What's wrong with "Merry Christmas"?

[Geoff Bannister]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "susanmcgee48176" 
<Schlobin at ...> wrote:
>
> --- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, Lee Kaiwen <leekaiwen@> 
> wrote:
> >
> > americanghosttour blessed us with this gem On 22/12/2007 10:23:
> > 
> >  > Wiccan We celebrate Yule. (Most of your modern Christmas 
> traditions
> >  > come from our ancient ones, btw.) But if I dare say, "Blessed 
> Yule"
> > 
> > Well, debatable as your premise is, in that case I would expect 
> Wiccans 
> > of all people to be most at home in the holiday, rather than 
> > (apparently) dead-set against enjoying it.
> >
> 
> Debatable that most Christmas traditions were originally pagan?
> When I grew up in the Catholic Church, it was explained 
specifically 
> to me that Catholics were trying to suppress pagan religion and 
were 
> deliberately adopting some of the imagery....

Geoff:
I have always understood that one of the reasons that 
the Christian festivals often coincide with the pagan 
ones was that the only way that early Christians who 
happened to be slaves under the Romans could only get 
time to hold a festival was at the time of the major 
Roman holidays, hence the convergence of the dates. 

Susan: 
> What do you think ISN'T pagan about Christmas? The birth of the son 
> of god? The tree? The Yule log? 

Geoff:
Personally, I do not consider the coming of God in 
human form to earth as being pagan but as the fulfilment 
of promises made by God through the prophets. I'm quite 
happy to accept the Christmas tree, like the log, as an 
interesting tradition which is really nothing to do with 
the real purpose of Christmas, the birth of the Messiah 
- born to bring salvation to the world. Although I do not 
agree with their world view, I am quite happy for the 
Jewish people to celebrate Hanukkah or other faiths to 
mark their special days and I would certainly *not* 
expect them to rename their holidays or change the way 
they follow their belief for the benefit of those of us 
who are practising, believing Christians.

By the same argument, however, returning to the subject 
of celebrating Christmas, as far as the UK goes, these 
holidays are *officially* referred to as Christmas 
holidays and the cultural foundation, certainly of 
England over the last thousand years or so is deeply 
rooted and founded in Christianity and its outworking 
through individuals. Our schools, our hospitals, our 
legal system, the abolition of slavery and of child 
labour inter alia are all developments which were 
brought about by Christian believers so I see no 
reason why we should change our naming of these 
holidays.