Christmas: the real deal
There are two questions commonly asked of me around this time of the year:
1. Fradam, how did you get so tall!?
2. Fradam, why don’t you celebrate Christmas like everyone else?
The answer to at least one of these questions is simple: drink lots of milk.
The other question however, is vastly more complex, primarily arising from most people being aware that I am a Christian, yet don’t seem too big on what many suppose to be the biggest Christian celebration around. But how Christian is Christmas? On a purely aesthetic level, yes, they share many of the same letters, but it is a bit more than that 
As a Christian, I believe in what is in the Bible: which Christmas is not. Surprised? I hope not! Christmas is an amalgamation of many different cultures’ celebrations: Saturnalia, Sol Invictus, Yule, mid-winter night and the winter solstice. Between these, glory was given to the Roman Gods Saturn and Sol, the Syrian God Elah-Gabal, the Persian God Mithras and the Norse Gods Thor and Odin. It’s promotion into the Christian world was fuelled by Catholicism and the merging of pagan practices into less pagan equivalents. This is not particularly new knowledge — there was a lot of rioting and fighting about this in England and the US in the past few hundred years.
Ofcourse, that is what Christmas is technically defined to have originated from, but is that what Christmas is? Many would argue that Christmas is what you make of it, and that it means whatever you want it to mean — it can be a religious thing, it can be a secular thing, it can be a family thing, it can be a communal thing. Not everyone celebrates it the same way, and yet all are valid, right?
With my family, we take advantage of the fact that nobody is at work and can actually spend a degree of time with each other. It is not a religious acknowledgement of Christ’s supposed birth day. There’s rarely a tree. No candy cane, or stockings. It is simply time spent with those closest, those that are loved the most, with the joy of giving. Is that a form of Christmas? Well… considering the above thoughts, I suppose it is. Might not be the same as everyone, but it’s something 
So on that note: Merry Christmas everyone!
christmas, pagan, philosophy, religion Find similar posts: philosophy, religion
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January 5th, 2007 at 8:30 pm
Sorry for the late reply…
I may get some bad press for this, but I think that Christians that celebrate Christmas as the birth of Jesus are naive and need to do some reading in a book other than the bible…
What we know of as Christmas is a celebration to the God of Nature in pagan religion and always has been. Last I checked, celebrating another god was blasphemy…
Christmas should be taken for what it is. I celebration of friends and family. As you may know, I have a higher purpose of celebration on Christmas, it is both Sam’s birthday and the anniversary of when I proposed to her, give of take a few days
Oh and don’t get me started on Easter… the OTHER Christian/pagan holiday.
January 14th, 2007 at 9:39 am
Hmm… I must have over looked this one bubba.
As you know, I am totally not religious. I go to church once a year on Easter, and that is just to enjoy the spectical that my church makes of all its paritioners. Over all, it’s a good chacne to play with fire, light some candles, walk around the church a few times, and giggle while the priest knocks on the front doors asking Jesus to come out. I guess I go every year just to see if he actually will come out, but he never does. Afterwards, It’s always a good opportunity to walk over to the local 7-11 with my friends and have a tasty slurpy.
So, long story short… I’m with ya! Christmas so isnt a religous holiday. In my family we put up our tree the day after thanksgiving, and take it down on Jan. 10th after some other relgion celebrates thier christmas. Over all, it’s a time for mass consumerism when we buy silly trinkets to make our house look pretty. But over all, its a great time of cheer and holiday spirit where we get to spend time with throngs of others as we push our way through rude shoppers at the mall.
Hmm… I don’t think I’m making a good argument for christmas here… NVM! hehe Love you.