Why December 25th?

The tradition of celebrating on Christmas on the 25th of December (or 24th for you Scandinavian/Northern European weirdos up there.:p:joke: ) I believe stemmed from the emperor Julian. Julian was the famous emperor who grew up in a very Christian environment, but converted to the religion of old Rome. He is therefore known better ar "Julian the Apostate". Apostate meaning one who gives up their religion.

Julian allowed the Christians to celebrate Christmas, but only during the festival of Saturnalia, and, more specifically, on December the 25th. No emperor after him lifted the law, so the tradition continued on.

And to those Christians who don't celebrate it because it has roots in paganism: Who the hell cares if some of the Christmas traditions have roots in paganism? As long as the tradition has been revamped to celebrate Jesus or God, I see no problem with it.
 
Amenhotep7 said:
Who the hell cares if some of the Christmas traditions have roots in paganism? As long as the tradition has been revamped to celebrate Jesus or God, I see no problem with it.

True enough. Do these Christians refuse to talk about "Saturday", "Wednesday" and so on?
 
@Plotinus

I don't understand. Are you agreeing with me?:hmm:
 
Yes - what I mean is, if they think it's wrong to do anything that has a pagan background, then they're not going to do very well in general. The days of the week are named after pagan gods. The English language evolved from the languages of pagan peoples. Should they not be used as well, "tainted" as they are with the pagan past? In fact, the whole of western culture is a mixture of the pagan with the Christian, pretty much - traditional festivals are just a well known example of this. Trying to cut out anything with a pagan background is just not going to work.
 
The date has it's origins in Pagan history, but that does not mean that a Christian can use this opportunity share with other what Christmas is really about. Sure there are pagan implications behind it but that does not mean we cannot use this for good. Many of the Christmas carols are very good witnessing tools because they tell us the true mean of Christmas, and that is the Birth of Jesus Chrsit for the purpose of him coming to earth to bring salvation to all humanity.

This is a perfect opportunity to tell others about Christ, rather than worrying about if this is the right date to celebrate Christ's birth. We can be more certain about the time of Christ death, because the Bible clearly states it. And from this we can get a rough estimate of the time because Jesus lived for 33 1/2 years. This also states how much more important is the Death, Burial and Resurrecetion of Jesus Christ compared to his birth. This also shows the whole focus of Jesus when he was on earth. We came here with the specific reason to die for our sins.

Many words of the Carols are just great and uplifting. It was great singing many of them in Church today.

I just pray that all this gift giving is not getting in the way of recieving the greatest gift of all, the Gift of Eternal life, through Jesus Christ our lord.
 
classical_hero said:
We can be more certain about the time of Christ death, because the Bible clearly states it. And from this we can get a rough estimate of the time because Jesus lived for 33 1/2 years.

Actually the Bible dates his death to the rule of Pontius Pilate, which was from 26 to 36. It's no more specific than that. However, it's generally thought most likely that he died in about 29 or 30. Since he was most likely born in about 4 BC, that would make him approximately 33 when he died. There's certainly no reason to make it as precise as 33 1/2 years, though. Luke states that he was "about 30" when he began his public ministry, and whilst the Synoptics give the impression of a public ministry of only a couple of months, John mentions three Passovers, which would give a public ministry of slightly over two years. Chances are that Jesus was in his early 30s when he began his ministry and died not very long after, but we can't know any of these things for certain.

But I think that you're right in your main point. Why should any supposed pagan background to Christmas make a difference? I don't hear any Christians arguing that we should not use the word "weird" despite its pagan background. What's important is what something means now, not what it meant to people many centuries ago.
 
Back
Top Bottom