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Igmu_TL t1_j1n0m1l wrote

What holidays are actually in the Christian writings, and not stolen from others to smother the non-Christian earlier celebrations?

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Narabug t1_j1o11u3 wrote

I think it would be silly to only pick on Christianity here. Humans have surely been celebrating the same times of the year since before we have record of these celebrations.

Basically every traditional holiday is a remnant of a celebration of an equinox or solstice. Christianity surely stole Christmas from pre-Christian religions, but those religions also likely stole their holidays from religions that pre-date them.

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Igmu_TL t1_j1o1ffl wrote

Yes, quite true.

I do believe those who were in touch with nature cycles used celebrations and stories to teach children to recognize patterns and signs of upcoming harsh or flourishing seasons.

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nitzua t1_j1prhcy wrote

>I think it would be silly to only pick on Christianity

this is Reddit lol it's the easiest way to farm karma

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schematizer t1_j1ot6m2 wrote

Hey, us Jews have a ton of original holidays! They're mostly about times we died or almost died, but at least they're ours.

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Pay08 t1_j1qx5cz wrote

Like the 4 harvest festivals?

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schematizer t1_j1qxv9g wrote

Like Chanukah, Purim, Tisha B'Av....

EDIT: Not sure what I'm saying that's objectionable, but people seem to dislike it....

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Snotteh t1_j1n4u8t wrote

All religions have similarities, partly what makes them all stupid asf and hypocritical especially when they call eachother out

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Igmu_TL t1_j1ncz07 wrote

Interesting, I am only familiar with ones I grew up.

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Agastasa1X t1_j1nete4 wrote

This is a cynical interpretation of how Christmas originated. Like it designed by a committee that pre-planned everything with malicious intent. More likelihood, there were just some practices that hold that were holdovers from a pre Christian past but now being used to honor the Christian God. Christmas traditions vary region to region. It was something just happened from the ground up and organically.

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genericdude777 t1_j1nlmmd wrote

The Council of Nicea determined the Acts of John to be apocryphal. However, in these stories was a tale of John calling upon God, and successfully causing the destruction of a temple to Artemis. This, along with the well known stories of St. Patrick expelling “snakes” from Ireland; as well as religious fundamentalists compunction for violence, lends credence to the idea of deliberate erasure or appropriation of cultural traditions.

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Styr4c t1_j1o3r0g wrote

Christmas was not created to "smother" Saturnalia, when Rome became Christian they didnt celebrate the holiday because it was closely associated with Romans gods. It was important to their culture though, so it adopted Christian themes and carried on the traditions that actually mattered to the people, like feasting and gift giving.

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schleppylundo t1_j1o7uf9 wrote

Though there’s no reference to observances, Easter is a pretty obvious progression from scripture since the Last Supper was a Passover dinner (not a modern Seder, that tradition developed later) and is placed in the year accordingly. This is why its placement in the Gregorian Calendar shifts from year to year, because it is dated from the lunar Hebrew Calendar used by the figures in the story rather than the solar Julian calendar used by the Romans.

Any holiday that always takes place on the same day on a solar calendar is self-evidently not laid out in scripture as a holiday.

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Theher0not t1_j1npyjt wrote

Maybe Ascention, but IDK anyone who actually celebrates that (like, what do you even do for it?). It is a national holiday in Sweden though, so we don't have work/school on it (which I obviously won't complain abouy), but other than that it is pretty much a regular day.

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jrhooo t1_j1qe4l1 wrote

“Smother” isn’t really the right word IMO.

SOME times Christian customs were patterned in a way to make converting and assimilating non-Christians easier.

BUT

Other times it was basically the reverse.

Christians were not always the social majority after all.

So depending on the time frame, you’d have Christians assimilate to the society they were in, making their celebration fit within the larger social groups customs, so that they could fit in, or stay off the radar, or whatever else made it easier to practice their faith without drawing negative attention

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According-Classic658 t1_j1nqzx3 wrote

Three Kings Day/Epiphany? Though that was probably just a rip off of something much cooler the Greeks were doing

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PussyStapler t1_j1qayia wrote

Lupercalia, a fertility holiday, occurred February 15. There are some parallels to St. Valentine's day.

One of the bacchanalian drinking holidays was March 17th, which is Paddy's day.

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