Holidays

Birthdays

* There are only two references in the Bible:

1. Genesis 40:20-22: Pharaoh's birthday - a baker was hung;
   
2. Matthew 14:6-10: Herod's birthday - John the Baptist (peace be upon him) was beheaded.

* "Customs of offering congratulations, presenting gifts, and celebrating (complete with lighted candles) were meant to protect the birthday celebrant from the demons and to ensure his security for the coming year... Down to the Fourth Century, Christianity rejected the birthday celebration as a pagan custom." -Schwabische Zeitung (magazine supplement Zeit und Welt), April 3/4,1981, p.4.

* "The Greeks believed that everyone had a protective spirit or 'daemon' who attended his birth and watched over him in life. This spirit had a mystic relation with the god on whose birthday the individual was born. The Romans also subscribed to this idea... This notion was carried down in human belief and is reflected in the guardian angel, the fairy godmother, and the patron saint... The custom of lighted candles on the cakes started with the Greeks... Honey cakes round as the moon and lit with tapers were placed on the temple altars of [Artemis]... Birthday candles, in folk belief, are endowed with special magic for granting wishes... The birthday candles are thus an honor and tribute to the birthday child and bring good fortune... Birthday greetings and wishes for happiness are an intrinsic part of this holiday... Originally the idea was rooted in magic... Birthday greetings have power for good or evil because one is closer to the spirit world on this day." -The Love of Birthdays (New York, 1952), Ralph and Adelin Linton, pp.8, 18-20.

Christmas

* Biblical passages disagree: Luke 2:8-11 Shepards in the fields at night

* "The reason for establishing Dec. 25 as Christmas is somewhat abscure, but it is usually held that the day was chosen to correspond to pagan festivals that took place around the time of the winter solstice, when the days begin to lengthen, to celebrate the 'rebirth of the Sun'... The Roman Saturnalia (a festival dedicated to Saturn, the god of agriculture, and to the renewed power of the Sun), also took place at this time, and some Christmas customs are thought to be rooted in this ancient pagan celebration." -The Encyclopedia Americana (1977), Vol.6, p.666.

* "The date of Christ's (peace be upon him) birth is not known. The Gospels indicate neither the day nor the month... According to the hypothesis suggested by H. Usener... and accepted by most scholars today, the birth of Christ (pbuh) was assigned the date of the winter solstice (Dec. 25 in the Julian calendar, Jan 6 in the Egyptian), because on this day, as the Sun began its return to the northern skies, the pagan devotees of Mithra celebrated the 'dies natalis Solis Invicti' (birthday of the visible Sun). On Dec. 25, 274, Aurelian had proclaimed the Sun-god principal patron of the empire and dedicated a temple to him in the Campus Martius. Christmas originated at a time when the cult of the Sun was particularly strong at Rome." -New Catholic Encyclopedia (1967), Vol.3, p.656.

* Depending on where they live, children are told that gifts are brought by Santa Claus, St. Nicholas, Father Christmas, Pere Noel, Knecht Ruprecht, the Magi, the elf Jultomten (or Julenissen), or a witch known as La Befana. -The World Book Encyc. (1984), Vol.3, p.414.

Easter

* "A great many pagan customs, celebrating the return of spring, gravitated to Easter. The egg is the emblem of the germinating life of early spring... The rabbit is a pagan symbol and has always been an emblem of fertility." -The Catholic Encyc. (1913), Vol.5, p.227.

* "What means the term Easter itself? It is not a Christian name. It bears its Chaldean origin in its very forehead. Easter is nothing else than Astarte, one of the titles of Beltis, the queen of heaven, whose name,... as found by Layard in the Assyrian monuments, is Ishtar... Such is the history of Easter. The popular observances that still attend the period of its celebration amply confirm dyed eggs of Pasch or Easter Sunday, figured in the Chaldean rites just as they do now." -The Two Baylons, by Alexander Hislop (New York, 1943), pp.103, 107-108. [compare with Jeremiah 7:18]

New Year's Celebrations

* "The Roman ruler Julius Caesar established January 1 as New Year's Day in 46 BC. The Romans dedicated this day to Janus, the god of gates, doors, and beginnings. The month of January was named after Janus, who had two faces - one looking forward and one looking backward." -The World Book Encyc. (1984), Vol.14, p.237.

Halloween (All Soul's Day)

* "Elements of the customs connected with Halloween can be traced to a Druid ceremony in pre-Christian times. The Celts had festivals for two major gods - a sun god and a god of the death (called Sanhain), whose festival was held on November 1, the beginning of the Celtic New Year. The festival of the dead was gradually incorporated into Christian ritual." -The Encyc. Americana (1977), Vol. 13, p.725.

* "The mythologies of all the ancient nations are interwoven with the events of the Deluge... The force of this argument is illustrated by the fact of the observance of a great festivals of the dead in commemoration of the event, not only by nations more or less in communication with each other, but by others widely separated, both by ocean and by centuries of time. This festival is, moreover, held by all on or about the very day on which, according to the Mosaic account, the Deluge took place, on 'the seventh day of the second month' - the month nearly corresponding with our November." -The Worship of the Dead (London, 1904) by Colonel J. Garnier, p.4.

Valentine's Day

* "Valentine's Day comes on the feast day of two different Christian martyrs names Valentine. But the customs connected with the day... probably came from an ancient Roman festival called 'Lupercalia' which took place every February 15. The festival honored Juno, the Roman goddess of women and marriage, and Pan, the god of nature." -The World Book Encyc. (1973), Vol.20, p.204.

Mother's Day

* "A festival derived from the custom of mother worship in Greece. Formal mother worship, with ceremonies to Cybele, or Rhea, the Great Mother of the Gods, were performed on the Ides of March throughout Asia Minor." -Encyc. Britanica (1959), Vol.15, p.849.

National Holidays

* John 18:36 "Jesus answered [the Roman governor]: 'My kingdom is not part of this world.'"

* John 15:19 "If you [Jesus' followers] were part of this world, the world would be fond of what is its own, but I have chosen you out of this world, on this account the world hates you."

* 1 John 5:19 "The whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one."

* See also: John 14:30; Rev. 13:1,2; Daniel 2:44