The history of Christmas, as we know it, has it’s roots in celebrations that began thousands of years before the birth of Jesus. In the dead of winter, when the earth and darkness had almost become one, there came a ray of hope—the winter solstice. The celebration of the solstice, the “official” end of winter and the beginning of the lengthening of days, has been a northern-hemisphere celebration as far back as written and oral history can take us—some suggest as many as 4,000 years ago. In Europe, solstice celebrations were popular among the Germanic peoples who honored the god Oden; the Norse celebrated the festival of the Yule (an agricultural fest); in Rome the feasts of Saturnalia, Juvenalia, and the birth of Mithra, the sun god were celebrated. The most popular festival in Rome was Saturnalia, since the celebrations embraced a reversal of the social order and servants and slaves “ruled” the towns and homes in a time of hilarity and fun. The Church didn’t celebrate the birth of Jesus for 300 years after his death and resurrection. However, by the beginning of the fourth century church officials decided to institute a holy feast day marking the birth. Since the Bible makes no mention of the date, or even the time of year, when Jesus was born, Pope Julius I “arbitrarily” chose December 25th as the day for the “Feast of the Nativity.” However, it took another 400 years before the “feast” had become common throughout the European continent. There is no “official” accounting of why Pope Julius chose December 25th as the date for the Nativity Feast, but most likely he did so with the hopes that, since Christians were celebrating the solstice festivals anyway, they would adopt or incorporate Nativity into their revelry. And although the Church decreed the holiday, it gave no instructions on how to celebrate it. By the Middle Ages, “Christians” celebrated Christ-Maas (the mass of Christ) and then they would leave the churches and cathedrals to join in a revelry that included a drunken street party. During this “party” an unfortunate, perhaps a peasant or a beggar, would be crowned the “Lord of Misrule.” This “lord” would lead a mob of his “subjects” from home to home of the wealthy and the crowd would demand food and drink (and God help you Merry Gentlemen if you didn’t comply). Thus, Christmas became a time for the “righting” of the wrongs of opulent society by “repaying” the poor with alms. Things began to change when Oliver Cromwell and his religious Puritans took control of England in 1645. In an effort to purify the nation of their debauchery, they cancelled Christmas because the Bible doesn’t mention any celebrations of births, and because the Christmas festivities were nothing like what the Puritans thought should be observed on a holy-day. And so, when the Pilgrims came to America, Christmas was forbidden and not observed. Indeed, in Massachusetts Christmas was outlawed and anyone celebrating Christmas was subject to a fine. There is absolutely no record in the Bible of anyone observing Christmas. There is not even a hint of a Christmas celebration or anything remotely like it. When we consider the customs associated with Christmas we have to ask ourselves just what do decorated evergreen trees, holly, mistletoe, Yule logs, a jolly plump man in a red suit, sleighs, and flying reindeer have to do with the birth of Jesus Christ? The answer is nothing - absolutely nothing. However, these things do have a lot to do with ancient pagan festivals. How did the date of December 25 come to be assigned as the date of the birth of Jesus? Although it is difficult to determine the first time anyone actually celebrated December 25 as “Christmas”, historians generally agree that it was sometime during the fourth century - some 300 years after Christ’s death. And then a contrived date was chosen because it was already a popular pagan holiday for celebrating the birth of the sun god. Virtually all the customs associated with Christmas are recycled from ancient pagan festivals which honored other gods. Christmas is a very popular holiday tradition and is celebrated by some 2 billion people worldwide. In fact, people in nations with little or no Christian culture or tradition are celebrating this holiday in increasing numbers. The celebration of the holiday is so big that it plays a key role in the economies of many nations. In the US retail industry, the day after Thanksgiving is commonly known as “Black Friday.” It is the start of the Christmas shopping season and stores that have been “in the red” (operating at a loss) all year suddenly see their sales shoot up so fast they are now operating “in the black” (at a profit) for the remain der of the year. Black Friday is the biggest shopping day of the year due to its traditional Christmas sales. In short, “Christmas” is driven by commercialism. So with this MAN MADE holiday being conceived WELL BEFORE CHRIST...do you think Christ celebrated Saturnalia? Theres a reason his birthday is not known. WE ARE TO CELEBRATE HIM EVERYDAY!!! We, as Christians, have been duped into celebrating sun worship!! This festival has been around. By placing our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ on this babylonian celebration of the sun god. Celebrate Christ birth EVERYDAY!!! EVERYDAY!!!
Posted on: Sun, 29 Jun 2014 22:11:14 +0000