On 12/9/2014 6:48 AM, Nathan Wajsman wrote:
Thanks for looking, John. As for the rest of your comments: Christmas is
celebrated in late December because it coincides with winter solstice. When
Europe was being Christianized, the church coopted pre-existing pagan holidays.
Good marketing strategy.
Yup, and not only ancient solstice rituals, such as the Saturnalia Bob mentions. The cult of Mithra was HUGE in the
Roman military, and his birthday was - you guessed it.
For a religion newly designated as the official one of the Empire, aligning their public God birthday festivities with
those celebrated in secret by its army was another successful co-option strategy.*
Since I am not Christian, for me this is indeed the “holiday season”.
And I hope it's a good one!
Holy Daze Moose
* For literalists who don't happen to have read their New Testament closely lately, the Gospels give no hint as to the
time of year of the Birth. There is, in addition, no historical record of a taxing method such as described in the
Gospels. Doesn't prove it did or didn't exist, only that it can give us no hint as to time of year, either.
This says nothing to diminish the importance, depth and meaning of the celebration to believing Christians, only that
the time of the celebration, absent any knowledge of the date of the event, may have been chosen for practical reasons.
--
What if the Hokey Pokey *IS* what it's all about?
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