Christmas

[seanph]

Ho, Ho, Ho — Merry Christmas!

By Dave, the WM

I'm an ex-Christian and an atheist. This Christmas I have two overly decorated 9’ tall Christmas trees complete with twinkling lights and circled by a battery powered toy train. Perched in locations all around my house, dozens and dozens of Nutcrackers of every height and description keep vigil while festive smelling candles taint the air. A thick layer of snow blankets the ground outside my window, and holly and ivy decorate my neighbor's porches. It's holiday time at an atheist home!

What? An atheist celebrating Christmas?

Christ's Mass. The Catholic Mass held on the eve before Christ's birth. That's what Christmas means, doesn't it? I mean, isn't an atheist who is celebrating Christmas about as hypocritical as one can get? Aren't we always hearing "Keep Christ in Christmas" and "Jesus is the reason for the season?" Isn't there even an atheistic "War on Christmas?"

Well, I suppose this is all just because of ignorance. Not my ignorance — Christian ignorance. You see, when I was a "True Fundie™," there were several years when I refused to celebrate Christmas, and for good reason too! Regardless of the name that's been glued on to the so-called holy day, the roots of this celebration are deeply pagan.

Long before the arrival of the two now famous Jewish peasant cousins who itinerantly preached on the hillsides of Judea for a couple years, the Norse were celebrating Yule from December 21 through January, honoring the return of the sun and in Germany people were celebrating the god Odin.

"Jo Saturnalia" (pronounced yo) would have been the December greeting in Jesus' neighborhood. With Romans marching all over Palestine, Jesus and his band of merry men would have been quite familiar with this idolatrous holiday honoring Saturn, the god of agriculture.

From the History Channel:

Beginning in the week leading up to the winter solstice and continuing for a full month, Saturnalia was a hedonistic time, when food and drink were plentiful and the normal Roman social order was turned upside down. For a month, slaves would become masters. Peasants were in command of the city. Business and schools were closed so that everyone could join in the fun.

Also around the time of the winter solstice, Romans observed Juvenalia, a feast honoring the children of Rome. In addition, members of the upper classes often celebrated the birthday of Mithra, the god of the unconquerable sun, on December 25. [...] For some Romans, Mithra's birthday was the most sacred day of the year.

Interestingly enough, Mithras was always portrayed as an infant during this festive time.

As a good, Yahweh fearing Jew, I sincerely doubt Jesus or his cousin would have dared light up a Yule log, or mix a potent batch of eggnog, or whatever the Roman revelers would have used to usher in the traditional holiday season.

Reason for the Season

From the Catholic Encylopedia:

Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the Church. Irenaeus and Tertullian omit it from their lists of feasts; Origen asserts (in Lev. Hom. viii in Migne, P.G., XII, 495) that in the Scriptures sinners alone, not saints, celebrate their birthday.

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, sporadic feasts commemorating Jesus' birth began to crop up in various locations beginning in 200 CE, but the dates assigned to the feasts varied widely, and there was no general consensus on when Jesus might have been born, or even if the event was appropriate for Christians to commemorate.

Christmas celebrations spread to Egypt by 432, to England by the end of the sixth century and to Scandinavia by the end of the eighth century. By the Middle Ages, Christmas had, for the most part, supplanted the older pagan celebrations. But, it was still celebrated in the traditionally pagan way, with raucous Mardi Gras-like drunkenness and partying. Of course, that was after the church service.

During the 17th century, Puritan forces took over England and vowed to rid the land of the decadence of Christmas. Christmas was condemned by Oliver Cromwell and forbidden by an Act of Parliament in 1644. The day was to be a fast and a market day; shops were compelled to be open; plum puddings and mince pies condemned as heathen. Even after Charles I took the thrown and re-legalized Christmas, Yuletide was called "Fooltide" by the faithful.

When the pilgrims arrived on the shores of America, Christmas was not one of their holidays, and in Boston, the celebration of December 25 was outlawed. Congress was in session on December 25, 1789, the first Christmas under the new constitution. Christmas wasn't declared a federal holiday until June 26, 1870.

In the 19th century, Americans began to embrace and re-invent Christmas. In 1819 Washington Irving wrote "The Sketchbook of Geoffery Crayon, Gentleman," a series of stories about the celebration of Christmas in an English manor house. Irving's fictitious celebrants enjoyed supposed "ancient customs" that in actuality were fictitious inventions from the mind of the author. No such ancient customs existed prior to Irving's book, but because of the popularity of his stories, his invented Christmas "traditions" took hold.

