setuju...ini juga ada tambahan dari sumber lain:
http://de.essortment.com/christmaspagan_rece.htm
fs
tony picasso <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
So siapa yg lahir dan di peringatkan pd tgl 25 desember?
Why December 25?
For the church's first three centuries, Christmas wasn't in Decemberor on
the calendar at all.
Elesha Coffman
It's very tough for us North Americans to imagine Mary and Joseph trudging to
Bethlehem in anything but, as Christina Rosetti memorably described it, "the
bleak mid-winter," surrounded by "snow on snow on snow." To us, Christmas and
December are inseparable. But for the first three centuries of Christianity,
Christmas wasn't in Decemberor on the calendar anywhere.
If observed at all, the celebration of Christ's birth was usually lumped in
with Epiphany (January 6), one of the church's earliest established feasts.
Some church leaders even opposed the idea of a birth celebration. Origen
(c.185-c.254) preached that it would be wrong to honor Christ in the same way
Pharaoh and Herod were honored. Birthdays were for pagan gods.
Not all of Origen's contemporaries agreed that Christ's birthday shouldn't be
celebrated, and some began to speculate on the date (actual records were
apparently long lost). Clement of Alexandria (c.150-c.215) favored May 20 but
noted that others had argued for April 18, April 19, and May 28. Hippolytus
(c.170-c.236) championed January 2. November 17, November 20, and March 25 all
had backers as well. A Latin treatise written around 243 pegged March 21,
because that was believed to be the date on which God created the sun. Polycarp
(c.69-c.155) had followed the same line of reasoning to conclude that Christ's
birth and baptism most likely occurred on Wednesday, because the sun was
created on the fourth day.
The eventual choice of December 25, made perhaps as early as 273, reflects a
convergence of Origen's concern about pagan gods and the church's
identification of God's son with the celestial sun. December 25 already hosted
two other related festivals: natalis solis invicti (the Roman "birth of the
unconquered sun"), and the birthday of Mithras, the Iranian "Sun of
Righteousness" whose worship was popular with Roman soldiers. The winter
solstice, another celebration of the sun, fell just a few days earlier. Seeing
that pagans were already exalting deities with some parallels to the true
deity, church leaders decided to commandeer the date and introduce a new
festival.
Western Christians first celebrated Christmas on December 25 in 336, after
Emperor Constantine had declared Christianity the empire's favored religion.
Eastern churches, however, held on to January 6 as the date for Christ's birth
and his baptism. Most easterners eventually adopted December 25, celebrating
Christ's birth on the earlier date and his baptism on the latter, but the
Armenian church celebrates his birth on January 6. Incidentally, the Western
church does celebrate Epiphany on January 6, but as the arrival date of the
Magi rather than as the date of Christ's baptism.
Another wrinkle was added in the sixteenth century when Pope Gregory devised
a new calendar, which was unevenly adopted. The Eastern Orthodox and some
Protestants retained the Julian calendar, which meant they celebrated Christmas
13 days later than their Gregorian counterparts. Mostbut not allof the
Christian world now agrees on the Gregorian calendar and the December 25 date.
The pagan origins of the Christmas date, as well as pagan origins for many
Christmas customs (gift-giving and merrymaking from Roman Saturnalia; greenery,
lights, and charity from the Roman New Year; Yule logs and various foods from
Teutonic feasts), have always fueled arguments against the holiday. "It's just
paganism wrapped with a Christian bow," naysayers argue. But while kowtowing to
worldliness must always be a concern for Christians, the church has generally
viewed efforts to reshape cultureincluding holidayspositively. As a
theologian asserted in 320, "We hold this day holy, not like the pagans because
of the birth of the sun, but because of him who made it."
Elesha can be reached at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
The online issue archive for Christian History goes as far back as Issue 51
(Heresy in the Early Church). Prior issues are available for purchase in the
Christian History Store.
Copyright © 2000 by the author or Christianity Today International/Christian
History magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Christian History.
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