The Real Meaning of Christmas

[Vladimir]

Christ mas is to celebrate birth of Jesus regardless of any other consideration. I don't care how it came to be, what pagan holidays were incorporated into it, or what it has become. I also don't care how you celebrate it. I mainly care about the affect you have on others while celebrating it (or not).

[Hooahguy]

i dont celebrate xmas, but if i was christian i would value the birth of Juuuueeeeezus (what my history teacher calls him) more over anything else. that and family, but i didnt realize you could choose more than 1 until i had already pressed the "submit vote" button.

[Rhyfelwyr]

Nothing hahaha

[Husar]

You really have to wonder why it is called Christmas and not FamilyMeetingmas in English.

[Beefy187]

In Japan, for none Christians its just a beautiful day with fantastic illumination for you and your girl friend to enjoy. And for those poor gentleman like my self who spend their Christmas alone its the day when you bang your head on the wall unless you want to spend it shopping with your mum.

For Christians, its Christs birthday.

[Watchman]

Twenty bucks says the original main business involved the winter solstice, which was a big thing everywhere.
Christians, pff. Usurpers.

But it's a nice opportunity to visit family and splurge on fine food.

[Martok]

For me, it's all about spending it with friends and family. Since I'm not Christian, that's really all that matters.

[Sigurd]

You really have to wonder why it is called Christmas and not FamilyMeetingmas in English.

I know you guys call it Weihnachten, but sometimes lose the h as in Weinachtsbaum.
My German is not good enough to understand the root meaning of the words. But something along sanctification night? and when dropping the 'h' becomes Wine night?

Here in the North we use the old form: Jul which should translate to Yule in English.
The use of Xmas is IMO a deliberate anti Christian term. Why not just use Yule which is the old term?

And since we are discussing the topic:
What is the root meaning of Noël and Navidad?

[Askthepizzaguy]

Actually, Xmas is short for Christmas. The letter X comes from the greek letter chi, which is the first Greek letter in Kristos. Χριστος (Greek for "Christ")

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xmas#History

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labarum


Christ has been abbreviated thusly for millennia. It is not part of ANY deliberate attempt to take the Christ out of Christmas, which I'm sorry to say, is an imagined plot. Any concerted effort to take Christ out of Christmas would fail, as there are a billion Christians on the planet who might care about it, and far fewer atheists and non-theists who find Christ offensive (the insignificant minority of them).

Most of us non-theists actually appreciate and admire Christ, as a leader, philosopher, and spiritual man. The bottom line is that we just don't think he's God incarnate, or that there is one. That doesn't mean we hate him. In fact, I've made it my personal duty to be more informed about Christ than the average Christian. I have several Bibles and am aware of cross-cultural and non-Christian perspectives on Christ. You'd be surprised how many non-Christian groups think Christ was a damn swell guy.

[Askthepizzaguy]

Yule was, interestingly enough, originally a pagan holiday which has nothing to do with Christmas, Christ, or Christianity, other than western Christians borrowing from pagan traditions of Yule, such as the Yule log, and the christmas ham or Yule Boar.

[Sigurd]

Christ has been abbreviated thusly for millennia. It is not part of ANY deliberate attempt to take the Christ out of Christmas, which I'm sorry to say, is an imagined plot.

Nice...

What is funny then, is that those who use X-mas as a deliberate removal of Christ (I know this firsthand) is in fact subscribing to an ancient tradition where Christ is very present in the word.
I must convey this to those involved.

Thank you for the heads up pizzaguy.

[Rhyfelwyr]

Christ has been abbreviated thusly for millennia. It is not part of ANY deliberate attempt to take the Christ out of Christmas, which I'm sorry to say, is an imagined plot.

This is true, and it's why many Christians historically did not celebrate Christmas.

[Husar]

I know you guys call it Weihnachten, but sometimes lose the h as in Weinachtsbaum.
My German is not good enough to understand the root meaning of the words. But something along sanctification night? and when dropping the 'h' becomes Wine night?

Here in the North we use the old form: Jul which should translate to Yule in English.
The use of Xmas is IMO a deliberate anti Christian term. Why not just use Yule which is the old term?

We do not take the h out of anything, the real word is Weihnachtsbaum, anything else must be a typo or lack of knowledge. Your translations however are correct, where Weihnachten really comes from I'm not one hundred percent sure but I suppose it's the same thing as Jul or Yule.

Weihnachten would mean something like sanctification night(s) which could be either pagan or christian I guess, it would be too cheesy to look it up on wikipedia however and might spoil the nice ambiguity where I can see it anyway I want.

And Pizza, I find myself agreeing with pretty much everything you say about Jesus and the Pope, it's completely beyond me how someone who read the bible could think the Pope is God's legitimate representative on earth or something like that, it already starts with elections where they may even not arrive at a conclusion, show me a story in the bible where God had people vote for a prophet or king and they didn't arrive at a conclusion or maybe God couldn't decide, yeah, sure... it's just laughable.

[Askthepizzaguy]

I can accept a laughable idea.

Look, scientists currently think there are how many dimensions? And that there are alternate universes, wormholes, etc. To me, these things are laughable, and beyond my comprehension. That doesn't mean they could never be true.

What I cannot accept is the blind, unwavering, devotion to an untested and theoretically untestable assumption, making it part of your rational thought processes, accepting it wholesale as fact, never questioning it, never doubting it, and harassing those who do not accept it.

What I can accept is when more rational, provable sciences contradict a laughable idea, but people still believe in it. Hey, some people believe in Santa Claus, even when faced with proof that he's a myth. However, there are people, dressed as Santa Claus, and there is gift-giving, and there are deer, and there are sleighs. So parts of it are true, and the "spirit" behind the fable is contained within a bit of truth all its own.

What I cannot accept is someone risking their lives to swim to the North Pole to visit Santa Claus, in spite of the freezing temperatures and real risk of death.

_____________


The idea is to separate in your mind what we know from what we believe, and to rationally decide from what we know, and to consider as a possibility but not let dominate our lives that which we believe. A separation of church and state, a separation of reason and faith. When we cannot do that, then faith is dangerous and should be destroyed.

However, imagination, creativity, hope and inspiration, all flow from the less rational part of our minds. That is why, although I am HIGHLY critical of faith, I can coexist with people of faith. There can be a place for it, if we are mature enough to handle it and rational enough to keep it in perspective.

When my parents are on their deathbed, and they ask me to pray with them, I will. I am not closed to ideas. I just do not rely solely on prayer, nor do I pin rational hopes on it's success. That, and when I see plain contradictions in faiths, church doctrine, teachings and actions, I point them out. I am critical and skeptical of everything. Not everyone is like me and I can accept that.

Faith and reason, both have their uses, but keep them separated and both in perspective.