[MilesVeritatis]

"“Each part of the “costume” is actually associated with a prayer and a reminder.”

All made up out of whole cloth and pagan rituals."

Lol, I appreciate a good pun.

Lots of things we (including you) do today have long histories and often have ties to something else like a pagan ritual or other cultural practice (think about what holidays you acknowledge and seasonal practices you have). There's not necessarily anything wrong with that--especially if an entity like the Catholic church altered an existing destructive social practice in a culture into something productive and edifying.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

“There’s not necessarily anything wrong with that—especially if an entity like the Catholic church altered an existing destructive social practice in a culture into something productive and edifying. “

We will part ways on that point :-)

Syncretism is never a substitute for truth.