I keep seeing
these non-scholarly, un-sported by historical fact or sources (other than private
websites with un-cited source work) and of course “The great” Wikipedia, claims
about Christmas being a “pagan holiday”... (In conjunction with popular films,
Internet videos, and other media lists of gods who were supposedly born on the
same day).
I even see/hear
it from many Christians who claim the date of Christmas was intended to provide
an alternative to such pagan celebrations....What?(!)
I love the telephone game of revisionist
history the internet has become. It truly is The “urban legend” maker at its best.
But historical,
scholarly fact tells the truth (at least for most of us....).
I KNOW IT”S
LENGTHY - So please bear with me for a little history....
There are only 3
“gods” that come close making this claim creditable: Saturn (Saturnalia), Sol
Invictus (Unconquered Sun), and Mithras.
Saturnalia: Saturnalia was
the feast dedicated to the Roman god Saturn. It started 220 B.C. this feast was
originally celebrated on December 17. Eventually the feast was extended to the
feast of Sigillaria to make it last an entire
week, ending on December 23. The supposed connection to Christmas is based on
the proximity of the two festivals to each other.
This can be
found repeatedly on the Internet. In his article Saturnalia: The Reason We
Celebrate Christmas in December, columnist Mark Whittington explains:
It has been suggested that Christians in the 4th Century
assigned December 25th as Christ's birthday (and hence Christmas) because
pagans already observed this day as a holiday. In this way the problem of
eliminating an already popular holiday would be sidestepped, thus making the
Christianizing of the population easier.
Note: Saturnalia
may sound like Christmas. However Christmas among the early Christians was not
celebrated with the giving of gifts, and certainly not with the drunkenness and
gluttony (of Saturnalia and modern “xmas” parties).
Giving
was more associated with the feast of St. Nicholas and perhaps with the
Epiphany when the gifts of the magi to the Christ child were remembered.
Dec. 25th was Mass.
Hence the name, Christ - Mass. (“xmas” is
a “twisted” version of; “+ Mass”)
Sol Invictus
and Mithras: The feast of Sol Invictus was the attempt by the Roman
emperor Aurelian to reform the cult of Sol, the Roman sun god, and and
reintroduce it to his people, inaugurating Sol's temple and holding games
for the first time in A.D. 274.
Not only was
this festival not annual, it also cannot be historically documented as having
been established on December 25 by Aurelian (cf. Steven HijMans, Sol Invictus, The Winter Solstice, and the
Origins of Christmas, Mouseion, Series III, vol. 3, pp. 377-398).
According to inscriptions
on candle votives and other ancient works of art, there is a link between
Mithras and Sol Invictus. In some cases it appears the Mithraists believed that
Mithras and Sol were two different manifestations of the same god. In others
they appear to be two gods united as one. These connections are difficult to
understand given our limited knowledge of the Mithraic belief system, but they
are important because they help to explain why skeptics claim the birthday of
Mithras was celebrated on December 25.
A manuscript
known as the Chronography of 354 shows the birth of Sol Invictus being
celebrated on December 25. Given the fact that the Mithraists equated their god
with Sol in one way or another, it is understandable that they may have
appropriated the date as their own. The problem for the skeptic is that no
evidence exists to suggest that Aurelian was a Mithraist, or that he even had
Mithraism in mind when he instituted the feast of Sol Invictus. The connection
of Mithra to December 25 is only coincidental.
The deathblow
to both the Mithras and Sol Invictus parallels is that the Chronography of
354 is the earliest mention of any pagan god being celebrated on December
25. The celebration of the birth of Christ by Christians is also mentioned
on that very calendar as having been celebrated on that day, which diminishes
the likelihood that the pagan feast came first. At the very least, it negates
the claim that it can be proved from the historical record that any December 25
pagan festival predates the Christian tradition.
So why December
25?
Although the
date of Christ’s birth is not given to us in Scripture (non does it have to be),
there is documented however evidence that December 25 was already of some
significance to early Christians.
