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So I've been hanging out with pagans more and more over the last year, and something I've noticed is just how similar some of the Pagan rituals and Christian rituals are. Yet despite the number of similarities, there is still a lot of negativity between the two faiths

For example; the most obvious is Christmas/Yule.
So the basics - For Pagans, it is the rebirth of the Sun God, for christians it is the birth of the son of god. Fires and Candles were lit by Pagans to encourage the return of the sun. Advent candles are lit in the run up to the birth of christ.
Then there is father chirstmas. The Holly King dressed in a green, fur-trimmed cape and rode a sleigh pulled by 8 reindeer. Coca-cola changed the colour to red in the 1920's. As he departed on Yule eve, the oak king arrived. With christmas, the departure of st Nicholas, or santa claus, heralds the birth of christ.

The other most obvious is Easter/Ostara.
For pagans it was a celebration of the death of winter and birth of spring. Fertility symbols for this particular time of year included chicks, eggs. Hot cross buns were originally offerings, with the pagan cross representing the 4 quarter days. Also, there is the burning of a scapegoat to banish winter ills. The only real differences are that for christians, easter is a time to concentrate on the death & resurrection of their christ, and instead of burning a scapegoat, a Judas effigy is burnt instead.

I could go into detail about the other 7 major events in the Pagan calendar, but I think these two will do for now.

Now, with all that taken into consideration, I pose you 2 questions.

1) Would you consider the concept that Christianity ripped off a lot of Pagan rituals in an attempt to kill it off, thus leaving it as the dominate religion in the Roman empire?
(which it nearly did with certain legislation - if you want to know which laws these were, I would be happy to let you know)

2) Why, if the two religions have such similarities, is there so much animosity between the two? What do you feel can be done in an attempt to ease the ill-feelings that flow between the two?

IMO. from the outside source of a completely non-christian, non-pagan standpoint. yes the rituals were stolen. in fact they were placed where they are in order to shift focus from the pagan festivals. the most pertinent example would be that the romans always did thier census's (no idea what the plural of that is) in spring. double check the beginings of the gospels to find out what i mean.

I think the animosity is mostly due to the whole "killing off all the witches" thing. God is jealous right? so his early folowers lived to remove the objects of jealousy. these objects were of course any other gods/goddeses worshiped in any area. so when the christians came they offered two chioices, convert or die. now you know why pagans don't like christians. the reason christians don't like pagans is mostly because they're still pissed off about not killing/converting all of them in the early centuries AD.

But then what will I laugh at while eating popcorn?

*thoughful expression* ........ok. *begins making popcorn* want some?

I don't know a lot about paganism (I intend to do research eventually so I can answer these kind of questions), but I don't think so. There are things that the church stole and changed, but there are also things that as far as I know have nothing similar. For example, is there anyone similar to Jesus in paganism (like I said, I don't know)?

ACTUALLY..... It did start with pagans.... who became Christian... then kept their rituals.....

This subject is actually what I did my Thesis on.... biggrin


Constantine was the first Christian Roman Emperor. He established the new capital of Rome at the old Greek town of Byzantium, which he renamed after himself (Constantinople) and which would be the capital of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire. He raised Christianity (which had not long been legal in the empire) to the status of a "permitted religion." He took a direct interest in matters of doctrine, setting a precedent for future emperors, and called the first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church (at Nicaea).

Constantine was a pagan who worshiped the sun, and he was worried about the coming battle. He says he started to pray to the "Supreme God" for help.

There was a sign in the sky "above the sun" and with it the words "conquer by this". That night in a dream he said he saw Jesus telling him to use the chi-rho sign "as a safeguard in all battles". Constantine ordered it to be put on his soldier's shields - and won the battle. The symbol is made of the first two letters of 'Christ' in Greek - chi (X) and rho (P) .

The victory was celebrated by building a new triumphal arch in Rome. Although most people were still pagans, Christianity became the favored religion of the Roman Empire.

Things did not all change straight away. Constantine was taught about being a Christian, but he could still be ruthless and he did not get baptized until his old age. Coins kept pictures of the old Roman Gods and Constantine's new church in Rome (San Giovani) was built on the edge of the city to avoid upsetting the pagans. Constantine, and his mother Helena, built great churches in the Holy Land to mark the places where Jesus was born, taught and was buried.

The Christian church asked for Constantine's help when there were problems. He called a meeting of Christian bishops at Nicaea in 325 that decided what a Christian was, and what Christians should believe.

Most of the Roman Emperors that came after Constantine were Christians. Under them Christianity became the official religion instead of the old Roman religion that had worshiped many Gods.

In time even the great Roman temples, like the Pantheon in Rome, came to be used as churches. The buildings and church services became very grand to mark Christianity's power and importance.



So as you can see.... the Modern foundation of Christianity is steeped with old Pagan religion.... We really didn't steal it... we were just influenced by it.

Yes.. it is true nowadays that we do use those "holidays/rituals" as a way to shadow out the pagan "holidays/rituals".... But most of the Christians I know (I am one myself) that are trying to shy away from all those "Christian Holidays". The only holiday AT ALL we should even consider celebrating is Easter. It is the ONLY one that is close to the actual time line of Bible History. It was the day our Christian Lord was resurrected. Jesus actual birthday is in September.. (born during one of the Jewish feast) and Halloween and such is a pagan holiday trying to be ripped off of by the Catholics (all saints day) in order to suppress it.

Yeah... I didn't feel like going over all the holidays. I'm sick... so my brain is/was kind of like F*** it all.... Hahahahahahahahaha.

I figured most people would get that although Catholicism didn't start till like 32 ad... they would get the fact that Catholics really were regarded as Christians first... then Christianity got recognized as a separate religion from Catholicism way later.....

And thank you! biggrin

99 percent on Christians ABHOR Catholics so I tend to disagree... not only that but they don't believe in Christian Salvation..... so technically they aren't part of the sect... neither are Mormons and such.