No, Christmas is not Pagan!
I heard it again. This time it was at a Christmas party with some of the folks from my old Church. The discussion I was having came around to the subject of Christmas and what was the basis for Jehovah's Witnesses denouncement of it. As part of my answer I said "Well, for one thing they claim Christmas is a pagan holiday". To this, my friend gave a bit of a chuckle and said, "Well, it kind of is."
At one point in my life, I would have agreed with him. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't think he believes it is wrong to celebrate Christmas, but like many others I've come across, Christians today seem to have resigned to the fact that Christmas is, indeed, a holiday with it's roots in paganism and therefore one has two choices: 1) flatly refuse to acknowledge the holiday in any way, or 2) figure that Christ can redeem anything and continue to celebrate it as normal. My friend seems to have chosen the latter.
And at one point in my life I had chosen the former...
The reason for the belief that Christmas is a pagan holiday is due to the supposed history behind it. That version of history goes something like this: The early Christians before the council of Nicaea were persecuted. When Constantine signed the Edict of Milan and put an end to the persecutions, a new phase of Christian history began. Soon, Christianity became the state religion and now there was a problem. How do you get thousands of pagan Romans to accept Christianity? The best way was to "Christianize" pagan holidays so they wouldn't have to give up too much of what was familiar to them. Paganism already had a Festal Celebration around the Winter solstice, and so the birth of Christ was inserted into the pre-existing holiday season, and now as a Pagan Roman you could continue to celebrate, and thus the transition to Christianity was made easier. Thus, Christmas as we know it today was nothing more than an attempt at disguising a pagan celebration.
And that is the supposed reason why Christmas exists.
One of the great things about joining the Orthodox Church is that I don't have to be a Protestant anymore. It means I no longer have to look with suspicion at the early church at the time of Constantine. It means I can get out of my naïve and ignorant view of Christian history and stop promulgating rather unfortunate inaccuracies.
Christmas is not pagan. Wanna know why? I think the reason this is so widespread among evangelical protestants is because of the level of ignorance about the Church Calendar. For protestants there are two Christian celebrations during the year: Easter and Christmas. The reason for Easter is obvious, and there are very few people who dispute that celebration (although there are people who do). Christmas, though, on the surface seems "unnecessary". Surely we are not told in the Bible to celebrate Christmas, and therefore it's introduction seems... innovative and suspicious.
What protestants don't realize is the rest of the church year. Now that I'm Orthodox, I participate in a host of celebrations. Our church year begins Sept 1 and we celebrate the following major feasts:
Fixed Feasts (always the same calendar date):
Sept 8: The Nativity of the Mother of God
Sept 14: The Exaltation of the Cross
Nov 21: The Entrance of the Mother of God into the Temple
Dec 25: The Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ
Jan 6: The Theophany of Our Lord
Feb 2: The Meeting of the Lord in the Temple
Mar 25: The Annunciation to the Mother of God
Aug 6: The Transfiguration of Our Lord
Aug 15: The Dormition of the Mother of God
Movable Feats (various year to year)
Palm Sunday
Ascension Thursday
Pentecost Sunday
And then add to all that Pascha (Easter) itself.
The fact is, Christmas doesn't exist on its own. It's part of an entire year of feasts which celebrate every major event in the life of Our Lord Jesus Christ and His mother. Remember the Jews were given feast days by God so they would reflect on what He had done for them, and who He is. The feasts were instituted by God for the people so they would never forget Him. In like manner, after Christ, the Church keeps a number of feasts for our sake, so we can always remember and reflect on Our Lord's time on earth and what He has done for us.
The bottom line is that Christians - while celebrating every part of Christ's life, were going to celebrate His birth. Whether it was on December 25 or not is beside the point. Christians were going to commemorate that day, and now that I'm part of the Orthodox Church that has kept the Traditions and Doctrines alive since the very earliest years of the Christian era, it no longer makes sense to claim that Christmas is a pagan holiday, or a holiday with pagan roots, or anything else having to do with paganism.
Now, don't get me wrong, there are certainly popular Christmas traditions that we celebrate in the west that would have pagan root (like perhaps the Christmas tree - although I admit I've heard arguments from both sides), but these popular traditions in no way make the actual celebration of the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ a celebration "rooted" in paganism.
