Quote:
Originally posted by asaris
I don't mean to say that I necessarily think it's a good thing that we don't celebrate the jewish festivals, just to try and give an explanation. And I've long thought that the so-called pagan origin of Christian festivals has been overstated. Just because the date of a festival was chosen to correspond with a pagan holiday doesn't make the holiday itself necessarily pagan. It's just good marketing. Of course, I am a little disturbed by all the attention Christmas gets these days. As has been pointed out, Easter is really the central Christian holiday.
Or perhaps I should be glad Easter doesn't get the attention Christmas does; this way, it's not nearly as commercialized as Christmas.
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The dates don't bother me as much as the actual activities. From what I've read, almost every activity done during those two holidays come from pagan tradition and served the purpose of pleasing the pagan belief system or deities.
For example, I read in an encyclopedia that the ancients chopped down the trees to release spirits from the stumps. The balls and tinsel represented planets and stars, etc. Each component is derived from ancient belief systems--but I don't want to trace each one down, because I'm not really trying to lecture anyone (sorry if it sounded like that
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As for easter, there is a very appropriate festival for that, as well. It revolves around celebrating the fact of the rebirth instead of chasing eggs around (which was a Greek celebrationg of fertility) or giving people chocolate bunnies (again related to fertility).
I would say the opposite of what you stated is true; that is, the only thing linking those two holidays to christianity is that christians continue to participate in them--not the fact of the time or the activities done on them.
But I do agree with you that a celebration of the rebirth is of more significance than the birth of messiah--just not that easter is the way to celebrate it. I can't think of one activity related to easter that has origins in judaism or christianity.
Thank you for discussing this with me.