• yesman@lemmy.world
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    23 hours ago

    He didn’t. Up until the time of Paul (decades after the Jdog’s death), Christianity was a Jewish sect seeking to become mainstream Judaism. It was only then that early Christians shed their Jewish identity.

    That’s in the story, but in the History, Christianity arose from Greece and Rome, not Judea. It was never a Semitic religion. Instead borrowing elements of that combined with Paganism.

    Either way, a Historic Jesus would have died a Jew. The mythological Jesus may do whatever and I’m aware of Christians who’ll deny he was ever a Jew.

    • Flax@feddit.uk
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      23 hours ago

      Christianity is not combined with paganism at all

        • Flax@feddit.uk
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          5 hours ago

          Christmas trees are a German tradition. Originally they were “Paradise trees” and were representing the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden in Mystery plays. Typically there are readings around Christmas surrounding the Garden of Eden due to depicting The Fall and why Christ had to come. An evergreen tree was picked, likelt due to practicalities with the fact it was winter, but it also helped that they represented eternal life. They were decorated with fruits and later candles to represent the Light of Christ. Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s husband, was German, and he brought the tradition to the UK.

          • Jarix@lemmy.world
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            38 minutes ago

            It’s a pagan celebration co opted by the church to expand the influence of Christianity.

            December 25th is not even the correct day to celebrate the birth of Christ. That’s other pagan holidays being co opted to fuel conversion of “Savages”.

            Yule is not a Christian celebration yet it has been supplanted by Christianity.

            Some reading on the practice.

            https://allthatsinteresting.com/christmas-tree-history

      • Scrogu@lemmy.zip
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        10 hours ago

        Bro. Why else would Jesus be claimed to be a demigod. Jews never believed that God and humans mix. That’s standard Greek half god paganism.

        • Flax@feddit.uk
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          5 hours ago

          Jesus never claimed to be a demigod, and is not a demigod. Jesus is and claimed to be God incarnate in Human Form. There are several instances in the Torah and Old Testament where God appears in human form.

        • erusuoyera@sh.itjust.works
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          22 hours ago

          No no, it’s just a coincidence that Christians celebrate the birth of the Son at the winter solstice, and the resurrection of the Son at the spring equinox. You can tell they’re not pagan festivals by all the mistletoe, Yule logs, horny bunnys and eggs.

          • bluGill@fedia.io
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            21 hours ago

            Reserection is tied to passover, which in turn is tied to the spring equinox. Bunnies and many of the other things done then have pagan roots, but the date has a real meaning anyway.

          • erusuoyera@sh.itjust.works
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            21 hours ago

            It’s absolutely, unequivocally not.

            Ēostre ([ˈeːostre])[1][2][3] is an Anglo-Saxon goddess mentioned by Bede in his 8th century work The Reckoning of Time. He wrote that pagan Anglo-Saxons had held feasts in her honour during the month named after her: Ēosturmōnaþ (April), and that this became the English name for the Paschal season: Easter.

            Whatever fictional character you ascribe it to, the fact is that the modern Christian festival of Easter partly replaced, and is named after, an earlier pagan festival.

            • Flax@feddit.uk
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              14 hours ago

              None of this makes it Pagan. That’s like saying the 4th of July originates in Julius Caesar. Might as well have just stopped at Christians having “Sunday Services”. Go after Muslims too having “Friday Prayers”. The Pagans had a celebration in Spring - so what? If China gets Christianised, are you going to claim that Easter actually had it’s origins in the Qingming festival because it has similar dates? Sure, for some former-pagans, their old feast days would have been replaced with Christian ones. Same way how Muslims who convert to Christianity would replace their fasting season from Ramadan to that of Lent and Eid with Easter. Doesn’t mean Lent and Easter would have Islamic origins either.

              • erusuoyera@sh.itjust.works
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                11 hours ago

                If China gets Christianised, are you going to claim that Easter actually had it’s origins in the Qingming festival

                If the entire Christian world then adopts elements of the Qingming festival and changes the name of it’s spring solstice festival to “Qingming”, then yes, of course.

                • Flax@feddit.uk
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                  5 hours ago

                  Except that never happened with pagan festivals either, apart from Easter taking the name of the month that was named after a pagan deity.

          • ugh@lemmy.world
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            17 hours ago

            Look up the history of Christmas and Saturnalia. There is no mention of when Jesus was born in biblical text. December 25th is completely random. What’s not random: December 25th is the winter solstice according to the Roman calendar.

            There are more examples of traditions that overlap with Pagan celebrations and don’t really have a connection to Christianity.

            • Flax@feddit.uk
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              15 hours ago

              The 25th of December is not completely random.

              The reason lies within Jewish superstition - that a prophet/holy man died on the anniversary of their conception. Someone, likely a century later, reckoned that Jesus died on the 25th of March (we reckon now that it was actually the 3rd of April) so this became the Feast of the Annunciation (conception). So a cycle was created where the day of the death happened on the same as the conception. Another factor is this was also traditionally believed to be the date of the world’s creation.

              In fact, in the UK it was this date that was used to demarcate new years. So traditionally many people still commence and terminate land contracts on “Lady day” (the 25th of March) and the tax year begins on the 6th of April (today) which is the 25th of March on the Julian Calendar.

