Why the constant posts about Christian holidays replacing pagan ones on their calendar dates? Why an issue?

It SHOULDN'T matter to anyone who doesn't HATE FUN.

It shouldn't be an issue, but when some bloviating conservative talk show hosts works up his ignorant audience base about a "secular" war on Christmas, it's sometimes appropriate to remind them there was never anything completely unique about the holiday, that is was arbitrary, and chosen by the church precisely to make things easier on converts, so they wouldn't lose their harmless holiday traditions (like a yule log), since that wouldn't impact the more important theological meaning. It's important to point out to these goobers that Xmas was being used in the 1500s, with the X standing for the Greek Letter Chi, the first letter in Christ's name, and is not an attempt to remove "Christ" from Christmas, and that "Happy Holidays" has been in use in England since the 1700s to be inclusive of all the holy days of advent leading up to Christmas and the New Year. Once again, it's not an attempt to be more secular.

When people keep themselves ignorant of Origins (although those origins don't necessarily impact the modern meanings or practices) they can take on a "holier than thou" haughtiness that is really quite insufferable.

In answer to the question, those who bring this up bring it up because Christians tend to claim that Christianity is the truth and only the truth so it kind of deflates their bubble when they find out that their "truth" tends to derive from other practices.

In response to the airhead above me(Greensho...), the evidence of December 25th being a Pagan holiday in many Pagan cultures the 25th is the birth of many gods. Mithra, Horus, Dionysus, Attis, Krishna and many more were all born December 25th and bear parallels to the story of Jesus' birth.

Furthermore, EASTER does not derive from a Jewish Sabbat. I don't know what you were smoking when you came up with that idea but eggs have nothing to do with Jesus. Eggs are an age old symbol in Paganism to represent fertility because EASTER is derived from Beltane and Ostara. Both are High Days celebrating the coming of Spring and the fertility and new life that Spring represents. Do your research and don't just speak whatever crap comes to your mind because I can honestly say you need the knowledge.

Sorry, it just bugs me when someone claims something as fact when in fact their "facts" are far from it.

What is REALLY ironic about this topic is that there is actually no historical evidence to back up the claim.

For example, if Christians did take over an important Roman Sun festival when they started Christmas, you would expect to find some record of this festival from before when they did it. So where is it? Does anyone ever produce it? Where is the evidence to back up the claim? There is plenty of stuff around about Roman festivals. We still have original Roman calendars of feasts. What do they show on December 25th? Nothing. Zilch. Nada. Zero festivals. They show loads of others - Saturnalia on the 17th, the feast of Apollo in August. Why don't they show this supposed sun festival?

Same goes for this supposed Winter Solstice festival. No evidence from anywhere that might have influenced the early Christians. Forget Yule - Christianity didn't reach people who held "Yule" until centuries later and then those people, when Christian, moved their winter (Yule) feast to December 25th.

The Christmas date was not arbitrary - it was most likely derived from an idea (probably mistaken) that Jesus died on the anniversary of his conception - in spring. Conception in spring means birth in December.

The date of Easter is, of course, derived from the JEWISH Passover. Jews aren't pagans.

Edit: In reply to the ignorant person below, you come up with the evidence. You provide references to the Roman documents or inscriptions that talk about these supposed god's birthdays. When you have done that (which I predict you will not be able to do), then you might be in a position to say something meaningfull. Until you do that, you are just bull.

And, while you are at it, read up on the 2nd century Easter dating dispute: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quartodecimanism.

Then read up on the Jewish Passover meal and it's link to an egg. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passover_seder "The festive meal is eaten. Traditionally it begins with the hard-boiled egg on the Seder plate.["

These questions are posted by two groups of users - people making a point (scoring points off other people's religions), and people who've just discovered hot water and want to share that discovery.

These questions are somewhat tedious for some of us who have seen many hundreds, even thousands of questions all making the same points. For the majority of people who know something about religions, I doubt these "questions" (they are not questions) are saying anything new. It is true to say that religions have cultural accretions and there is nothing new under the sun - if I answered them, that would be my answer. But that doesn't satisfy anyone. The argument has become very stale and it just goes round in circles. I read the answers and I just think "okay, but so what?"

I think it is important to appreciate though, that most of us have lived through a particular moment in our lives when we found this out for ourselves, and it was a revelation. So if the question is being posted by someone who has just experienced that revelation for themselves, I don't want to spoil it for them with some jaundiced comment that just rains on their parade. That's not fair. And if someone's out to bash or troll, I tend not to answer them anyway.

Some people think the pagan origin of Christian holidays taints or invalidates these holidays.

If you look carefully, most of the questions are posted by people who are asking why non-christians are celebrating what they believe should be exclusively christian holidays.

They need to be properly informed that it is the christians that are celebrating non-christian holidays in reality.

Things adapt, religion isn't any different. And your right just because the names change doesn't mean im going to doubt my belief.

People selectively don't want to question their beliefs and

they fear that holidays and symbols are *gasp* pagan!

Perfect example, ICHTHYS