ANSWERS: 33
  • Most, if not all, of these holidays have a pagan equivalent that pre-dates Christianity.
  • Why do xtians celebrate Pagan holidays?
  • Why hasn't it been mentioned that Thanksgiving isn't actually a religious holiday?
  • For tradition and the cultural heritage of the country we were raised in duh. Most of these seasonal holidays go back way before Christianity was even invented. Yes I said invented.
  • I think you're assuming a lot with what you've stated. If there's a Public Holiday, people are going to take that day off regardless of whether it's a Christian one or not. As for Christmas, and Easter,it's not necessarily a holy day to everybody, most enjoy the commercial aspect of the day by buying each other a present, rather than acknowledging the birth or death of Christ. Personally I see both those days as children's days, Days we get great enjoyment from the faces of our children as they open their presents or eggs. As an adult, I'm not into imaginary friends, if you get my drift, lol.
  • For most people it's a case of any excuse for a party. I'd go to a Jewish, Hindu, Christian, whatever religion celebration if it looked like fun.
  • No one is perfect here. Thats probably something they are use to doing or how they were raised.
  • "Most"? 1) This is impossible to verify. Maybe most American Atheists do, I don't know...but who knows what all atheists in other regions of the world celebrate. Even many buddhists are atheistic (they ALL would be if they actually followed Buddha's doctrines), I'm sure they don't celebrate Easter for example. 2) Even if an atheist does celebrate such holidays, it wouldn't necessarily be 'hypocritical'. The fact that one doesn't believe in God, does not mean they can't celebrate holidays for secular reasons, such as gift-giving, community participation, etc.
  • Thanksgiving? Anyway, Easter & Christmas existed long before Christianity was invented. They were called Ostara (Eostre) & Yule. Ostara is a celebration of Fertility. (Birth, new beginnings... see the connection?) Yule is the celebration of the birth of the sun. (sun/son... another convenient similarity) These 2 (and other) celebrations have been changed to Easter & Christmas to attract Pagans to Christianity.
  • well i think these "religious" holidays have lost a lot religious meaning. think of Christmas what's the ratio of Santas to Jesusus you see, or how many people truly care about Jesus dying on the cross at Easter, most just care about the chocolate. Now if i thought people truly cared about the religious significance of these holidays then maybe i would change my stance on celebrating them, but until then it's an excuse to celebrate with the little family that i care about, and eat well.
  • Some atheists have there own belief system. Many Christian festivals adapted pagan celebrations to make Christianity more palatable. Atheists can do that too.
  • I celebrate Festivus.
  • I celebrate Xmas because I have always celebrated Xmas. I get annoyed whenever someone tries to tell me it's about Jesus but there's no way in hell I'll let someone tell me I'm not allowed to celebrate Xmas for the "wrong reason".
  • They don't. They celebrate family holidays.
  • Thanksgiving was not a religious holiday in the first place. Christmas and Easter are both seasonal festivals much older than Christianity which the early Church renamed for their own purposes, essentially stealing them from previous users. Easter has a theological meaning - tied to the Jewish Passover, but this in turn was probably a spring festival in origin. But Christmas was a deliberate take-over of the existing festival of Yule/Saturnalia: nobody knows when Jesus was born, so the grabbed the midwinter feast in his name. So really, the question so far as Christmas goes is "Isn't it hypocritical of Christians celebrating their saviour on an ancient pagan feast day?".
  • For me: Any excuse for a party - especially a party containing lots of food, lots of people, plenty of seasonal mixed drinks, and presents! ((And for those that mention the pagan equivalents, paganism is a religion as well... so the question would still stand as to why so many atheists celebrate Yule or Ostara. Oh, and Thanksgiving is a cultural holiday, not a religious one))
  • everyone likes a holiday.
  • Why Thanksgiving?
