Re: Christmas is pagan
 

Cool...

I plan on phasing out holidays (again) beginning next year. But, I have come to enjoy Thanksgiving and secular Christmas.

Re: Christmas is pagan
 

wow...someone needs to let God know this.

Re: Christmas is pagan
 

It is simple to me I don’t:
Make the sign of the cross
Pray the rosary
Sprinkle holy water
Place ash on my forehead
Have a confessional
Pray to Mary
Pray to saints
Wear a cross
Have religious statues in my house
Wear a clerical collar
Celebrate Xmas
I am not a Catholic.

Re: Christmas is pagan
 

Does this apply to every rite, tradition, decoration, practice, or observance originating from paganism, or just to Christmas?

For example, the Quakers used to note the days of the week as "First Day", "Second Day", "Third Day", etc. because the calendar days of the week as we know them are named in honor of pagan gods. They also didn't observe holidays or birthdays.

In addition, there are homiletic practices of rhetoric in most modern "sermons" that are Aristotelian in origin.

And then there is the "steeple" which is found on most houses of worship, which originated among the pagans as a phallic symbol above the temples of their fertility cults.

Even wedding rings are "pagan", as is birthday cake and birthday candles.

I could go on and on.

It's important to note that while many of these traditions (including Christmas traditions) originated from pagan peoples as part of pagan practice, a number of these things have evolved and changed through the centuries to the point that they have become far removed from any "pagan" practice.

For example, wreaths...

In the Greco-Roman world, wreaths were used as an adornment that could represent a person’s occupation, rank, their achievements and status. The wreath that was commonly used was the laurel wreath. The use of this wreath comes from the Greek myth involving Apollo, Zeus’ son and the god of life and light, who fell in love with the nymph Daphne. When he pursued her she fled and asked the river god Peneus to help her. Peneus turned her into a laurel tree. From that day, Apollo wore a wreath of laurel on his head. Laurel wreaths became associated with what Apollo embodied; victory, achievement and status and would later become one of the most commonly used symbols to address achievement throughout Greece and Rome. Laurel wreaths were used to crown victorious athletes at the original Olympic Games and are still worn in Italy by university students who just graduated.

Harvest wreaths, a common household decoration today, are a custom with ancient roots in Europe. The creation of harvest wreaths in Europe can be traced back to ancient times, and is associated with animistic spiritual beliefs. In Ancient Greece, the harvest wreath was a sacred amulet, using wheat or other harvested plants, woven together with red and white wool thread. The harvest wreath would be hung by the door year-round.

Harvest wreaths were an important symbol to the community in Ancient Greece, not merely to the farmer and his family. The festivals devoted to Dionysus, the Oschophoria and Anthesteria, included a ritual procession called the eiresîonê. A harvest wreath was carried to Pyanopsia and Thargelia by young boys, who would sing during the journey. The laurel or olive wreath would be hung at the door, and then offerings were made to Helios and the Hours. It was hoped that this ritual would bring protection against crop failure and plagues.

Pre-Christian Europeans began creating winter wreaths out of evergreen, a tree whose magic was believed to be able to withstand the bitter cold of winter, and so they represented eternal life. Holly was also a mystical symbol of immortality and was added to the winter wreaths. These were believed to hold the power to hold back the sickness and death that was so common in the bitter winter months of Europe. Mistletoe was eventually added to the winter wreath because it was seen as having magical properties that would increase love and fertility among couples.

As more and more Europeans became Christians, much of the symbolism behind these things were applied to Christ. It's important to remember that most ancient people didn't have a "Bible" like we do. They communicated the Gospel they heard through common cultural things. Newly converted Christians would communicate the Gospel through these things to their friends and neighbors by explaining that Jesus is the true "tree of life" who provides eternal life against the bitterly could seasons of life. The circular wreath was used to And so, the majority of Europeans who became what we know as Catholic today incorporated the wreath into devotional practice especially in relation to "Christmas" the time set aside to remember Christ's birth (I say set aside to remember Christ's birth because Christ's birthday certainly wasn't in December).

