You know Osiris? Kind of like that, but it’s in Israel instead of Egypt, and there’s only one God, who has two different forms, one in heaven but also is a dude down on earth, until eventually it’s revealed he has three different forms not just two. Also unlike with Egypt, a significant lack of animal heads, all just like normal human heads. Except the holy spirit who’s like a ghost or something. Nailed it.
Wait you don’t know Osiris? Crap, let’s talk Quetzalcóatl then. So he’s like this giant snake with feathers…
Not to mention the trinity isn’t even a universally held belief among all Christians, so I would have been right leaving it out too. And it was clearly just a joke comment on a meme community.
My family is Jewish and I’ve always been an atheist. My wife is also an atheist, but grew up in a Christian family. I’ve always felt uncomfortable going over to her house for religious holidays. Most of the Jesus talk is done at the pre-meal prayer, but that part makes me feel super uncomfortable.
But like Easter and Christmas, despite the fact that they’ve always been completely welcoming and non-judgmental to me, I just feel like a total outsider. Even after almost 24 years of marriage I don’t feel used to it. I don’t even feel comfortable with a Christmas tree in the house, but I don’t fight it.
I don’t know if I would say Christmas trees are necessarily Christian. Myself and all of my friends have Christmas trees up, and half of us grew up in non-religious households.
“Christ” is literally in the name. They can be secular, but it is taking something that was a religious symbol for a very long time and making it secular.
My name is from the Bible. Most people don’t realize that. Plenty of atheists have that name including at least one very prominent one. That doesn’t make me dislike that fact any less and it absolutely informed our decision not to give our daughter a religious name.
Also, while it does happen, very few people who do not come from families that were at least Christian in the relatively recent past generally don’t have Christmas trees. At least not in the U.S.
I’ve known Jews and Muslims who do it, but they are rare and often, like me, married to someone with a Christian background. At least here in the U.S.
I’m not criticizing people who celebrate it, but I can’t control what makes me uncomfortable. Coming to something common as a complete outsider for the first 20 years of your life can make things very uncomfortable. Imagine if everyone around you celebrated Ramadan. You might eat during the day, but you’ll probably do so being totally aware that you’re an “other” if you do it. But if you fast like everyone else after not doing it your entire childhood, you might find it very uncomfortable. (Psychologically, I mean. The physical discomfort of fasting is a separate matter.)
We didn’t do Christmas. No Christmas trees, no wreaths, no Santa, no carols, nothing. And, of course, that meant that other kids bullied me because of it. Which only made me feel even more like an outsider. I’m not going to say why, it involves severe bullying, violence and antisemitism, but the one Christmas thing I cannot tolerate in my house is the song Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. It literally hurts to listen to. When kids bully you and include a Christmas carol in the bullying, that alone can make Christmas uncomfortable.
Like I said, no criticism for people who celebrate it. I even celebrate it now because of my wife and daughter. But I don’t enjoy it. It’s a sense of duty. If I were single, I would ignore both Christmas and Easter.
They are though. Our culture is Christian. It’s an aspect of cultural Christianity
There’s a term: Christian atheist. It refers to people who are atheists but still partake in a lot of the Christian cultural practices and values. There’s nothing wrong with that, but be aware that that will cause differences with Jewish atheists, Muslim atheists, and atheists who are dechristianizing themselves.
When you say that atheists can still celebrate Christmas be aware you sound like someone saying atheists can and should celebrate Ramadan. Neither of you is wrong, but you are bringing a religion and culture into it.
I was raised mostly secular and I’m now 100% atheist, however … I like Christmas trees. Call it a Solstice tree if you want or name it something different. I don’t. I just don’t care. But I like the gift giving and decorating the tree with my wife and kids. It has zero religious significance if you don’t want it to, but the holiday itself is fun.
This post is a tongue and cheek comparison of how capitalism has eaten Christian holidays, and how resurrection is handled in fiction.
I was raised in an authoritarian Christian environment, but on the plus side I am actually able to dissect a lot of popular fiction for my wife who was not raised with this burden. It turns out it’s actually sort of hard to understand certain metaphors, symbols and short hand if both your parents are sarcastic atheists.
That’s interesting that you feel so out of place. I dated a Jewish woman for a little while and went to synagogue with her for Shabbat, and spent a couple holidays with her family. It all felt comfortable to me. I suppose maybe it’s more natural for a Christian to participate in Jewish holidays than it is for a Jew to participate in Christian holidays. Judaism is basically half of Christianity, whereas Christianity is something completely separate to the Jewish. Rather, Christianity is something the Jewish have directly stated they don’t believe the basis for. Does that sound accurate to you?
