Quote:
Originally Posted by little_tippler
and the whole reason behind why Christmas is celebrated around this date actually relates to the Winter Solstice more than it does to Christianity alone.
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This is the way I understand it, I may be wrong, who knows.
It's a little more complicated than just relating to the winter solstice.
Saturnalia was a celebration for the Sun God, Saturn. It started as a day long celebration and became longer and longer until the celebration was a week, ending around December 23 depending on what source you read.
Mitra, or Mithras was considered the King of Light or the God of Heavenly Light. Mithras birthday was celebrated on December 25th. Mithraism was prominent religion of Rome and Persia at the time. This is widely acknowledged.
Where is gets muddy is when Constatine enters the picture.
In his effort to convert ancient Rome to Christianity, and supposedly during the Council of Nicea (but reports vary), it was decided to declare December 25th as the birthdate of Jesus, even though prominent sources of the time said it was January 3, some said March 21, there was many opinions. Mithraisn was abandoned and replaced with Christianity, including the birthdate of Mithras being replaced as the birthdate of Jesus.
The reason for this was Constatine needed a way to blend already highly popular pagan celebrations with Christianity so the people would convert more easily and basically not put up such a fuss.
So, December 25th was chosen, the Saturnalia traditions of hanging wreaths, lighting candles and exchanging gifts were kept, and the date of December 25th was kept to appease the Mithraism.
It's also my understanding that it's widely acknowledged that December 25th is known to not be Jesus' birthday.
So, you can actually celebrate Christmas in any way you want. It's the date set aside for the observance, but it's not actually the date. Commercialism has taken so much of the religion out of it anyway. It's like if your birthday was in April, but you celebrated it in September. Just not the same.
As agnostics, yes we celebrate Christmas for what we see it as. A wonderful excuse and time to gather family and friends for get togethers. To partake of the traditions, putting up a tree, giving gifts, having parties really has nothing to do with religion or Jesus in our eyes.