Christianity in HP

[Maria]

No: HPFGUIDX 128352

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Geoff Bannister" 
<gbannister10 at a...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "lupinlore" <bob.oliver at c...> 
> wrote:
> 
> Lupinlore:
> > To answer some of the questions, let me also acknowledge there 
really
> > is no generic Christianity.  The religion has thousands of 
variants,
> > some of which violently disagree with one another.  Let me answer 
from
> > the perspective of my own branch, Eastern Orthodoxy (which has 
some
> > strong similarities with High Church Anglicanism, as both are very
> > influenced by Patristic sources).
> 
> Geoff:
> Speaking as an evangelical Protestant, I would disagree with you 
here. 
> The absolute basic core of Christianity is summed up very simply by 
> Jesus. There is the statement about the two great commandments, 
firstly 
> to love God with all your heart,mind and soul and secondly to love 
your 
> neighbour (effectively anyone who you come in contact with) as 
yourself 
> and then his statement  that "God so loved the world that he sent 
his 
> only son that whoever believes in him will not persih but have 
eternal 
> life." Differences and quibbles between denominations arise from 
less 
> important matters such as ritual and structure and I have found 
across 
> many years that true Christians who accept the very basics I have 
> mentioned can agree on their faith.
> 
> AyanEva wrote:
> > I know I just stated my confusion in another thread, but Christmas
> > and Easter ARE pagan holidays. And it's very much in line with 
what
> > pagans would practice (I used to practice Wicca, but I've mostly
> > lapsed).
> 
> Geoff:
> Excuse me but Christmas and Easter are NOT pagan holidays. By 
> definition, they are Christian festivals.
> 
> What you are doing is to confuse the fact that when they came into 
> being, they coincided with pagan festivals for the simlple reason 
that, 
> especially in the Roman Empire, the only time that Christian 
believers 
> such as slaves could get time to hold special festivals together 
was at 
> the time of the main feast days hence they came to be traditionally 
> held at the times they are.
> 
> Re the Wizarding World  marking Christmas etc., it indicates to me 
that 
> the festivals have some meaning for them. Otherwise they would use 
a 
> different name... Here in the UK, we are now getting one or two 
local 
> authorities who refuse to mark Christmas on PC grounds and 
celebrate 
> the "Winter Festival" or something equally vague.


Wasn't there a pagan goddess with the name similar to Easter? 

Anyway, Christmas ans easter aren't papan, but some of the traditions 
based on those holidays are stemmed from Pagan rituals. For example, 
Christmas tress and I think the giving of eggs. And the Christmas 
date, the 26th replaced an old pagan holiday on the same date, when 
the Christrams were deciding the calender, and when the feast day 
would occur, because they didn't know the exact date Jesus was born.

Plus I thought it was rather clever, replacing pagan holidays with 
the Christian ones, it gave Christianity some publicity, so to speak.

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