The Annual Christian Challenge

Christmas is pagan, like it or no
Wausau Daily

EDITOR: Our Assembly representatives want to rename Wisconsin's holiday tree in the capitol rotunda as the "Christmas tree." Not surprising, as Christians have adopted pagan holiday customs for millennia. It's a little more surprising that so many representatives have forgotten their heritage.

Christmastime is actually a multi-cultural, multi-religious festival. It combines sun worship, polytheism, pagan nature religions, Christianity and other later myths and traditions. In early America, such trees were banned, not because they were too Christian but because they were too pagan. The Pilgrims' second governor, William Bradford, a Puritan, tried hard to stamp out all such "pagan mockery" at Christmas.

O Tannebaum: Those of us of a Germanic ethnic heritage should remember that it was our pagan ancestors enduring the harsh winters of northern Europe who adopted evergreens as a symbol of immortality. Good spirits and the magic power of the evergreen were believed to resist the life-threatening powers of darkness and cold and were brought inside.

Christmas has now become largely a secular holiday and commercial enterprise. The nonreligious and non-Christian can celebrate the commercial and social event, Christians can pretend Christmas has something to do with Christ, pagans can celebrate nature, and all can be happy, even with a "Christmas tree," if politicians insist upon it.