The Xmas Story Part 3

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This is from "Heathen Holidays" by Denise Snodgrass - part3
The Winter Solstice
Recall the prophecy of Jeremiah." and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven;
for the heathen are dismayed at them."

Before Man learned to measure time in twelve month cycles time was measured by
seasons. They celebrated the seasons with feasts and festivals to make the gods
happy. But then Man began to gear the beginning of seasons and cycles to fixed
astronomical phenomenon--that is, to the position and movement of the sun, moon,
and starts. The heathen did worship the entire solar system.

December 25 is the winter solstice. It is the time when the sun after having
been at the lowest point in the heavens, beings to rise over the world with
renewed vigor and power. It was the time of heathen festivities in worship of
the sun. The vernal equinox is the point where the sun crosses the celetial
equator, about March 20, making day and night of equal length everywhere. This
was the time of pagan spring festivals.

The day of December 25 acquired a new significance under the rule of Emperor
Aurelian. He proclaimed this day as "Dies Natalis Invicti Solis," or the
Birthday of the Unconquered Sun. This was because of a strange Eastern religion,
Mithraism, whose god Mithras was identified with the Unconquered Sun. During the
Saturnalia work of every kind ceased. Schools were closed.

Saturn, in whose honor this feast was held, was the oldest and most benign deity
in ancient Italy and was fabled to have reigned during the Golden Age. This was
conceived by the Romans as an era in which plenty abounded and nothing had
appeared to corrupt and mar the peace and happiness of mankind. But since that
time the world had gone from bad to worse. The lust of gold and the lust of
blood had brought disastrous evils. The dream of an Age of Gold was widespread
in the pre-Christian world. The Greeks taught men to think of it as followed by
the Silver, Bronze, and Iron Ages. These ages marked the steady declension and
degeneration of mankind. But they looked for the eventual return of a Gold Era.
This spirit of Gentile expectancy was that of a millennial, and King Saturn
would reign.

As the Saturnalia returned each year it brought with it thoughts of the peaceful
reign of Saturn long, long ago, when all men were happy and all men were good.

The Roman Saturnalia was boisterous. But whatever the behavior of some Romans,
others were simply merry. They ate big dinners, visited their friends, etc. The
halls of the Romans were decked with boughs of laurel and of green trees, with
lighted candles and with lamps--for the hovering spirits of darkness were afraid
of light. Bonfires were lit in high places to strengthen the reviving sun in his
course. Candles and green wreaths were given as presents, the streets were
crowded with noisy processions of men and women carrying lighted tapers, and
public places were decked with flowers and shrubs. The practice of giving and
receiving presents was almost as common then as it is now at Christmas. Our
present day "Christmas spirit" is actually the spirit of this old Roman
festival.

During the Kalends of January, which lasted for three days, Roman houses were
adorned with lights and greenery, and presents were given to friends and
children and to the poor.

We can see how that the exchanging of gifts was an important feature of this
Roman festival from the writings of Libanius, an ancient Sophist. He might be
writing about Christmas in the modern world from the way it reads: The festival
of the Kalends is celebrated everywhere as far as the limits of the Roman Empire
extend.. The impulse to spend seizes everyone... People are not only generous
towards themselves, but also towards their fellow-men. A stream of presents
pours itself out on all sides... The Kalends festival banishes all that is
connected with toil, and allows men to give themselves up to undisturbed
enjoyment. From the minds of young people it removes two kinds of dread: the
dread of the schoolmaster and the dread of the stern pedagogue... Another great
quality of the festival is that it teaches men not to hold too fast to their
money, but to part with it and let it pass into other hands.

Now I have described the ancient Babylonian festival, the "Zagmuk," where
Christmas had its beginning and the Roman "Saturnalia," which was the merging of
the Zagmuk and "Sacaea." The Greek festival in honor of Kronos was the ancient
Babylonian and Persian "Sacaea."

Emperor Aurelian had proclaimed Mithraism as the official state religion of the
Roman Empire, but "Christianity" becomes the new religion under Constantine, and
the Catholic Church becomes faced with the struggle to convert the pagans. We
will answer these two important questions: (1) Why did the idea of celebrating
the birth of Christ arise and how? (2)

Why was the date of December 25 chosen for this celebration?

