Take for instance Halloween.
Most children and even adults in the U.S. celebrate it without really thinking what is behind the holiday. Many who have gone through school here may later learn that Halloween may be seen as a Catholic holiday, a holiday to scare off evil spirits in preparation of November 1st, All Saints Day. But in essence, the holiday traces back to the pagan holiday of Samhain (an old Celtic/Irish festival) where the doors of the Otherworld is open for the spirits and the dead to come out. In reading up on some of it, it's a lot of reading and which I won't go into the details. My guess is that when the Catholic missionaries reached Ireland and converted the Celts to Christianity, in order to "win them over", Halloween was created so that they would be warding out the dead and not celebrating the dead. Many of my conservative Christian friends do not celebrate it because of the ties to the pagan holiday. Why in the world do some churches have Fall Festivals is beyond me? It kind of negates the negated.
My take now: You will find in the United States that capitalism reigns. So any holiday that comes up, American sales it at its best. In years past, I try not to partake in it. However, it doesn't stop me from carving out a pumpkin really for a creative outlet during the fall. Pumpkins are quite colorful when things are starting to die.
What about Christmas?
I know I'm going to make people mad by saying this. I think there are some viable hints in the Bible as to when Jesus was born, there is not really any concrete date when that happened. Many Christians celebrate Christmas on December 25th (only a handful of Orthodox Christians celebrate it on January 6), which started in the 4th century. But in doing some reading on this, another occurrence happened on December 25th: The Roman Southern Solstice (Winter Solstice). Where I think it's always great to celebrate Jesus's birthday, it was again another creation by early Christians to have the newly converted Romans/gentiles celebrate the True Light of the World instead of the Winter Solstice which is a celebration of more light coming and probably celebrating mythological gods behind Winter Solstice.
My take now: Again, U.S. is the capital of capitalism. Where it needs to be centered on Christ, most Americans are confused by it being a day of decorating their houses and trees and buying as many things to do so, and buying the many things to give to others. Are we buying simply to show off our wealth? Or are we truly buying to share with one other, with those in need, and volunteering time to help one another?
Christmas often time has brought me some sadness. I did not have a typical American upbringing and as my brother and I got older, Christmas started not to mean anything to us. Although I do decorate a tree and buy gifts for my cousin's kids, that's pretty much it. In reality, everyday of the year should be a celebration of Christ, not just Christmas.
And Easter...
In the the research that I have found, the name "Easter" stems from an old Germanic word for the germanic goddess Eoster who is a goddess of fertility and the dawn. There are other theories of how Easter is Easter from the Latin but most resources I have found links the name back to the old Germanic word. How and why that happened is any ones guess.
In the springtime and before Christ, many pagans celebrate the beginning of spring by honoring the goddess of fertility and paint eggs (another sign of fertility) and somehow bunnies are in the mix (and we know what they do)... Even many used to celebrate the beginning of spring as also the beginning of the year.
However, what we know now as Easter (the celebration of Jesus's death and resurrection) is probably the one holiday that might make the most sense in the time of celebration. Most of us know, Jesus had the Passover meal before he was cruxified and raised again. Passover is legitimately held in March or April, on the 15th day of the month of Nisan in the Jewish calendar. In other languages, like French and Spanish, they instead use "Passover" (Pacshal and Paque) to denote the holdiay.
My take: Although not as much, America will always take a holiday to sell stuff. Because of the concrete evidence of timing, I truly think that this is the one holiday that Christian should and must celebrate. It is by far the most important holiday to celebrate as a Christian because this is not only the death but a ressurrection of The Christ and a ultimate celebration of the rebirth within us. Also, what I have noted above in timing with the Resurrection after Passover, it just makes sense.
However, I think the name should be changed so it does not reflect the german goddess of fertility.
In Summary
Some folks may argue all they want. But with more of a mindset that not everybody is from a Western culture, sometimes people may get confused with American traditions vs true Christian traditions.
Why do we argue about Halloween, for example. Even the mere arguing that Halloween is wrong is not going to make a Christian a better Christian. It might even make them look stupid because they are just asking for a fight. I take the stance of being a visible witness, be approachable, and have people ask why I may not partake in Halloween. (I do admit, I do carve pumpkins.) I truly gave up a long time ago. Really. Christ can speak so much better into the hearts of people than I can.
Christmas, I am on the other end of the argument. People come up and asked why do we celebrate Christ birth if there is so much commercialism? That, honey, I do not know. But what I can say is that we need to celebrate Christ everyday and the birth of ourselves into His Kingdom.
The real message is the message of Christ Resurrection. He dies for the SIN of the world (the noun Sin) and has won the battle for us. If we focus less and divert from arguing, and tell the story of His Resurrection, that may win more over than you can ever believe.