After the Protestant Reformation, Protestant Christians continued adorning their homes with wreaths during the holidays. And as Christians began to spread about the world through colonization, winter Christmas wreaths made their way into the Americas. Once in America, the wreath was admired not only for its spiritual meaning, but also its beauty. Many people in America, being capitalist, began to market the wreath as merely a "decoration". After several generations of this, most people in America today, including Christians, don't know the origins or history of the winter wreath. It is hung on doors, above fireplaces, and on walls as simply a festive winter, or "Christmas season", decoration. In addition, they are now made of nearly any material one can imagine and in as many styles as one can imagine. For the most part, there is no longer any religious association to the seasonal decoration. It's only hung on account of its aesthetic beauty.

Re: Christmas is pagan
 

I do not care one way or another about Christmas. But it is a good day to see relatives that I otherwise would not. I am not sinning if I enjoy a meal with them on that day and even reflect on the incarnation, even if was not born at that time.

Re: Christmas is pagan
 

God already let us know this. Right there in His Word.

Re: Christmas is pagan
 

:thumbsup

Re: Christmas is pagan
 

...and touch not the unclean thing.

People may not care one way or another, but God cares.

Re: Christmas is pagan
 

There is nothing unclean about a particular day. Days are neither holy or unholy. They are nothing more than revolutions of the earth on its axis. Eating a meal with relatives or thinking about the incarnation on that day is no different than doing it on any other day.

Re: Christmas is pagan
 

1. The days of the week are named after pagan gods. However, I could argue that the mere use of the conventional naming system is not in itself an act of joining in pagan worship. There are a couple months in the Bible, referred to by their Babylonian names. But that is DIFFERENT from an OBSERVANCE of RITUALS originating in devil worship being used as a means of memorialising God.

2. Birthdays are questionable. Some birthday celebrations - such as lighting candles on a cake - undoubtedly originate in pagan demon worship. I don't know that the MERE celebration of the anniversary of one's birth is itself solely a pagan custom, especially when there are no rites or rituals of demon worship taking place.

3. Rhetoric, based not upon Aristotle, but upon Cicero and Quintillian and Aphthonius, has been a part of communication since classical days (pre-Christian). Rhetoric, however, is not pagan demon worship anymore than the alphabet is. Rhetorical knowledge does not originate in nor does it depend on nor does it perpetuate pagan demon worship anymore than good penmandship. (Side note: Aristotle wrote a "Rhetoric" but hardly anyone used it, they preferred his works on dialectics - logic - for the canon of Invention, but Aristotle was no rhetor. For instruction in rhetoric they preferred Cicero, Quintillian, and Aphthonius. Augustine's work "On Christian Teaching" discusses rhetoric, and he points out that classroom instruction is rhetoric is unnecessary, you just need to be familiar with Scripture, and by being familiar with Scripture you will absorb the rhetoric of the apostles, prophets, and Christ. In other words, as even Quintillian and Cicero often pointed out, rhetorical skill is often better caught than taught.)

4. The steeple is a phallic symbol representing the missing phallus of Osiris, that is its origin. It came to be excused as a means of people being able to locate the church house from a distance, now it's just an ornament. But yes it originates in pagan demon worship. Essentially an obelisk to the sun god on top of the temple dedicated to the sun god. Nothing new under the sun, apparently.

5. Wedding rings are pagan. They also have an origin in pagan superstitious beliefs. Which is why my wife and I don't wear them.

6. Birthday cake is simply a sweet bread. Sweet bread ("cakes") were used by all cultures for all sorts of things, especially any kind of celebration or feast. Candles on the cake, blowing them out, etc as part of a celebration are pagan customs of demon worship.

I think a distinction ought also to be made between simply superstitious customs that have survived the centuries (like saying "Bless you" when someone sneezes which originated in the belief that a sneeze could invite demons to enter the body) on the one hand, and undoubtedly RELIGIOUS RITES and CEREMONIES and HOLY DAYS being promoted to people under the lie that there's something CHRISTIAN about them. Both ought to be examined, but the rites of demon worship are clearly a greater danger.

Would it be okay for a Christian to draw the circle, open the directions with Solomon's Seal (hexagram), and invoke the Holy Guardian Angels of the Watchtowers, as a means of worshipping Jesus? Medieval occultists used the Hebrew Names of God to summon and "control" demons, as part of "demonstrating the power of Christ over the spirits". But who in their right mind would countenance such acts as being in any way, shape, or form suitable to a genuine Christian?

Yet the rites of Christmas, Easter, "fall festivals" and Halloween, etc are absolutely no different. Pagan devil worship, masquerading as "Christian".