Are Easter and Christmas "Satanic"?

As I outlined in the previous article my Granddaughter Lara had an encounter with a respondent (who again will go unnamed) who told her that Easter is satanic. This is not a novel idea with this person but is held by extremists within Evangelical Christianity, as well as many pseudo-Christian and non-Christian cults. I promised Lara that I would address this and began in the previous article by showing the spiritual danger that people who hold such views have place themselves in. Now I want to address these Holy Days of the Church specifically.

A Reality Check

First, we need to separate the days from the commercial and secular activity that both have become…some of the latter of which does have roots in paganism. Examples of this would be:

1. Santa Claus: based on a real Saint, but perverted to sell toys and inspire greed
2. The Easter Bunny and the Eggs: A carry over from paganistic fertility rites to distract from the true meaning of Easter.

Secondly, we need to also separate the days from the story long believed and taught among even mainline Evangelical Christians that pagan holidays were co-opted by the Church and simply renamed to Christian purposes. For this to even be a consideration you have to look at what was involved in the activities of the pagans on those days and compare it to what the Church actually teaches minus the commercial and secular aspects mentioned above. When you strip those things away there is no similarity whatsoever except for the time of year. This sort of thing goes back to what I wrote in “Crossing the Line” about folks attributing evil intent to all Church leadership between 100 AD and 1517 AD and the spiritual danger in which those who make such accusation place themselves. So let’s look at what each of these are truly about beginning with Christmas.

What Is Christmas Supposed to Be About?

Christmas is, of course, the celebration of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. Why is it on December 25^th? It’s not because of the Winter Solstice which occurs 4 days prior. The date for Christmas was set by the Church based upon the date that the Annunciation by the Angel Gabriel to Mary of God’s Plan. The Church believes that based on information contained in the birth story of John the Baptist concerning the Holy Days involved in his father’s service in the Temple and on Gabriel’s words to Mary that this was the sixth month with her that the Annunciation occurred in March. Simple math: 3^rd month plus 9 months equals the 12^th Month. There is debate on this from the same folks once again that want to attribute evil intentions to the Church.

The events celebrated by the Church all focus on the scriptural accounts found in the Gospels:

1. The journey and the reason for it to Bethlehem, as well as the prophetic importance of the place. Luke 2:1-7
2. The Shepherds watching their flocks by night Luke 2:8-18
3. The “Gloria” sung by the angels announcing the Birth to the shepherds is also found in those verses.
4. The journey of the Wise Men and their arrival bearing gifts for the newborn King is in Matthew 2:1-12
5. The flight into Egypt in Matthew 2:13-15
6. The return to Nazareth and its prophetic importance Matthew 2:19- 23

As you can clearly see there is nothing Satanic or even un-Christian about celebrating Christmas in the manner prescribed by the Church…with prayer, thanksgiving (Noche Buena) and receiving of the Blessed Sacrament at Mass. By the way, the Christmas season doesn’t end on December 26^th nor even after the so-called “12 Days of Christmas”. It doesn’t end until the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, which in 2016 was on January 10^th. To label what clearly can be seen to be completely Christian as “satanic” again places one in grave spiritual danger.

The Easter Season

The Season begins with Ash Wednesday, in which Catholics receive a mark in the sign of the Cross (more or less) on our foreheads as a reminder of Whose we are, of repentance (think sack cloth and ashes) and of our mortality (from ashes we came and unto it we will return). The ashes are from burning of the palm fronds from the previous Palm Sunday, mixed with some blessed oil.

It continues on through Lent. Lent is a 42-day period in which we spiritually prepare ourselves for the central event in all Christian history…indeed of the world: the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. During this time, we abstain from eating meat on Ash Wednesday and on all Fridays (commemorating what that day will become shortly) as well as fasting. Most people are familiar with the concept of “giving up something for Lent” which even some non-Catholics do. But it’s not what we give up alone that prepares us but what we take on. We add some spiritually beneficial activities above what we normally do (such as a Rosary a day, or the Divine Mercy Chaplet as well as Scripture reading above that which we do on a regular basis. Yes, Catholics do read the Bible despite what some would have you believe.) Also we walk the Stations of the Cross (which follow the Lord from Holy Thursday all the way to His Resurrection) each Friday. Also spending time and resources helping the poor in some way (called “alms giving”).

Palm Sunday begins the celebration of Holy Week. This commemorates the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem leading up His Crucifixion on Good Friday. There are many events that occur in the Church leading up to Holy Thursday, when the Lord gave us the Eucharist, suffered in the Garden and was betrayed. It would take another whole article to describe it all, but nothing of those activities have any other focus than one: The Lord Jesus Christ and our redemption story. Every last bit of it is rooted and grounded in the Scriptures.

I believe that I have clearly demonstrated that these Holy Days of the Church are in no way, shape or form “satanic”. These both are times when the world’s attention is turned toward, in at least a superficial capacity, the things of God. To shun them for elicit reasons is to miss the best opportunities available to us for evangelization and leading people to Christ. And to label them as anything else places that person in grave danger for their soul.

Christ was born, Christ died and Christ arose. Let’s celebrate these facts. I hope this helps you, Lara.