Open Canuck Theist 54 - Holidays or Holy Days

We pride ourselves on being rational, thinking people. We think of ourselves as up-to-date in our thoughts and actions. We try to have good reasons for everything we do.

Why, then, do we do some of the things we do?

Consider, for example, Christmas. Why do we pretend that a jolly old man in a red suit who lives at the north pole rides around in a sleigh pulled by flying reindeer and drops down chimneys to leave toys (made by elves) for good boys and girls on one night of the year?

Then, at Easter, why do we pretend that rabbits lay brightly colored eggs?

Ask yourself: Do these myths and customs make any sense? Yet we persist in perpetuating them to our children. Oddly enough, we also attach great religious significance to some of these practices. Many are integral parts of celebrating the most sacred days of traditional Christianity.

Christmas is a pagan festival, well actually it's a mass amalgamation of many pagan traditions, and it's supported due to economic necessity. In this episode I go over in more detail the biblical evidence for Jesus' date of birth, and why it's not December 25th.