Avoid Paganism: This includes holidays
From The Religions of the Roman Empire (Ferguson, 1970, p.238-239) we read that the early Christian church adopted pagan teachings and beliefs. We find extensive adaptations of pagan ideology, culture, and practices. We read the following regarding Roman pagan festivals:
Festivals offer another example of dangerous adaptation. The early Christians did not celebrate the birthday of Jesus; it was unrecorded. In Egypt and the East generally, it became tied with a New Year festival on 6 January. But 25 December was the winter solstice in the Julian calendar and the nativity of the Sun; in the rituals of Syria and Egypt the worshipers cried, ‘The Virgin has brought forth the light is waxing,’ and the Egyptians represented the returning Sun by a new-born babe. Further Mithras (one of the many pagan gods), who tended to be identified with the Sun, had his birthday on 25 December. By about the year 300 [AD] in the West the Christians had adopted 25 December for the birth of Christ. A Syrian writer offers the explanation:
The reason why the fathers transferred the celebration of 6 January to 25 December was this. It was the custom of the heathen to celebrate on the same 25 December the Sun’s birthday, and to kindle lights in token of festivity. In these solemnities and festivities the Christians also took part. So, when the doctors of the Church perceived that the Christians had a leaning to the festival, they took counsel and resolved that the true Nativity should be celebrated on that day and the festival of Epiphany on 6 January. And so, along with this custom, the practice has prevailed of kindling forest till 6 January.
But Augustine has to exhort Christians to celebrate Christmas not for the Sun but for him who made it, and Leo the Great still rebukes the ‘pestilent’ belief that Christmas is for the Sun not for Christ.
What is true of Christmas is true of other festivals; Easter in the East took over from an Attis festival; the Parilia in April gave way before St George; the Midsummer Water-Festival was usurped by John the Baptist; the November Festival of the Dead became All Souls; and as late as the fifth century Pope Gelasius in abolishing the Lupercalia substituted a Christian festival (Ferguson, 1970).
Work Cited
Ferguson, John. The Religions Of The Roman Empire. Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 1970.
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