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Originally Posted by Flint
And the "religious" Christmas is not a Christian holiday, it's a Pagan holiday. (You all know this, of course?)
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The root of Holiday is "Holy," after all.
Yule is a Pagan Holiday.
Christmas is Christ's Mass. Yes, the date was chosen because of proximity to the night of Yule, (or possibly the feast day of the God Mithras) and the seculrized elements, the tree, holly, misseltoe, and giving of presents are essentially Pagan, but the celebration of the Birth of Jesus, whether they located it in April or December, is a decidely Christian festival.
Pagan themes run through the secularized versions of the other Christian Holidays as well. Candlemas = Imbolc, Easter = Ostara, Samhain = All Saints and All Souls Days, and so on, but as celebrated by Christians, they are days of Christian Worship.
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I wonder why Halloween catches shit for being a "devil worshipping" celebration, but Christmas isn't treated equally?
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In some strict Christian Churches, it is. The Puritans didn't celebrate Christmas, as such, and according to a friend of mine, in the early days of the United States, unless it fell on a Sunday, December 25th was an ordinary day of business in the United States, including Congress convening for session.
Very detailed text only page about the History of Christmas