Also around this time Charles Dickens hit the scene with his classic "A Christmas Carol." These two authors, more than any pope, prelate, or peasant preacher, are responsible for what those living in the west have come to regard as a traditional Christmas celebration.

Just as an added point, even with 2,000 years of evangelism, to this day oriental countries do not celebrate Christmas the same way we do. In Japan, people generally work on Christmas, and Christians may or may not attend church that day or on Christmas Eve. Japanese and Chinese more enthusiastically celebrate New Year, which has no Christian connotations whatsoever.

Cel-e-brate, good times... Come on!

For thousands of years, people have been making merry in December, celebrating with joy their lives, their families, and the change of seasons by gathering together with friends against the cold. Regardless of the name of the holiday or whether the general population is celebrating Marduk, Mithras, or Messiah, all the gods are myth anyway, so why should an atheist miss out on the fun?

So, as far as I'm concerned, the next time someone tells me to remember the reason for the season, I'll point to the sun, raise a full mug of spiced wine, and toast to the health of the ignorant well wisher. If that person joins me in the toast, who knows, maybe he or she will finally understand the real meaning of Christmas.

(Also see "Essay on Christmas" by Robert G. Ingersoll & "Before the Son, the Sun was reason enough" by Eric Zorn)

What do you think?

Respectfully,

Sean

[Moondoggy]

A ggod book you might enjoy is called, "Mystery Babylon Religion" by Woodrow. I would have to agree with you on most of your post. The "winter" festival had many pre-christian pagan religion that celibrated it for a variety of reasons. It became adapted by Christians, but most do realize his birth date was not Dec 25th. But it stuck anyway.

Sept, 11th 3 BC between 3pm-6pm is as accurate a date I can arrive at.

[The One X]

Yeah we don't know the exact date teh Jesus was born and we have a 1 and 365 chance of getting it right, which is horrible odds. Really I don't mind athiest celebrateing because Christmas in America isn't about the birth of Jesus anymore it is about shopping, wasting money, and giving and recieving presents.

[CaitSith]

I like Yule, its less generalized than Christmas, which is as specific as it gets. Christmas has really become more of a term for an entire season, which we are just at the start of...

Happy Winter's peak festival to all, no matter what you are celebrating

[Cadetak]

I think there is two versions of christmas:

1. Religious Christmas-Church and Jesus. People clebrate the birth of Christ.

2. Other Christmas- Snowmen and Santa. People celebrate the season.

Christians can partake in both versions...its just bad when you don't partake in the first.

I personally don't like christmas. I mean why do people have to wait for that one day a year to be generous and nice? Don't christians celebrate the birth of christ every sunday anyways?

Christmas is my top most hated holiday...right above Valentine's Day(same reason as I hate christmas).

Edited December 7, 2006 by Cadetak47

[Mesobaite]

As you gradually come out of ignorance you gradually discard your ignorant ways. I have'nt celebrated christmas min about 6 years now.

[Purplos]

The more I learn, the more I wonder why people get picky over what is Christmas and what is Yule and where the whole thing came from. They sound pretty much like the same thing to me. Aren't some pagans celebrating the return of the Sun god (or the god associated with the sun) at Yule, and Christians celebrate the birth of the son of god.

Same thing.

And even athiests who aren't celebrating any type of god or spiritual thing still get wrapped up in the giving and merriment and joyousness (unless they are scrooges )

So why do people have to get upset? What if everyone is right?

[Bella-Angelique]

So where is the difference between an atheist celebrating a pagan holiday to worship a god and a Christian one?

[GoddessWhispers]

Winters Solstice. When the sun is at it's greatest distance from the equator. The christians adopted it to the christ holiday long after the pagans celebrated it in the name of "yule". It's still imparting the same message. Because after Solstice , December 21st, the days grow longer and the nights shorter. Hence, the sun/son of man jesus , was born and grew into what was later called the messiah. Al-Masih in Arabic. And referring to anyone anointed by a prophet of god.

It's yet another rip off of the old practices by the new faith. And today, given it's all about materialism, it's the one time of year when even the most hard hearted b****** can join in the caroling about good will toward men. And go back to being a jerk December 26th. But really, it's about the sun and the earths rotational axis, altering in the gravitational field. Everything after that is our fiction.

[Bella-Angelique]

Winters Solstice. But really, it's about the sun and the earths rotational axis, altering in the gravitational field.

That is a good ground work for the atheists to work off of. They could do planetariums instead of nativitiy scenes and put a sun on top of the tree instead of a star.

It could work out well.

[Purplos]

Well, the sun is a star, so it would still work... None of those pesky angels though.