n“The early church
fathers were also careful to emphasize that Christian holidays should be very unlike pagan holidays.
They were to be
characterized by solemnity and decorum, in sharp contrast to the riotousness of pagan celebrations...
Even more important to these
early writers was that Christians stay away from pagan celebrations themselves, disobedience of
which seems to have been a rather
common occurance... Despite this
early concern about paganism infiltrating Christianity, it seems that Christians began to develop
a different perspective on
the matter of pagan holidays. Rather than
seen as a threat to Christianity, pagan holidays and customs came to be viewed as a way to encourage and ease
conversion to Christianity.” - History of Christian Holidays.(http://www.religionfacts.com/christianity/holidays/history.htm)