Did Jesus celebrate christmas?

What You Should Know About Christmas

MILLIONS worldwide are getting ready to enjoy the 2002 Christmas season. Perhaps you are among them. On the other hand, it may not be your custom to share in the religious aspects of this popular celebration. Either way, you are not likely to escape the influence of Christmas. It permeates the worlds of commerce and entertainment, even in non-Christian lands.

What do you know about Christmas? Is the celebration of Christ’s birth supported in the Bible? What is behind this popular celebration held every December 25th?

Christmas Banned

If you take a few moments to research this subject, you will find that Christmas has no roots in true Christianity. Many Bible scholars of various religious denominations acknowledge this. With that in mind, it should not surprise you that in England, Cromwell’s Parliament decreed in 1647 that Christmas be a day of penance and then banned it outright in 1652. Parliament purposely met on December 25 every year from 1644 to 1656. According to historian Penne L. Restad, “ministers who preached on the Nativity risked imprisonment. Churchwardens faced fines for decorating their churches. By law, shops stayed open on Christmas as if it were any regular business day.” Why such drastic measures? Puritan reformers believed that the church should not create traditions that did not exist in the Scriptures. They actively preached and distributed literature denouncing Christmas celebrations.

Similar attitudes were evident in North America. Between the years 1659 and 1681, Christmas was banned in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.* According to the law enacted then, Christmas was not to be observed in any form or fashion. Violators were subject to a fine. Not only were Puritans in New England uncomfortable with celebrating Christmas but some groups in the middle colonies were also. Pennsylvania Quakers were as adamant as the Puritans in their view of the celebration. One source says that “shortly after Americans had won their independence, Elizabeth Drinker, a Quaker herself, divided Philadelphians into three categories. There were Quakers, who ‘make no more account of it [Christmas] than another day,’ those who were religious, and the rest who ‘spend it in riot and dissipation.’”

Henry Ward Beecher, a renowned American preacher who was raised in an orthodox Calvinist household, knew little about Christmas until he was 30 years old. “To me Christmas was a foreign day,” wrote Beecher in 1874.

The early Baptist and Congregationalist churches also found no Scriptural grounds for celebrating Christ’s birth. One source notes that it was not until December 25, 1772, that the Baptist Church of Newport [Rhode Island] observed Christmas for the first time. This was approximately 130 years after the founding of the first Baptist church in New England.

The Origin of Christmas

The New Catholic Encyclopedia acknowledges: “The date of Christ’s birth is not known. The gospels indicate neither the day nor the month . . . According to the hypothesis suggested by H. Usener . . . and accepted by most scholars today, the birth of Christ was assigned the date of the winter solstice (December 25 in the Julian Calendar, January 6 in the Egyptian), because on this day, as the sun began its return to northern skies, the pagan devotees of Mithra celebrated the dies natalis Solis Invicti (birthday of the invincible sun). On Dec. 25, 274, Aurelian had proclaimed the sun-god principal patron of the empire and dedicated a temple to him in the Campus Martius. Christmas originated at a time when the cult of the sun was particularly strong at Rome.”

M’Clintock and Strong’s Cyclopœdia says: “The observance of Christmas is not of divine appointment, nor is it of N[ew] T[estament] origin. The day of Christ’s birth cannot be ascertained from the N[ew] T[estament], or, indeed, from any other source.”

An “Empty Deception”

In view of the above, should genuine Christians share in Christmas traditions? Is it pleasing to God to fuse his worship with the religious beliefs and practices of those who do not worship him? The apostle Paul warned at Colossians 2:8: “Look out: perhaps there may be someone who will carry you off as his prey through the philosophy and empty deception according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary things of the world and not according to Christ.”

The apostle also wrote: “Do not become unevenly yoked with unbelievers. For what fellowship do righteousness and lawlessness have? Or what sharing does light have with darkness? Further, what harmony is there between Christ and Belial [Satan]? Or what portion does a faithful person have with an unbeliever?”—2 Corinthians 6:14, 15, footnote.

In view of the irrefutable evidence at hand, Jehovah’s Witnesses refrain from sharing in Christmas celebrations. In harmony with the Scriptures, they strive to practice “the form of worship that is clean and undefiled from the standpoint of our God,” by keeping themselves “without spot from the world.”—James 1:27.

