It raises some interesting questions, though. \u00a0Should secular people want to remove Christ from Christmas? \u00a0Or should they forgo the celebration of Christmas altogether?<\/p>\n
I would answer\u00a0No<\/em> to both questions. \u00a0Culture is a complex thing.\u00a0 Many an everyday event has its roots in some kind of religious or superstitious past.\u00a0 I see no need to pretend Christmas has nothing to do with Christianity, and the celebration of the birth of Jesus.\u00a0 I won\u2019t be hiding that fact from my son when he is old enough to ask questions.\u00a0 But nor will I be hiding from him the fact that Winter Solstice<\/a>\u00a0was celebrated on December 25 (or thereabouts) for thousands of years before Christianity came along, and that many of the elements involved in the celebration of Christmas<\/a> (and Easter<\/a>) stem from pagan traditions. \u00a0Loads of things we take for granted have pagan backgrounds. \u00a0Just for one more example, apart from our own, all the\u00a0planets<\/a> of our solar system were named after Greek\/Roman gods (Mercury<\/a>, Venus<\/a>, Mars<\/a>, Jupiter<\/a>, Saturn<\/a>, Neptune<\/a>, Uranus<\/a>, even Pluto<\/a>, whether it qualifies as a planet or not).<\/p>\n So sure, let\u2019s put the X back in Xmas.\u00a0 But let\u2019s also put the Thor back in Thursday.<\/p>\n
![\"orkney](\"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/reasonablyfaithless\/files\/2013\/12\/orkney-winter-solstice.jpg\")
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