"Even Christmas comes out of a pagan holiday that happened around the solstice," Professor Aveni said.

Yuletide is a pagan holiday also known as the Winter solstice.

The Ayatollahs considered Nowruz a pagan holiday and a distraction from more important things such as Islamic holidays.

"A lot of blacks didn't want to get involved because they thought we were asking them to give up Christmas to celebrate some pagan African holiday."

Old pagan holiday, trick or treat . . . "October," he said aloud.

Beyond this, the modern Icelandic festival of Þorrablót is sometimes considered a "pagan holiday".

Some sects, such as the Puritans, rejected Christmas as an entirely pagan holiday.

On November 17, AFA responded to this campaign by condemning the ads for references to the "pagan holiday" of solstice, and declined to call off the boycott.

All the great religious holidays started as secular or pagan holidays first, because they filled an essential social need.

They forego member birthdays, Christmas and Easter which are pagan holidays and have been adopted by early Christianity to placate those with pagan beliefs.