[stylist] Origins of Santa and Christmas

[Bridgit Pollpeter]

What theology is off? It's put bluntly, but according to the Jewish
religion, they don't "need" Jesus because he is not a part of that
religion. Everything Chris writes about Chanukah is correct, and the
Hebrew/Jewish concept of a "savior" is not the same as the Christian.

As far as personal beliefs go, the theology may be "wrong" depending on
what religion you prescribe too, but the facts as known and accepted by
Jews is not incorrect at all.

And as for Christians "stealing" pagan rituals, this is true, but again,
put bluntly. When Christianity spread west, converts, particularly
Celtic converts, fused many old rituals with the new Christian ones, and
many of the Christian concepts were similar and made it "easy" for some
to combine the two traditions. Yule logs, decorated fir trees, mistletoe
and even Santa... Many of these things were originally a part of pagan
practices that the Christian church later adopted and made into
Christian rituals.

That we celebrate Christmas in December is in fact a pagan thing because
Christmas was originally practiced in the spring, which is believed to
be the real birth date of Jesus, but the winter solstice is in
mid-December, and when western converts began to celebrate Christmas, it
was switched to help the former pagans ease into Christianity.

Santa too is a much debated topic even within the Christian communities.
For so long it was thought he derived from a St. Nick dwelling in the
Netherlands, but now many believe Santa may be based off a St. Nick who
was a bishop in Turkey, or what is now Turkey. Most parts of the world,
however, have a version of Santa that varies greatly. And yes, there are
pagan gods, demi-gods of the Celtic and Viking practices, resembling
Santa. The Santa we now know derives from department store marketing
ploys from the 1950's, which is pretty widely accepted even among
Christians.

Because Christmas was so infused with pagan customs, the Puritans, when
first coming to America, refused to celebrate Christmas, and for years,
the Puritans did nothing in December to recognize, or participate in any
way, with Christmas practices.

This is all well-documented with plenty of archeological, historical and
anthropological evidence to back it all up. It doesn't mean it takes
anything away from Christianity, or that any belief isn't real, but
Chris isn't "making" anything up here.

Sincerely,
Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter
Read my blog at:
http://blogs.livewellnebraska.com/author/bpollpeter/
 
"History is not what happened; history is what was written down."
The Expected One- Kathleen McGowan

Message: 2
Date: Fri, 9 Dec 2011 11:48:45 -0600
From: "Barbara Hammel" <poetlori8 at msn.com>
To: "Writer's Division Mailing List" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [stylist] Holiday exercise, part 1: Schmanta Claus
Message-ID: <SNT139-ds12BE7922AEF721F9337D74EBB90 at phx.gbl>
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I think this was a well written piece.  Perhaps your theology is off a
bit, 
but ...
Barbara