The Roman festival of Saturnalia, Dec. 17-24, moved citizens to decorate their homes with greens and lights and give gifts to children and the poor. The Dec. 25 festival of natalis solis invicti, the birth of the unconquered sun, was decreed by the emperor Aurelian in A.D. 274 as a Winter Solstice celebration, and sometime (later)…was Christianized as a date to celebrate the birth of the Son of Light.”
The early Romans were not celebrating Christmas but rather a pagan feast called the Saturnalia. It occurred each year around the beginning of winter, or the winter solstice. This was the time when the sun had taken its lowest path across the sky and the days were beginning to lengthen, thus assuring another season of growth.
“If many of the trappings of the Saturnalia, however, seem to parallel what so many of us do today, we can see where we borrowed…our holiday traditions. And indeed, it has been suggested that while Christ was most likely not born in late December, the early Christians—then still an outlawed sect—moved Christmas to the time of the Saturnalia to draw as little attention as possible to themselves while they celebrated their own holiday.”
The Saturnalia, of course, celebrated Saturn—the fire god. Saturn was the god of sowing (planting) because heat from the sun was required to allow for planting and growth of crops. He was also worshipped in this dead-of-winter festival so that he would come back (he was the “sun”) and warm the earth again so that spring planting could occur. The planet Saturn was later named after him because, among all of the planets, with its rings and bright red color, it best represented the god of fire!
Virtually every civilization has a fire/sun god. The Egyptians (and sometimes Romans) called him Vulcan. The Greeks named him Kronos, as did the Phoenicians—but they also called him Saturn. The Babylonians called him Tammuz (as Nimrod, resurrected in the person of his son), Molech or Baal (as did the Druids). These were all simply the various names for Nimrod. Nimrod was considered the father of all the Babylonian gods.
There is a lot more to this and i strongly suggest you do a lot of research and examine both sides the Roman Catholic mans idea which is were the world gets this idea that Christ was born on December 25th, and the true doctine of God the Bible.
Which never specified what day Christ was born on which I think is for a reason Jesus only said remember him through passover 1 Corinthians 11:23-26. The bible does mention the season he was born in and it wasn't winter its in the new testament.
(There is no difference in between ancient paganism or current paganism its all not of Christ the one true God). Ancient pagans worshipped false gods just like current pagans worship false gods.Christmas question- How did the Christmas traditions start?
Just a pity it is a load of nonsense.
Samples: Saturn was emphatically NOT the Sun God. That was Apollo.
Dec 25th was NOT the solstice in 274 AD.
Report Abuse
Christmas question- How did the Christmas traditions start?it was started years after the death of our Lord, Jesus Christ..Christmas question- How did the Christmas traditions start?With Jesus Christ being born.Christmas question- How did the Christmas traditions start?came from germany the tree
nimrod king was born 12-25 orig pagan festival...then was used to convert them to Christianity...so now its about Jesus!Christmas question- How did the Christmas traditions start?
Well I answered your question about the date. Most of the traditions of Christmas have evolved over the hundres of years since. They generally started as local folk customs so noone bothered to write down (if they could even write) how they began. Hence the simple answer is we don't how almost any of them started. All we know is when someone first mentioned them in writing and that is in all cases well into the Christian era. There is no evidence that any of our Christmas traditions came from any pagan religion.
The charge of "paganism" can usually be traced to the reformation. The protestant reformers wanted to get rid of anything in the church which could not be directly traced to the bible. Anything which could not be traced was described as "pagan" - simply meaning not proper biblical christianity. They did NOT mean "a hangover form ancient paganism", which is what some people falsely assume.Christmas question- How did the Christmas traditions start?
Accepted - Christmas is the annual time of Love and Harmony as we celebrate the birth of our Savior.
Celebrating at this time of year came from the festival of the December Solstice (previously mentioned). As shepherds and flocks were around, Jesus was "Not" born at this time but probably a little earlier in the year.
Tree - German tradition I believe to symbolixe that since days were getting longer, another growing season wasnt far off.
Candles in the window - to let travelers know they were welcome....obviously only welcome during the Christmas season. ( a personal note, we leave our porch light on at night for the same reason year round)
Giving of gifts - tradional of the gifts of the Magi however people dont realize that they showed up sometime between birth and two years (based upon the order for all 2 year or younger males slaughtered), three wisemen only because three gifts were mentioned there might have been 4 or 5 or 6 and maybe only one bought all three gifts (Bible doesnt say).
Stockings - placed over the fire to dry after washing
No comments:
Post a Comment