What's wrong with "Merry Christmas"?

[susanmcgee48176]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, Janette <jnferr at ...> wrote:
>
> >
> > 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.
> 
> 
Interesting, Geoff, I have never heard that before....can you cite a 
source?



> montims:
> 
> An interesting story, that I hadn't heard before, but as authentic 
as the
> rest of the xmas ritual these days...  The historical version that 
I have
> always heard of is all over the place on the internet, but maybe 
the most
> authoritative is from history.com:
> http://www.history.com/minisite.do?
content_type=Minisite_Generic&content_type_id=1253&display_order=1&sub
_display_order=2&mini_id=1290
> 
> 
> Also around the time of the winter solstice, Romans observed 
Juvenalia, a
> feast honoring the children of Rome. In addition, members of the 
upper
> classes often celebrated the birthday of Mithra, the god of the
> unconquerable sun, on December 25. For some Romans, Mithra's 
birthday was
> the most sacred day of the year.
> In the early years of Christianity,
> Easter<http://www.history.com/minisites/easter/>was the main 
holiday;
> the birth of Jesus was not celebrated. In the fourth
> century, church officials decided to institute the birth of Jesus 
as a
> holiday. Unfortunately, the
> Bible<http://www.history.com/encyclopedia.do?articleId=202891>does 
not
> mention a date for his birth (a fact Puritans later pointed out in
> order to deny the legitimacy of the celebration). Although some 
evidence
> suggests that his birth may have occurred in the spring (why would 
shepherds
> be herding in the middle of winter?), Pope Julius I chose December 
25. It is
> commonly believed that the church chose this date in an effort to 
adopt and
> absorb the traditions of the pagan Saturnalia festival. 


This is what I was taught in Catholic school -- that the church 
deliberately chose its holidays to coincide with pagan holidays -- so 
that it could suppress pagan worship...if pagans continued to worship 
on these holidays, it could be said that they were really celebrating 
Christian holidays. Of course, it's possible that I was lied to, but 
my research indicates this to be the case.

It's common. The Indo-European invaders replaced the earth Goddesses 
of Minoan Crete with their sky deities...the ancient Egyptians (in 
their brief foray into monotheism) destroyed momuments to the 
previous deities and replaced them with their own...

It's a common tactic of conquerors...

Susan