"Pagan Roots? 5 Surprising Facts About Christmas"
"
1. Early Christians had a soft spot for pagans.
2. We all want that warm Christmas glow.
3. The Church was slow to embrace Christmas.
4. The Puritans hated the holiday.
5. Gifts are a new (and surprisingly controversial) tradition
"
http://news.yahoo.com/pagan-roots-5-sur … 21591.html
What say you?
Totally correct, it's a good old pagan festival which Constantine grabbed when he decided Christianity was 'in' for the Roman Empire.
First, Christ was a Jew, Jews don't make a big thing of birthdays. Secondly, all the evidence shows He was born in late summer early autumn....go figure!
When I questioned this at a church leadership meeting about 18 years ago, all hell broke loose! - although they did drop 'Santas Grotto' from the Christmas Fayre some time later.
Christ is a daily relationship, and if we are to follow ANY festivals, better the ones that point towards Christ in Judaic tradition.
Oh, no, Quicksilver - the date is firmly established.
Sextus Africanus, in the 2 and 3rd century, figured this one out. Knowing that all old testament prophets died on the anniversary of either their conception or birth, he decided that Christ died on March 25 so that date was also the date of conception. Nine months later is Dec. 25, so that was the date of birth.
A little convoluted, and ancient historians and scholars weren't particularly concerned with reality, so there we have it. Christ was born on Dec. 25.
I wrote an entire hub on christianity's pagan roots. It's fascinating really, how quickly the church is to distance itself from paganism today - when not a single aspect of the christian tradition does not harken back to an older practice, usually found in paganism.
I agree, and I have a very soft spot for the pagan rites, I was brought up to appreciate all things Celtic, including their celebrations, and they were pagans! I like them!
I think it is perfectly acceptable for individuals to allot their particular meaning to their own actions and traditions. I'm happy that pagans had festivals. I hope they still do and that the symbolism of the items they choose to use point toward love, peace and good will.
Bah humbug to anyone who wants to put a damper on a very nice holiday. Happy Holidays to everyone else who finds a blending of traditions over the centuries to be indicative of the true spirit of Christmas
+1 Christmas is, and always has been, what we make of it.
Yes, Christmas is a newer version of Yule, which pagans have celebrated before Jesus was born. I have known since my twenties this, and to me if they want to use Yule for Jesus's birthday so be it. After all Yule is the holiday of welcoming in the new sun god, so it only makes sense to me they would attach a new god on to the season.
I have known for a long time that Christ was not born on the 26th December. It makes no difference to me, Xmas celebrates the fact that He was born, the precise day doesn't matter. With all the changes and adaptions the Western calendar has suffered over the centuries, who knows what was when?
The ONLY thing I would like to say about this... given that here... it is right this moment Christmas Day is:
MERRY CHRISTMAS to: Everyone involved in and part of this site, community and circle of feathers! Enjoy this festive period and all the peace you may find! Take Care... PD
Yeap... it's a pagan holiday... good ol' Yule! But most of us would be considered Pagans by the standards of the early Christians anyways. So drink your wine, spread the holiday cheer, and leave those cookies and milk for Santa. Merry Christmas to all.
Christmas is just a recycled Pagan Celebration. The original "Christmas" is the Winter Solstice that was celebrated back then. There is much proof that Christianity took a lot of its practices and beliefs from Paganism. Christmas is just one of many such as Easter which is Ostara to us. If you really study the religion, you will surely find many things apart from this.
by ALL4JESUS 19 months ago
Any idea of who created that great graphic? I have seen in bumper sticker but know nothing of its origin.
by cjhunsinger 9 years ago
Are many Christians really just Pagans? Pope Francis thinks so.Since Christianity is, essentially, a pagan belief, it is about time that the Catholic Church began to recognize that fact. Not all those who claim to be Christians really are, said Pope Francis Friday morning. Some are Christians “in...
by santosardee 15 years ago
Many religion now see Catholicism and Paganism more similar to each other. For example, the celebration of Christmas in Dec 25 by Catholics is rooted from a Pagan celebration according to some religion.
by Baileybear 14 years ago
I have read that symbols & beliefs of christianity are adopted from pagan beliefs. What do you know about this?
by Paul 11 years ago
Has Christmas became all about presents and Santa Claus instead of Jesus to children today?How can we as Christians make sure they know the real meaning of Christmas?
by Rhonda D Johnson 12 years ago
I've written a hub describing the effect Constantine and the pagans in the ecumenical counsels had on Christianity. I also read the writings of Justin Martyr where he tried to explain away the embarrassing extent to which Christianity copied Roman paganism by claiming that demons led the...
Copyright © 2025 The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers on this website. HubPages® is a registered trademark of The Arena Platform, Inc. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers to this website may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website.
Copyright © 2025 Maven Media Brands, LLC and respective owners.
As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.
For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy
Show DetailsNecessary | |
---|---|
HubPages Device ID | This is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons. |
Login | This is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service. |
Google Recaptcha | This is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy) |
Akismet | This is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Google Analytics | This is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Traffic Pixel | This is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized. |
Amazon Web Services | This is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy) |
Cloudflare | This is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Hosted Libraries | Javascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy) |
Features | |
---|---|
Google Custom Search | This is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Maps | Some articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Charts | This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy) |
Google AdSense Host API | This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Google YouTube | Some articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Vimeo | Some articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Paypal | This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Login | You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Maven | This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy) |
Marketing | |
---|---|
Google AdSense | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Google DoubleClick | Google provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Index Exchange | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Sovrn | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Ads | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Unified Ad Marketplace | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
AppNexus | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Openx | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Rubicon Project | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
TripleLift | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Say Media | We partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy) |
Remarketing Pixels | We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites. |
Conversion Tracking Pixels | We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service. |
Statistics | |
---|---|
Author Google Analytics | This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy) |
Comscore | ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Tracking Pixel | Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy) |
Clicksco | This is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy) |