Don’t Pretend Christmas Can Ever Be a Secular Holiday

Submitted by LocutusOP on Tue, 12/25/2018 - 23:41
Author: 
AvatarChloe,  Blobee ,Avatarafcwest5,AvatarThe Truth Will Set You Free,AvatarMargaret,AvatarChristian West,Avatarhow's_the_boy,AvatarMatt,Mike,Old Penguins Fan,CatholicKniggit,Halina,FRLBJ

 

Date: 
Tuesday, December 25, 2018 - 23:45
Article link: 
Don’t Pretend Christmas Can Ever Be a Secular Holiday

 

    • Avatar
      Chloe • 8 days ago

      You hear people complaining about how stressful Christmas is. We used to find it stressful too. We sat down some years ago to work out why. It was all in the gift giving. Every year you agonise over what to buy, often go to great lengths to find it. Judging by the way we feel about what we receive, that's often not very successful. So we decided not to do it anymore. We told people to buy themselves a present for themselves from us. Stress disappeared overnight. I know it sounds mean, but Christmas isn't about what we get or are given. Anyone we know is more than welcome to come round and be fed and join in the joy. The best Christmas Day we ever had was when the Canons Regular of the New Jerusalem visited and sung for the Mass. They sang parts of it we didn't even know were singable. None of us wanted to go home to our turkey, we wanted to stay and have it go on all day. It's not our birthday, it's HIs. Let us rejoice in Him!

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      Chloe Chloe • 7 days ago

      Gosh! All those upvotes! I thought I'd get it in the neck for being miserable. Go for it people! You'd be amazed how much better Christmas is. One thing, friends will tell you that they LOVE buying presents for people and they'll get you one anyway. They never do it twice.. Have a Holy and a happy, stress free Christmas, one and all.

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Blobee • 8 days ago

I am often astounded by the car commercials for Christmas. A few years ago they promoted the idea of giving someone a car for Christmas. I thought it was absurd. But now, this year, I see them suggesting someone should buy 2 vehicles - one commercial in particular promotes buying a pickup truck and and SUV. Next thing you know it will be to buy 4 or 5 vehicles.

Gee, why not just suggest buying someone a house in full?

I stopped buying gifts for the whole family years ago. Now I only give small token gifts, just to remember the person in a simple way. If they don't like it, I can stop that too...:-)

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      afcwest5 • 8 days ago

      I knew a pastor from a fundamentalist church who would rail against Christmas; he would make the claim that Christmas was purely made up by pagans. He kind of seemed like an overall bitter guy frankly. Does anyone know how Dec 25 came to be known as the birth of Jesus Christ? Any sources on this?

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    Margaret afcwest5 • 8 days ago

    St. John Chrysostom mentions in one of his homilies re the celebration of the Nativity of Our Lord on Dec. 25th.

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    Christian West afcwest5 • 8 days ago

    Search YouTube "The Star of Bethlehem Documentary 2007" by Rick Larson (Protestant) The documentary was shown by EWTN several times. There he uses the available information comparing biblical accounts to known astronomical data. Watch it carefully. There he shows the alignment of the miraculous star over Bethlehem occurred on December 25. His reasoning seems quite correct to me.

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    how's_the_boy afcwest5 • 8 days ago

    We know Christ was born 6 months after St John the Baptist because St. Luke's Gospel tells us Elizabeth was 6 months pregnant at the Annunciation.
    We also know from the cycle of the Levitical priests (1 Chronicles 24) the week when Zechariah was serving in the Temple when he was told Elizabeth would bear a son. From this we know that St. John the Baptist was born 9 months later, in late June.
    That is how one can easily demonstrate that Christ was born in late December.

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    Matt afcwest5 • 8 days ago

    Dr. Taylor Marshall wrote about this in his book "The Eternal City". Some of the information is summarized here: https://taylormarshall.com/...

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    Mike afcwest5 • 8 days ago

    This is a good reply, I believe

    http://tofspot.blogspot.com...

