Thread: Christmas
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Old 11-04-2012, 09:55 AM   #8
Saya
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 9,548
Christmas is an amalgamation of a Roman holiday and other pagan traditions as Christianity expanded. When one converts or leave a religion, you still have a sort of religious/cultural baggage with you, and seeing that reflected in Christian traditions made pagans more likely to embrace Christianity. Saturnalia, which Christmas was originally based on, had the gift giving and was one of the few holidays all of Rome would celebrate together, it was a religious holiday but it was also a celebration of unification.

When I converted to Buddhism I thought I wouldn't celebrate Christmas, and it really hurt my family. My mother is Catholic and not the fire and brimstone kind (and now I know no Catholic can rightfully claim that you go to hell, mwahahaha) but I think now that she was concerned I wasn't only losing a religion, but losing the cultural ties that come with it. And that's why I still celebrate it now, Christmas while religious in origin is also very much a cultural phenomenon that can absolutely be celebrated without being Christian. Plus I've participated in religious holidays/ceremonies in the past that aren't Christian or Buddhist, and while I don't believe in it I really appreciated being invited into that and view it as cultural exchange.

And while gift giving may be selfish for some people (definitely for children who are too young to really buy or make anything), I know from my family we nearly kill ourselves trying to buy/make the perfect gift while we're a little loathe to say what we want because we don't want to trouble the other people. I'm reaaaally looking forward to giving mom the rosary I made her because I'm really proud of it and I hope she likes it.
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