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Welcome to our article,
Dear readers, in this article we are talking about Christmas, since it is that time of the year when Christmas is celebrated. We want to do this, because we would like to discuss how these Christmas celebrations affects people mostly in a positive way. You see, most people like Christmas and enjoy it, of course it is the children that like Christmas most; because we the people have invented this character of an old man called Father Christmas that gives presents to the children, so, the children are waiting eagerly for father Christmas every year to see what he brings them.
Anyhow, the festivities of Christmas have two sides one is the religious side and the other is the mundane side. We know for a fact that the children love Christmas, because they receive presents; the shop keepers like Christmas, because they can make money selling toys and other thing that we need for Christmas, and most of us grown-up like Christmas as well, because we get together and enjoy good food with our families and friends. So, the invention of this Christmas event, seems to be a good thing for humanity that use Christmas, as an excuse to enjoy themselves.
So, let us see briefly what we do at Christmas. Some of us call this the silly season, because we go shopping spending money on gifts, which may not be necessary to the person that receives them. We do this in shops that sound inviting by playing Christmas carols and telling us happy things. When we turn on the TV, they tell us when the Christmas carols will be broadcast, it is a very joyous time of the year.
Having said that now let us talk about the spiritual and religious side of Christmas, since for Christianity these Christmas celebrations are important; as you know, Christian religious worshippers celebrate the birth of our lord Jesus Christ, and therefore the birth of the Christian religions, since Jesus Christ is the spiritual founder of Christianity, even though this religion was not purposely started from Jesus Christ, it became a religion later.
Anyhow, as we have said, this feast has two sides, the religious side and the mundane side, all this seem to work well for everybody, and therefore, there is no harm done, and that is just great, even though some people have some reservation, like the real reason, why we celebrate Christmas the 25 of December, when very likely Jesus was not born the 25 of December. So, we wonder how Christmas came about to be the way that we celebrate Christmas now. We are sure that Christmas has got to be more than the birth of our lord Jesus Christ, because not only it is a religious happening, it has also these other traditions of presents and the Christmas tree, so, it has got to be more than one event put together. Therefore, let us try to imagine how the present Christmas has come about, including other events that may have influenced to form Christmas as we know it today, so, let us talk about the possible origins of Christmas.
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The origin of Christmas.
There are reasons to believe that the origin of Christmas is an old pagan festival, which people used to celebrate lavishly for a few days of the year, I believe that it was an event that marked something important to them, one of which could be the rebirth of the sun. As we know today in the northern hemisphere the shortest day of the year is the 21 of December; so, it stands to reasons that soon after that our ancestors would celebrate this event, either to influence the sun god to come back, or the rebirth of a new year as the sun would slowly come back to shine for them for another year. You see, there are a lot of signs in old monuments telling us that a long time ago people thought that the sun was a god, and they worshiped the sun; and even if they did not worship the sun, they followed the sun all year around, so, it is reasonable to assume that they wanted a feast to mark the return of the sun, today this feast has become Christmas.
Of course, people have all sorts of ideas, why we have Christmas the 25th of December. Now, here I have something more recent to talk about. For instance, sometimes at my home, some Jehovah witness come to visit us, and we talk about religion, because that is what they do when they visit you. Anyhow, they are telling me that according to the Bible and their religious study, Jesus Christ was born in October and not in December, they might be right there, because I would come to the same conclusion if I base my enquiries on the Bible only. Anyhow, today it does not matter how Christmas come about, since everybody like it and has good time.
Now, let us talk about the religious Christmas and what happens in the Christian churches, since this is the issue that we want to talk about in these articles, because at the end of it, we want to compare todays’ religions and how they affect humanity. Anyhow, Christmas time is a busy time for the Catholic and other Christian churches. So, let us discuss what they do and how it affects humanity, which we believe it affects us in a positive way.
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What the Christian believers do at Christmas.
We believe that religions play a positive part in our lives, but today, we are talking about Christianity only, since we don’t know if other religions have something like Christmas to celebrate and bring people together, and while they are doing it they can enjoy themselves as well. We guess that other religions have their own ways, how to get their believers together, because one of the most important things for religions is to bring people together, so that they form a friendship that makes them stay together; you see, staying together is what makes a religion strong.
Anyhow, the Christian religions have a few things going on at Christmas, which brings people together and makes them happy, at least this is one of the aims of the religious leaders and most times it works. Anyhow, at the Christmas service, the priests start telling the people that God has been good to us and has send us a savior, this savior is our lord Jesus Christ and we will celebrate his nativity the 25th day of December, as Christmas. So, we should be happy just because we would be saved, but to be saved we should be good in the eyes of God, to be good in the eyes of God, we must start by respecting and following what the church leaders say, like priests and all other clergy above them, they also help us understand how all this came about.
At Christmas time, most churches have a nativity scene showing little baby Jesus in a manger and many other characters, so, people usually go to see how it has been put together. There are some people that make their own Nativity in their houses, it is a bit of competition there, even though they don’t say it. You see, when I was a teenager six decades ago, religious people were visiting the churches to see which church had done the best nativity scene.
In Australia and America, they seem to think more about Father Christmas than the religious side of Christmas, but even this is a happy event that gives joy to the people anyhow, they also use these Christmas carols to remind us that it is Christmas time, as we have said above. So, we can say Christmas is a very useful institution that humanity has come up with, and we believe that it is here to stay for a long time.
Now, let us conclude this article. Here we would like to say that Christmas is a very useful and joyous institution in the western world. So, we would like to invite the rest of the world to follow this example, where religions and living a happy life go hand in hand. Where religions have a god that is not so demanding as God Yahweh was in the Old Testaments, where God is love and not a tyrant, and God is merciful and understands humanity, like our lord Jesus Christ does. This is the reason why we celebrate Christmas.
That is all I can say. See you next time, in our article Christian religions and life.
To see more click on this link, Christmas is coming soon.
May God bless us all.
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