So my daughters and sons in laws (brothers) have decided to worship God as Messianic Jews (they have chosen Jesus as Saviour and Believe he is the Son of God) because rather than the Baptist church they were raised in which tended to avoid many tough subjects and lightly skim through others rather than delve in depth to learn, teach and understand, they wanted to learn and use entire Bible (as God intended)
My dilemma is that they have sent me a link following several discussions regarding why not to celebrate Christmas due to pagan roots So I read up on the history of Christmas. Yes, the cut tree, the red and green lights and ribbons and the wreath and mistletoe all have pagan origins, however no one knows the exact date of Jesus birth since they did not keep track and from what I gather, it sounds like worshipping God as Christians was banned and punishable by death in many countries and cultures blending these cultures with celebrating Jesus birth became a way of basically worshipping in secret and the gifts represent the gifts the wise men brought To Mary and Joseph. And the lights are like blending in Hannukah as well. Never did get into the whole Santa thing.
Both our son in laws parents (friends of ours) and my husband and I still want to get everyone together and celebrate Christmas and believe the kids are being legalistic. Currently one of our daughters and her family wish to go do something else because they don’t agree.
Praying they come around,
May I get yall’s thoughts please.
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I’ll try to sum it up like this. My belief is that the origin of the concept of Christmas relates not to Christianity itself, but the nature of the church in those times. Christianity went from a persecuted sect, to the dominate religion because of some of that.
In those times the churches were more political. As for the Pagans, their gods were tied more to aspects nature in our world. So their traditions were centered around Harvests, solstices, and equinox. The church wanted more control, so they began to culturally overshadow these festivals in a sort of takeover. Personally I don’t think it had anything to do with Christianity itself. You don’t need festivals to have a relationship with God.
Easter came from Éostre. It was a festival to honor the Germanic Goddess of Spring. She was also known as the goddess of fertility. Which is why there is a bunny and an egg. It symbolizes life and fertility. The earlier Christians overshadowed it by using it to honor the resurrection of Jesus.
Halloween, though not really a primary Christian Holiday, is celebrated by many Christians, and it comes from the Celtic festival Samhain. It was celebrated halfway between the Autumn Equinox and the Winter Solstice. They believed that boundary between the living and the dead was blurred so they dressed as spirits and monsters to try and fool the dead.
Finally Christmas. Christmas as a tradition originates from a mixture of a few Pagan traditions. Primarily Yule, but also Saturnalia, as well as Oskoreia. Saturnalia was Roman. I call it a fools festival. It was largely about drinking and partying, and it honored Saturn. The Roman’s believed Saturn to be the God of Agriculture. Yule was to celebrate what they believe to be another form of rebirth. They believed the sun was reborn and it basically brings in the new year. Some also honor Odin during this time. Now the Norse have a tradition called Oskoreia around this time. They attempt to prepare themselves for The Wild Hunt, when Odin leads a ghostly parade through the sky. Its Odin during Oskoreia that is theorized to be one of the earliest origins of Santa Claus.
In other words. It’s complicated 😂