The earliest "Christians" were not interested in Jesus' birthday, but by the
fourth century they had become very much interested. While interested in the Man
Christ Jesus, their thought and affection did not as yet include the Child
Jesus. But they came to focus their eyes upon Jesus the infant and Mary His
mother. Many people were coming to the notion that his birthday should be
observed. This idea came about as the "Church" began to regard Mary, the mother
of Jesus, in a new light. She had long been revered along with the saints and
Apostles, but only along with them. But now in this same fourth century she
emerges as the QUEEN OF HEAVEN. There never would have been a Christmas except
the worship of Mary had emerged. They now put her in Heaven, not merely as an
intercessor, but a Queen.

CHRISTMAS AND PAGANISM The Winter Solstice
Why did the catholic church choose December 25 for the birth date of Christ? It
was chosen in order to compete with the pagan winter solstice festivals. It was
not chosen because it is the correct historical date for the birth of Jesus.
When was Jesus born? No one knows. There seems to have been too many calendar
errors for anyone to be exact. The traditional date of the year 1 A.D. for his
birth stands greatly in need of correction. Before the mode of reckoning time
"by the year of our Lord," or A.D., which was introduced by Dionysius Exiguus, a
Roman, time was computed from the founding of the city of Rome, usually
designated by A.U.C. Dionysius made his New Era to begin on the first day of
January in the 753rd year from the building of Rome; because in that year he
supposed Christ to have been born. St. Matthew says Jesus was born in Bethlehem
of Judea in the days of Herod the King. According to the best authorities this
monarch died a short time before the Jewish Passover 750 U.U.C. Someplace the
birth of Jesus between the years 748 and 747 A.U.C., this is, 5 and 6 B.C.
Others go as far back as 8 B.C.

But the Season in which he was born definitely was not winter. The Gospels tell
us that at this time Caesar Augustus had decreed that all the world should be
taxed. We may be assured that Rome would not order a census to be taken at the
worst possible period for travel; but Luke's account that the shepherds were
abiding in the field keeping watch over their flocks by night lets us know that
Jesus was born in summer or early fall. Since December is cold and rainy in
Judea, it is likely the shepherds would have sought shelter for their flocks at
night. So December 25 is no more the correct historical date for the birth of
Jesus Christ than any other date.

December 25th was sacred, not only to the pagan Romans, but to the religion from
Persia, Mithraism, whose followers worshipped the sun and celebrated its return
to strength on that day. Mithras had attained such popularity and favor in the
eyes of the emperors that Aurelian proclaimed the cult of Sol Invictus the Roman
Empire's official state religion. December 25 fell between the week long feast
of the Saturnalia and the Kalends of January, and it coincided more or less
closely with all those mid-winter festivals at which the primitive peoples of
Europe and Asia had celebrated, from time immemorial, the sun's rebirth at the
Winter Solstice.

To the pagans, the Saturnalia were fun. To the "Christians" the Saturnalia were
an abomination in homage to a disreputable god who had no existence anyway. The
"Christians" were now dedicated to the slow task of converting the pagan Romans.
There were many immigrants into the ranks of the Church by this time, but the
Church Fathers discovered that they were facing an invasion of pagan customs.
Christianity and Paganism began contending, and for a while Mithraism was
Christianity's greatest contender. But how did the catholic church convert the
pagans with their December 25th sun-worship festival? It became the policy of
the church to "transform" pagan festivals wherever possible instead of trying to
abolish them and give the ancient practices a "christian" significance. It
definitely was a clever trick.

The Church, in choosing December 25th to celebrate the birthday of Christ, would
persuade the followers of Mithras to forsake him and turn to Christ as a the
true "light of the World." The Catholic Church chose this date to celebrate the
rising of the sun of Righteousness that she should thus strive to draw away to
His worship the adorers of the god whose symbol and representative was the
earthly sun!. The Church Fathers sought to point the pagan festival in worship
of the sun toward the "Christian" Sun of Righteousness, and if these could be
done then the festival in its turn must of necessity grow worthy of him it
celebrated. The Church finally succeeded in taking the merriment, the greenery,
the lights, and the gifts from saturn and given them to the babe of Bethlehem.

