Don’t want to endorse Christianity necessarily but hard to get around saying the word Christmas or Xmas, so is Xmas more rebellious? Is there an even more rebellious or irreverent name for it?
Also, should I not even celebrate Christmas? What’s an alternative that features the presents-giving at the same time of year but in a way that isn’t tied in any way to religion (and ideally doesn’t involve killing turkeys)?
Christmas is basically a secular holiday for a lot of people these days anyway, but if optics really matter to you, just call it “Yule” or something.
The X in Xmas is supposed to be the Greek letter Chi, and stands for Christ, so I wouldn’t call Xmas secular. But also a lot of Christmas traditions are in fact pagan, as a lot of European pagan religions, both historical and modern, have some kind of midwinter celebration. If you want to celebrate without the Christian stuff, you can celebrate winter solstice in whatever way you want.
Saturnalia
Christmas has been secularized for decades, really don’t need to be Christian to celebrate it. Especially since Jesus was probably born in the summer, the early church adopted Dec 25 to make it easier to convert people used to celebrating Saturnalia.
Festivus is maybe the best known totally non-religious December holiday. Or new years.
Do you know where the summer estimate came from? I don’t think it’s unlikely Christmas was moved. But I thought from when the division of abijah was on duty the 6 months plus 9 months put it either in either December or June. (The division of abijah was on duty twice a year) But that’s just from a conversation I had with someone, I don’t have great source for it either.
What you’re talking about is a calculation based on the birth of John the Baptist. John the Baptist’s father was a priest in the order of Abijah and John the Baptist was conceivced with his father’s barren wife as a reward for his service in the temple. His service would have ended in June. The angel Gabriel visited Mary in the sixth month of that pregnancy to tell her that she would birth Jesus. The calculation is June + 6 = Dec + 9 = September.
December is definitely not the correct month because the story has shepherds tending their flocks in the field. Sheep have to be brought in from the field for the winter months and would not have been in the field in December. They would have been moved to shelter no later then the end of October.
The year is also problematic. Jesus was born during the reign of King Harrod who died in 4BCE. And during a mass killing of babies which, if it happened at all, would have occurred at least a couple of years before Harrod’s death.
It’s also worth saying that there isn’t good evidence for Jesus having ever existed at all. It seems most likely that he did and was a reformist rabbi that the myth was built around but no one apparently wrote anything about him for a century or two after his death.
Xmas was never intended to be a more secular alternative, it was originally created by scribes wanting to save space so they used the first letter of Christ in Greek, “Χριστός”.
Why does it need to be rebellious? Sounds a little childish. Just roll with “happy holidays” or whatever and celebrate and let others celebrate whatever they want. Celebrating at this time of year has nothing to do with Christianity really, it’s much older tradition.
I think christmas has lost it’s religious connotations, nobody I know thinks of it as a religious holiday at all. It’s just a time for giving gifts, showing love and spending time with meaningful people in your life.
If you want a catch all though “Happy Holidays” covers it.
Yule.
Yule is kinda religious though.
Yeah this. Most Nordic countries at least call it some variation of Yule still, Joulu in Finnish for example
Gledelig jól.
\o/
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Surprised nobody has posted Newtonmas. Celebrate a historical figure who had major impacts on our civilization by advancing science, and who was actually born on December 25!
For every religious holiday, there is an equal and opposite secular holiday.
You sound like a child who wants to be rebellious just for the sake of it. Celebrate Christmas or don’t, most people around you won’t even notice. If its to get back at a relative or parent, just tell em to fuck off. Makes it easier and you can still get gifts to your friends.
If you wanna be rebellious around Christmas, all you gotta do is serve somebody a coffee in a red paper cup.
But that aside, both “Christmas” and “Xmas” are equally religious. The X in “Xmas” is actually meant to be the initial for Christ’s name in Greek (Χριστός), so it’s still ultimately the same thing as saying “Christmas”.
Festivus. It’s the holiday for the rest of us.
What’s an alternative that features the presents-giving at the same time of year
Festivus is explicitly non-commercial
I would argue that in some ways, coopting these words and the nonreligious traditions would be excellent because it removes power from “them.”
