Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
You do know that Holiday is a word derived from the words Holy Day, right?
As i pointed out earlier in this thread, it seems to be human nature to remove the 'y' in Holy Day, replace it with an 'i' and slap the two words together, thereby eliminating the harder religious holy aspects and only retaining the easier fun parts.
I don't know what it is, but it seems that nearly every television or radio commercial, as well as most print advertisements now omit the word Christmas, in favor of "Holiday". It's downright absurd.
Why are they doing this?
Why do they feel the need to say "Holiday Shopping" instead of "Christmas Shopping"?
Why do they feel the need to say "Holiday presents" instead of "Christmas presents"?
Why do they feel the need to say "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas"?
Why do they feel the need to say "Holiday lights" instead of "Christmas lights"?
What has happened to this society, that it would act in such a peculiar manner? I'm sure that we're all old enough to remember that everything was Christmas and not "holiday". It was only about ten to fifteen years ago. It would have been considered odd to use "holiday" in the context it is now being used?
Is the word "Christmas" considered bad? That's the way advertisers are acting. It makes them seem very weak-minded and pathetic, frankly, that they'd omit the word Christmas, something very wholesome and embedded within our culture, and act as though it is not proper to use. After all, over ninety percent of the population celebrates Christmas.
By the way, please vote in the poll about how you feel.
My feelings are that not everyone celebrates Christmas. There are a lot of other religions represented in this country who enjoy the "holidays". I do not observe Christmas so I don't say Merry Christmas to people. On the other hand, if someone tells me Merry Christmas, I don't correct them. I just smile and say ... "Same to you"....
People should just say whatever they want and what makes them happy and people who don't like it should just suck eggs.
The January 1 New Year is not secular, it is the Christian celebration of the circumcision of Jesus of Nazareth.
In 1582, when Pope Gregory XIII adopted the current calendar, one of the changes was to move the date of the New Year from the March 25 Easter to January 1st, and not to the Christmas Day.
One of the reasons that the Christian year begins after and not on the Christmas Day is because of Jewish law.
A Jewish child does not get a name until 8 days after birth, which for a boy baby is also the circumcision day.
January 1st is the Feast of the Circumcision and hence when you lift a cup or kiss someone at Midnight, you are celebrating the circumcision of Yeshua ben Yuseph, otherwise known as Jesus of Nazareth.
"Prayer Book Anglicans still celebrate this Feast under that name, but most Catholics now, with the revisions of the Mass that followed the Second Vatican Council, celebrate January 1 as the Solemnity of St. Mary, the Mother of God, also a holy day of obligation. Likewise, contemporary Anglican calendars give January 1 as the "Naming of Jesus"."
The origins of January 1 celebrations are older, namely Pagan, dedicated to the Roman god Janus, the god of transition (in this case from one year to the next). Hence the name January.
"The Winter solstice was thought to happen on December 25. January 1 was new year day: the day was consecrated to Janus since it was the first of the new year and of the month (kalends) of Janus: the feria had an augural character as Romans believed the beginning of anything was an omen for the whole. Thus on that day it was customary to exchange cheerful words of good wishes.[136] For the same reason too everybody devoted a short time to his usual business[137] exchanged dates, figs and honey as a token of well wishing and gifts of coins called strenae.[138] Cakes made of spelt (far) and salt were offered to the god and burnt on the altar.[139][140] Ovid states that in most ancient times there were no animal sacrifices and gods were propitiated with offerings of spelt and pure salt.[141] This libum was named ianual and it was probably correspondent to the summanal offered the day before the Summer solstice to god Summanus, which however was sweet being made with flour, honey and milk.
Shortly afterwards, on January 9, on the feria of the Agonium of January the rex sacrorum offered the sacrifice of a ram to Janus."
Anyway, the people I know who still celebrate Christmas don't really associate it with anything Christian, it is just a huge festivity ritual that is celebrated for the celebration's sake, not for any Christian or other religious content.
Regardless of what you call it, Christmas is not a secular holiday.
LOL, where in the Gospels does it tell the story of Santa bringing baby Jesus his gifts? In practice, Christmas has been a secular holiday for decades. Millions of people aren't thinking about the birth of Christ while they are jostling for gifts on Black Friday each year.
Why? They can continue to celebrate Christmas for religious reasons if they want to. Why do they need the whole world to buy into it as well in order to be happy?
I guess it's enough if people use any celebration to be happy and come together.
If they are sad over this then they are very misguided. Christmas is not the time of Jesus' birth as Christians like to believe. If you can get to that point, you can realize that it's just a day, like any other.
Why do many Christians celebrate Christmas on the 25th of December, if that is not when he was born?
The date was chosen by the Roman Catholic Church. Because Rome dominated most of the “Christian” world for centuries, the date became tradition throughout most of Christendom.
The original significance of December 25 is that it was a well-known festival day celebrating the annual return of the sun. December 21 is the winter solstice (shortest day of the year and thus a key date on the calendar), and December 25 is the first day that ancients could clearly note that the days were definitely getting longer and the sunlight was returning.
So, why was December 25 chosen to remember Jesus Christ’s birth with a mass (or Communion supper)? Since no one knows the day of his birth, the Roman Catholic Church felt free to chose this date. The Church wished to replace the pagan festival with a Christian holy day (holiday). The psychology was that is easier to take away an unholy (but traditional) festival from the population, when you can replace it with a good one. Otherwise, the Church would have left a void where there was a long-standing tradition, and risked producing a discontented population and a rapid return to the old ways.
The truth hurts sometimes. The Christians would be better served to just let it go and move the religious celebration to a different date. The battle between the religious and secular for ownership of Christmas was lost long ago. Santa won with a walk off home run sometime near the beginning of the 20th century.
For the people alive today, Christmas is more about Santa, shopping and movies like Elf. The whole Jesus birthday thing, not so much.
Bible scholars think Jesus was probably born in September or October, judging from the description of the flora and other aspects in the Bible.
I think it's important people have a few big celebrations each year, they give the year a rhythm, something to look forward to, something out of the ordinary. The reason for celebrating is pretty much irrelevant.
Not really...they are usually the ones praying that they get one of the doorbusters deals.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