It is only a lack of knowledge of the Church Calendar and the complete excising of everything that happened before the reformation from popular "knowledge" that Protestants can continue to think that Christmas is in any way pagan.
Merry Christmas :)
At one point in my life, I would have agreed with him. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't think he believes it is wrong to celebrate Christmas, but like many others I've come across, Christians today seem to have resigned to the fact that Christmas is, indeed, a holiday with it's roots in paganism and therefore one has two choices: 1) flatly refuse to acknowledge the holiday in any way, or 2) figure that Christ can redeem anything and continue to celebrate it as normal. My friend seems to have chosen the latter.
And at one point in my life I had chosen the former...
The reason for the belief that Christmas is a pagan holiday is due to the supposed history behind it. That version of history goes something like this: The early Christians before the council of Nicaea were persecuted. When Constantine signed the Edict of Milan and put an end to the persecutions, a new phase of Christian history began. Soon, Christianity became the state religion and now there was a problem. How do you get thousands of pagan Romans to accept Christianity? The best way was to "Christianize" pagan holidays so they wouldn't have to give up too much of what was familiar to them. Paganism already had a Festal Celebration around the Winter solstice, and so the birth of Christ was inserted into the pre-existing holiday season, and now as a Pagan Roman you could continue to celebrate, and thus the transition to Christianity was made easier. Thus, Christmas as we know it today was nothing more than an attempt at disguising a pagan celebration.
And that is the supposed reason why Christmas exists.
One of the great things about joining the Orthodox Church is that I don't have to be a Protestant anymore. It means I no longer have to look with suspicion at the early church at the time of Constantine. It means I can get out of my naïve and ignorant view of Christian history and stop promulgating rather unfortunate inaccuracies.
Christmas is not pagan. Wanna know why? I think the reason this is so widespread among evangelical protestants is because of the level of ignorance about the Church Calendar. For protestants there are two Christian celebrations during the year: Easter and Christmas. The reason for Easter is obvious, and there are very few people who dispute that celebration (although there are people who do). Christmas, though, on the surface seems "unnecessary". Surely we are not told in the Bible to celebrate Christmas, and therefore it's introduction seems... innovative and suspicious.
What protestants don't realize is the rest of the church year. Now that I'm Orthodox, I participate in a host of celebrations. Our church year begins Sept 1 and we celebrate the following major feasts:
Fixed Feasts (always the same calendar date):
Sept 8: The Nativity of the Mother of God
Sept 14: The Exaltation of the Cross
Nov 21: The Entrance of the Mother of God into the Temple
Dec 25: The Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ
Jan 6: The Theophany of Our Lord
Feb 2: The Meeting of the Lord in the Temple
Mar 25: The Annunciation to the Mother of God
Aug 6: The Transfiguration of Our Lord
Aug 15: The Dormition of the Mother of God
Movable Feats (various year to year)
Palm Sunday
Ascension Thursday
Pentecost Sunday
And then add to all that Pascha (Easter) itself.
The fact is, Christmas doesn't exist on its own. It's part of an entire year of feasts which celebrate every major event in the life of Our Lord Jesus Christ and His mother. Remember the Jews were given feast days by God so they would reflect on what He had done for them, and who He is. The feasts were instituted by God for the people so they would never forget Him. In like manner, after Christ, the Church keeps a number of feasts for our sake, so we can always remember and reflect on Our Lord's time on earth and what He has done for us.
The bottom line is that Christians - while celebrating every part of Christ's life, were going to celebrate His birth. Whether it was on December 25 or not is beside the point. Christians were going to commemorate that day, and now that I'm part of the Orthodox Church that has kept the Traditions and Doctrines alive since the very earliest years of the Christian era, it no longer makes sense to claim that Christmas is a pagan holiday, or a holiday with pagan roots, or anything else having to do with paganism.
Now, don't get me wrong, there are certainly popular Christmas traditions that we celebrate in the west that would have pagan root (like perhaps the Christmas tree - although I admit I've heard arguments from both sides), but these popular traditions in no way make the actual celebration of the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ a celebration "rooted" in paganism.
It is only a lack of knowledge of the Church Calendar and the complete excising of everything that happened before the reformation from popular "knowledge" that Protestants can continue to think that Christmas is in any way pagan.
Merry Christmas :)