Post by FightingFalcon on Dec 8, 2007 10:52:34 GMT -8
Recently I started my Master's in Classical History/Ancient Warfare and in college my concentration was Classical Humanities. I've been studying ancient religions for many years now, especially in conjunction with early Christianity. For my Master's Thesis, I'm fairly certain that I'm going to write it on the struggle between Mithraism and Christianity in the late Empire. I'll probably save my ultimate goal for my PhD - researching the link between the world's major sun religions, e.g. Christianity, Sol Invictus and certain Egyptian gods (Isis and Horace among them).
But anyway...I wrote this in an e-mail to some of my friends who have been struggling with their religious faith recently. I figured that I'd share it with ya'll and wish everyone a very merry winter solstice.
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Christmas is by far my favorite holiday of the year – not just for the obvious reasons that come to mind when you think about it, but also for the reasons that are no longer remembered. Christmas is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, religious holiday in the history of man. Since the dawn of time, man has worshipped the Sun as the eternal life-giver. Throughout the ages (up until our present day), the Sun was one of the most widely worshipped symbols in the world. No one should be surprised, therefore, by the frequent personification of the Sun as god/the Son (e.g. Jesus) in Judeo-Christian artwork.
But that’s beyond the point. 25 December has, for millennia, been an extremely important date for Western culture (in the Julian calendar, 25 December was the winter solstice and not 21/22 December as it is today). It represents the re-birth of the Sun, the days getting longer and the return of life to the world. Despite there being dozens of pagan religious holidays on 25 December to celebrate the re-birth of the Sun, possibly the most famous is the combined cult of Mithras Sol Invictus – Mithras, the Unconquerable Sun. When the two separate cults were combined no one is quite sure but their combination seems natural, given that both were dedicated to the worship of the Sun. The day of worship for the cult was Sun-day, hence the modern name (and consequently the day that the Church chose to worship the Christian god despite Saturday being the Jewish holy day).
Mithras’ birthday was 25 December in a manger (or possibly rock tomb), he was a savior to his people, the birth was from a virgin, he was displayed in life with the 12 signs of the zodiac and in death with his two attendants Cautes and Cautopates (sunrise and sunset...a la Jesus and the two criminals), he was killed and rose from the dead three days later (on Sun-day) and is frequently depicted with a halo on his head. The lighting of candles on Christmas also stems from the celebration of Sol Invictus, while the Christmas tree comes to us from pre-Christian Germanic paganism.
Other than the supposed birth of Jesus on 25 December (despite there being no evidence for it), almost all of the Christmas traditions were adopted from pagan holidays. While borrowing religious ideas/traditions was quite natural in the ancient world, modern religions cringe at any connection to pagan faiths. The adoption of these traditions (particularly the ones revolving around Sol Invictus) made it easier though for the conversion of souls to Christianity, which was having an exceedingly hard time stamping out the popular pagan religions.
I’m not trying to ruin Christmas – far from it, as most of the religious aspects have thankfully been replaced by a generally accepted view that the day is more about presents and sharing time with good friends/family than the birth of a little boy in a manger anyway. But while you eat your Christmas ham (Germanic paganism), setup a manger, light a Yule log (Scandinavian paganism), dress up as Santa (also Germanic paganism), etc. take some time to think about what exactly it is that you’re celebrating. In reality, you’re participating in the celebration of the oldest pagan religious holiday in the world.
I hope everyone has a Merry Dies Natalis Invicti Solis. ☺
But anyway...I wrote this in an e-mail to some of my friends who have been struggling with their religious faith recently. I figured that I'd share it with ya'll and wish everyone a very merry winter solstice.
----------------
Christmas is by far my favorite holiday of the year – not just for the obvious reasons that come to mind when you think about it, but also for the reasons that are no longer remembered. Christmas is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, religious holiday in the history of man. Since the dawn of time, man has worshipped the Sun as the eternal life-giver. Throughout the ages (up until our present day), the Sun was one of the most widely worshipped symbols in the world. No one should be surprised, therefore, by the frequent personification of the Sun as god/the Son (e.g. Jesus) in Judeo-Christian artwork.
But that’s beyond the point. 25 December has, for millennia, been an extremely important date for Western culture (in the Julian calendar, 25 December was the winter solstice and not 21/22 December as it is today). It represents the re-birth of the Sun, the days getting longer and the return of life to the world. Despite there being dozens of pagan religious holidays on 25 December to celebrate the re-birth of the Sun, possibly the most famous is the combined cult of Mithras Sol Invictus – Mithras, the Unconquerable Sun. When the two separate cults were combined no one is quite sure but their combination seems natural, given that both were dedicated to the worship of the Sun. The day of worship for the cult was Sun-day, hence the modern name (and consequently the day that the Church chose to worship the Christian god despite Saturday being the Jewish holy day).
Mithras’ birthday was 25 December in a manger (or possibly rock tomb), he was a savior to his people, the birth was from a virgin, he was displayed in life with the 12 signs of the zodiac and in death with his two attendants Cautes and Cautopates (sunrise and sunset...a la Jesus and the two criminals), he was killed and rose from the dead three days later (on Sun-day) and is frequently depicted with a halo on his head. The lighting of candles on Christmas also stems from the celebration of Sol Invictus, while the Christmas tree comes to us from pre-Christian Germanic paganism.
Other than the supposed birth of Jesus on 25 December (despite there being no evidence for it), almost all of the Christmas traditions were adopted from pagan holidays. While borrowing religious ideas/traditions was quite natural in the ancient world, modern religions cringe at any connection to pagan faiths. The adoption of these traditions (particularly the ones revolving around Sol Invictus) made it easier though for the conversion of souls to Christianity, which was having an exceedingly hard time stamping out the popular pagan religions.
I’m not trying to ruin Christmas – far from it, as most of the religious aspects have thankfully been replaced by a generally accepted view that the day is more about presents and sharing time with good friends/family than the birth of a little boy in a manger anyway. But while you eat your Christmas ham (Germanic paganism), setup a manger, light a Yule log (Scandinavian paganism), dress up as Santa (also Germanic paganism), etc. take some time to think about what exactly it is that you’re celebrating. In reality, you’re participating in the celebration of the oldest pagan religious holiday in the world.
I hope everyone has a Merry Dies Natalis Invicti Solis. ☺
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