About Christmas
Feels good to be back on the page.. I know it's been long I posted an article and I understand you all might have been expecting something new.. Things like this happen but am really sorry if I disappointed anyone..
My write up today is talking about Christmas.. What it's all about.. Why some people celebrate it and why some don't even believe in it..I need everyone's comments on this and like i'll keep saying, this is just my opinion, am sure everyone has theirs too.
Christmas generally is about celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. But the origination of Christmas celebrations was to celebrate something else and not Jesus.
Roman pagans first introduced the holiday of Saturnalia, a week long period of lawlessness celebrated between December 17-25. During this period, Roman courts were closed, and Roman law dictated that no one could be punished for damaging property or injuring people during the weeklong celebration. The festival began when Roman authorities chose “an enemy of the Roman people” to represent the “Lord of Misrule.” Each Roman community selected a victim whom they forced to indulge in food and other physical pleasures throughout the week. At the festival’s conclusion, December 25th, Roman authorities believed they were destroying the forces of darkness by brutally murdering this innocent man or woman.
The ancient Greek writer poet and historian Lucian (in his dialogue entitled Saturnalia) describes the festival’s observance in his time. In addition to human sacrifice, he mentions these customs: widespread intoxication; going from house to house while singing naked; rape and other sexual license; and consuming human-shaped biscuits (still produced in some English and most German bakeries during the Christmas season).
In the 4th century CE, Christianity imported the Saturnalia festival hoping to take the pagan masses in with it. Christian leaders succeeded in converting to Christianity large numbers of pagans by promising them that they could continue to celebrate the Saturnalia as Christians.
The problem was that there was nothing intrinsically Christian about Saturnalia. To remedy this, these Christian leaders named Saturnalia’s concluding day, December 25th, to be Jesus’ birthday.
Christians had little success, however, refining the practices of Saturnalia. As Stephen Nissenbaum, professor history at the University of Massachussetts, Amherst, writes, “In return for ensuring massive observance of the anniversary of the Savior’s birth by assigning it to this resonant date, the Church for its part tacitly agreed to allow the holiday to be celebrated more or less the way it had always been.” The earliest Christmas holidays were celebrated by drinking, sexual indulgence, singing naked in the streets and that was how we began to celebrate Christmas.
Because of this fact.. Most people do not celebrate Christmas. Others celebrate it to mark the birth of Jesus..
My opinion is celebrating it or not doesn't really matter. What matters is your mindset. If you take a time out today to celebrate Jesus' birth, it isn't a bad thing, God knows what's in your heart. You can choose to and you can choose not to. The point is just knowing that God sent his son to the world to make our lives better. Instead of thinking whether to celebrate it or not to, appreciate God instead for giving us the privilege to know his son Jesus Christ. Sing and dance. Dress up and take pictures. Go on outings and be happy celebrating the love of Christ for the world. I wish you all a happy Christmas celebration and a happy new year in advance.. Peace out
My write up today is talking about Christmas.. What it's all about.. Why some people celebrate it and why some don't even believe in it..I need everyone's comments on this and like i'll keep saying, this is just my opinion, am sure everyone has theirs too.
Christmas generally is about celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. But the origination of Christmas celebrations was to celebrate something else and not Jesus.
Roman pagans first introduced the holiday of Saturnalia, a week long period of lawlessness celebrated between December 17-25. During this period, Roman courts were closed, and Roman law dictated that no one could be punished for damaging property or injuring people during the weeklong celebration. The festival began when Roman authorities chose “an enemy of the Roman people” to represent the “Lord of Misrule.” Each Roman community selected a victim whom they forced to indulge in food and other physical pleasures throughout the week. At the festival’s conclusion, December 25th, Roman authorities believed they were destroying the forces of darkness by brutally murdering this innocent man or woman.
The ancient Greek writer poet and historian Lucian (in his dialogue entitled Saturnalia) describes the festival’s observance in his time. In addition to human sacrifice, he mentions these customs: widespread intoxication; going from house to house while singing naked; rape and other sexual license; and consuming human-shaped biscuits (still produced in some English and most German bakeries during the Christmas season).
In the 4th century CE, Christianity imported the Saturnalia festival hoping to take the pagan masses in with it. Christian leaders succeeded in converting to Christianity large numbers of pagans by promising them that they could continue to celebrate the Saturnalia as Christians.
The problem was that there was nothing intrinsically Christian about Saturnalia. To remedy this, these Christian leaders named Saturnalia’s concluding day, December 25th, to be Jesus’ birthday.
Christians had little success, however, refining the practices of Saturnalia. As Stephen Nissenbaum, professor history at the University of Massachussetts, Amherst, writes, “In return for ensuring massive observance of the anniversary of the Savior’s birth by assigning it to this resonant date, the Church for its part tacitly agreed to allow the holiday to be celebrated more or less the way it had always been.” The earliest Christmas holidays were celebrated by drinking, sexual indulgence, singing naked in the streets and that was how we began to celebrate Christmas.
Because of this fact.. Most people do not celebrate Christmas. Others celebrate it to mark the birth of Jesus..
My opinion is celebrating it or not doesn't really matter. What matters is your mindset. If you take a time out today to celebrate Jesus' birth, it isn't a bad thing, God knows what's in your heart. You can choose to and you can choose not to. The point is just knowing that God sent his son to the world to make our lives better. Instead of thinking whether to celebrate it or not to, appreciate God instead for giving us the privilege to know his son Jesus Christ. Sing and dance. Dress up and take pictures. Go on outings and be happy celebrating the love of Christ for the world. I wish you all a happy Christmas celebration and a happy new year in advance.. Peace out
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