My point is rather clear, look in an encyclopedia, even a catholic encyclopedia!

They don't celebrate any pagan holiday, they merely celebrate christian holidays on the same days that pagans may have celebrated their holidays also.

A lot comes from the early years of the church, it is illegal to be a Christian, you could not have a celebration since the police ( military) would merely come in and kill you when they found out. So christians also had issues not celebrating, since that also made them obvious.

So they found that by celebrating christian things on some days allowed them not to stand out and still meet, party and worship without drawing attention.

There are no pagan holidays within the church,

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Originally Posted by Fr_Chuck

They don't celebrate any pagan holiday, they merely celebrate christian holidays on the same days that pagans may have celebrated thier holidays also.

Alot comes from the early years of the church, it is illegal to be a Christian, you could not have a celebration since the police ( military) would merely come in and kill you when they found out. So christians also had issues not celebrating, since that also made them obvious.

So they found that by celebrating christian things on some days allowed them not to stand out and still meet, party and worship without drawing attention.

There are no pagan holidays within the church,

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Well then the question arises, if Jesus himself didn't exhort people to celibrate his birthday, only to continue the passover in rememberence of his death, early christians didn't celebrate it, does the Bible's references to them put them in a favorable light? Gen 40: 20-22, Matt 14:6-10

These were both pagan birthday celibrations. And in the latter Jesus's own cousin was beheaded. Christmas is a refined form of the Saturnalia Festival.
The Catholic Encyclopedia tells us: "A great many pagan customs, celebrating the return of spring, gravitated to Easter. The egg is the emblem of the germinating life of early spring... The rabbit is a pagan symbol and has always been an emblem of fertility."---(1913), Vol. V, p. 227
Check out The Two Babylons, By Alaxander Hislop, and also check out catholic encyclopedia

I am proud to tell you that I am a member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church. And we do not celebrate Christmas or Easter or any other "christian" festival. Our only celebration is the New Year on January 1. Constantine I, the great king was the first roman emperor to converst into Christianity. He did not want to split his empire into two, so he combined paganism with Christianity. That is the reason why we do not celebrate any of these festivals.

Why not?

Jesus liked to celebrate good things. All the cultures in which Christianity settled had established festivals which brought great joy to people, they obviously could not remain as they were, but why not transform them to Christianity and continue?

Fr. Chuck is right.
There are no pagan celebrations in The Church.
They have been converted to Christianity.
If it is good to convert a pagan to Christianity it is also good to convert pagan holidays.
And history tells us that Christmas was celebrated very soon in the early Church.
Notice the name is Christmas not paganmas.
The name tells you what it is.
Peace and kindness,
Fred