Christmas: A Modest Proposal

One netfriend wrote:

Since Christians took over the pagan celebration that signified the returning of the sun or light to celebrate the coming of the light in Jesus, then we, in the Southern hemisphere should be celebrating xmas in late June after the winter

Another responded:

I think there is some misunderstanding here. Christians did not take over a pagan festival. If they had done that we would be calling it “Saturnalia” or some such thing. They used the same date, which probably was welcomed by all those public officials who would otherwise have been faced with gazetting another public holiday. Their festival of Christmas, however, was quite distinct from Saturnalia.

If shop keepers want to take over the date for some other festival, let them do it. The offence is in continuing to call it “Christmas” after they prohibit the recognition of Christ in the celebrations. Christ was not the patron saint of fourth-quarter earnings.

Related Articles:

• Greece: can you believe this/them?
• Syria February 2012: Two Perspectives
• EGYPT: THE GROSS INSECURITY OF THE DHIMMI
• Female Circumcision in the Maldives, the Islamic Movement and Islamophobia
• Australia Day message

This work, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.