I would have said it the way you did: Christians took pagan traditions, put a Christian veneer on them, and then acted like they had something new. I think the

I would have said it the way you did: Christians took pagan traditions, put a Christian veneer on them, and then acted like they had something new. I think the original quote was trying to portray something different: that Christians tried to breathe “new life” into pagan holidays. But I think your way of phrasing it matches history better. The Christians were trying to disguise the pagan sources for their holiday. Since the bottle or wineskin is in plain view and the wine inside is hidden, I personally would have compared the Christian veneer to the bottle and the pagan history to the wine inside it.