of Santa Claus.
Don't misunderstand me,I celebrate Christmas just like everybody else,and I enjoy the season.But when you discover possible origins of modern day traditions and etc,it can be quite interesting.

So I guess from now on,maybe we can say,.......Merry Molech Everyone!!!!!!!,Ha,Ha.

 

[Tenchi]

Correlation doesn't equal causation. And, again: beware the Genetic Fallacy.

 

[GodsGrace]

Well, a better approach to discussing this issue might be to actually reason with folks about the subject of Christmas rather than calling those who disapprove of it "miserable," and "old grumps," and to offer "It's the most wonderful time of the year" as your answer to concerns about its ancient, pagan connections. Some don't think it is "the most wonderful time of year"; they think it's an entirely pagan thing and thus quite abhorrent. A "just come on already!" response does not address their concerns at all. It's just facile dismissiveness to reply this way, which does nothing to allay their concerns. And casting God in the role of a sly thief doesn't give weight to your argument but seems to me, instead, to denigrate God. Yikes.

I love Christmas. Why don't the ancient pagan connections to the celebration of Christ's birth disturb me? Mainly because the whole "ancient, pagan roots" argument is a form of the Genetic Fallacy, which argues that a thing is discounted, or disallowed, on the basis of its origin. As in the case of Hallowe'en, this fallacious thinking is at the core of the "Christmas is pagan!" view.

Imagine a baby boy born out of rape. His mother was sexually-assaulted, conceived and gave birth to him nine months later. His "father," having raped several women, is serving thirty years in a state prison. As the product of rape, a vile criminal act, and as the seed of an evil man, is the boy morally-foul, stained forever by the nature of his conception? Of course not. He had nothing to do with the manner of his conception or the character of his father and bears no responsibility for either thing. The thinking of the Genetic Fallacy, however, would argue that the boy's awful origin makes him awful, too: His father was evil and the act of the boy's conception was deeply wicked therefore the boy is also morally-abhorrent. It's easy, it seems to me, to see the serious faultiness of this sort of thinking in this instance, but, for some odd reason, the "Christmas is pagan" Christians can't see the parallel to how they think about the origin of Christmas.

Christmas today has nothing to do with paganism - at least, not for me and for hundreds of other Christians that I know. There is no connection whatsoever between my celebration of Christ's birth and ancient pagan rituals. The Christmas tree I cover with lights and tinselly garland remembers Christ, the Light of the World; the star at the top of the tree recalls the star the Wise Men followed to the prophesied Messiah; the gifts given and received emulate God Himself, who gave His only Son as the Greatest Gift to mankind two thousand years ago; the songs of Christmas rehearse the advent of the Incarnation into human history and the love, joy and peace we all may obtain in him. Where, then, is the paganism in any of this? The fact of the matter is that there is no more paganism in my celebration of Christmas than there is some sort of moral stain upon a child born of rape.

One can highlight the problem with the Genetic Fallacy by way of an "argument from absurdity," too: Ought I to refuse to wear pants, shirts and shoes because Hitler did? Do I abstain from arithmetic, or language, because every genocidal maniac in human history has employed both in their deadly conquest and eradication of others? The Genetic Fallacy would argue "Yes!" - as it does in the case of Christmas. But it is obviously silly - it's absurd - to answer this way. Were I to choose what clothing to wear on the basis of whether or not some evil person had worn them before me, I would have to go about naked. Even wearers of loincloths in primitive tribes have done evil! In fact, every evil person has gone about clothed in skin, bearing a nose, eyes and ears. Should I remove mine, then, so as to avoid any connection to evil? Again, obviously not. But it is this very sort of silly reasoning that is used to discount Christmas as pagan.

As far as I can tell, not only does simple reason defy the "Christmas is pagan" crowd but there seems to be both superstition and legalism at work in the rejection of Christmas as pagan. The letter of the law, a rigid appearance of conformity to "right living" to "God honoring" conduct, seems to be at the bottom of why some believers abstain from Christmas. This is often evident in the poorly-hidden disdain they have for fellow believers who continue to celebrate Christ's birth in the traditional Christmas way. And though the "Christmas is bad" folk can't effectively answer the Genetic Fallacy charge, this fact has no impact on their negative attitude toward Christmas. It's easy to imagine these same folk despising the child born of rape, waiting for the "bad seed" stain to show in the child's behavior, and cheering in vindication of their suspicion when the child does something naughty (as all children do).

Anyway, there is a better approach to the discussion of the "Is Christmas pagan?" question than to sneer at those who hold that it is, throw mere opinion at them, and cast God in a conniving light.

I think the other posters said more than your last sentence....
But every motivation is valid.
It might be the wrong date (which is most probably is) but we celebrate the birth of our Savior,
not some pagan ritual - and that's what counts.

And some parents do take away the joy of Christmas by teaching their children to deny it and not celebrate the birth of Jesus.

Which every child should celebrate...
joyfully.

 

[Tenchi]

Today that part of ritual sacrifice might have changed,but there is still similarity.During the Christmas season,people all around the world take their children to sit on the lap of a stranger called Santa Claus,whom their infant kids don't know.Children are usually afraid to sit on Santa's lap,and if you notice they usually start screaming during the process.

We can find similarity among all sorts of things that have no actual direct relationship to one another. I've seen my siblings put their infant children on the lap of their Grandpa. The little ones cried horribly when they were. Was my Dad, the Grandpa of these little ones, taking the role of Molech in these instances? My young nieces and nephews were put on his lap and they cried out when they were. There's similarity here, isn't there?

It's obvious this Molech-Grandpa relationship is nonsense. But it demonstrates how easily - and foolishly - lines can be drawn among things to make them seem related when, in reality, they aren't.

