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Original Christian Holiday?
- Thread starter jeffrey
- Start date
Feathers in Hair
World's Tallest Hobbit
I don't see them as 'stolen', so much as adopted. There are probably all sorts of studies discussing how traditions or holidays are picked up or slightly changed as people move from one area to the next, though I lack in reading them.
For me, if anyone finds joy and significance (and hopefully wisdom) in celebrating a holiday, then it doesn't matter so much where it came from. Naturally, if people treat it with a negative attitude, in either direction ("This holiday started out as my religion's tradition" or "My tradition has celebrated this holiday for this long, so it's ours now") then negativity will result. I like the ambivilent approach! :flower:
For me, if anyone finds joy and significance (and hopefully wisdom) in celebrating a holiday, then it doesn't matter so much where it came from. Naturally, if people treat it with a negative attitude, in either direction ("This holiday started out as my religion's tradition" or "My tradition has celebrated this holiday for this long, so it's ours now") then negativity will result. I like the ambivilent approach! :flower:
Fluffy
A fool
A handy list of Christian festivals:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Christian_festivals
In short, yes there are plenty. But the most popular ones, and the most important ones, all have pagan origins and most of the traditions in the others have pagan origins. This would make sense with Christianity having a healthy history of pagan influence, even through the Inquisitions and even today.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Christian_festivals
In short, yes there are plenty. But the most popular ones, and the most important ones, all have pagan origins and most of the traditions in the others have pagan origins. This would make sense with Christianity having a healthy history of pagan influence, even through the Inquisitions and even today.
Jerrell
Active Member
The Origin of Christmas is pagan, but the meaning of it is not the same. It is just the same as they did in History. THe Church(Catholic) Wanted to replace the Birthday of a flase god, so they replaced it with Jesus....But the meaning is changed, they dont do the festivals of flase worship, but to get away from Idoltry they replaced it with a cristian ideal. They did the same when they replaced Jesus with Santa Clause....The Catholics meant good, and they did good, **also know Jesus was the only one to recieve presents not everyone**
Easter, the name can be connected to Ishtar the Egyptian goddess. But Easter is simply the name of the day Jesus rose from the dead. The Day that we won the power over death. One cannot associate the meaning of the day with pagan orgions or simliarites.
Easter, the name can be connected to Ishtar the Egyptian goddess. But Easter is simply the name of the day Jesus rose from the dead. The Day that we won the power over death. One cannot associate the meaning of the day with pagan orgions or simliarites.
Fluffy
A fool
This is not really accurate at all. The essential themes of Easter, for example, are similar to previous traditions that were practiced in pagan religions at around this time of year. Many Western pagan religions had some version of a sun god or spirit who was heavily bound up in the yearly cycle. They often viewed this deity as being one of the most important because their livelihoods were based upon agriculture and therefore the coming of Summer, and the hope of a good harvest, was essential to their survival.
It was quite common for the sun god's powers to wane over the winter months or even die completely. During Spring, this god then regained his powers or was reborn or resurrected, an event that was celebrated in an event that eventually turned into Easter. Some of the strongest themes of Easter, such as life, reliance on the benevolence of the divine and the triumph of life over death can all be traced back to these earlier religions as well as some traditions, such as Easter Eggs.
Of course these similarities could just be coincidences but, regardless, Christianity certainly benefitted from them and gained huge droves of pagan converts who brought with them a hefty pagan influence.
Green Gaia
Veteran Member
You know, one of the many reasons I love UU is we recognize and celebrate all the origins and meanings of holidays. They're all important to us. Celebrations of birth, life and death, seasons, harvests are important to all cultures, regardless of what you call them.
Draka
Wonder Woman
Jerrell said:
More closely the word Easter can be compared to Eostre. A goddess who by legend transformed herself into the form of a hare to play with children on the first day of Spring. The Spring Equinox is often known as Ostara...also another likeness to Easter. The day is to celebrate the renewal and REBIRTH/RESURRECTION of Earth itself. The new life that Springs brings. There are other things I could go into as well, but on a final note....
The day on which Easter is celebrated is by this method...the first Sunday after the first full moon after the first day of Spring. Sounds like a very pagan way of dating something to me.
