A Question!!

This might sound a bit stupid to people. But why do people who arnt in the christian religion celebrate new year? Since its pretty much a celebration of jesus birth. 2006 years after his birth......

Well, I celebrate it because... it's a new year! Nothing complicated. Don't have to be religous to celebrate a new freakin year ya know. And I thought Dec. 25th was his birthday? I also heard another day too, forget when. Damn... how many does this guy get?

Its celebrated around the world because its a new year.

I never relate it to Jesus.

Now I'm not to sure about this but isn't Christmas the celebration of Christs birth? Thus the Name CHRISTmas. And as for non-Christians celebrating new year; thats when all the partys are. I'm a Christian and I celebrate Labor Day here in the states and I don't even have a job. I also celebrate Martin Luther Kings birthday and I'm a white guy. Go figure!

My thinking is that folks like to get together and have a few for almost ANY reason.

Since when has the new year been anything about Jesus? Its just about the earth completing its full spin around the sun. Nothing to do with ANY religions

I think that what the original poster is alluding to is that the entire calender is set to the time of jesus, thats why its 2006, rather than 5775 for the jewish calender or 2759 AUC and the like.

most people celebrate new years to get drunk and party, two things that i thought would kinda be against jesus in a way.

Originally posted by km69
This might sound a bit stupid to people. But why do people who arnt in the christian religion celebrate new year? Since its pretty much a celebration of jesus birth. 2006 years after his birth......

Oddly, the earth was passing around the sun long before "Jesus was born", and the winter solstice was celebrated for thousands of years before that as well - which is the original event behind both Christmas and New Years.

Counterpoint: Why do Christians celebrate the pagan holidays of Saturnalia (aka Christmas) and Oeaster (winter solstice and spring equinox) as well as generally celebrating the other syncretic holiday of Halloween?

Originally posted by spamandham
Oddly, the earth was passing around the sun long before "Jesus was born",

That's a pretty confident statement, spamandham. I hope you can provide your sourdes that support your claim. That was quite a while ago, and at the time most people would have likely disagreed with you, and they were there.
lol
Okay, my main point, Sol Natalis, the birth of the sun, or rebirth as it were. Back when folk were not totally confident that winter would actually go away, they celebrated the day when the amount of daylight was measurably longer than the days previous. This was a good sign that once again winter was going to end and another spring would follow it. The days immediately before and after the actual solstice, (Dec. 21) are not very different in length of daylight, but by around December 25th, the lengthening of the day was significant enough to be certain that the tide had turned, and they weren't headed for a evershortening day that would end in an eternal dark winter.
So December 25th is the birth of the sun, and it is the birth of the son.
Though the bible says the shepherds were in their fields when the other birth occured, and that is not likely in the middle of winter.

Edit: One other thing, March 1st used to be new years, that is why the number of the months september(7), october(8), november 9, and december 10, don't line up with their names.

[edit on 03 22 2005 by BlackGuardXIII]

I though easter was truly his birth

Good Friday, the day he died, and Easter Sunday, his comeback. But the Easter name, and the eggs and bunnies refer to eostre, the same root word as in estrogen, meaning fertility. And the eggs and bunnies are more fertility symbols. But I can understand you're mistake, everyone knows the bunny and egg part, but the celebration of Jesus' death, well, and resurrection is not as publicized.

Spaceman16, Easter is supposed to be when Jesus rose from the grave.

Kind of a "rebirth" though....

I knew it was something like that, thanks for correcting my mistake.