Im rather confused...

[TrigunX89]

On alot of forums I belong to, I see tons of people with Christmasy avatars but on CAA, thier's only a few.

I'm just wondering what that is. i think the best time to be on a forum is during Christmas just because of all the holiday cheer.

I do dislike the xommercial aspect of Christmas but still doesn't mean we can't celebrate our Savior's birth on Christmas. Nor does it mean we can't have fun I love Christmas avatars.

If this infringes on anything, than I'm sorry.

I spent like 2-3 hours on my Christmas banner and avatar. Pretty sad, eh? Anyways, yay for Christmas! w00t for Christmas avatars!



I've been seeing a lot of Christmas avatars on this site... Seems almost everyone has one. Oh yeah, I joined the "add a santa hat to an anime character" club.

[Arnobius]

The bible doesn't really give us much information about when He was born - all we know is that it was probably in midwinter. The reason Christmas is celebrated on the 25th is because of a pegan Roman holiday that happened to be on that day.

More accurately, they placed the day over a pagan day (cult of Sol Invictus [Unconquerred Sun]) because it gave people accustomed to celebrating a more wholesome reason to celebrate. The early Church could make use of this in converting the pagans: Christ is the REAL Unconquerred Son (and the like). Missionaries were most successful where they showed understanding of the cultures they were trying to convert.

I realize that some christian groups don't feel comfortable with this kind of thinking, but when you think of it, there are 365 days (366 in a leap year) and many religions around the world that have days important to them. So no one religion has a copyright on a date and overlaps are possible. It doesn't mean that we're glorifying Samhein when we celebrate Holloween (for example).

As for *when* it was, we don't really, know though they suspect it wasn't winter because the scriptures report that the shepherds were in the fields with the flocks.

[CobaltAngel]

Thank you for clearing that up AnimeHeretic (I'm so bad with details) and you make a good point - just because the 25th was at one time a pagan holiday doesn't me that's what we're celebrating.
I heard somewhere once that in Roman they used to cut down pine trees and worship them as gods, hanging ordiments from them as gifts. LOL;;; Not sure if its true or not though.

[Arnobius]

[quote="CobaltAngel"]Thank you for clearing that up AnimeHeretic (I'm so bad with details) and you make a good point - just because the 25th was at one time a pagan holiday doesn't me that's what we're celebrating.
I heard somewhere once that in Roman they used to cut down pine trees and worship them as gods, hanging ordiments from them as gifts. LOL]
Thanks. Glad to find SOME place to make use of my Masters degree in theology
The tree is a Germanic tradition I think. Those who like to nit-pick against Christianity, claim that the ancient tradition was to impale somebody on the top as a sacrifice, and this was supposed to be what the angel on the top of the tree symbolizes... like we all secretly believe that!

Some dates were more controversial than others in the early church. Easter, for example had a dispute lasting for a few centuries over whether Easter should be set on a fixed day (I think 14 Nisan of the Jewish calender-- but don't hold me to that) or on a Sunday. Ultimately, the importance of it being a Sunday to celebrate the resurection of our Lord won out over the school of thought demanding a fixed date. (No truth to the rumor that it was based on a pagan fertility ritual called Eostre).

[Jasdero]

I spent like 2-3 hours on my Christmas banner and avatar. Pretty sad, eh? Anyways, yay for Christmas! w00t for Christmas avatars!



I've been seeing a lot of Christmas avatars on this site... Seems almost everyone has one. Oh yeah, I joined the "add a santa hat to an anime character" club.

X3 Looks great~

o.o Santa Hat club? >.> where?

[Aka-chan]

Lovely festiveness.

Ooh, and I'm learning about the history of the holiday to boot!