Pagans the Christmas

Someone posted this photo on Facebook. Through the years I have read a bit about Christmas an I’m fully aware of how un-Christian Christmas really is, and how the “clean” version we see today is just over a century old. Yet, I have never head of Krampus. I went looking for information. The first thing I found was a Wikipedia article. It mentioned the Czech Republic and by a happy coincidence my Czech friend was online. I asked her if she knows this character and she replied with a video from her home village

The clip Banka sent me. Weirdos! Next they will have fat men wearing red outfits.

Reading a bit more about Christmas I found that 25 December was already establish asthe date by the mid 4th century already. That gives us 1500 years or 25ths. Possible reasons for this date include it being 9 months after the day thought of as conception, connections with Jesus to the sun saving the world from darkness and taking advantage of the normal holiday season that was already used by many cultures. Many people argue that it was chosen to override other religions. This may well be, but how is that different from what so many other religions do?

The Christmas traditions we know today were adopted when pagan cultured converted were pulled into Christianity. People would convert and would worship the new god, but they pretty much continued with their former ways and traditions with little immediate change. The “pure” forms of Christianity we know today did not exist until rather recently.

I have heard and read many claims that the timing and traditions we have for Christmas were intentional taken to try  and draw attention away from Pagan worship, but from what I read it seem to have been a more organic process, where dates and traditions were “chosen” because that is just what you do at this time of the year.

I am all for dissing Christmas and pointing at the Oh-So-Holy celebration, but don’t throw rubbish like this around and just say: “THAT is what Christmas is all about.” Get your facts straight. You don’t like it, then don’t celebrate it, or just celebrate it the way you want. It is not as if it’s the same all over the world anyway. Mexicans writing to the Three Wise Men instead of Santa, anyone?

Side note: The people who attack Christmas, waging a “War on Christmas” likely know more about the holiday than 99% of Christians. If they wanted to wage a war then it would be on Easter, the celebration of the reason Jesus came to earth, not the silly later created celebration of his birthday on the date that he was not born on with traditions that have nothing to do with Jesus. All they have to do for Christmas is point at it and say: “You idiots don’t even know what you are doing”