Is it rational for, say, Muslims to not celebrate Christmas?

[Brian37]

The few Muslims I've asked about this all say they do not celebrate Christmas, yet I'm an atheist and still celebrate it as a secular holiday, as I'm sure do most here - winter solstice and all that. Communication breakdown or...what?

 
why should they? there is nothing christ-like about christmas. it was a pagan holiday called yule.
christians just copied it and put jesus in the mix...

Lets keep in mind that the Hebrew/Jewish/Christian/Muslim religions all center around the same head God. 

The insane part is that none of those three want to admit that polytheists occupied the very same land all 3 still fight over today.

[Rev. Rye]

Technically, it was a pagan holiday called Saturnalia. The first known Christmas celebrations were in 336 AD in Rome. And while there are attestations of Yule happening around the 4th Century AD, Saturnalia was better-established by that point, having been around long enough that it had to be reformed 500 years prior and lasting up to the Christianisation of the Roman Empire. Not saying there weren't some things from Yule that Christians lovingly ripped off stole (caroling, a feast with pork as the main course, or the Yule log), just that there's a bigger influence here.

[AniKoferBo]

 
why should they? there is nothing christ-like about christmas. it was a pagan holiday called yule.
christians just copied it and put jesus in the mix...

Lets keep in mind that the Hebrew/Jewish/Christian/Muslim religions all center around the same head God. 

yeah the same shit

[Belacqua]

Our usual (non-covid) xmas involves enormous turkey roast, preceded by bacon and eggs for breakfast and smoked salmon + cream cheese blinis for 11 O'Clock ish snack with Carva. Crackers with lunch (large family gathering of multiple generations) then gift exchanges after lunch. Roast beef on boxing day....yup, a big deal, basically, and not so much as a whiff of religion.

Yeah, if any holiday is an excuse for eating well with family, there's no point in resisting.

I gather from the film "Silence" that Christianity was not, erm, "well received" in Japan, back in the day, so probs never took root and never underwent the "post religion transformation" into Santa's walletfest current prevalent incarnation.

Well, things have moved on a bit since the 17th century. Christianity is a minority religion here. Its numbers were significantly reduced because the bomb on Nagasaki hit the largest Christian community in the country. 

Since the people who join tend to be really committed (rather than just born into customs) they tend to be very impressive people. There's a hospital downtown in my city founded by a Japanese Christian doctor, which has done great work. And another Christian doctor, from Nagasaki, who married a Christian lady I know from Hiroshima, helped set up a Nobel-award winning group to oppose nukes. 

I don't know how much of the history appears in Endo's book Silence, or in the movie. Endo was a Christian and used a partly-fictionalized episode in history to make a theological point. It may be that Scorsese was making a point of his own. The repression of the Christians at that time was mixed up with various political and colonial issues. As always, Christian missionaries were useful to traders looking for leverage in the country. The Dutch and Portuguese businessmen who were fighting for trade deals used the issue to fight each other for economic supremacy. It's hard to say how far the religion would have been allowed if it had just been religion, and not tied up with internecine battles for power. 

In general, Japanese culture adds layers rather than replacing something old. So when Buddhism came in there was little or no resistance, and it was mixed comfortably with the more native Shinto. 

This is from wikipedia:

the daimyō of the Shimabara Domain, enforced unpopular policies set by his father Matsukura Shigemasa that drastically raised taxes to construct the new Shimabara Castle and violently prohibited Christianity. In December 1637, an alliance of local rōnin and mostly Catholic peasants led by Amakusa Shirō rebelled against the Tokugawa shogunate due to discontent over Katsuie's policies. The Tokugawa Shogunate sent a force of over 125,000 troops supported by the Dutch to suppress the rebels and defeated them after a lengthy siege against their stronghold at Hara Castle in Minamishimabara.

Following the successful suppression of the rebellion, Shirō and an estimated 37,000 rebels and sympathizers were executed by beheading, and the Portuguese traders suspected of helping them were expelled from Japan. Katsuie was investigated for misruling, and eventually beheaded in Edo, becoming the only daimyō to be executed during the Edo period. The Shimabara Domain was given to Kōriki Tadafusa. Japan's policies of national seclusion and persecution of Christianity were tightened until the Bakumatsu in the 1850s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimabara_Rebellion

[GrandizerII]

Yes, it's rational for anyone not to celebrate Christmas. I live in Australia and I don't celebrate Christmas. I have my days off at the moment but that's about it. I don't go to church, and I don't sing Jesus hymns. I'll buy something for my baby nephew though as a present.

[Angrboda]

Bow down before the great jingle bell god!

[Brian37]

The few Muslims I've asked about this all say they do not celebrate Christmas, yet I'm an atheist and still celebrate it as a secular holiday, as I'm sure do most here - winter solstice and all that. Communication breakdown or...what?

 
why should they? there is nothing christ-like about christmas. it was a pagan holiday called yule.
christians just copied it and put jesus in the mix...

Hebrew/Jewish/Islam/Christianity are all the same mix of Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Mediterranean  mythology.

[no one]

When have you ever known humans to be rational? What planet are you from?

[Simon Moon]

The vast majority of the things that westerners associate with Christmas, are either: pagan, secular, or celebratory.

Hardly anything in the modern celebration has anything to do with the Christ myth story.

The tree, gift giving, mistletoe, yule log, the date of December 25, and more are all pagan in origins.

Getting together with family and friends to have a good time, eat a great meal, etc, is secular and celebratory.

I've been an atheist for decades, and I love to celebrate the secular, and pagan holiday, that is Christmas.

[arewethereyet]

The excitement in my kids' eyes when they were young made the celebration worth it. The magic of Santa was what it was about. A day of surprises and gifts and food and playing with new games and toys.

The religious side of it didn't come into play.