{"id":5192,"date":"2021-12-23T08:36:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-23T08:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/?p=5192"},"modified":"2021-12-09T20:38:09","modified_gmt":"2021-12-09T20:38:09","slug":"how-christmas-came-to-the-celts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/index.php\/2021\/12\/23\/how-christmas-came-to-the-celts\/","title":{"rendered":"How Christmas Came to the Celts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>You may have heard this before: December 25th wasn&#8217;t really when Jesus was born. The date was chosen because the church commandeered another pagan festival, this time the winter solstice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"312\" src=\"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Winter-Solstice-1024x312.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5194\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Winter-Solstice-1024x312.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Winter-Solstice-300x91.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Winter-Solstice-768x234.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Winter-Solstice-1536x468.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Winter-Solstice-2048x623.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Winter-Solstice-850x259.jpg 850w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption>Created with PicMonkey<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>But, have you thought about why? The ancient pagans were not evil people, at least not especially evil for the times they lived in. They weren&#8217;t devil worshippers for heaven&#8217;s sake. They worshiped what they saw and witnessed. The sun, the moon, the trees, the wonders of nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities\u2014his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.<\/p><cite>Romans 1:20 NLT<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>The winter solstice marks the end of the dark half of the year and the beginning of the light half, and before Christianity, people observed this, creating great festivals. The Romans in particular observed this time of year by decorating their houses with greenery, lighting candles, and giving presents. The ancient people, being dependent on the land, saw the lengthening days as something to celebrate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Facebook-Post-1024x1024.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5193\" width=\"557\" height=\"557\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Facebook-Post-1024x1024.png 1024w, https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Facebook-Post-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Facebook-Post-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Facebook-Post-768x768.png 768w, https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Facebook-Post-850x850.png 850w, https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Facebook-Post.png 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 557px) 100vw, 557px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>The people who walk in darkness\u00a0\u00a0will see a great light.For those who live in a land of deep darkness,\u00a0\u00a0a light will shine.<br><\/p><cite>Isaiah 9:2 NLT<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><br>It&#8217;s true that Christianity came and turned pagan celebrations into Christian ones in an attempt to get the people to focus on the church&#8217;s teachings. But when you look at what the people already sensed, and what the scriptures say, it makes sense to celebrate Christmas during this season. What do you think?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You may have heard this before: December 25th wasn&#8217;t really when Jesus was born. The date was chosen because the church commandeered another pagan festival, this time the winter solstice. But, have you thought about why? The ancient pagans were not evil people, at least not especially evil for the times they lived in. They&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[398,179],"tags":[23,472],"class_list":["post-5192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christmas","category-christmas-history","tag-christmas","tag-winter-solstice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5192"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5195,"href":"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5192\/revisions\/5195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}