It is still a mystery why children cry when Santa holds them.I think that,as a result of their heightened senses,infants probably sense a demonic entity when they encounter someone dressed as Santa.

This is an entirely unfounded assertion. I've seen children sitting on Santa's lap at the mall who were thrilled to do so, grinning widely and talking happily to him. They had no fear at all of this stranger in a costume.

Babies "make strange" for a time with everybody. It's a very common thing. Are they sensing demons in everyone, then? I think not.

But when you discover possible origins of modern day traditions and etc,it can be quite interesting.

It all just makes me roll my eyes and sigh. The devil hates Christmas so much he tries to get folk coming and going, making the celebration of Christ's birth a foolish remembrance of myth on one hand, or a pagan monstrosity on the other. Hebrews 12:2-3.

 

[tim-from-pa]

The myth of Father Christmas or St Nicholas is an old pagan tale and he was depicted wearing green.It was Coca Cola who gave him a red suit in a massive advertising campaign and he became known as Santa-an anagram of Satan
Satanism and Satanic rituals have grown exponentially since the media blitz of the Red Santa.This subliminal method instils in the mind pattern that a mystical,non human can enter people's homes.He will be good to them only if they behave in a certain way during the year.The red costume speaks for itself-red is the color code for entry into the Astral planes.Red is the color code used by the Goddess during Reptilian ritual to invoke Astral entities.
Of course, Santa lives at the North Pole,which is the entry point into the inner Earth,and the underground Reptillian Society.He has short little elves that do his work,symbolic of the small Grey's with a group mind pattern.The flying reindeer and sled symbolise the interdimensional craft used to enter there.Children are advised to leave Santa a snack for his arrival,representing a sacrificial offering to a powerful god.In addition,the commercialism surrounding this artificial Christmas holiday is designed to extract any religious intentions as well as enrich an already wealthy global elite.
All the major symbols of 'Christmas',including the tree,Holly and mistletoe,come from Pagan festivals.

This excerpt was taken from David Ickes book,....."Tales From The Time Loop".Remember,Mr.Icke is an atheist,but he offers some interesting food for thought.

I guess in all fairness, looking past my earlier satire I posted, Christians at least want to get that stuff out (or at least minimize it) in favor of the "true meaning of the season". I divide Christmas decorations up into 3 main categories: the first is what I call the modern commercial; Santa, elves, reindeer, lots of presents and toys, snowmen and the like although they have a foundation in the second category, i'e traditional; trees, wreathes, boughs, ornaments, ribbons, etc often in a church setting or on some cozy-looking Victorian mantel. I believe there's a lot of Wiccan in this and note that objects like reindeer, stockings, Santa etc were also present in the traditional. Lastly, is the so-called "true-meaning" with nativity scenes, wisemen, shepherds, stars, candles (lights and candles are supposed to simulate a star or stars and the Light of the World), angels and so forth.

In all this Christians ought to at least focus on the last category, which is what many are aiming to do. although most do not have trouble with the traditional as well. But I had to laugh that if one looks at Christmas (er, solstice) decorations of a Wiccan who celebrates the winter solstice, you can't tell the difference from any other American house with the traditional stuff except they may have weird stars or a goddess thrown in for good measure (Santa is Odin instead).

As for the "true meaning of the season" and actual birth date of Christ, I do believe the Bible tells us, and by noting 3 mathematical criteria involving the Lord, I could actually come up with one and only one very precise sets of dates for his birth and death astronomically speaking. One of those criteria is an extra-biblical structure as the source but has biblical support mathematically speaking. What are those dates? I won't tell - maybe you can do an Internet search and come across an ancient post of mine when I was not as careful then. However, unlike many who are adamant in their beliefs and won't change even if the world is ending, I am always open-minded to the fact that I may be overlooking something. I guess that attitude comes more with age. LOL

 

[GodsGrace]

I guess in all fairness, looking past my earlier satire I posted, Christians at least want to get that stuff out (or at least minimize it) in favor of the "true meaning of the season". I divide Christmas decorations up into 3 main categories: the first is what I call the modern commercial; Santa, elves, reindeer, lots of presents and toys, snowmen and the like although they have a foundation in the second category, i'e traditional; trees, wreathes, boughs, ornaments, ribbons, etc often in a church setting or on some cozy-looking Victorian mantel. I believe there's a lot of Wiccan in this and note that objects like reindeer, stockings, Santa etc were also present in the traditional. Lastly, is the so-called "true-meaning" with nativity scenes, wisemen, shepherds, stars, candles (lights and candles are supposed to simulate a star or stars and the Light of the World), angels and so forth.

In all this Christians ought to at least focus on the last category, which is what many are aiming to do. although most do not have trouble with the traditional as well. But I had to laugh that if one looks at Christmas (er, solstice) decorations of a Wiccan who celebrates the winter solstice, you can't tell the difference from any other American house with the traditional stuff except they may have weird stars or a goddess thrown in for good measure (Santa is Odin instead).

As for the "true meaning of the season" and actual birth date of Christ, I do believe the Bible tells us, and by noting 3 mathematical criteria involving the Lord, I could actually come up with one and only one very precise sets of dates for his birth and death astronomically speaking. One of those criteria is an extra-biblical structure as the source but has biblical support mathematically speaking. What are those dates? I won't tell - maybe you can do an Internet search and come across an ancient post of mine when I was not as careful then. However, unlike many who are adamant in their beliefs and won't change even if the world is ending, I am always open-minded to the fact that I may be overlooking something. I guess that attitude comes more with age. LOL

The star means something that actually happened astornomically.
Can't remember what.
My feeling is that it was in September, but I don't know why!

 

[jasonc]

I was raised not celebrating Christmas.