By choosing December 25th, the indications are, that the Catholic Church grasped
the opportunity to turn the people away from a purely pagan observance of the
winter solstice to a day of adoration of Christ the Lord. She simply made the
old heathen festival of the sun analogous to the birth of the "sun of
Righteousness" The birth of Christ as the "Light of the World" was linked to the
rebirth of the sun. The Church by making the pagan festival also the Feast of
the Nativity, "sanctified" it, and thus as Christianity gained ground slowly but
surely changed its ancient worship of the material sun into that of the true
Light of the World.

That the new festival should not be lacking in splendor and appeal the days
between December 25 and January 6 (the days between the Saturnalia and the
Kalends of January) were caught up into one "holy" season, with the birth of the
divine Child at the beginning and the coming of the Magi (the three Wise Men) at
the end. The days between Christmas and Epiphany became known as the Twelve
Nights of Christmas.

The word, "Christmas," came into use through the medieval custom of celebrating
MASS at midnight on Christmas Eve, the only time in the year when this was
permitted. BECAUSE OF THE OPPOSITION TO THE TRACES OF PAGANISM SURVIVING IN THE
CHRISTMAS CUSTOMS, THE CHURCH CREATED SPECIAL MASSES TO BE PERFORMED AT
MIDNIGHT, DAYBREAK, AND MORNING. Hence, the word, Christmas.



CHRISTMAS AND PAGANISM The Winter Solstice
When the feast of the nativity first arose there were no bells, no greenery, and
no "good cheer"" The Fathers tried strenuously to keep Christmas strictly a
churchly celebration as a Worship of the MADONNA AND CHILD. But they could not
abolish the pagan customs of the winter solstice. Christmas was caught up with
and carried away in pagan merrymaking.

The Mithraism passed away leaving few marks on the nativity celebration, being
the successful rival. But the same thing cannot be said of certain other
festivals which closed and opened the year among Romans and Germanics, the
Saturnalia and the Yule. For many a day the church fought bitterly the
superstitions and excesses bound up with the Kalends and Yule. But burning
denunciations and threats of excommunication failed to wean the barbarians from
their heathen modes of rejoicing. Those customs which could not be uprooted and
destroyed were given a "christian" name and interpretation, and as such survive
in many instances to the present day. So what the Church couldn't extricate, it
sought to "consecrate" and "purify." These heathen contributions to the
celebration of the nativity are what make Christmas what it is. When the season
calls to mind crackling fires on the hearth, lighted candles, rooms adorned with
evergreens, fruits and nuts, feast and frolic-- these are the genuine pagan
elements which the catholic church could not uproot. When once drawn within the
circle they were loath to leave.

We will look at various Christmas customs individually after first looking at
how Christmas was introduced into other parts of Europe through Catholic
missionaries.

The Germans, Gauls, and Britons celebrated Brumalia on December 25, and the
Norsemen held Yule feasts between December 25 and January 6. Their
Germano-Celtic pastoral feast was known by various names such as Jiuleis and
Guili; in Scandinavia it was Yule. Many of the customs of these festivals as
well as the Roman Saturnalia and Kalends of January became a part of Christmas.

The name Yule can be traced back to the Anglo-Saxon word for wheel, because it
bore some relationship to the circular course of the sun through the wheeling
points of the solstices and equinoxes. The Church sent out an army of
missionaries, but even before the missionaries brought ideas of "Christian" Rome
to them, the Germanic peoples had learned a good deal from pagan Rome. But the
Near East (Mesopotamia--Babylon) had long influenced the Northland via the
Balkans and the Danube valley. For instance, St. Nickolas may first have reached
the heart of Europe not from the South but from the Southeast. But the Germanics
had no way of measuring solstices and equinoxes until they learned it from the
Romans. They also learned of the Romans' Saturnalia. After the barbarians were
christianized all the customs and superstitions which had belonged from ancient
times to their own yuletide, and all that they had imbibed from the Romans,
began to cluster about it.

