Posted by jf on December 03, 2005 at 14:44:36 (PST):
In Reply to: Re: Christmas Tree's posted by Alfred on December 03, 2005 at 13:39:16 (PST):
: : : : I was in wal mart looking for a christmas tree and their sign read holiday trees I ask why they were called holiday trees because they are holiday trees now well I am looking for a christmas tree wished her a Merry Christmas and walked out. wal mart has stooped lower then whale poop and thats on the bottom of the ocean catering to a few non belivers who wants to run the world where are the true christians??????
: : : : Where are the American people????????
: : : Ist amendment , you can call it what you want. If Walmart or any store wants to call it a holiday tree so be it, you can call it a Christmas tree or whatever you want. Instead of you and people like you moaning and groaning about the real meaning of Christmas and trying to force people to say Christmas tree or Merry Christmas just go about your business there are more important wars to be fought, like the one in Iraq where Americans are dying needlessly.Also Christmas trees didn't become a part of the Christmas celebration until the 14th or 15th century and actually have nothing to do with the celebration of Christ's birthday which is the real meaning of Christmas and I know you will come back and say no one knows the real birthdate of Christ so why pick Dec. 25?
: : Date of Christ's birth??
: : The Pagan Origins of Christmas
: : The next piece of fact should probably no longer come as a surprise to the reader: Jesus was not born on December 25th. Neither Luke nor Matthew gave any indication of Jesus' actual birthday. Like many things Christian, the origin of this date comes from the celebration of the pagan religions which nascent Christianity had to compete against. Here too, wee see Christianity assimilating portions of paganisms into its structure.
: : December 25th was the date of the winter solstice [b] After this, the winter, having reached its peak, slowly gives way to spring. The winter solstice therefore, had been traditionally in Roman times, a period of unrestrained celebration. The celebration was called the Dies Natalis Solis Invicti or "the birthday of the unconquered sun." In the pagan religion of Mithraism, which was a form of sun-worship, the winter solstice was naturally an occasion of great celebration. The worship of Sol Invictus, the Sun God, became so popular that by AD274, the Roman Emperor Aurelian (c212-275) gave official sanction to December 25th as the birthday of that God.
: : Christianity in it battle with the pagan religions for converts slowly assimilated their celebrations and beliefs. Christmas day became one of the assimilated celebrations. By the year 354 we already have documents referring to December 25th as the birthday of Jesus. By 440 Christians were celebrating the winter solstice as the birthday of Jesus. By the sixth century, during the reign of Emperor Justinian (527-565), it had become recognized as an official Christian holiday. [2]
: : In early on Christianity there were fierce debates about whether December 25th of January 6th should be celebrated as the birthday of Jesus. Why January 6th? January 6th was celebrated in ancient Alexandria as -you guessed it! - the birthday of Osiris-Dionysius. The Armenian church still celebrates January 6th as Christmas to this day. [3]
: :
: : Thus one of the most important dates in the Christian calender, like so many portions of the Jesus story, is an assimilated pagan celebration.
:
: If the constatution gives you the right to call it any thing, Then what is the big deal if a wal mart working wishes you a merry christmas. Shouldent the constatution be as much right for the wal mart worker as it is for wal mart.If wal mart want's to call it a bramble bush that's their wish, But do I have to give up my rights to work for them
You didn't say that you worked there, you said you were buying a Christmas tree. But that is no difference. I don't know what the laws are concerning Walmart employees, if you were an employee and said Merry Christmas I don't know if they could discipline you are not, probably since you would be violiating their work rules,-try it and see what happens if it is that important to you.