Talk:Christmas

Semi-protected edit request on 24 December 2023

Please add additional contextual text and a second source to final sentence in 20th and 21st centuries section. Thank you!

Palestinian leaders of various Christian denominations cited the ongoing Israel–Hamas war in their unanimous decision to cancel celebrations,[124] which was intended as an act of solidarity with their countrymen in Gaza.[125]

"Why Christmas is canceled in Bethlehem," The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/11/29/palestinian-christians-christmas-ceasefire-cancel/ Maroo530 (talk) 01:45, 24 December 2023 (UTC)

 Already done M.Bitton (talk) 21:01, 24 December 2023 (UTC)

Christmas isn't banned in China

So basically you have a single unregistered church out of tens of thousands. And (because it's unregistered), China takes away its decorations and suddenly this equates to now mean they ban Christmas entirely in every place in China? This is just an example of really dumb out of context disinformation where correlation isn't causation. And the current edits make it seem like religion and Christmas are both banned, which is not factual. What happens when some Scottish tourists visit China and see churches and mosques and that Christmas decorations are everywhere in public shops and public areas? (Which happens -https://m.youtube.com/watch?si=mPQWOUqbLm5kiRIP&v=LYEjyXOqoyA&feature=youtu.be) They will realise that Wikipedia is just full of disinfo. Hence I suggest someone to improve the article to not mislead in implying that Christmas and religion are entirely banned in China, when that is an extremely misleading lie. Below are just some of many vloggers visiting China that realize the facts with their own eyes. It's disgraceful to be promoting such lies that is too easily DISPROVEN. When I read today's Wikipedia article, I got the impression that Christmas decorations are illegal to even be shown in public areas in China, when that's just so false and very wrong and leaves out that there is a large amount of Christmas decorations shown in their public cities last month. Proof below.👇

https://m.youtube.com/watch?si=vSsnnxIt0djY-qPh&v=Zc--I1EtmBc&feature=youtu.be

https://m.youtube.com/watch?si=cK1qlkXQlXWARlue&v=PvoVHJjXCAE&feature=youtu.be

https://m.youtube.com/watch?si=cgU3cXAZs9FQNGJy&v=NQ_3z7_DdLo&feature=youtu.be Christak46 (talk) 20:13, 7 January 2024 (UTC)

Hi. Do you have any better sources? I am afraid youtube is not a usable source. Ramos1990 (talk) 22:29, 4 February 2024 (UTC)

There are masses of sources that tell me that Christmas is not banned. Plenty of people go out and have a good time, with Christmas as the ostensible reason. Reading about it online reminds me a lot of how we do Christmas here in Australia, but on a smaller scale. Most Christmas events in China are not religious. Nor are they here in Australia. It seems that the Chinese state does crack down on some religious Christmas events that it sees as trying to establish a different authority to that of the state. We must, however, not describe that as banning Christmas. The views of more religious people and countries in the west must not dominate how we describe things in China. HiLo48 (talk) 02:23, 5 February 2024 (UTC)

I agree with you. Ramos1990 (talk) 00:19, 7 February 2024 (UTC)

Most people on Wikipedia are anti China or have bias against China, so this article probably will continue to say Christmas is banned in China. I have friends in China (more specially I have a friend who's from Xinjiang) who've seen people celebrate Christmas, not alot of course. I don't get why people think China banned religion, and the sources they use aren't even from China/Chinese sources/Chinese people who live in China. Sorry for the rant 195.252.214.183 (talk) 00:11, 3 May 2024 (UTC)

Saturnalia, Yule, and other pre-Christian winter celebrations

While the article on Christmas provides useful information, the omission or lack of emphasis on the pagan roots and the historical evolution of imagery could result in a perspective that favors the Christian narrative disproportionately. To fully meet the NPOV policy, the article should present a more comprehensive overview of all the historical, cultural, and religious influences that have shaped Christmas. This would help ensure a balanced presentation that reflects the multifaceted history of the holiday. 2620:0:E00:553A:5501:1B4E:14C6:226C (talk) 18:18, 15 November 2024 (UTC)

A lot of material was moved to Date of the birth of Jesus in December 2023. There is a lot of speculation, though, and the reliability of some of the sources is challenged. MichaelMaggs (talk) 18:39, 15 November 2024 (UTC)

The article's main purpose is about Christmas as a celebration rather than focusing on perspectives of it's origins. I agree that there should be some mention of the many influences on Christmas but the issue is that there is no scholarly consensus on the magnitude of pagan influence in contrast to Christian or secular influence. For instance, the origin of Christmas symbolism is constantly fluctuating with theories that certain items are pagan because paganism employed natural symbols in its rituals, whereas other sources point out that specific Christmas items like the Christmas Tree did not exist until Germanic Christians, or churches, utilized a unique combination. For instance, pagans did decorate outdoor trees with fruits and nuts, but they did not bring pine trees inside and decorated them with candles while simultaneously applying Christian meaning. This is where people enter a gray area of attributing a Christmas item based on similarity rather than providing strong support that it is undeniably derived from pagan traditions. Similarly, wreaths were used on heads by many different pagan cultures, they signified life cycles tied to pagan symbolism but advent candles on wreaths and specific Christian symbolism tied to the "light of Christ" or the meaning of evergreens with "everlasting life" are not pagan in origin. There are many other wiki articles focusing on the details of debates and discussions surrounding Christmas. Ranging from nativity, to the the biblical accounts of Jesus, etc. I do not see how one can outright claim pagan roots without inadvertly blanketing things that have no pagan origin. Similarly, is Santa Claus secular because of the commercialization of Saint Nicholas? Are reindeer pagan because of similarities with nordic deities, or secular because of stories like Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer? In essence these topics do not have a unanimous conclusion. ChaoticTexan (talk) 09:16, 30 November 2024 (UTC)

Was just coming on here to read about the origins of Christmas and seen it said "It is specific to Christianity" and was confused because we all know it's not 90.250.186.134 (talk) 11:09, 30 November 2024 (UTC)