Does modern tradition or origin matter with holiday celebration?

[ManaMinori 4,144]

Take, for instance, Christmas. It's a holiday rooted in pagan pratice, adopted by the Christain churches to draw in Christian (in spite of the bible giving evidence that Jesus wasn't even born on "Christmas", Dec 25). But do people today think the holidays origins matter, in the moden era? Or is it so widely practiced, because "it's tradition", and all in good fun, origins be damned?

origins of Christmas

Is it still pagan worship, even if the original traditins are more modernized, and practiced by people of Christiany, or other religions?

Edited November 26, 2015 by Nightmare Muffin

[Mesme Rize 15,681]

As an agnostic, who isn't part of any religion at all, i consider holidays that i celebrate (easter, christmas) to be a time to come together with family. I barely see my family these days, since they all have their jobs, so it's nice to just be together.

 

I think there shouldn't be one strict way, to celebrate a holiday and you should just celebrate it the way you see fit.

[Celtore 2,769]

I think that holidays have become more than their origins. We've given these holidays our own meanings; for some, that simply means a free day off work, others, it's time with their families, for businesses, a time to push your products and some continue to see it in the traditional light.

 

The origins of the holiday don't really matter anymore in a modern context. Just enjoy the brief break from the monotony of every day life in your own way.

Edited November 26, 2015 by Celtore

[Samurai Equine 46,836]

As a human who can detatch himself from religion, I think it's fine.

I am a believer in making holidays into your own thing, as long as it's done with good intentions and isn't harming anyone or anything like that. You might not always celebrate every holiday 100% accurately, we're too separated from their origins to ever truly do that. But as long as you're doing the best you can, I think that's what matters most.

 

As a Christian, I've heard mixed messages about Christmas.

I've heard people bring up the pagan roots, often saying things like "God probably hates you for celebrating it." But at the same time, I know that God doesn't judge you by your actions. He judges what's in your heart. As humans, we sin all the time, even when we're not trying to sin. But if we're truly sorry, if we're faithful to the lord, and we're doing our best to be the people he wants us to be; then he'll forgive us. And since he sees what's in our heart, he knows we're not doing things this way just to be pagan for a while or to purposely sin against the lord. We're doing it with good intentions. Our hearts and actions are in the right place.

 

I think, in the end, we all make our own personal choices on how to live. If you're afraid of offending someone, be it anything from a god to a single person, then feel free not to celebrate. If you want to celebrate and/or reinvent holidays into your own thing, then that's fine too. As long as you're not harming anyone or trying to police someone else's life, then it's all good. 

 

Personally, I've always wanted to think of Christmas as a time when all of us should be promoting Peace on Earth. Holding a truce, even if temporary, against all your enemies. Forgiving anyone who ever wronged you. Forgetting about religion, race, creed, and anything else that usually separates us all. Reaching out to help those less fortunate. Just doing anything and everything we can to come together as a united race of humans. We'll all have to go back to our regular lives and face hard times again anyways, so it'd be nice to just have that one moment where we can all just try to have peace. A little childish and idealistic, I know, but I've always loved that idea of Christmas the most. 

Edited November 26, 2015 by Samurai Equine

[Envy 6,018]

I think people can celebrate Christmas as Jesus's birthday if they so wish. I even call it 'Christmas', and have never had any problem with that. However, when people say stuff like "Jesus is the reason for the season" I really begin to lose it. I know that saying is sometimes more about fighting the over-the-top consumerism of the holiday, but it's still too much. They should word it better.

 

I celebrate 'Christmas' as the Winter Solstice, because winter is my most favoritest season! How could I not celebrate it?

Edited November 26, 2015 by Envy

[cmarston1 5,954]

I say that it doesn't matter whether you celebrate it through origins or not.

Just enjoy the holidays and spend time with your families.

You should be able to celebrate the holidays however you see fit.

[Sunwalker 981]

Take, for instance, Christmas. It's a holiday rooted in pagan pratice, adopted by the Christain churches to draw in Christian (in spite of the bible giving evidence that Jesus wasn't even born on "Christmas", Dec 25). But do people today think the holidays origins matter, in the moden era? Or is it so widely practiced, because "it's tradition", and all in good fun, origins be damned?

origins of Christmas

Is it still pagan worship, even if the original traditins are more modernized, and practiced by people of Christiany, or other religions?

 

Erm, the site you tried to link to is quite superficial and even inaccurate, on pretty much any subject. Patheos does a infinitely better job of portraying the different religions than it.

