The Christian Encyclopedia says:
“Christian preachers of the West and the Nearer East protested against the unseemly frivolity with which Christ’s birthday was celebrated, while Christians of Mesopotamia accused their Western brethren of idolatry and sun-worship for adopting as Christian this pagan festival.”
--Something was wrong from the very beginning of the holiday. --
It continues......
“Yet the festival rapidly gained acceptance and became at last so firmly established that even the Protestant revolution of the sixteenth century was not able to dislodge it,” the encyclopedia notes.
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Concerning Christmas The book Early Christianity and Paganism states: “The comparatively little body of really earnest believers was lost in the great multitude of professed Christians.”
The book The Paganism in Our Christianity states: “It was a definite Christian policy to take over the pagan festivals endeared to the people by tradition, and to give them a Christian significance.”
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Christmas soon absorbed many features from the profane harvest festivals of northern Europe. Merrymaking remained more common than piety as revelers indulged in gluttonous eating and drinking. Rather than speak out against the loose conduct, the church endorsed it. In 601 C.E., Pope Gregory I wrote to Mellitus, his missionary in England, telling him “not to stop such ancient pagan festivities, but to adapt them to the rites of the Church, only changing the reason of them from a heathen to a Christian impulse.” Thus reports Arthur Weigall, who once was inspector general of antiquities for the Egyptian government.
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Did you know this pagan celebration was banned in England?
By the time Europeans began settling the New World, Christmas was a well-known holiday. Still, Christmas did not find favor in the colonies. Puritan reformers viewed the celebration as pagan and banned it in Massachusetts between 1659 and 1681.
After the ban was lifted, the celebration of Christmas increased throughout the colonies, particularly south of New England. In view of the holiday’s past, however, it is not surprising that some were more concerned with having a good time than with honoring God’s Son.
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Merry Pagan Mas!
“Christian preachers of the West and the Nearer East protested against the unseemly frivolity with which Christ’s birthday was celebrated, while Christians of Mesopotamia accused their Western brethren of idolatry and sun-worship for adopting as Christian this pagan festival.”
--Something was wrong from the very beginning of the holiday. --
It continues......
“Yet the festival rapidly gained acceptance and became at last so firmly established that even the Protestant revolution of the sixteenth century was not able to dislodge it,” the encyclopedia notes.
-------
Concerning Christmas The book Early Christianity and Paganism states: “The comparatively little body of really earnest believers was lost in the great multitude of professed Christians.”
The book The Paganism in Our Christianity states: “It was a definite Christian policy to take over the pagan festivals endeared to the people by tradition, and to give them a Christian significance.”
---------
Christmas soon absorbed many features from the profane harvest festivals of northern Europe. Merrymaking remained more common than piety as revelers indulged in gluttonous eating and drinking. Rather than speak out against the loose conduct, the church endorsed it. In 601 C.E., Pope Gregory I wrote to Mellitus, his missionary in England, telling him “not to stop such ancient pagan festivities, but to adapt them to the rites of the Church, only changing the reason of them from a heathen to a Christian impulse.” Thus reports Arthur Weigall, who once was inspector general of antiquities for the Egyptian government.
--------
Did you know this pagan celebration was banned in England?
By the time Europeans began settling the New World, Christmas was a well-known holiday. Still, Christmas did not find favor in the colonies. Puritan reformers viewed the celebration as pagan and banned it in Massachusetts between 1659 and 1681.
After the ban was lifted, the celebration of Christmas increased throughout the colonies, particularly south of New England. In view of the holiday’s past, however, it is not surprising that some were more concerned with having a good time than with honoring God’s Son.
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Merry Pagan Mas!
