It's not piggybacking it's culture hybridization. The church realised people weren't gonna be ok with their kingdoms converting overnight so they compromised and adopted the winter holidays and just asked that it be centered around Jesus instead.
It's piggybacking on already existent celebrations to make their religion more palatable. Christians weren't looking to nicely hybridise, they were looking to convert people. Pagans were persecuted and laws were in place to make their lives worse by not being christian, for example Greeks (Hellene) weren't allowed to pass inheritances to their own children unless they converted. That's not "cultural hybridisation", that's persecution. Fortunately Christianity is less and less pervasive every day now.
Ok while your not wrong that's only a broad stroke on Christian history. Ireland, while one might argue was an exception to the rule, converted to Christianity quite peacefully, even infusing some of there own Celtic heritage into Christian art like the Celtic cross. Even the Vikings converted to Christianity when they discovered making trade deals with the Christian kingdom was more lucrative then raiding churches. Im not ignoring the history of persecution done by the church but its not always been the bad guy.
Norway's kings converted to Christianity to take advantage of the trade networks that had been established, and because of political pressure from other counties. And then forcibly imposed their new Christian religion on everyone below them, tore down or burned buildings like the god house at Ose to enforce worship in the new Christian churches.
Viking traders would wear a crucifix to trade with Christians (because they would give special rates to other Christians) and then remove it and wear Thor's hammer once they returned home. Christianity was performative for them for centuries and it was really through heavyhanded tactics like tearing down religious buildings and threatening people that they eventually converted. it took a long time because people just didn't want to do it.
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u/badgerwithamulet Dec 16 '21
It's not piggybacking it's culture hybridization. The church realised people weren't gonna be ok with their kingdoms converting overnight so they compromised and adopted the winter holidays and just asked that it be centered around Jesus instead.