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      afcwest5 Matt • 8 days ago

      I think you connected the dots pretty well on that stuff. You seem to have a clear mind.

 

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      Old Penguins Fan • 8 days ago

      Part of the problem is the emphasis on gift giving. Part of the problem is the noise otherwise known as secular holiday music. In the good ol' USA, Christmas - The Nativity of Our Lord - is not really observed. We get American Shopping Season (anyone can figure out the acronym) which ends on Christmas Eve. Christmas Day becomes something of a letdown and the whole thing ends that day.
      I prefer how Poland observes Advent, Christmas Day, Epiphany, etc., all the way to February 2, Candlemas.

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    CatholicKniggit Old Penguins Fan • 7 days ago

    Is there some reason why you can't? Or Catholics in America can't?

    We are powerful enough in the consumer markets that restaurants have deals on fish during Lent. If we had a movement that focused on helping families celebrate Christmas longer rather than setting up ads on subways, I think there could be a lot of good done.

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      Halina Old Penguins Fan • 8 days ago

      Even in Communist Poland we celebrated Christmas for three days. Christmas always meant......the Birth of Jesus Christ. St. Nicholas was celebrated on December 6th, that is the only time we as children received a gift......to 'santa' I was introduced in this country, as St. Nicholas was in memory of some, of time passed.

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    FRLBJ Halina • 8 days ago

    Even in secular Germany, Christmas is celebrated for 2 days! Also, Easter Monday, Pentecost and Pentecost Monday (which even the Church no longer officially commemorates in the New Mass), the Assumption of Our Lady (even in mostly Protestant state there!) Also, St. Martin of Tours is talked about in the public schools and the schoolchildren are told when and where the procession begins. Muslim children come and join the procession.

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    Margaret FRLBJ • 8 days ago

    In the Byzantine Tradition, Bright Monday (Easter Monday on the Latin calendar) is a solemn holy day. Green Monday (Pentecost Monday) is dedicated to the Holy Spirit. I don't remember if it's a solemn or simple holy day.

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    Halina FRLBJ • 7 days ago

    Oh, those were the days!
    On Christmas Eve while my mother was preparing fish and other dishes, we, as children were intensely looking at the sky, as soon as the first star appeared, it was a sign for the family to sit down to Christmas Eve 'supper'. Those days, we had snow from November until Spring
    (it was so cold that the snow never melted). Especially, on Christmas Eve the snow was coming down like a 'manna' from heaven, ever so gently.....

    We had a tradition for young boys to dress as shepherds, they walked around the neighborhood singing Christmas Carols, everybody was coming out of their houses to sing very joyfully, children not even dressed properly playing in the snow and laughing............after, we would all walk to Midnight Mass for about 2 miles.
    The magnificent old Church was always so full, that those who came little late had to stay outside and kneel on the snow........and they did.

    The Birth of Christ was always so much anticipated and much preparations in advance, that our 'birthdays' were always celebrated by a good wishes and hugs only, and maybe a book or chocolate as a gift. On the other hand, our 'name day' was a great celebration, since we all
    had names after a 'saint.'

    IT WAS THE NIGHT OF ALL NIGHTS, THE WONDER OF ALL WONDERS........AVE MARIA!

    By all means, I beg of you all........Don’t Pretend Christmas Can Ever Be a Secular Holiday!!!

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    Old Penguins Fan Halina • 8 days ago

    Halina, since the US was founded as a Protestant country, the Catholic traditions of Christmas existed in the ethnic enclaves, which are no more. Epiphany is nearly as important as Christmas. The US Bishops moved Epiphany to a Sunday and it lost a lot of its meaning.

 

 

 

 

 

Own comment: 

Indeed, Christmas cannot, must not, become a secular holiday.

We ought indeed rejoice at non-Christians commemorating Christmas in a sense, but we must never lose the chance to remind them that this day is set apart for Christ our Sovereign King and that it is always a holy day before it is anything else.