tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post8547070030837564305..comments2024-03-18T12:54:19.748-05:00Comments on Pastoral Meanderings: A tale of two Christmas origins....Pastor Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10653554256101480140noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post-10653719089945621162011-12-23T10:36:41.697-06:002011-12-23T10:36:41.697-06:00That the pagans stole Christmas is just paranoia o...That the pagans stole Christmas is just paranoia of the worst kind, which is self-serving paranoia.<br /><br />Saturnalia, eg, has nothing to do with Christmas, but results from the Roman variation of the outcome of the story of the conflict between the Titans and the Olympuans. Other cultures were having new light, return of the light celebrations at Winter Solstice long before "Christmas".<br /><br />It was a natural choice, the actual date of Christ's birth being unrecorded, to place a celebration of this new light at the same time for symbolic reasons.<br /><br />Which does not amount to Christians stealing Winter Solstice, Sol Invicta, Yule or any of the other pre-existing non-Christians celebrations either. As if the difference between the story of the birth of the real new light, Christ, from the story say of the origin of Saturnalia does not make that clear enough already.<br /><br />Nobody stole nuttin from nobody.<br /><br />For details of which, in self-serving promotion, one may visit the Christmas post on my blog, pastelder.blogspot.com.Terry Maherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17122266461403246084noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post-10724937990699792662011-12-23T09:49:20.602-06:002011-12-23T09:49:20.602-06:00A rather interesting work about Christmas can be f...A rather interesting work about Christmas can be found at the link below. Particularly is the work of Pastor Fido, an Anglican, writing in AD 1652.<br /><br />http://www.dec25th.info/<br /><br />He deals with many of these arguments, including arguments from patristics, roman calendar, the idea that the sheep were not in Jerusalem then ( hint they sacrificed sheep all year :) )<br /><br />The most interesting / out of the ordinary item in his whole book was a tree in england that bloomed every christmas. However the tree was promptly chopped down by puritans so we'll never know.<br /><br />I find the table of priestly service etc. wherein it is shown when Zecheriah was in the temple ergo when the annunciation was etc.<br /><br />I also find fascinating that Haunnakah and Christmas both start on the 25th day of the month. Its just that the Jewish calendar is lunar and so the start of the month moves around which is why on our solar calendar it moves around relative to our fixed 25th day of the month.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post-53674038760429425792011-12-23T08:37:30.098-06:002011-12-23T08:37:30.098-06:00Even if December 25th was originally a pagan holid...Even if December 25th was originally a pagan holiday, who cares? Nobody knows the exact date of Christ's birth. It's not like Easter, where we DO know the exact date and month, thanks to its close relationship to the Jewish calendar. The date doesn't matter, only the meaning of God becoming man for our salvation matters. The only problem I find is all the hymns and Christmas songs about the Nativity scene amid snow on a cold, frosty night--it's the Middle East, not Wisconsin!<br /><br />Anyway, when my atheist friends try to be smug about how Christmas is fake and actually created by non-Christians, I could care less. It's not a barrier to faith.Arielnoreply@blogger.com