Christmas why don't the Jehovah's Witnesses celebrate the day?

Answer 1

It is becasue of the pagan origins of Christmas and all the customs associated with it. It is well documented by scholars and historians, and was even a subect of a History Channel presentation, that Jesus was not likely born anytime in the winter. The Bible indicates that when Jesus was born, the shepards were living outdoors with their flocks at night (see Luke chapter 1 and 2). This is something that they do not do in the wintertime. Shepards seek shelter for themselves and their flocks at night in the winter in that part of the world. Other indicators suggest that Jesus was likely born in the fall, perhaps October. There is some debate about the season Jesus was actually born in, but scholars do agree that Jesus was not born on December 25, or anytime during the winter season. About 300 years after Jesus died, the newly formed Catholic Church decided to take advantage of the fact that there was already a pagan holiday, the Saturnalia, which was a celebration to the sun god, which included gift exchanging, decorations, feasting and general merrymaking, and was celebrated on December 25. They claimed the Saturnalia holiday, with it's pagan customs, changed the name to "Christ's Mass," and declared it "christian." JW's do not feel that you can take something that comes from something that is in opposition to Christ, and simply declare it to be consecrated as christian. Could we expect a man to be honored by a celebration of his birthday, if that celebration was done on his enemy's day of birth, in his enemy's house, and with all the enetrtainment and customs that his enemy enjoys? It is not reasonable. The sun god was a pagan god that the Bible regards as a false god, set up in opposition to the true God, therefore an enemy of the true God. So any celebration in honor of an enemy of the true God, would be detestable to the true God. We do not feel that Jesus would be honored by something that was from what he would consider to be from an unclean source, religiously speaking. So, we do not celebrate Christmas.