Christmas Hypocrisy?

[Forgettable]

You know how many people are trying to remove Christ from Christmas so as not to offend them? Via things like Xmas, Happy Holidays, and I'm sure a bunch of other ways I can't think of right now. All that sticker means is they won't stop saying Christmas or Merry Christmas.

[Gheld]

You know how many people are trying to remove Christ from Christmas so as not to offend them? Via things like Xmas, Happy Holidays, and I'm sure a bunch of other ways I can't think of right now. All that sticker means is they won't stop saying Christmas or Merry Christmas.

lolwot.

"X" represents the Greek (The predominant language at the time of Christ) letter Chi (which looks identical to an x) which was used as a shorthand for Christ.

So Xmas is literally just shorthand for Christmas.

[apples]

what holidays are illegal?

saturnalia, the greek pantheon, the egyptian pantheon, mithraism, to name a few all made illegal by the synod of elvira

I THINK

its been awhile, but it was all made illegal at one of the synods around that time, ~300ad

[Gheld]

saturnalia, the greek pantheon, the egyptian pantheon, mithraism, to name a few all made illegal by the synod of elvira

I THINK

its been awhile, but it was all made illegal at one of the synods

Yeah but the pagans originally oppressed the Christians when they showed up. Religious oppression was all the rage back then and it wasn't just the Christians that engaged in it.

[apples]

Yeah but the pagans originally oppressed the Christians when they showed up. Religious oppression was all the rage back then and it wasn't just the Christians that engaged in it.

even if that were true (odds are its not)

so? lol

the point was christmas most certainly did not naturally evolve from other religions of the time as it was very purposefully put in place to coopt followers from the other popular religions

[Gheld]

even if that were true (odds are its not)

so? lol

the point was christmas most certainly did not naturally evolve from other religions of the time as it was very purposefully put in place to coopt followers from the other popular religions

Every religion has a winter festival. Because winter is depressing. Even if you live in a warm region it still means shorter days and darker nights (especially important in a time with no street lamps).

People whining that Christmas falling close to the solstice is some kind of religious oppression sound just as sad as people whining that saying "happy holidays" is a war on Christmas.

[apples]

Every religion has a winter festival. Because winter is depressing. Even if you live in a warm region it still means shorter days and darker nights (especially important in a time with no street lamps).

People whining that Christmas falling close to the solstice is some kind of religious oppression sound just as sad as people whining that saying "happy holidays" is a war on Christmas.

you just said that oppression was the thing back then

kek

[Kujako]

Every religion has a winter festival. Because winter is depressing. Even if you live in a warm region it still means shorter days and darker nights (especially important in a time with no street lamps).

People whining that Christmas falling close to the solstice is some kind of religious oppression sound just as sad as people whining that saying "happy holidays" is a war on Christmas.

Christmas is a winter solstice holiday that Christians used to stone people to death for celebrating. But since they couldn't stop them, they took it over. Even then it wasn't until the 1940's that advertisers got in on it and made it what it is today.

[Reeve]

I say whatever the mood strikes me to say, Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays. It's just not something worth wasting mental effort on.

If a group of people choose to feel threatened for some reason by the fact that not everyone who celebrates the holidays is Christian, there's nothing I can do about that, so why worry?

I just can't be asked to give a shit about someone else's persecution complex, until and unless it affects me in some major way. The "put the Christ back in Christmas" crowd hasn't managed that yet.

- - - Updated - - -

even if that were true (odds are its not)

so? lol

the point was christmas most certainly did not naturally evolve from other religions of the time as it was very purposefully put in place to coopt followers from the other popular religions

Um, it's absolutely true. Early Christians were heavily persecuted. Nero tried to regain popularity by persecuting Christians, which he knew would be a good PR move at the time. Numerous other Roman Emperors did the same.

And nearly every culture has some sort of solstice celebration. In Rome, it was Saturnalia, and later the Feast of Sol Invictus. Christian church leaders eventually tried to make these celebrations illegal, but they failed, so they instead dressed the celebrations up with Christian imagery and renamed them to Christmas. It's very much an evolution.

[zenkai]

even if that were true (odds are its not)

so? lol

the point was christmas most certainly did not naturally evolve from other religions of the time as it was very purposefully put in place to coopt followers from the other popular religions

Christmas, regardless what inspired it, evolved to a Christian Holiday

The star/angel on the tree represents the star that guided the 3 wise men to Christ
The presents represent the 3 gifts given to him

From there it has evolved further for other people to things like Santa Clause (inspired by Saint Nicholas) so even some non Christians will celebrate it

Corporations celebrate Christmas for their pocket books and it helps boost the economy .

