One thing I didn’t mention in the video is the idea that Saturnalia did involve gift giving. At first glance, this might seem to imply that the gift giving of Christmas must be borrowed from the gift giving of Saturnalia. But there are some obstacles to establishing that connection. First, gift giving is a widespread practice across many different celebratory days. It doesn’t really mean that much to see the giving of gifts on a holiday of some kind. It’s the error of many to presume that similarity = origin, even when they don’t have additional evidence to support that it does. Second, gifts were given on the 19th of December in association with Saturnalia, not the 25th. Imagine how clumsy it would be for the early Christians to feel they need to have a festival to replace Saturnalia, only to put it on the wrong date, leaving the people with nothing to replace Saturnalia during its actual events.
More Christmas videos here:
- CLICK HERE for the full “Is Christmas Pagan?” video
- CLICK HERE for my video dispelling other Christmas myths and wrong popular beliefs about Jesus’ birth
- CLICK HERE for my video about the theology behind Christmas songs
- Does Jeremiah 10 ban Christmas trees? CLICK HERE to find out
My website: https://BibleThinker.org
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