Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays 3396

You would be wrong, then. If you research the history of customs related to the holiday called "Christmas", you will note that the ONLY religious connection is the nativity scene. At least, the only Christian religious connection. There are some customs buttociated with Christmas that can be traced to ancient non-Christian religious beliefs Everything else buttociated with "Christmas" has origins that can be traced to customs so old that some of them pre-date written historical records. For just one example, the evergreen tree cut down, brought inside and decorated. In certain religions that pre-date Christianity, evergreen trees were thought to be good luck, and so were brought into the home and decorated. It was believed that these trees would ward off evil spirits, and they also reminded people of all the plants that would return to life in the Spring. Eventually some German Christians started decorating their evergreens with apples (the forbidden fruit), which were eventually replaced with ornaments. The practice spread to England, and eventually the whole world, and was included in what became the Christmas celebration. Thus, we have what is generally referred to today as the Christmas tree. Ironically, the inclusion of the celebration of the birth of Christ is what turned many people (including many Christians at the time) AWAY from the Christmas celebration.

Here you are really confused. TRUE Christians loudly DENOUNCE the practice of celebrating the birth of Christ on "the 5th and 20th of December". Oh, and again, it never had any religious significance, especially CHRISTIAN religious significance, as it was initially rejected by many Christians as too far separated from the official canon. Even today many Christians are peeed that the birth of Christ is buttociated with a pagan holiday at all. Oh, and "tree, lights, gifts, commercialism, etc." are not modern fashion . . . that is the OLD-FASHIONED version of the celebration that is currently called Christmas. The modern version of the holiday that includes the nativity is the version that many Christians object to, and they rightly SHOULD object to it. If they want the celebration of the birth of Christ to have religious significance, they should move the date of the celebration closer to Easter, and keep Christ out of the pagan holiday celebration of what is called Christmas. In a real sense, the birthday celebration of Christ has been ruined by being buttociated with what was (and still is) a pagan holiday for many centuries before Christ was born. But the religious significance has not been removed from the holiday, it was unsuccesfully mixed with the holiday.

Misguided historical consistency? I'm not talking about old news here, there are still many Christians who refuse to celebrate Christmas for the specific reason that the holiday now includes a sacrilegious celebration of the birth of Christ on December 25th. It is the wrong date, and mixed up with a pagan holiday much older than Christ. What could be worse for the Christians? If they really want to keep Christ in Christmas, they should move the date of the celebration into the Spring sometime.

The winter Celebration known currently as Christmas pre-dates the Christian "Christ" by many centuries. Christians hated this winter celebration for many years and tried to kill it by outlawing it. Just like prohibition, that didn't work. People still needed (what we now call Christmas), even though it had NOTHING to do with Christ. Declaring the 25th of December as Christ's birthday was a final desperate attempt by Christians to do away with the holiday forever, and it almost worked. Many people (including Christians) refused to celebrate the bastard mix of a pagan holiday that was suddenly mis-buttociated with the birth of Christ.

Keep Christ in Christmas? It makes just as much sense to say Keep the Easter Bunny in Kwanzaa. Before you flame me for saying that, keep in mind that many Christians do not celebrate Christmas as that's EXACTLY how they see it, also. The only confusing thing is, that we currently use the name "Christmas" to refer to a celebration that forever has had NOTHING to do with CHRIST. It would be more accurate to say, "Keep your Christ out of our Christmas". Only it is unfortunate that the pagan holiday is named after a Christian symbol, which peeES OFF A LOT OF CHRISTIANS, by the way. :)

If you say "Keep Christ in Christmas", you are trying to add Christian religious significance to a pagan holiday. It didn't work for Julius I, so why should a bumper sticker have better luck???? -Dave