Religion fades from Christmas in US, but cultural traditions persevere

[mota bhai 2,675]

The perception of Christmas as a religious holiday is waning in the United States but the holiday's cultural traditions are as important as ever to Americans, according to Pew Research poll results released Wednesday. Respondents were asked to compare their perception and practice of Christmas between childhood and adulthood.

Whereas 90 percent of Americans of all creeds will celebrate Christmas in 2013 — and 80 percent of non-Christians — Pew found that only about half view Christmas mostly as a religious holiday, and a full third of the population consider it to be primarily a cultural event.

...

Atheist groups laud the secular holiday trend and point to other examples of widely celebrated holidays with Christian roots. Dave Muscato of the American Atheists, an advocacy group that promotes civil rights for atheists, told Al Jazeera that Christmas could soon be a totally secular holiday in the U.S.

“I think we are already halfway there,” Muscato said. “I think in another two or three generations, we will see it no differently than we see Valentine's Day today.”

But in a sign that the cultural traditions of Christmas are in no danger of extinction, a greater percentage of young people say they grew up spending the holiday with family or friends, and likewise are slightly more likely to gather with loved ones this Christmas than older Americans.

...

A slightly baffling 22 percent of American adults who don’t have children say they will still pretend Santa Claus will visit their homes this year.

Source: Al-Jazeera America

[decocker 7,198]

i can't stand it when atheist groups make statements like this. what is muscato even talking about, xmas and valentines day will be the same? as in we'll all start getting valentines day off work too? i mean, come on dude...

and i think your second question should have the option of 'capitalistic occasion'

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

I celebrate Jesus's birthday in spring, when he was born sometime during the Roman census that occurred at the beginning of the Roman year that starts with the vernal equinox, not some pagan winter solstice ritual to keep the sun from disappearing behind the horizon forever.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

BTW -

[elmcitymaven 9,711]

Moral decay YAY!

[Pooky 3,343]

Moral decay YAY!

Did you just eat Darnell?

Which brings me to my main point. The poll is flawed, as it doesn't include "Eat mince pies 'til you can't" as an option.

[mota bhai 2,675]

I celebrate Jesus's birthday in spring, when he was born sometime during the Roman census that occurred at the beginning of the Roman year that starts with the vernal equinox, not some pagan winter solstice ritual to keep the sun from disappearing behind the horizon forever.

I see......................................

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

I see......................................

THE BIRTHDAY OF THE SUN

The pagans set aside the 25th of December as the birthday of the Solar Man. They rejoiced, feasted, gathered in processions, and made offerings in the temples. The darkness of winter was over and the glorious son of light was returning to the Northern Hemisphere. With his last effort the old Sun God had torn down the house of the Philistines (the Spirits of Darkness) and had cleared the way for the new sun who was born that day from the depths of the earth amidst the symbolic beasts of the lower world.

Concerning this season of celebration, an anonymous Master of Arts of Balliol College, Oxford, in his scholarly treatise, Mankind Their Origin and Destiny, says: "The Romans also had their solar festival, and their games of the circus in honor of the birth of the god of day. It took place the eighth day before the kalends of January--that is, on December 25. Servius, in his commentary on verse 720 of the seventh book of the Æneid, in which Virgil speaks of the new sun, says that, properly speaking, the sun is new on the 8th of the Kalends of January-that is, December 25. In the time of Leo I. (Leo, Serm. xxi., De Nativ. Dom. p. 148), some of the Fathers of the Church said that 'what rendered the festival (of Christmas) venerable was less the birth of Jesus Christ than the return, and, as they expressed it, the new birth of the sun.' It was on the same day that the birth of the Invincible Sun (Natalis solis invicti), was celebrated at Rome, as can be seen in the Roman calendars, published in the reign of Constantine and of Julian (Hymn to the Sun, p. 155). This epithet 'Invictus' is the same as the Persians gave to this same god, whom they worshipped by the name of Mithra, and whom they caused to be born in a grotto (Justin. Dial. cum Trips. p. 305), just as he is represented as being born in a stable, under the name of Christ, by the Christians."

http://www.sacred-texts.com/eso/sta/sta11.htm

[mota bhai 2,675]

O-kay.

[Novembro 1,763]

I just want presents and cookies. Gimme.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

O-kay.

Did you think the Hindu's had lock on weirdness?

[mota bhai 2,675]

Yes, actually I did.

[Lokie 5]

"It seems like, to me, a ####### -- as a man -- would be more desirable than a man's #######,"

[Penny Lane 8,159]

This isn't the ####### thread.

[JohnR! 5,495]

I celebrate Jesus's birthday in spring, when he was born sometime during the Roman census that occurred at the beginning of the Roman year that starts with the vernal equinox, not some pagan winter solstice ritual to keep the sun from disappearing behind the horizon forever.

I don't celebrate Jesus birthday particularly, but I normally give him a hefty bonus so he can take his wife and kids out for a fancy dinner on his birthday.

It is the least I can do for all the hard word he puts into our lawn and all the years he has worked for us.

Edited December 19, 2013 by Gegel