The Annual Dispute
The subject of Christmas and its origins is an annual discussion. In very recent years, as Autumn rounds to an end and the end of the year begins to approach, and with it, Christmas, social media ignites an often heated and explosive argument over whether or not Christmas has pagan origins. This argument has become a Christmas tradition in and of itself.
Some may wonder why “in recent years”? The reason for this is that until recently, this discussion might have been heated. Still, it was relatively short-lived as the notion that Christmas was pagan in origin was more or less broadly accepted even in the world of Christian Scholarship. A regular pew-sitting Christian likely already knew that December 25th was not the day of Jesus’ birth and didn’t know where the tradition of celebrating Messiah’s birth on that date even began. They might have initially become defensive when presented with the possibility that it could have origins in Idolatry. However, given that affirmations of that notion are relatively easy to find online, they likely would abandon the hostile discussion very quickly. They may even have been aware of or accepted the idea that “Christmas is originally pagan” and felt no reservations about that idea, writing it off as something Christians “redeemed” and seeing no issues with it.
However, in recent years, there has been an attempt to popularize a relatively new alternative theory on the origins of Christmas based on alternative interpretations and speculations made when examining the evidence available regarding the holiday’s origin.
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