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Chronology of Christ

abanoub2000abanoub2000
edited December 1969 in Faith Issues
Hay Guys, I was searching for some things on the origin of christmas and i have a couple of questiosn

Is god's EXACT birth date known, what is it?

If it isnt then why do we celebrate Christmas on the 7nth?

i came upon allot off things saying Christmas rituals are based on Pagan rituals?

and is the world so messed up to the point that when i search the word christmas only atheist websites pop up???

Comments

  • SeverusSeverus
    Provide some examples that state that the Divine Liturgy of the Feast of Nativity is based on pagan rituals.
  • abanoub2000abanoub2000
    I dont know... i personally dont believe the pagan stuff.  it was just all over the internet, wanted to know if there was some kinda facts behind it.
  • SeverusSeverus
    In order to give you answers, we need to see specific issues... what exactly is pagan about the Orthodox Church?
  • Unknown
    I think what you're referring to (abanoub) is the fact that the dates and traditions of Catholic holidays coincide strongly with pagan holidays.  For example, Christmas is celebrated on Dec. 25, which is the winter solstice.  This happens to be the same day that commemorates the birth of several Pagan gods including Osiris, Baal and Tammuz.  Since it is the shortest day of the year, it is considered the death and rebirth of the sun and in turn the death and rebirth of various sun gods.  The yule log is a symbol for Nimrod as is the Christmas tree, and many others.  The Catholic date of Easter Happens to fall on the same date as several pagan fertility festivals.  I won't say what they did at those, but I'd say it's pretty evident that the Easter bunny has more to do with fertility than the resurrection of Christ.  Valentine's day is rarely ever called St. Valentines Day occurs on the same day as another fertility festival, and little has changed there.  Not to mention the practice of having a Saint for every occasion, the same way Pagans had idols for every occasion.

    I think the purpose of appropriating those days for Christian worship is that the early Catholic church wanted to give the people something else to do rather than participating in the popular Pagan rituals.  Plus it made it harder for the young Church to adopt the idea that one could be both Pagan and Christian.

    I don't think there is anything Pagan about the dates of Orthodox holidays.  Good Friday coincides with the Hebrew Passover, and I think the rest of the year is modelled around that.  I'm not sure where Jan 7 comes from for the date of christmas, but it is convenient to celebrate it a little before the Great Lent so that a great portion of the year follows the life of Christ and the rest of the year follows the history of the Church.

    I wouldn't say that there is nothing that shows any similarity to pagan ritual in the Coptic Church.  It's just that everything I've found to link the rituals in the Coptic Church with previous Egyptian Pagan ritual seems to be universal, like raising incense and the concept of sacrifice which are also Hebrew (and Babylonian, and Myan and Incan, and ...).  They also put high importance on honoring their dead, just like everyone else, but they also recited their names which is interesting, because aside from Egyptian Pagans and Egyptian Christians, I'm not sure anyone else did that.  Also, the seasons of prayer are similar, i.e. rising of the waters, plants and air of heavens. . .  Well duh... it's natural for people of the same region to have the same concerns at the same time.  The same thing applies to reciting the names of the dead; they were the same people and they were used to it.
  • abanoub2000abanoub2000
    Wow i Totally forgot about this post.. thanks so much, you answered my question meya meya (100%)

    Thanks and Pray for me!
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