Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] [RELIGION] Good christians celebrating pagan holidays...

["Vern Green" <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

There are a couple of things about this I would put out there for thought.

First, Easter.

You simply can't say that Christianity chose Easter on the dates they
did because of the pagan holiday. I know that there are those out
there that would like to make that case, but I do not believe it was
chosen as a holiday because of the pagan belief, but rather the Jewish
belief.

Remember, Jesus was killed on Passover, a traditional Jewish holiday. 
A holiday that was started back many more years before the birth of
Christianity. So since Jesus died during passover, it makes sense to
celebrate his resurrection during the same time period.

It would then seem to make sense to me if there was a competition with
Paganism, then it was the Jewish religion that was in the middle of
the competition. However, passover also has a history that supposedly
goes back to the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt.

Now Christmas, well this is the one that many people want to claim
again as being founded in Paganism, the practice of decorating a tree
is supposedly based in a pagan tradition, we surely see no reference
to tree decorating in the bible.

However, we should also not toss out the tradition of celebrating
Hanukah as an alternative reason as to why Christmas is in December.
Again, if there is a competition between religions, I would imagine
that competition is based between the Jews and the Christians more
than between Christian and Pagan. I could see there being a Pagan
influence at Christmas time and I would not argue that. Perhaps
Christmas was started much like the holiday of Kwnza is being started
up today.

The thing that is interesting to me is why people feel the need to
knock Christians and their religion over the coincidental alignment of
the holidays. In reality, it is much more likely that the coincidence
began many years before the existence of Christianity.




On 4/13/06, Rick Buford <EMAIL:PROTECTED> wrote:
> This one's been bugging me since I first heard it, so I did a (very)
> little digging...
>
> Many of today's widely celebrated Christian holidays, over which much
> debate has raged regarding nativity scenes and "Christian" decorations,
> were at one time pagan holidays that were adapted to Christian use to
> make the conversion of pagan to Christian more palatable.
>
> Christmas:
> http://de.essortment.com/christmaspagan_rece.htm
> http://www.origin-of-christmas.com/
>
> Easter:
> http://www.religioustolerance.org/easter1.htm
>
> So, my question/discussion point is: how do Christians feel about the
> fact that many of the traditions widely accepted as "Christian" ones
> appear to have been adopted from pagan religions?
>
>
> On a side note, I ran across this little pebble that I was previously
> unaware of:
> http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_jckr.htm
>
> Rick
>
> --
> We simply can't idiot-proof everything. Sometimes the idiots just have
> to suffer and die.
> --http://www.overheardintheoffice.com/
>
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>


--
Thanks
F Vernon Green

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