Why dont I celebrate Christmas?! No, the question is why do you? Not that Jesus cop out either... I mean really, why do you celebrate Christmas? Answer: Long before the Christian Era itself, a festival was celebrated among the heathen, at that precise time of year, in honor of the birth of the sun of the Babylonian Queen of heaven; and it may fairly be presumed that, in order to conciliate the heathen, and to swell the number of the nominal adherents of Christianity, the same festival was adopted by the Roman Church, giving it only the name of Christ. This tendency on the part of Christians to meet Paganism half-way was very early developed; and we find Tertullian, even in his day, about the year 230, bitterly lamenting the inconsistency of the disciples of Christ in this respect, and contrasting it with the strict fidelity of the Pagans to their own superstition. By us, says he, who are strangers to Sabbaths, and new moons, and festivals, once acceptable to God, the Saturnalia, the feast of January, the Brumalia, and Matronalia, are now frequented; gifts are carried to and fro, New Years Day presents are made with din, and sports and banquets are celebrated with uproar; oh, how much more faithful are the heathen to their religion, who take special care to adopt no solemnity from the Christians. Upright men strive to stem the tide, but in spite of all their efforts, the apostasy went on, till the Church, with the exception of a small remnant, was submerged under Pagan superstition. That Christmas was originally a pagan festival, is beyond all doubt. The time of year, and the ceremonies with which it is still celebrated, prove its origin. In Egypt the son of Isis, the Queen of heave, was born about this very time, about the time of the winter solstice. The very name by which Christmas is popularly know among ourselves-- Yule-day -- proves at once its pagan and Babylonian origin. Yule is the Chaldee name for an infant or little child; and as the 25th of December was called by our Pagan Anglo-Saxon ancestors, Yule-Day, or the childs day, and the night that preceded it, mother-night, long before they came in contact with Christianity, that sufficiently proves its real character. Far and wide, in the realms of Paganism, was this birth-day observed.
Posted on: Thu, 25 Dec 2014 17:01:29 +0000
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