  • I know Christians who focus on the presents at Christmas and the food and candy at Easter more than they focus on the religious meaning. Thanksgiving has no religious component. Jewish people allow their children to enjoy the festivities at Christmas, without celebrating the prime reason for the holiday. I see no contradiction here. Some people go to church on Sunday are very good that one day and the other six days they are quite judgmental and unChristian to their fellow man. Of course this is just my opinion, but that's what you asked for. Happy Friday to you! :)
  • Thanksgiving? That's not a religious holiday. I think that's only celebrated in the States and Canada.
  • For me each holiday has a non-religious merit of it's own to celebrate. For Christmas it's because I enjoy the family get-together, presents, time off work, decorations (especially fairy lights). For Easter, or annual magic chocolate day as I call it to annoy my mum, it's all about chocolate. I also don’t feel they are Christian holidays as the dates are aligned to Pagan festival dates & not Christian one's. So basically a whole mish-mash of reasons.
  • The holidays probably have more of a cultural significance rather than a religious significance. After all, as someone else said, who doesn't like a party?
  • Good question. Although I consider myself more of a spiritual agnostic than an atheist, I think many celebrate these holidays out of a sense of obligation or tradition. Most people in this country were brought up with these holidays and continue to celebrate them. I did this for many years but later realized that Christian holidays really have no significance to me and stopped observing them. There are plenty of secular holidays for me to celebrate.
  • As an atheist, I celebrate many cultural celebrations. Some of them have their roots in various religions, some do not. I celebrate them because it is tradition, it is an excuse for my family to get together and they are fun. What I find interesting are the bumper stickers that claim "Jesus is the reason for the season." Don't they know that the the holiday now known as Christmas predates their messiah?
  • Well, first of all the holidays that you listed aren't all religious. Thanksgiving had nothing to do with religion when it came about. And as far as Christmas and Easter go, they have become more of a societal and economical event every year than they are about religion. When I celebrate Christmas, I give and receive gifts just like everyone else does. Why? To hold my spot in society and because it's a nice way to bond and be close to the people I love. Hope that helps.
  • For the same reason that Christians celebrate Pagan holidays. Isn't that very hypocritical of them? I'm bashing anyone either but I would like to understand this
  • Well, I don't "celebrate" them - in that I don't go to church, sing hymns and all that stuff. I take the holiday though! Nice to have a break. There are also a million traditions around those holidays that may have started well before christianity and were incorporated, or started after christianity as add-ons. All of them are nice to do, so I do them.
  • Personally, I celebrate these holidays because my family and friends do. What am I going to say? "NO! Take back your appealingly wrapped holiday sweater and begone! Begone, foul Christian, to the irrational abyss from which you came!" That would go over well. Anyway, I like participating in these holidays. Maybe it is hypocritical, but it's not like I'm atheist 361 days a year and then suddenly devout on holidays. I'm still atheist, I'm just an atheist with a candy cane. Holidays are so commercialized that it's not like it's a stretch to just celebrate, rather than celebrate Jesus.
  • most people only celebrate this things as a tradition because there family and friends do alot of people dont even know the real reason of these holidays
  • because everyone loves to celebrate and party and have a great time
  • The "Hallmark" versions of Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving may not be the same as celebrations by those who are perhaps more committed to Christianity. What's especially funny is that Episcopalians (U.S. version of Church of England) celebrate Thanksgiving, when the Pilgrim's establishment of the holy day was an act of protest against the Church of England.
  • I don't celebrate any of them..period. I might take the day off only because everything is closed, but i don't buy presents and don't generally accept them either on religious holidays. I did buy them for my kids, but only because i didn't want them to be so left out among their peers, but the celebrations didn't happen much. My ex wife was a Catholic so it was somewhat expected so there was a bit of give and take, but she also understood i was never getting dragged into church or any of that foolishness. Now my kids are grown we just call each other on xmas, but it's not for God nor Christ..it's purely for each other and for no other reasons. ;)
  • Because we get tired of the harassment we get from the "loving" fanatics when we don't.

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