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Christmas -- Naughty or Nice?

Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2016 12:49 am
by Soulsnaxx
'Tis the season!

Here, again, is the video-version of a call to The Narrow Path radio program, concerning the celebrating of Christmas.

https://youtu.be/OrXbFJqmffA


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Re: Christmas -- Naughty or Nice?

Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2016 9:03 pm
by Paidion
Steve has done an excellent job in explaining the historic origins of Christmas. I will just add a bit.

The birth of Christ was not celebrated until the fourth century. I understand that in the fourth century around December 25, Saturnalia was celebrated in honour of the god Saturn. Gold as well as small images of Saturn were exchanged, and there were some pretty wild parties going on. Bishop Liberius felt that this was not a good thing to happen in the "Holy Roman Empire" and so he tried to put a stop to it—unsuccessfully. Then a brilliant idea came to him. He changed the celebration from honouring Saturn to honouring Christ. In the Catholic Church of the day, three masses were held in honour of the three births of Christ: his birth before all ages—the first of God's acts, his birth from Mary, and his birth in the hearts of the faithful. Each of these masses was held in honour of Christ, and so each of them was a "Christ's mass" or as it came to be called "Christmas." However, Liberius' scheme did not stop the wild goings on in the Roman empire. The only major difference was that now they were in honour of a different god.

The Christmas tree was actually invented by Martin Luther. He put lights on his tree to represent the stars on the night of Christ's birth.

Personally, I have never celebrated Christmas in honour of Christ's birth. Celebrating Christ's birth was NOT an early Christian practice. However, I enjoy the lights and traditions of Christmas. So I have been involved in it simply as a festive season to meet with family and friends, give gifts, and have special meals together.

Re: Christmas -- Naughty or Nice?

Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2016 9:37 pm
by jasonmodar
Hey Paidion,

What would you (or anyone else) recommend as a reliable source for the origins of Christmas? I'd prefer something written and thorough. Thanks in advance.

Re: Christmas -- Naughty or Nice?

Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2016 8:23 am
by Paidion
I posted what I learned many years ago. If you google "origins of Christmas" you can get a lot of information; I don't know how reliable it all is. Here are two sites that provide some of the information that I gave, and more:

http://www.simpletoremember.com/vitals/ ... lStory.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas

Re: Christmas -- Naughty or Nice?

Posted: Sun Dec 24, 2017 11:39 am
by Soulsnaxx
If you missed it last year (or want to see it again), here is a video-version of a Christmastime call to The Narrow Path radio program

"Naughty or Nice"
https://youtu.be/OrXbFJqmffA
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Re: Christmas -- Naughty or Nice?

Posted: Sun Dec 24, 2017 2:54 pm
by canada
Satan is very clever ... remove one "s" from the Roman Catholic "Christ-Mass" and the world is deceived ... and much of Christianity.