One example can
be found in the writings of Hyppolytus of Rome, who explains in his Commentary
on the book of Daniel (c. A.D. 204) that the Lord’s birth was believed (by
tradition) to have occurred on the 25th of December;
For the first advent of our Lord in the flesh, when he
was born in Bethlehem, was December 25th, Wednesday, while Augustus was in his
forty-second year, but from Adam, five thousand and five hundred years. He
suffered in the thirty-third year, March 25th, Friday, the eighteenth year of
Tiberius Caesar, while Rufus and Roubellion were Consuls.
The reference
to Adam can be understood in light of another of Hyppolytus’ writings, the Chronicon,
where he explains that Jesus was born nine months after the anniversary of
Creation. According to his calculations, the world was created on the vernal equinox,
March 25, which would mean Jesus was born nine months later, on December 25.
Nineteenth-century
liturgical scholar Louis Duchesne explains that “towards the end of the third
century the custom of celebrating the birthday of Christ had spread throughout
the whole Church, but that it was not observed everywhere on the same day” (Christian
Worship, Its Origin and Evolution: a study of the Latin liturgy up to the time
of Charlemagne, p. 260).
In the West,
the birth of Christ was celebrated on December 25, and in the East on January
6.
Duchesne writes
“one is inclined to believe that the
Roman Church made choice of the 25th of December in order to enter into rivalry
with Mithraism. This reason, however, leaves unexplained the choice of the 6th
of January” (ibid., p. 261).
His solution,
therefore, was that the date of Christ’s birth was decided by using as a
starting point the same day on which he was believed to have died. This would
explain the discrepancies between the celebrations in the East and West.
Given the great
aversion on the part of some Christians to anything pagan, the logical
conclusion here is that one celebration has nothing to do with the other. In
his book, Spirit of the Liturgy, Pope Benedict XVI explains:
The claim used to be made that December 25 developed in
opposition to the Mithras myth, or as a Christian response to the cult of the
unconquered sun promoted by Roman emperors in the third century in their
efforts to establish a new imperial religion. However, these old theories can no
longer be sustained. The decisive factor was the connection of creation and
Cross, of creation and Christ’s conception (p. 105-107).
While these
explanations of how December 25 came to be the date of Christmas are all
plausible, we know one thing for sure: The
evidence that this day held a special significance to Christians predates the
proof of a supposed celebration of Sol Invictus or other pagan deities on that
day.
That the
Christians chose a date so close to the winter solstice is also not proof that
this was done to mimic pagan festivals. The various pagan religions all had
festivals spanning the calendar. Whatever month the early Christians might have
otherwise chosen would still place Christmas near some pagan celebration, and
oppositional theorists would still be making the same claims.
The solstice
was important to everyone for agricultural reasons in the same way water is important
to the survival of human beings, and so we see rituals involving water showing
up in various religions. That doesn't prove that one borrowed the idea or theme
from another.
NO CHRIST, NO MASS….NO CHRISTMAS!
Real
quickly!
1.) SANTA
For my “Odinist” friends who claim “Santaclaus” [Say it
fast! Whooooo…. ST. NICHOLAS!] was inspired by “Odin”, I have say “What you talking about Willis?”
St. Nick predates Odin by 400 years! The earliest historical
reference to an “Odin” is related to jewelry inscriptions noting the name dated
from about 200-300 A.D. This historic “Odin” however, was a man and great Germanic
warrior king. His life and legend are believed to be the inspiration for the
god Odin of the Saga’s.
Modern “Santa” is a product of the Saturday Evening Post
and CoCa Cola…..
2.) TREES
As for the Christmas tree being again “Pagan” (True, tied
to the conversion of Pagans – Just like Thors Mjölnir was)….. (Oh Arnold…?)
Sorry again kids. I’ll spare you. Read about another
saint inspired tradition here:
(Gotta love Weidenkopf!)