[ShadowofVashj]

My problem wasn't really with the Christmas messages, all I was pointing out was that this particular person seemed to be sending conflicting messages. We need to keep Christ in Christmas, but let's embrace Santa Claus? Just sort of feel like that's like trying to order a salad because you're vegetarian and then getting bacon sprinkled on top.

Btw Santa Claus was originally green, before Coca Cola made him red.

[apples]

I say whatever the mood strikes me to say, Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays. It's just not something worth wasting mental effort on.

If a group of people choose to feel threatened for some reason by the fact that not everyone who celebrates the holidays is Christian, there's nothing I can do about that, so why worry?

I just can't be asked to give a shit about someone else's persecution complex, until and unless it affects me in some major way. The "put the Christ back in Christmas" crowd hasn't managed that yet.

- - - Updated - - -



Um, it's absolutely true. Early Christians were heavily persecuted. Nero tried to regain popularity by persecuting Christians, which he knew would be a good PR move at the time. Numerous other Roman Emperors did the same.

And nearly every culture has some sort of solstice celebration. In Rome, it was Saturnalia, and later the Feast of Sol Invictus. Christian church leaders eventually tried to make these celebrations illegal, but they failed, so they instead dressed the celebrations up with Christian imagery and renamed them to Christmas. It's very much an evolution.

oof. thats quite an outdated view on nero. look for sources outside the apocrypha and the 3 senators and youll see that he wasnt the antichrist (literally what they call him) but instead he was a guy who probably actually did hate the jews, (since he had problems with revolts through a majority of his career) but the christians were practically nonexistent at that point.

one thing history has taught us is that it takes a government to persecute religion. so if you want to look for religious persecution you need to find a government which sanctions such persecution. since governments arent generally in favor of persecuting taxpayers, the amount of persecution in early history simply because of religion is rare. and the level of persecution by grassroots religions is gonna be almost entirely nonexistent. since the majority of religions in the early christian days were grass roots, well, there ya go

[Hyve]

You can still celebrate the founding values of Christmas (for which, Christianity isn't responsible) and still enjoy the gifts and festive stuff.

[Seezer]

Keep the Christ in Christmas just means that they can't stand people telling them to have a happy holiday.

It's funny, people like this will probably cry about "everything being to PC", and in the same breath, they're the the ones getting offended and butthurt over little stupid shit. The hypocrisy. When people say "Everything's so PC" and "PC is what is wrong with this country" what they're really saying is "I'm super sensitive and get butthurt super easily".

[Cthulhu 2020]

Those who want to "keep the christ in Christmas" tend to be the ones who hate poor people on welfare and are pretty miserly people in general. They are supposed to not worship gold nor desire wealth but do anyway.

So yeah, hypocrites.

[Tnfstc]

Jesus was born in April, the three magi/wisemen/kings took several months to get there and arrive in the winter. Thus why gift giving of Christians happens in December, because the wise guys brought their gifts then and it just so happened to coincide with a pagan holiday so they decided they would do it then.

Kind of like how Jesus wasn't crucified on some random first Sunday in the month of April, especially since the ancient Jews didn't have an "April." It was just convenient to celebrate at the same time.

But on topic, I say Merry Christmas and other say Happy Holidays, it's fine. What isn't fine is if people get angry if somebody says either one, chill and have a nice season and quit looking for ways to be offended.

[Deleted]

So I was driving around yesterday (sadly I was not in a position to take a picture, safety first kids!) and I saw a car that had the "Keep Christ in Christmas" bumper sticker, but also had those Reindeer Antlers that you can put on your windows. This greatly confused me... aren't the "Christ in Christmas" people the same people who claim to hate Santa Claus and all of the commercialism in Christmas?

Tell them Christmas hasn't been celebrated for more than hundred years or so. Before that, there was very little and it looked nothing like it is today.

[zenkai]

Those who want to "keep the christ in Christmas" tend to be the ones who hate poor people on welfare and are pretty miserly people in general. They are supposed to not worship gold nor desire wealth but do anyway.

So yeah, hypocrites.

Really? I tend to see them collecting for the poor outside of stores while ringing a bell saying "Merry Christmas" I had no idea all Christians were rich

[Cthulhu 2020]

Christmas, regardless what inspired it, evolved to a Christian Holiday

The star/angel on the tree represents the star that guided the 3 wise men to Christ
The presents represent the 3 gifts given to him

From there it has evolved further for other people to things like Santa Clause (inspired by Saint Nicholas) so even some non Christians will celebrate it

Corporations celebrate Christmas for their pocket books and it helps boost the economy .

Whoever realized that people spending money on products stimulates the economy was a brilliant person (s). It's just too bad that so many people now advocate for the opppsite.

[AwkwardSquirtle]

Saturnalia's giftgiving and merry making are older than christ.

I mean an atheist celebrating the Roman festival for the god Saturn would also be equally hypocritical, no?