Originally posted by MC John 117
I'm not Christian or Catholic. In my mind, and in society, Christmas has lost all but a few religious aspects, (the whole Jesus thing), and is naught else more than a corporate scheam to make people go out and spend spend spend. 😛
I'm glad it lost the religious part. Freedom of religion allows those who believe in it, to celebrate the religious part, but if you don't believe in it, you should be able to celebrate the same holiday.
Originally posted by MC John 117
I'm not Christian or Catholic. In my mind, and in society, Christmas has lost all but a few religious aspects, (the whole Jesus thing), and is naught else more than a corporate scheam to make people go out and spend spend spend.
Originally posted by MC Mike
I'm glad it lost the religious part. Freedom of religion allows those who believe in it, to celebrate the religious part, but if you don't believe in it, you should be able to celebrate the same holiday.
------------
Well,
Christmas is absolutely related to Religion. Because it is one of the Catholics' and Protestants' beliefs. If you think Christmas lost its religious part... then you don't mean Christmas at all.
🙂
Christmas is Pagan notion in origin.
Bible is against any Pagan notions and practices.
Therefore, Bible is against Christmas.
Originally posted by DirectorFitz
I am a Christian and I celebrate Christmas. But instead of putting a Star on our tree, we put an Angel. And we put statues of Nativities around our house. We worship Christ and God...we don't worship the tree.
Funnily enough, having an "angel" on top of the tree is as pagan as a star... in the Norse tradition, the fir tree represents Lord Freyr, the god of plenty... well, a certain part of him, anyway...the angel or fairy represents his sister, Freya, goddess of fertility.... and the tree goes between her legs....
And the Bible doesn't just forbid the worship of the tree... but the decoration of it as well... just as in the Commandments the making of ANY image, not just holy ones, is expressly forbidden... this is why strict Muslims will not have paintings or statues of any kind, and the less strict will tolerate only abstract ones....
Someone must be really bored to bring up Christmas.....
Yes, I celebrate Mithra's Birthday...The Sun god...the one that the HOLY Roman Church picked as Jesus day of birth to bring in the Pagans....
give me over to immortal birth... so that... I may gaze upon the immortal beginning with the immortal spirit, with the immortal water, with the most steadfast air, that I may be born again in thought and the sacred spirit may breathe in me.”
Mithraism stood as a powerful rival to the newly emerging christianity:
In 274 C.E., the Roman emperor Aurelian proclaimed the birth feast of Mithras, Dec. 25th, as an official holiday.
In 307 C.E., Mithras was officially designated the “Protector of the Roman Empire.”
However, by 358 C.E., followers of Mithras began to be persecuted under christianity.
The Roman Empire and the Saturnalia
The Catholic Encyclopedia (1911) admits “Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the Church... the first evidence of the feast is from Egypt.”
Mid-Winter Holidays
Cycles of the seasons, winter solstice is balanced by summer solstice
Winter is the start of the waxing part of year, signals growth
Daylight hours start getting longer after shortest day
Summer is the start of waning part of year, signals decay
Daylight hours get shorter after longest day
Child of Promise
God who descended to the Underworld at Samhain, essentially the dying god, is then reborn by the Goddess and returns to the upper world
Symbolized by the sun
He is central in restoring heat and light to the frozen earth
Important time to also honor MOTHER GODDESS
Gods with Dec. 25 birthdays
Birthday of the Unconquered Sun
Sol, Greek Apollo, widely practiced holiday
Mithras, Persian sun god, became popular Roman deity; god of morality, justice, and the military; restored fertility to earth by slaying bull; son of sun god; his story parallels that of Christ
Roman Emperor Aurelian declared Dec. 25 as birthday of both Apollo and Mithras, as both were widely worshiped in Roman empire
Emperor Constantine worshiped Mithras before converting to <a href='http://consumeralertsystem.com/cas/zx-hclick.php?hid=166' target='_blank'>christianity</a> was made the state religion, Constantine declared that Dec. 25 was the birth date of Christ
http://amymyers.250free.com/wintersolstice.htm
http://historical.benabraham.com/html/golden_child_-_vatican_treasur.html