It’s a fertility festival, hence all the eggs and bunnies and references to fucking. Has nothing to do with christianity, aside from they decided to drop the bummer message that no, easter is because Jesus died.
I’ve heard the term Easter originates from Eostre which is a pagan goddess of the spring. That being said the reference is exclusively an English/Germanic thing. The Orthodox church uses the more ancient term of “Pascha” which derives from “Passover”. So you are partially right but no Christian versed in their history would say it takes away from the holiness of the holiday. The Orthodox church would often observe pagan customs and peacefully orient them towards Christ. As a result the church has a rich tapestry of jurisdictions with their own liturgical nuances. Easter is about Christ defeating death. Glory to God.
Holidays predate capitalism by a couple millennia. They were always a nice brea and they still are. Except I work all of them, which is capitalism’s fault.
Me neither, but it’s just a culturally significant thing in Finland so you’ll see it in calendars, you realize it from getting a holiday from work/school, it’s mentioned casually in media a lot (traffic news, weather talking about “Easter weekend’s” weather) and so on. I would’ve imagined it was prominent enough in the US that it’d be hard not to notice.
Right? Even here in Czechia, which is like in the TOP 3 most atheistic countries in the world, everyone knows it’s Easter. And no one has a problem with it (nor with Christmas), everyone accepts is as part of cultural heritage. Some people in this thread have such a weird take.
I think part of the general 🤷♀️ this year is how early Easter happened. Even though spring also started early, it just felt way too soon to be Easter.
But also, you’re lucky you don’t just… have this crap shoved down your throat everywhere you go. In my northwestern US town, the local cult I mean mega church rented out the big convention space and put signs up all over town.
Also, maybe people with kids gotta still care. Kids are excited about everything that they can possibly celebrate.
It's just another myth that describes a mythical hero on their journey. It's too easy to take everything too literally, or too metaphorically. I use a lot of judeochristian metaphors, allegories, etc, but I imagine if I'd been raised Buddhist, I'd use a lot of Buddhist metaphors, or any other religion. I'm aware a lot of people will take offense to that, and that's not my intent. Imo, getting hung up on the veracity misses the point the story is trying to make, in the first place. Imo, that's what the "ears to hear, eyes to see" metaphor means.
“right, so he comes back to life after 3 days… I guess its kind of like in one of those zombie movies you like so much? But then there’s a bunny too you see, and he gives out chocolate and jelly beans. No, there wasn’t any chocolate or jelly beans in the Bible. Nor any bunnies either… The bunny is actually from an older thing from pre Christianity but we just kinda added it in afterwards. Yeah that happens a lot. Does it all make sense to you now?”
Days started at sundown for the jews at the time. If he was killed during what we consider the day time Friday, then maybe Friday sundown is second and sat sundown third? Googling it, I see some sites agree, or say that he might have been crucified after Sundown Thursday, and in the tomb Thursday night, which would be Friday.
That doesn’t even cover the issues of explaining how they figure out what DAY it is every year.
“Okay, so they start by figuring out when the Earth has the most direct sun on the the Tropic of Cancer… no, not the disease, a giant crab… it’s a line of latitude approximately 23°27′ north of Earth’s Equator, right? Yes, there’s math. Anyway, the take the day the sun is strongest and weakest, called the solstices, and … the solstices… It doesn’t matter, It mattered for agriculture back then, especially when spring and fall were, which are the calendar dates in between them, yeah? So the spring equinox ,., that’s what they call the ‘in between solstices,’ equinox… which is March 21st or 22nd or something. What? No no, I am explaining how they figure out when easter is. I haven’t forgotten. So now we know when the spring equinox is, so now we look at a chart of the moon, and figure out when it is full. Full. No, not ‘full of what?’ it’s full meaning that you can see all of in the sky. Well one half of it, actually. The sunlit half, but it’s FACING us, see… The sun lights up and it shows as a circle instead of a crescent or something. Moving on, they look at the FIRST Sunday AFTER the FIRST full moon that occurs on or after the spring equinox. Except if the full moon falls on a Sunday, then Easter is the next Sunday. Why? Well, St. Bede the Venerable, the 6th-century author of Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (‘Ecclesiastical History of the English People’), maintains that the English word ‘Easter’ comes from Eostre, or Eostrae, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring and fertility. That’s where the Spring Equinox comes in. NO I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP!”
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