Why do Christians celebrate Christmas, but don't celebrate the day Jesus died?

Hello. You are right about Christmas(literally Christ's Mass), it is a completely fabricated holiday. No one knows when Jesus was born, and the best guesses all suggest that it was definitely not in December. The date does seem to have been selected to coincide with pagan holidays held around the time of the winter solstice. It is not Biblical, but it is also not anti-Biblical. That is to say, there is no Biblical doctrine stating that we should or should not celebrate Christmas. It all boils down to tradition. Personally, I see little harm in it, but also little merit. It means very little to me.

People celebrate Good Friday on the "wrong date" because no one knows for certain the exact year in which Jesus was crucified(probably 30 or 33AD). What we do know is that it was on a Friday before the Jewish Passover. Passover is always held during a full moon, so the date changes every year. That is also why the date of Good Friday fluctuates.

That said, Christians do not need any actual dates to celebrate any of this. All days for us contain something of Jesus since conversions happen all the time. Conversions are when Jesus is born into the heart. Also, baptisms and communion are times when we remember and identify ourselves with the death and resurrection of Christ. No particular holiday matters. In fact, the holidays can actually distract us from the importance of personal faith and salvation.

Actually, Christians celebrate His death and resurrection year round whenever they have communion services and usually on Easter. Some Christians do not celebrate Christmas, especially now that it has become so commercialized and Christ has become less of the focal point of it. Christmas and Easter were celebrated by Christians to counter the Pagan holidays during the same time of year. Like Halloween being celebrated as All Saints Day or a Harvest Day celebration. The accurate date really is not so important and is not really known. What is important is the life of this one man, Jesus... His birth and death... and His message of hope for all mankind that has changed the world and is still relevant even today.

Good Friday is a holy day in the Catholic faith. No, it is not on the same day every year, but that is because Easter isn't on the same day, and Passover is not on the same day. That has been the way it is for a very long time.

However, it is more important that we celebrate the day, then have it be on the actual day. First of all we don't know the actual day. At Christmas we celebrate the Feast of the Incarnation, not the actual birthday of Jesus...we don't know his actual birthday.

<< If I remember correctly the Christians to fit in with the pagans decided to celebrate the birth of Christ during the time the pagans celebrated the birth of the sun god etc...>>

That is popular belief, but there is some really good evidence fhat it isn't so. December 25th as the birthday of Christ, is mentioned by Hippolytus in the early third century.

http://www.doig.net/NTC09.htm

There is no record of celebrating Sol on December 25 prior to AD 354/362. This would be the mid 4th century. So, there is evidence that supports the idea that the pagans used a day already important to Christians, for their sun worshiping feast day.

I'm not saying Jesus was born on December 25th, only that there is evidence to support that it was believed to be the day very early in Christian history.

http://www.bibleserralta.com/JesusbornDecember.htm...

i was browsing about the importance of the day Jesus died, and I was directed to this page, i just want to share some good news about this topic, I am a member of the Church of God sanctified in Christ Jesus (1 Cor 1:1-2) in the Philippines but I am in Australia now, this sect is not affiliated with any sect of the Churches of God in America, we based our faith what is written in the Bible...we have this celebration of the Last Supper every year to commemorate the death of Christ, we literaly eat unleavened bread and drink grape wine which symbolizes the body and blood of Christ...this is a very important doctrine Christ has given to his disciple 1 Cor 11:22-34, we also have this yearly Church thanksgiving (Colossians 3:15) which include thanksgiving for the salvation God and Christ has given to us...thanksgiving for the death and resurrection of Christ. I believe that this two events (last supper and thanksgiving for the death and resurrection of Christ) should be the most important event in Christian life...we do not celebrate Christmas.

We do.

We celebrate the day Jesus died on Good Friday and the day he rose from the dead on Easter Sunday.

Why do Orthodox Christians occassionally celebrate Easter on a different date?

Easter is calculated to follow the Jewish feast of Passover.

Catholics and most Protestants use the new Gregorian calendar decreed by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 to calculate the date of Easter.

The Orthodox Church uses the old Julian calendar introduced in 46 B.C.E. by Julius Caesar. In 2008, the Orthodox Easter will fall on April 6 (Julian) and April 19 (Gregorian).

For more information, see:

Catholic:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar

http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/easter.html

Greek Orthodox:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_calendar

http://www.smart.net/~mmontes/OrthEasttbl.html

Catholic:

The time of Easter is based on the cycles of the moon, the equinox, and seasons and things in nature.

In simple (?) terms Easter occurs on the first Sunday following the first full moon that occurs on or after the day of the vernal equinox (the first day of spring).

With love in Christ.

If "just have faith" was your answer then the people you asked about the Catholic faith were the wrong people, its OK, there was a lot of bad Catechists in the last 30 years. I would understand why you lost interest and left the Church.

That being said, if you were never educated about the Catholic faith, how do you know that what you left was in error? You might take another look at the Catholic Church, get a copy of the Catechism, and learn the faith for yourself with your now adult mind, you might be surprised by what you find.

Good luck and God Bless your search.

We do, it's called Good Friday

We don't know the exact day. We can only get close based on the Jewish passover, which changes every year just like Easter and Good Friday.

And no one knows exactly when Christ was born either, it could have very likely not been on Christmas, this is just the day we celebrate it.

Well in that case Jesus never asked us to celebrate his death! We remember his sacrifice when he died on the cross and that is easter or another name is Passover from the Jewish faith.

Christmas is to celebrate and remember when our savior was born. The 3 wise men brought Jesus gifts when he was born. We are simply remembering that he was born to us and we celebrate it. It isn't Santa's day. That is a marketing image for making people spend money.

God is good and there is a day that we set aside to remember Jesus' birth and it doesn't matter if isn't the EXACT date. It is what is in your heart. Love for God!

If you don't want to celebrate it that is on you and your choice. It isn't forced on you you CHOOSE to celebrate or not. That is your free will!

God bless you!

We celebrate Jesus' resurrection. It's one of the most encouraging holidays we have. If He were not resurrected, the we wouldn't be, either.

The UCG is a sabbatarian organization that can be sincerely wrong about many things. They tend to celebrate only the Old Testament holidays that point to Jesus, while we who are truly under the New Covenant celebrate Christ Himself.

Jehovah's Witnesses observe the Memorial of Christ's death every year. It is held during Passover, after sundown. We do not observe 'Christmas', it really has nothing to do with the Christ.