 

Christimas is not pagan, and neither had any pagans origins. At most it happened to fall close to the date of some pagan holidays, and it is worthy noting that Christmas was already celebrated before. But establishing from it that Christmas is pagan requires a severe lack of critical thinking skills. This is like saying: "cars were seen going out from garages, people were also seen going out from garages, therefore people are automobiles".

 

No matter which date was chosen, most likely there would exist another pagan holiday close to it, and certain people would still insist that Christmas were pagan before that or some other crap. But, hey, I was born at the same day as Pat Nixon, therefore that makes me the wife of president Nixon

 

Your link gives a 404 error, by the way. Anyways, I leave this article here as a counterpoint.

 

 

I think that holidays have become more than their origins. We've given these holidays our own meanings; for some, that simply means a free day off work, others, it's time with their families, for businesses, a time to push your products and some continue to see it in the traditional light.

 

Stripping them away from their significance and turning them into something generic to the point of being unrecognizable... Sorry, but that is actually less than their origins. 

 

 

However, when people say stuff like "Jesus is the reason for the season" I really begin to lose it. I know that saying is sometimes more about fighting the over-the-top consumerism of the holiday, but it's still too much. They should word it better.

 

How could the sentence be worded any better? It is already very clear and straightforward. The motive why the holiday exists to begin with is indeed Jesus. Who in sane mind would give too much importance to a stupid things like Winter Solstice or Festival of Lights? That's just some lame excuses invented for erasing the Christian heritage from all corners of the civilization, if it weren't for Christmas those "celebrations" wouldn't even exist. That's because the modern society hates truth, beauty and reason.

 

There are some serious cultural appropriation here, and yet people behave as if Christians were the ones appropriating stuff. This is what makes me begin to lose it. Don't want to celebrate it? Fair enough, but at least don't pretend that history didn't happen.

[Envy 6,018]

 How could the sentence be worded any better? It is already very clear and straightforward. The motive why the holiday exists to begin with is indeed Jesus. Who in sane mind would give too much importance to a stupid things like Winter Solstice or Festival of Lights? That's just some lame excuses invented for erasing the Christian heritage from all corners of the civilization, if it weren't for Christmas those "celebrations" wouldn't even exist. That's because the modern society hates truth, beauty and reason.

 

They are not 'lame excuses'. I did not go into detail since I thought what I posted was straightforward enough. However, I'll explain it to you. They weren't so much celebrating the Winter Solstice, as they were celebrating the advent of the days starting to become longer again. Being pre-scientific societies, they did not yet understand the reasons for it all, so they assigned a lot of it to superstition, hence the Pagan traditions. In cultures much less advanced (in trading of fruits and such) the days becoming longer and moving toward the fertile Spring was a MAJOR reason for celebration. It is not a concept really understandable to us in the modern age, but it's not difficult to look back into these cultures and see this.

 

At the root of Christmas are these ancient celebrations of the winter solstice and the days getting longer. I'm not saying that someone ever appropriated the date and celebrations with ill intent. I have not looked into the process of it enough to make any claims one way or the other. But one things for certain, and that's that the winter solstice and the days getting longer is the real reason for the season.

 

Like Christmas trees? Evergreen trees were an absolute wonder to pre-scientific cultures - they were the sole sign of fertility during the darkest days of the year. Thus, they were one major thing people could celebrate those days with.

 

It's not about pushing Christianity out of society (as if such a thing could actually happen in a country like the US, please.). For example, my grandfather - a VERY strong fundamentalist Christian in his lifetime - even admitted the history of what we celebrate as 'Christmas' is incredibly sketchy and off.

 

You speak of "truth, beauty, and reason", but it's funny because I don't see any of that being absent from the history I have posted for you.

 

EDIT: To clarify, I am not for devaluing the development of the holiday and traditions as we know them today, which most certainly has at least in great part been because of Christianity. Over the course of many, many centuries, that influence certainly been big. And I most certainly wouldn't want to think of Christmas music without the Christian songs, because nine times out of ten the Christian Christmas songs are MUCH better than the non-Christian Christmas songs!

Edited November 28, 2015 by Envy

[Kivil 1,721]

I'm an Atheist and all of my family is Christian (Baptist) and we celebrate Christmas without all of the ho-ha about Jesus

[Tao 6,801]

Im pagan and yes I do Yule and also Christmas,  for me and my family it is the values of being with family and freinds.  Along as the virtues of being a good person and good will to everyone no matter who they are which I think is a message we need to have more of given what has happened in the last year.    Also my tree has symbols from pagan to Christian to Buddhism and Shinto and native American which kinda gets people but I like being the odd one off.  

[EpicEnergy 22,494]

I would say I focus more on modern over origin regarding traditions.