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Following-up to these previous questions, why do some traditions not celebrate the birth and death (or, more accurately, His resurrection) of Christ as "official" church "events"?

I understand that celebrating the Communion Table is a celebration of Jesus death - but why not celebrate His birth and resurrection, too, in a "special" way (ie beyond just celebrating His resurrection every Sunday by that being the the church comes together for worship)?

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warren
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    I don't know about Easter, but Christmas was an invented date, made to roughly coincide with winter solstice in north hemisphere, what was a celebratory date to most rural pagan cultures (the victory of sun over winter: after this solstice, daytime increases while nighttime decreases). This was made so to facilitate conversion of other cultures in the early days of Christianity. – lvella Dec 02 '11 at 19:03
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    @Flimzy. Easter doesn't move around. At all. It just follows a lunar calendar rather than a solar one. – TRiG Jan 01 '12 at 21:58
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    @TRiG: That's an oversimplification. Easter falls on the first Sunday following the first ecclesiastical full moon that occurs on or after the day of the vernal equinox (Source). The date is based on both the lunar and solar calendars (aka lunisolar calendar). But you are right that it's not a strictly (or at least not recently) "made up date", as it follows the same rules used in Ancient Judaism for the date of passover. – Flimzy Jan 04 '12 at 00:38
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    Specifically, Easter (which I prefer to call Resurrection Day) was on the day of the Feast of Firstfruits which Jesus fulfilled that day. – Bit Chaser Dec 27 '16 at 04:00

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Jehovah's Witnesses don't celebrate Christmas because of the pagan origins of many of our current customs. They cover this in several articles on their site. A search of their site returns many. They also reject several other holidays, citing similar reasons.

Several other denominations have similar beliefs, and even within denominations that largely celebrate holidays, there are those with personal convictions about various aspects of holidays and refuse to celebrate to one degree or another. It's not always a traditional boundary, since most denominations agree that Christianity isn't about rules and regulations, but rather about a relationship with Christ, and His saving grace.

Using a couple of personal examples, I come from a Baptist Church, and most of us celebrate Christmas, have Christmas trees, etc. However, there are some in my own Church that refuse to have the trees. I personally don't like telling the kids about Santa Claus because I don't want them questioning whether they can trust me to tell the truth.

Note, that last paragraph was included as an example of personal convictions, not an endorsement or indictment of any person's choice to celebrate in whatever way they see fit.

Peter Turner
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David Stratton
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  • There's also tradition. Christmas is spreading, but until relatively recent times it was a normal working day in Scotland. – TRiG Feb 28 '12 at 16:42
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    The links in this question are dead now, and I'm not sure what the first link was originally referencing, but I think the link for the second article has been moved here. This is your post, so you're welcome to use whatever links you want if you choose to update your post. I'd recommend this article as a replacement for the first link, but I'm hesitant to edit it in myself. –  Jun 30 '17 at 20:17
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The association of Christmas with Christianity is a recent development among non-Catholic churches.

For instance, one reason the Puritans fled from England to the New World was to free themselves from the paganism that had infected Christianity:

Christmas celebrations in New England were illegal during parts of the 17th century, and were culturally taboo or rare in former Puritan colonies from foundation until the mid-18th century. The Puritan community found no scriptural justification for celebrating Christmas, and associated such celebrations with paganism and idolatry. — Christmas in Puritan New England - Wikipedia

Almost nothing that we associate with Christmas today has anything to do with the Biblical facts.

Similarly, Easter too was regarded as mostly paganism:

The early Puritans didn’t like Easter any more than they liked Christmas. They banned Christmas in 1659, fining anyone five shillings for celebrating the holiday. They ignored Easter, Whitsunday and other holidays. May Day celebrations, which included the hated Maypole, were punished severely. — Puritan Easter, or The Devil's Holiday - New England Historical Society

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Christams is a pagan holiday it has nothing to do with the birth of Jesus infact it has nothing to do with Jesus period. So the question is if it's not Jesus birthday then who's birthday is it and why are so many still celebrating it. The order of the illuminatti is behind most of this deception it's actually the pagan god Tammuz the son of Nimrod who was born on December 25th. No where in the bible does it speak of an actual date for Jesus birth so it saddens me to think that we have somehow allowed this occult pagan god to be glorified and celebrated in the place of our true lord and savior Jesus Christ. The paganization of christianity must be stopped inorder for God to truly bless his elected people.

Wayman
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    Welcome to Stack Exchange, we are glad you are here. Please consider registering an account to fully take advantage of what this site has to offer. Also, be sure to check out the site tour to learn what we are about. We aren't a discussion board, so answers are expected to do more than just state your opinion. Please revise your answer to cite references if you can. Also, even if your info is correct, having the same date in no way implies Christians all celebrating a pagan god's birth. – ThaddeusB Oct 22 '15 at 13:18