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duga · 04-05-2010, 02:22 PM

I honestly don't worry about celebrating holidays and what it means in terms of religion. Does anyone ever wonder why so many holidays from so many different religions share similar dates? Almost every major religion has a holiday on or around December 25th. Many also have a holiday around Easter. December 25th is known not to be Jesus's actual birthday, so why celebrate it then? Because it is the end of the Winter Solstice. Easter is around the beginning of Spring.

This is all due to syncretism - the melding of beliefs to ease the transition from the old to new. When missions and kings were busy converting everyone to Christianity, they did it aggressively, but they also knew that they couldn't just slap a brand new set of traditions on the people. So, they kept all the old holidays from the previous religion, renamed them, and tweaked the reason for celebrating it all to ease the transition into Christianity. Instead of worshiping the sun god on December 25th (who brings more sunlight and longer days with him), people worship the son of God.

All our holidays have a history dating back even to prehistory. So, I celebrate these holidays because I am a human and like to celebrate human history and accomplishment, not because I am religious.

04-05-2010, 02:22 PM	#31 (permalink)
duga MB quadrant's JM Vincent Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Washington, DC Posts: 3,762	I honestly don't worry about celebrating holidays and what it means in terms of religion. Does anyone ever wonder why so many holidays from so many different religions share similar dates? Almost every major religion has a holiday on or around December 25th. Many also have a holiday around Easter. December 25th is known not to be Jesus's actual birthday, so why celebrate it then? Because it is the end of the Winter Solstice. Easter is around the beginning of Spring. This is all due to syncretism - the melding of beliefs to ease the transition from the old to new. When missions and kings were busy converting everyone to Christianity, they did it aggressively, but they also knew that they couldn't just slap a brand new set of traditions on the people. So, they kept all the old holidays from the previous religion, renamed them, and tweaked the reason for celebrating it all to ease the transition into Christianity. Instead of worshiping the sun god on December 25th (who brings more sunlight and longer days with him), people worship the son of God. All our holidays have a history dating back even to prehistory. So, I celebrate these holidays because I am a human and like to celebrate human history and accomplishment, not because I am religious. __________________ Confusion will be my epitaph...