As to the OP: as others have pointed out there are other holidays that are more purely Christian without as much pagan fanfare. It's just the major ones that have traditions that do not reasonably fall under the Christian explanations for the day, that can be traced to pagan lore.
Jerrell
Active Member
Fluffy said:
I simply summed it up I did not want to write a Paper..
And also, There are so many diffrent religious poeple on here ....Wicca...Pagan...Muslim...BUddhist.....It seems....strange....I've never actually spoken or typed to a Wicca person.....One Question i ahve(not to say u do it) is if u beleive Satan exists, why not beleive in God, if he created him?
(They look on God as evil, and Satan as good-I think)**I am not talking about Wicca**
Feathers in Hair
World's Tallest Hobbit
Do you mean us pagans, Jarrell? Wicca is a 'denomination' of Paganism.
Pagans do not often believe that there is any such thing as a personification of evil. So we do already believe in god... Actually, many of us believe in a lot of gods. If you've got a question for our faith, please post it elsewhere where we can answer it in a thread devoted to it.
Pagans do not often believe that there is any such thing as a personification of evil. So we do already believe in god... Actually, many of us believe in a lot of gods. If you've got a question for our faith, please post it elsewhere where we can answer it in a thread devoted to it.
Evenstar
The Wicked Christian
Well hmmmmm!Mike182 said:does that equal a bad thing, though?
I would like to know this, the family next door are very strong church goes, what do you think they would say if I went and told them "Do you know Easter is a Pagan holiday"
Gosh what a chat we would have...... Oooooo I could hear it now :149:
James the Persian
Dreptcredincios Crestin
I would dispute the idea that the Nativity and Pascha (Christmas and Easter) are of pagan origin. The name Easter may be (though Bede suggests - and he lived at the right time to know- that it merely comes from the fact that it fell in a month named after Eostre) but most of the arguments I see to support this idea are unsustainable (and we don't use the word Easter either, as you might have noticed). I don't doubt that certain pagan customs were Christianised and absorbed into certain feasts in certain areas (e.g. Christmas trees and Easter bunnies, both purely western though the former will now be found in the east also). Easter eggs, however, are not pagan. In the east, these eggs are real eggs died red and they come from an old tradition about the preaching of St. Mary Magdalene, not from any pagan practice. I'm pretty sure the western choocolate eggs are an adaptation of the same tradition.
As to a purely Christian festival, how about Theophany (Epiphany, in the west). Not only can I see absolutely nothing vaguely like a pre-Christian pagan belief in that festival but it was once the second most important feast in the Church calendar (after Pascha and before the Nativity). Now it is the third most important feast, for us at least. In case you don't know wht Theophany means to us, it is celebrating Christ being revealed as God at His baptism and, to a lesser extent, His recognition as Messiah by the Magi. The latter is, I think, the more major emphasis in the west, though.
James
As to a purely Christian festival, how about Theophany (Epiphany, in the west). Not only can I see absolutely nothing vaguely like a pre-Christian pagan belief in that festival but it was once the second most important feast in the Church calendar (after Pascha and before the Nativity). Now it is the third most important feast, for us at least. In case you don't know wht Theophany means to us, it is celebrating Christ being revealed as God at His baptism and, to a lesser extent, His recognition as Messiah by the Magi. The latter is, I think, the more major emphasis in the west, though.
James
James the Persian
Dreptcredincios Crestin
Evenstar said:
Not if they're just died red. That's what we do and it comes from an ancient tradition about St. Mary Magdalene preaching the Resurrection to the Emperor. She's even shown holding a red egg in her icon. There may have also been pagan egg painting but just because two practices are similar does not mean that one has origins in the other or even that they have a common origin.
James
Feathers in Hair
World's Tallest Hobbit
Depending on whether one wishes to debate it or not depends upon one's commitment to whether or not it's 'worth the bother', hehee. I'm not emotionally invested one way or another in the idea of trying to prove that it was originally a specific faith's holiday, but here's some more information about the topic. While the source of the article is 'goddessgifts.com', it does state what I've read on the subject so far, so I hope that it won't be too biased. The article is linked to the source in the title.
Oops, forgot to add that I've deleted several paragraphs of the article for space reasons!
The article is linked to the source in the title.Oops, forgot to add that I've deleted several paragraphs of the article for space reasons!