Why is Christmas pagan and what is an alternative tradition to Christmas one can do instead? originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.
Why is Christmas pagan and what is an alternative tradition to Christmas one can do instead?
Paganism is merely a religion other than one of the main world religions. In other words, the only thing that distinguishes paganism from Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Shintoism, or Judaism is the number of people that have signed up for the newsletter. It isn’t something to fear and it is bigotry to act like it is.
Christmas is a holiday that has evolved due the passage of time and the influence of various cultures as Christmas has entered their lives. Each of those cultures has enriched the holiday, giving us more traditions with which to celebrate it.
If we traveled to the ancient world, we would find some kind of celebration at that time, in many places, each at first independent of the others. For the ancient Romans, that holiday was called Saturnalia, named for the god Saturn. Saturnalia was celebrated by feasts, the giving of gifts, and a brief sense of equality through role-reversal as the masters tended to the servants. The ancient historian, Livy, tells us that Saturnalia began in 497 BC. Modern historians believe it probably started earlier than that. So, at least half a millennia after the origin of Saturnalia, Jesus Christ was born. His birth was not initially a holiday, because birthdays were not then celebrated in Jewish culture. It would be a few centuries until early church leaders decided it was a day to put on the calendar and commemorate. It would also be a few centuries until they decided to pick a day for that celebration, because the gospels do not tell us on what day he was born.
On December 25th, 274 AD, the Emperor Aurelian consecrated the temple of Sol Invictus, creating a holiday called Dies Natalis Solis Invicti – the birthday of the Sun – officially elevating the Sun to the highest position among the gods – nudging a steering current towards monotheism.
Shepherds watch their flock by night during lambing season, which is the spring. But there’s no rule that says a day of celebration has to coincide with the actual date of origin. In Britain, we celebrate the Queen’s birthday on June 9th instead of her actual birthday of April 21st, because April showers bring May flowers.
So, in Rome in the fourth century, there were three big holidays being celebrated on December 25th – Saturnalia, Dies Natalis Sol Invictus, and the Dies Natalis of the Christ. It’s only natural that elements from these celebrations would cross-pollinate each other, especially when they fit so well – for example, the gift giving of Saturnalia could be adopted by Christians as symbolic of their God giving his only son to them as a gift on that day.
As Rome faded and Christianity grew, the people that celebrated those holidays would take their traditions to new areas. As those early Christians moved into Northern Europe and introduced Christmas to the native Germanic peoples, the practices of Christmas were influenced by the practices of those peoples for their winter solstice holidays. Over time, traditions like the Yule log, mistletoe, tree decorating, and evergreen wreaths were absorbed and became thought of as Christmas traditions. The Saxons, the Vikings, the Victorians, and the capitalists have all added traditions to the rich tapestry of the holiday we all call Christmas.
There’s nothing to be feared from those traditions. They are additive, not dilutive. Pagan contributions are not something to fear. Heck, today is Wednesday, for English speakers and Miercoles for Spanish speakers. Where do you think those names come from? Wednesday comes from the pagan Germanic god Woden and Miercoles comes from the pagan god Mercury. We are no more corrupted by having a “pagan” Christmas tree in our house than we are by having a calendar that says Wednesday or Miercoles on it.
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