              So simply add 9 months - you have the 25th of December.

              Saturnalia ended before Christmas. The only “evidence” we have of Christmas potentially being a spin on Sol Invictus is from the Chronography of 354 which states that the 25th of December is both the date of Christmas and Sol Invictus… So it’s also likely that Sol Invictus was actually copying Christmas, not the other way around. In fact, more likely, as that is over one hundred years after Sextus Julius Africanus recorded the 25th of March as the date of Jesus’ conception.

              Here’s an article debunking this further.

      • _haha_oh_wow_@sh.itjust.works
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        22 hours ago

        They most certainly did: What do you think Easter is? Why do you think Christmas is in December when Jesus was not born during the winter? Many native pagan holidays were basically transformed into the modern Christian holidays you know today. They did this to help convert pagans. In Catholicism, the saints were originally used as a sort of proxy for the old pantheons too.

        • Flax@feddit.uk
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          21 hours ago

          Easter in Greek and Latin (the language of the first Christians) is Pascha. It’s around the same time as the Passover. That’s why it changes every year due to the lunisolar calendar. It’s just using the old Jewish calendar. The earliest record of Easter being celebrated is from the time when pagans were the ones persecuting Christians.

          We don’t know for certain that Jesus wasn’t born in December.

          The reason lies within Jewish superstition - that a prophet/holy man died on the anniversary of their conception. Someone, likely a century later, reckoned that Jesus died on the 25th of March (we reckon now that it was actually the 3rd of April) so this became the Feast of the Annunciation (conception). So a cycle was created where the day of the death happened on the same as the conception. Another factor is this was also traditionally believed to be the date of the world’s creation.

          In fact, in the UK it was this date that was used to demarcate new years. So traditionally many people still commence and terminate land contracts on “Lady day” (the 25th of March) and the tax year begins on the 6th of April (today) which is the 25th of March on the Julian Calendar.

          So simply add 9 months - you have the 25th of December.

          As for the saints - most saints commenorated in Christianity are generally Biblical figures or early Christians such as St Patrick or St Nicholas

          • Diplomjodler@lemmy.world
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            21 hours ago

            You can try to retcon it all you want. All this stuff existed way before the Christians came along and appropriated it.

            • Flax@feddit.uk
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              14 hours ago

              What stuff? There’s no evidence of Sol Invictus existing before Christianity. The earliest record of the Ostara cult (which was only really an English thing) was 600 years after Christians were recorded celebrating Pascha(Easter) in Greece.

            • Flax@feddit.uk
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              14 hours ago

              I think plagiarism was happening. Because the earliest record of the belief of Jesus’ conception being on the 25th of March from Sextus Julius Africanus predates the Chronography of 354 which is the earliest date of Sol Invictus being on the 25th of December, which interestingly enough also records this being Jesus’ date of birth. If I had to accuse anyone of plagiarism, it would have to be the Pagans.

              In addition, Sunday being celebrated as a Christian Holy Day is recorded in the writings of St Luke which also predates Sol Invictus by a few centuries.

      • 🌞 Alexander Daychilde 🌞@lemmy.world
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        17 hours ago

        If you’re ignorant, it’s trivial to research this issue. Google “pagan origins of easter” and find a source you like. There will be shit tons of options.

        If you’re being willfully ignorant, you deserve nothing but ridicule.

        • Flax@feddit.uk
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          15 hours ago

          I have researched this issue. “The pagan origins of Easter” is a common myth (often there are several variants of this myth) which has been debunked.

            • backalleycoyote@lemmy.today
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              10 hours ago

              No, he’s correct. Jesus directly referenced what we know as Easter traditions in the Bible:

              “While they were eating, Jesus took a box of Peeps, and when he had given thanks, he broke them apart and gave them to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; they’re honestly not that bad.”

            • Flax@feddit.uk
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              14 hours ago

              No, it’s you lot with the trendy new-atheist dogma of “Christianity actually just copied xyz” which has been thoroughly debunked by scholars. It’s just a myth that secular society repeats without questioning at this point. I literally posted a link to an article debunking it. That’s not wilful ignorance. I used to believe that these holidays were pagan too, until I actually researched it.

      • bluGill@fedia.io
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        23 hours ago

        Which sects? Some of them are very combined. Some of them are not. The puritans refused to celebrate Christmas because of the paganism influences.

        • Flax@feddit.uk
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          22 hours ago

          There aren’t any pagan influences on Christmas, however it was a common myth floating about

            • Flax@feddit.uk
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              21 hours ago

              We don’t know for certain that Jesus wasn’t born in December.

              The reason lies within Jewish superstition - that a prophet/holy man died on the anniversary of their conception. Someone, likely a century later, reckoned that Jesus died on the 25th of March (we reckon now that it was actually the 3rd of April) so this became the Feast of the Annunciation (conception). So a cycle was created where the day of the death happened on the same as the conception. Another factor is this was also traditionally believed to be the date of the world’s creation.

              In fact, in the UK it was this date that was used to demarcate new years. So traditionally many people still commence and terminate land contracts on “Lady day” (the 25th of March) and the tax year begins on the 6th of April (today) which is the 25th of March on the Julian Calendar.

              So simply add 9 months - you have the 25th of December.