To the old pagan Germanics the year began with winter, but what they called
winter included our late autumn. By October or November the harvest was in and
the cattle bedded down. With the long months of snow ahead and barely the
provender on hand for the beeves and swine, they considered it wise to thin out
the herds lest later all the animals starve. A great slaughter was followed by
feastings. This feasting was in thanks to their gods, Thor, Odin, Njord, and
Frey.

The god who cared for the fertile herd was Frey (after whom Friday is named) and
his animal symbol was the boar. Even after the pagan gods had passed away the
boar sacrifice to Frey was too enjoyable to be forgotten. It survives in the
feast of "Merrie Old England, in which the boar is treated as if it were some
royal personage. The show of slaughtered beasts adorned with green garlands in
an English town just before Christmas reminds some strongly of these ancient
gory feasts, and the same thing can be said for the American marts with their
hecatombs of turkeys. Their ancestors worshipped a god to whom they sacrificed,
but they themselves probably never heard of Frey.

It was discovered by the Catholic missionaries that the heathen were more ready
to abandon their gods and the dates of their festivals than to change their
habits and manners. The festive board proved the least susceptible of all to
transformation. So the Yule table remained a part of Christmas.

The Christianizing work went on. The pagan deities were all slain and entombed
in the days of the week and in the months of the year. Friday was named for
Frey. Wednesday is literally, "Woden's Day", and once Woden was chief among the
Northern gods. How Woden became Santa Clause will be explained later in this
chapter.

The Yule Log
This is a pagan custom from the Yule festival of the Teutonic and Celtic tribes,
which Yule festival was in honor of the god, Thor. The Saxons and Goths burned
the Yule log at their festival of the winter solstice. Each year a brand was
saved to rekindle the new fire. The remnants were believed to have magic powers,
and the log symbolized protection against evil spirits.

Fortunes were told by the Yule log, and it slight was considered sacred. To the
ancestors of the Catholic faith Christmas was called the Feast of Lights. The
lights and fires, incorporated into the Nativity celebration, were made to
symbolize the fact that the darkness of the world was past and true light now
shone. This background explains the lights on the Christmas tree. Everything
about the Christmas fire and lights was considered very sacred. The blaze of the
fire was made to symbolize Christ as the Light of the World.

Christmas Candles
The Yule candle was burned as a companion to the Yule log. The modern candles
set in windows have their origin in the Yule candle.

The tradition was brought to this country by the Irish. In Ireland, during the
years of religious suppression, candles were put in the windows to attract
fugitive priests who would know it was safe to enter the houses and to say mass.

Modern candles used for decoration, though electric and not waxen, incorporate
the same principle the catholic church set forth as Christ the Light of the
World.

Evergreens
You have already read how houses and public places were decorated with
evergreens during the Saturnalia and Kalends of January. They were never sought
merely for their decorative capabilities. The evergreens were used as defense
against demons and witches they thought were especially prevalent during this
time of year. They thought the winter demons were afraid of the greens because
they stayed green all year. Green belongs in the realm of summer and life;
winter kills most of summer's vegetation, but the evergreens remain steadfast.
They were symbols of everlasting life to the heathen.

At first the Church frowned upon this intrusion of paganism into the sacred
season on account of the superstitious sentiments which were bound up with them.
But it was too deeply rooted for prohibitions to have permanent effect, and in
due course they were annulled or forgotten. Instead of banning them she more
often permitted their continuance, directing her efforts toward investing them
with a new "sanctity" and meaning. While they were often made to represent
higher and "holier" things, the older notions were not always discarded; hence,
the mixture of ideas, pagan and "christian" which became entwisted with the
greenery of the season. The plants, which more than any others, entwined
themselves about the festival are holly, ivy, mistletoe, and rosemary.

Holly
Holly was admired by the heathen Druids, who believed that its evergreen leaves
attested to the fact that the sun never deserted it, and since the sun was held
in worship, holly was sacred.

Holly was supposed to be hateful to witches, and was therefore placed on doors
and windows to keep out evil spirits.

Under the influence of "christian' thought and sentiment holly became very
sacred. But ivy remained for a longer time on the pagan level. The red berries
on the holly once had a pagan meaning, being the blood drops of the beautiful
Balder, the ill-fated darling of Valhalla. Given its new "christian" meaning,
the berries now speak of the blood drops which the cruel crown of thorns drew
from the Savior's brow.

