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The pagan roots of Christmas from Saturnalia...

  • 23-12-2005 12:18AM
    #1
    UU
    Closed Accounts Posts: 879 ✭✭✭


    As you should know, Christmas represents the birth of Jesus, etc. Although, there exists deep Pagan roots to the mid-Winter festival which many are totally unaware of. The whole tradition of hanging evergreen plants such as the pine tree, holly wreaths, etc. actually comes from the ancient pagan Roman festival of Saturnalia which also occurred around the 25th of December. The deciduous plants represent eternity and apparently the Egyptians also carried this practise. Saturnalia was a dedication to the God Saturn and the Romans would exchange presents, feast, party and the servants and their masters exchanged roles for the day! It was a day of peace (which was seldom by the Romans) where people would help others and give. They would shout "Io! Saturnalia!" Soon both Christmas and Saturnalia traditions were conglomerated by the actions of Emperor Constantine. Refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturnalia, http://www.origin-of-Christmas.com/ and http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/The_Pagan_Beliefs_Surrounding_Christmas for more information.

    Unfortunately many Christians refuse to believe me when I say this. They seem to think Paganism is evil or something! Anyway, they're just kidding themselves. So I say "Io! Saturnalia" (lol).

    The roots of Christmas also come from the Jewish festival of Chanukkah for obvious reasons.


Comments

  • #2
    BrianCalgary
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,196 ✭✭✭BrianCalgary


    You are absolutely right. Many, if not all Christmas traditions come from pagan roots. The only one that I think doesn't is Santa Claus, who is based on Saint Nicholas a Christian who gave out to the poor.

    The question to be asked is what do the traditions mean to us as Christians and what are we celebrating? Just because the tradition of gift giving happened during the feast of Saturnalia, doesn't take away that I am giving gifts in honour of my God who gave the greatest gift of all on the day of His birth, or that the wise men saw fit to bring the child gifts.

    The same with the tree, representing eternal life that can only come through the saviour Christ.

    Even the timing, we are moving from the darkest, shortest days in the Northern Hemisphere anyway into light. As Christ allows the world to move from darkness into light.

    UU set your Christian friends straight. Our pastor gives includes these little tidbits in Christmas sermons on an annual basis.


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