Happy Hellidays: When Holidays Lose Their Holiness

Summary

Is Christmas just a repackaged Pagan holiday? Should we worry about dressing in a costume in October as being akin to worshiping the Devil? Why do we give people pink candies in the middle of February every year?

If you are like many modern Americans, the calendar rolls on and these days appear and disappear. The stores become colored with the seasonal hues as we are coerced through peer pressure to buy flowers for that special someone, keep candy on hand for the neighborhood children, and let’s not forget to make room in the freezer for the bird we plan to roast just before darting out of the door way too early to find ourselves shopping, spending money we often do not have to buy more things we can barely fit into our houses. The heart of the holidays is missing.

As we examine each holiday, we will explore the original meaning of each of our modern faith-based celebrations, comb through the myths and present the best research we have to date about the origin stories. We will explore not only those origins, but the ebb and flow of seasonal opinion over the years including how we have become numb to these special days. We conclude each chapter with a call to return to Godly worship.

We will look first at what a holiday is in scope of Biblical analysis and then focus on the sin of covetousness as it relates to the American approach of holidays. Finally, we will tackle the holidays in the order they appear in the calendar year. We examine the origin of New Year’s celebrations, Valentines and St Patrick’s Days, Easter, Halloween (yes, it does have Christian roots), Thanksgiving, and finally Christmas.