Mistletoe ...... Gift of the Gods.... kissing under the mistletoe .... a
Scandinavian myth involving Frigga the counterpart for Venus and Balder the
counterpart for Apollo .... Rosemary ... the catholic legend to wean people from
their old beliefs .... Laurel ... .. the Christmas Tree.......

We will now turn to various surviving pagan customs associated with the
celebration of Christmas.
Exchanging gifts.
The exchange of gifts and greetings at or near Christmas time began long before
the Catholic Church put their new "christian" meaning to the custom. You have
already read how gifts and visits were a part of the Babylonian festival and the
Roman Saturnalia and Kalends of January in pagan Rome rich men gave generously
to their poorer neighbors during the Saturnalia and at the Kalends of January
gifts were even more plentiful.

Gift-giving was an essential part of the pagan celebrations. The church frowned
upon it as sternly as upon other New Year customs, and in the first centuries
Christians did not give each other presents in the Christmas season, or if they
did, it was without ecclesiastical sanction. But the Church, rather than
abolishing the custom, simply pointed the gift-giving away from Saturn to the
Babe in Bethlehem to commemorate the gifts of the Magi (the three Wise Men) to
the infant Jesus!

REVELATION 18:3 "For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her
fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and
the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her and the
merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
(v. 11): And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no
man buyeth their merchandise any more: (v. 15) The merchants of these things
which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment,
weeping and wailing, (v. 23) ... for thy merchants were the great men of the
earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.

Anyone ought to know that Christmas time is the biggest spending time of the
entire year and the most profitable time of the year for businesses. Merchants
make more money during these heathen holidays than any other time of the year,
and the Catholic Church makes it possible.

Santa Claus
Santa Claus was created by merging Woden, one of the gods of the Northland with
a Roman Catholic Bishop, who was "canonized" a saint.

Woden was chief among the Northland gods. He came from the near east
(Mesopotamia--Babylon) and made his way northward into Scandinavia, where his
name was pronounced, Odin. When the Germanics adopted him they acquired some new
and more exalted ideas of what a god could or should be. For gradually Odin grew
into a very wise god who knew everything that was going on in the world. On each
of his shoulders perched a sharp-eyed wag-tongued raven who flew forth to the
ends of the earth and came back to prattle everything it saw. Sometimes Odin
himself toured the world on his white horse, Sleipnir, who had eight legs to
give him greater speed. At other times Odin preferred to hike, wrapped in his
blue cloak and wearing his broad-brimmed hat, carrying his wander's staff.

What is amazing about Woden is his capacity for becoming someone else, or for
merging with someone else to make a new person. As we trace the roots that Woden
has struck into the life of the Germanic peoples, we find him turning up in the
most unexpected places. He merged into the legend of a great king who has never
died but now sleeps inside a mountain while the ravens fly about outside, a king
who will wake up some day, when his nation needs his help to fight off the
enemy. But of most interest, however, is the fact that Woden has become Santa
Claus by merging in the legend of this Catholic saint.

Who was St. Nicholas? He lived during the reigns of the Roman Emperors,
Diocletian, Maximillian, Constantine, late in the third century and into the
fourth. When he was still a young man Nicholas was consecrated Arch-bishop of
Myra, a seaport town. He died on December sixth. This is his feast day. Varied
and numerous legends gathered about his life on earth and his life as a saint
after his death. ........

Well obviously after learning all this, we couldn't be a part of it, so the
first year, we had no tree, no lights, no decorations, no cards, no gifts, no
nothing.....IT WAS AWFUL!!!! We couldn't understand why we felt so bad when we
felt we were doing what Yahweh wanted us to do....be seperate from among those
who worship false gods. Something was wrong......following Yahweh's ways
usually gave a blessing....what was wrong?


Bill and Jo Kuhlmeyer Graftedin@...
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BARUCH HA SHEM YHWH, B'SHEM YAHSHUA, M'SHECHAINU. YHWH bless you and guard
you. YHWH make His face to shine upon you and show you favor. YHWH lift up
His face upon you and give you shalom
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