All this talk about Co-opting pagan rituals is starting to sound a wee bit over the top....
Did anyone stop to think that the Druids adopted stuff from the people who came before they did because what they were doing worked for them.
And don't forget that the people who trekked out of Africa in the dawn of Humanity took their spirituality to the rest of the world where the region and the environment shaped the religion that came after .
We have always, we humans, been picking things from here, there and everywhere jumbling them together to make something that works for us.
Religion and spirituality have been a part of the Human Animal since the first person looked up at the wonder of the night sky and realized that there is something out there that is bigger than I am.
And so it began.
The religion, the mythology of the state, the way we deal with tragedy when tough times comes, comes from something in all of us, grounds us in something. And we can trace that back to that very first person who looked at all those stars that stretched from horizon to horizon and asked why am I here.
Don't get me wrong, I don't believe in an after life or an omnipotent God, it's just that the Pagan rituals in the time before Christianity were there as an assurance that they would make it to Spring and renewal. And why do we capture that same feeling even though it is ancient, let it overtake our emotions and bring us to celebrate the old with the new.
Because, my dear DU community, we are human.
= new reply since forum marked as read
...is this your first time having that rather banal revelation? We get into much more heated arguments over this when it comes down to people who want tribal tattoo even though they don't know what it means, or, not too long ago, a huge brouhaha over the pic of an Occupy protester wearing a Palestinian scarf though he wasn't Palestinian. That's when such things really become a can-o-worms on the DU.
On the one hand, we give objects meaning, scared or otherwise, and when we do so, we expect others to either know that meaning and respect it, or not use it because they don't know what it means and so can't respect it. Like not wear a Native American headdress if one is not Native American and of rank to do so. On the other hand, we are perpetual shoppers at the human mall. When we see something we like, we want it and we hardly care if it has some other more important meaning. "Look! Featured headdress! Cool. I want one!" And alas for those who did invent it--or develop it, or whatever--and have put more meaning into it than it probably deserves, there is no saving anything from being stolen, reappropriated or transformed. Nature of the human beast.
What else is new? But you totally miss the point of WHY pagans are pointing out to Christians the roots of Christmas celebrations. There is a religious war in America going on. It's a war by fundies to turn everyone, by hook, crook or force, into a Christian. To make sure Christianity is preached in courthouses, public schools, and public parks, be it with ten commandments, creationism or manger scenes. And the one way Christians are doing this is by saying, "All this stuff you love about Christmas (Santa, trees, etc.) is ours and ours alone and if you want to enjoy it you have to be one of us." In other words, they use the liberal guilt that we'd use to keep that Occupy guy from wearing a Palestinian scarf ("you don't know what it means, don't wear it!"
to get people into church. Want to have a Christmas tree? Go to church as only those who do have the right to have a christmas tree.
And THAT is why pagans and other are making what might seem to be mountains out of molehills. Because if we don't take these War-on-Christmas Fundies down peg after peg with facts, if we don't point out that they don't own any of this and if they want to be Christian they should enjoy none of it--rather than vice versa, then they will continue to do what they've been doing for the last twenty, right-wing-media years. Trick, bully, coerce, and try to shoehorn us into their theocracy. They will try to convince us that only their elite tribe is entitled to any of it, so we either join or do without.
Given those stakes, I hardly think that anyone is going even a "wee" bit over the top with all this talk of co-opting pagan rituals. If anything, I think we should be doing a hell of a lot more of it. Harder, meaner, and without an trace of mercy. The history of Fundie Christianity is one of ruthlessly driving religions into extinction not only with torture, fire, intimidation and force, but also by cannibalizing them, ingesting what rituals and gods they liked, so it all became Christian. I see no reason to show any fundie restraint or courtesy when their oh-so-obvious aim is to steal all the toys and claim that only they and those who play their game get to enjoy them. What is wrong and unfair is wrong and unfair, and I don't think we can scream loud enough or go far enough over the top in keeping them from doing this yet again, this time with the media at their backs rather than the inquisition.
And enjoy some peace tomorrow and through the year. 