No. Jesus did not celebrate anyone's birthday ~ including His own. Think about it...there are four Bible books (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) dedicated to Jesus life. Why wasn't a birthday party for Jesus mentioned?

Christmas is a pagan celebration that has nothing what-so-ever to do with Jesus.

Christmas is nothing to do with either Christianity or Islam but it does have it's origins in the midwinter festival and many other basically pagan rites but since much of it is a celebration of nature rather than religion everyone should be able to enjoy it and be happy together despite religion!

The ancient European pagans celebrated the midwinter festival and a number of other festivals long before Christianity ever existed!

Babylonians celebrated the feast of the Son of Isis with gluttonous eating and drinking, and gift giving and the goddess of fertility, love, and war.

The Romans held a festival on 25 December called “Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, celebrating their own god Sol Invictas – PAGAN!

The Persian god Mithras, the Syrian sun god Elah Gabal, the German Sol, the Greek Helios and the Mesopotamian Shamash. But also Saturnalia, honouring Saturn, the God of Agriculture. The law courts and schools were closed. No public business could be transacted an this is where the holidays originated - ALL PAGAN!

Wax tapers were given by the more humble to their superiors. The origin of the Christmas candle - PAGAN!

In Rome groups of costumed went from house to house entertaining their people. And this was where the carolling Christmas tradition originated PAGAN!

Statues of the Mother and lover or Mother and son were paraded through the streets not only in Italy but also in Africa, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany and Bulgaria. Thus, the symbolism of the Heavenly Virgin and the infant child paraded on a yearly basis are not of Christian origin. They stem from the Mother-goddess religion, which is very ancient ENTIRELY PAGAN!

Scandinavian countries celebrated Yule honouring Thor – PAGAN!

In Germania (not Germany) they celebrated midwinter night followed by 12 wild nights of eating and drinking. The 12 days of Christmas PAGAN!

The church under Pope Julius I declared that Christ’s birth would be celebrated on December 25 in 350 AD in order to try to hijack the PAGAN festivals but it was largely ignored. Christians did not really celebrate Christmas until 378 but it was then dropped in 381 and not resurrected until 400.

The Christmas tree stems from pagan tradition and ritual surrounding the Winter Solstice, which included the use of holly boughs ivy and other foliage as an adaptation of pagan tree worship. Holly and ivy represented male and female. Mistletoe was considered a sacred plant, and the custom of kissing under the mistletoe began as a fertility ritual - all PAGAN!

Jeremiah 10:2-4 bans Christians from Christmas trees showing clearly it was practiced long before Chrsitianity was even thought of!

Santa Claus came from the Dutch “Sinterklaas” and was a tall figure riding a white horse through the air and usually accompanied by Black Peter, an elf who punished disobedient children. Also the origin of the reindeer, sleigh and the elves ALL PAGAN!

The modern red coated Santa was brought about by coca cola!

AMERICA ACTUALLY BANNED CHRISTMAS several times and is the originator of the expression “Happy Holidays” which came about because of the pagan origins of Christmas to include all religions and traditions!

The Venerable Bede, an early Christian writer pointed out that the Christian church absorbed Pagan practices when it found the population unwilling to give up the festivals. Thus a lot of what Christians now see as Christians practices are in fact pagan!

Christmas is the time of year Christians strive to prove just how pagan they have become

No not as we know Jesus is a Jew so celebrated the Jewish festivals. As Jesus was born in September Jesus would be at the Feast of Trumpets

No..."Christmas" was originated as the Yule holiday celebrated by pagans. So no...he didn't, he was Jewish. Christians want you to think it's a celebration of his birth but he wasn't even born in December.

Answer - No, as you have not provided any agreed upon factual evidence that Jesus exists, and that the religion has created after the Jesus character story, along with the Christians taking over the Pagan religion's Winter Solstice, to help convert new followers of Christianity.

Of course not. Christmas (Christs Mass) is a catholic contrivance that did not appear for centuries after Christ.

Birthday celebrations are pagan through and through. We celebrate God always - never self.

There is NOTHING Christian about Christmas.

Of course not, he was a Jew. Celebration of his birth didn't occur for a couple hundred years after his death.

No, it hadn't been invented yet. He did go to the market on Black Friday though.

Jesus didn't exist. Christmas was created by the early church to supplant pagan traditions. It didn't work.