Study roots of legends

To start with, the assumption that the holiday festivities of Christmas would not exist without Christians (Douglas Bacon’s Dec. 25 letter) is not only incorrect, it is misleading.

Look into the history of the pagan holiday of Yule and the Roman holiday of Saturnalia. Christianity at first tried to prohibit Yule and with that being unsuccessful due to its popularity, decided to co-opt the celebrations with a manufactured story of it being a celebration of the birth of Jesus. It’s really only an example of how religious legend borrows from others to gain adherents that do not want to leave their own traditions.

I suggest to people that they do research on their own to determine the veracity of such claims to study the facts before accepting them. Truth is not determined by popular opinion, and this is not the only co-opt of other things by Christianity. Look up the number of other figures of legend before Jesus that he has uncanny similarities to. It adds some perspective on where legends are born.

David Cannon

Spokane