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

[GrandizerII]

So going back to this one (since more than one person here has repeated the claim that Christmas is of pagan origin):

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.

Not even Saturnalia. The way Saturnalia was celebrated was significantly different from how modern Christmas is celebrated. Furthermore, many Christmas traditions we know of today originated fairly recently that it renders it even more a stretch to link Christmas back to pre-Christian paganism.

There are a couple traditions that one could strongly argue were pagan in origin, except these traditions are now obsolete. The pork's head is indeed an example.

For more details:
https://talesoftimesforgotten.com/2019/1...as-really/

[Mister Agenda]

I know USA Muslims who celebrate Christmas. I know USA Christians that don't. Depends on the individual beliefs, I guess.

[Goosebump]

This is so intellectual masturbation, save yourselves the time and do the real thing. Unless you can't, cause your Muslim or some weird christian sect and it's forbidden... oh wait... is that the point of this?

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

This is so intellectual masturbation, save yourselves the time and do the real thing. Unless you can't, cause your Muslim or some weird christian sect and it's forbidden... oh wait... is that the point of this?

Huh. And all this time I thought intellectual masturbation was having a wank while a leather-clad hooker reads out passages from Hume’s A Treatise On Human Nature.

Learn something new every day, it seems.

Boru

[rado84]

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?

Muslims don't celebrate it bc they think it's a christian celebration when it's not. How could they know it's actually a pagan celebration, dated long before the single god was invented?
I don't celebrate it either. To me it's just another day of the year. I don't put up a tree inside and since we have 11 cats, now I have 11 more reasons not to deal with the stupid tree (even though it's plastic). I don't buy presents for anyone and I've told my friends I don't want any presents (unless these presents are in the shape of a CPU or a video card - then it's OK ). Fortunately all of my friends are atheists and have the same vision of christmas like mine.
In my language the christian greeting for christmas can be either "merry christmas" or "merry christ's birth". If someone outside of my circle of friends greets me with the latter, I respond with "merry Horus' birth" which infuriates them a lot.    

P.S. I'm writing "christ" and "christmas" without capital letters not because I'm illiterate. I'm told that capitalizing these words expresses respect for jebus christ and since I have absolutely no respect for a 2000 years old zombie, I write its name without the capital letter.

[Rhizomorph13]

All I know is that axial tilt is the real reason for the season.

[xalvador88]

Yes. Even though all of the holidays, like religions, are manmade, Muslims don't worship Jesus, much less believe him to be the son of God, so celebrating a religion dedicated to a certain religion you don't believe in is hypocritical. The only real reason I still celebrate Christmas with family members is because it's a good tradition to have in my opinion, even if I'm no longer Christian.