h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Because Christmas is not a Christian celebration. It was appropriated by the Christians as a way for their worshippers to participate in Christmas, while still honoring their religion.

Christmas is really all about the winter solstice - the death of the old god, the birth of the new god. This is why we put an evergreen tree in our homes. It represents the undying deity, who is reborn every year.

If all this sounds familiar, remember that modern Christianity borrows many elements from other religions, including Easter (the fertility celebration of the goddess Aoestre.) Surprisingly, the Catholics in Mexico have incorporated Samhain into their Christianity (Day of the Dead) but the European Christians have tried to disassociate themselves from the holiday.

Christmas is a christian festival, nothing else. The clue is in the name. Its timing in the modern calendar probably WAS to deflect from pagan traditions, as you may expect in an evangelical religion. It does NOT fall on the winter solstice (20-23rd December). The Easter bit is nonsense - it is only in the non-romance languages that the name is derived from the fertility goddess. In French (Paques), Italian (Pasqua)and Spanish (Pascua) the name is derived from the Hebrew (Pesach) relating to the sacrifice made during Passover. These are the derivations found in the Bible. The timing of Easter is a bit more certain, as we know when Passover falls (and fell historically) and so can have a decent stab at when the crucifixion of Jesus took place.

Of course the Christians named Christmas - Christ's Mass. But why call it a Christian festival? Most of the traditions we have for Christmas are not derived from Christian tradition, but from the ancient pagan rituals.

distantdalek you should read up more about your own religion.

Every characteristic to do with the fictional Christian God Jesus, is completely borrowed from several other gods all pre-dating Jesus. Virgin births, son of god, died and resurrected 3 days later, 12 disciples, died for your sins, so on and so on - all been done before. Jesus is just yet another in a long line of mythical paganistic Gods. Nothing special about him.

The equinox commencing at that time of the year has been celebrated for a lot longer than the time the ignorance of Christianity was forced upon us.