🚀 go-pugleaf

On Thu, 30 Sep 2004 22:16:13 -0500, "torresD" <nospam@nospam.com>
wrote:

>There are many religions in the world who call themselves 'christian' but
>there is only one Christian organization that is actually cleansing itself
>of all pagan ritualistic defilement. The facts regarding xmas are common
>knowledge to all educated religious leaders, so why don't they cleanse their
>worship? It is a very important question to ask...why is the united worlwide
>organization of Christians known as Jehovah's Witnesses the only Christian
>organization endeavoring to correct past mistakes and cleanse their worship
>of all paganistic defilement? For those who are not yet familiar with the
>well known facts about xmas, here is some information, *not* from Jehovah's
>Witnesses but from *other* religious scholars and theologians...
>
>Outside of the Word of God there is no truth (John 14:6), yet Christians
>today are too lazy to "Prove all things" (1 Thessalonians 5:19-22), and try
>the spirits (I John 4:1-5). It is only by searching the scriptures that we
>can assure ourselves of fact, truth, and protection from deception (Acts
>17:11). Do not be deceived by the vain words of men (Ephesians 5:6-11). We
>must not substitute views, opinions, emotions or feelings, for Word of God.
>If we please men then we should not be the servants of Jesus Christ
>(Galatians 1:10).
>
>Every feast, holy day or ceremonial observation for the glory of the Lord,
>was always written in the Word of God, and our Heavenly Father always gave
>instructions on how to do it. For religious commemorations or celebrations,
>we must have a Biblical command or precedent. We are told in Deuteronomy
>12:29-32, that not only did God want to prevent His people from being
>enticed to worship false gods, by telling them to destroy all vestiges of
>pagan worship that they found in the "Promised Land.", but He specifically
>revealed that He did not want His people to worship Him in the same manner
>in which the heathen worshiped their gods. Our Lord is displeased by
>practices which profess to honor Him, but which are copied from the
>tradition of false religions. God commanded them to worship Him only in the
>way He commands, not to add to them nor take away from them.
>
>The sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, were slain in the temple for offering up
>"strange fire" before the Lord God (Leviticus 10:1,2; Numbers 3:4 & 26:61).
>Strange fire is offering something to God that He has not asked for, does
>not receive, does not observe, it is worshiping God your way (how you think
>He should be worshipped), instead of Gods way. Saul disobeyed God's prophet
>in order to worship God in his way (1 Samuel 15:1-3, 7-9, 21-23). Is not the
>celebration of Christmas, with all its pagan symbols and forms, one of man's
>ways of worshiping Christ, a "strange fire" unto the Lord, a form of worship
> contrary to what God commands? If we truly love Jesus we will keep His word
>and offer no strange fire before Him. (John 14:15, 23; Luke 6:46)
>
>Exposing the Lies:
>Did the orginal Apostles - our spiritual fathers and foundation in the faith
>and those who knew Jesus personally, ever teach or celebrate His birthday?
>
>FACT-There is no Biblical warrant, precedent, nor precept for the
>remembrance of the day of Christ's birth as a day of special religious
>celebration. The early church did not celebrate Christ's birth, such
>celebrations only came into the church with the "Christianization" of pagan
>rites as Catholicism was made the state religion by Constantine in the
>fourth century A.D. The Word of God does not support the tradition of
>Christmas.
>
>But didn't the Angels and Shepherds come and worship Him?
>
>FACT-No, they did not. If you will read your Bible in Luke 2:13-20, you will
>see that when the Angels announced this to the shepherds, they (the Angels)
>glorified "God in the highest" (v14), in other words, the Heavenly Father,
>and the Shepherds returned (from Bethlehem), "glorifying and praising God,
>for all the things that they had heard and seen" (v20).
>
>[Note: For background on why it was Bethlehem, study the Book of Ruth]
>
>Did not the three wise men come and worship Jesus in the manger? And did not
>the three wise men give gifts to Him when he was born?
>
>[Note: Wise men is a translation of the Greek word magoi, the ancient Greek
>transliteration of the Persian original for a select sect of priests. The
>word 'magic' comes from the same root. Magi is the Latinized form.
>The Magi were a hereditary priesthood of the Medes credited with
>extraordinary religious knowledge. After some Magi, who had been attached to
>the Median court, proved to be expert in the interpretation of dreams,
>Darius the Great established them over the state religion of Persia.
>(Oneiromancy, not astrology, is the key skill mentioned by Herodotus, 1.1
>07, 120; Vil.19.) Contrary to popular belief, the Magi were not originally
>followers of Zoroaster.(Encyclopedia Britannica, 7:691.) That all came
>later.
>It was in this dual capacity whereby civil and political counsel was
>invested with religious authority, that the Magi became the supreme priestly
>caste of the Persian empire, and continued to be prominent during the
>subsequent Seleucid, Parthian, Sasanian periods. (Zondervan Pictorial
>Encyclopedia of the Bible, 4:31-34.)]
>
>FACT-There is not one record of there being three wise men! The Bible says
>in Matthew 2:1, there came wise men from the east. They brought three gifts
>which were also prophetic, gold (for his "diety"), frankincense (a spice
>used in the priestly duties, signifying His office as priest), and myrrh (an
>embalming ointment signifying His sacrificial death, as savior). Because
>there was three gifts, man's imagination changes the Bible, and says, there
>were three men. In the millennium, He will also receive the gifts of gold
>and frankincense; (Isaiah 60:6) but no myrrh. His death was once and for
>all.
>
>FACT-Matthew 2:3 says that Herod and all Jerusalem were troubled. I do not
>think that three men on camels would be noticed much in a city of great size
>like Jerusalem, the city would have been filled daily with men on camels.
>The wise men were a supreme priestly caste who held the governmental office
>of the upper house of the Council of the Megistanes ("magistrates"). Their
>duties included the absolute choice and election of the king of the realm.
>It was therefore a group of Persian-Parthian "king makers" who entered
>Jerusalem in the latter days of the reign of Herod. Their sudden appearance
>in Jerusalem (wise men usually traveled in caravans of 40 or more in
>number), probably traveling in force with every imaginable oriental pomp,
>and accompanied by adequate calvary escort to insure their safe penetration
>of Roman territory, certainly alarmed Herod and the populace of Jerusalem.
>Herod's reaction would of been one of fear when one considers the background
>of Roman Parthian rivalry that prevailed during his lifetime (see note below
>). It would seem as if these wise men were attempting to perpetrate a border
>incident which could bring swift reprisal from Parthian armies.
>
>[Note: Political Background: Since the days of Daniel, both the Persian and
>the Jewish nations had, in their turn, fallen under Seleucid domination in
>the wake of Alexander's conquests. Subsequently both had regained their
>independence: the Jews under Maccabean leadership, and the Persians as the
>dominating ruling group within the Parthian Empire.
>Pompey, the first Roman conqueror of Jerusalem, attacked the Armenian
>outpost of Parthia in 63 B.C. In 55 B.C. Carssus led Roman legions in
>sacking Jerusalem and, in a subsequent attack, Parthia proper. The Romans
>were decisively defeated at the battle of Carrhae with the loss of 30,000
>troops, including their commander. The Parthians counter attacked with a
>token invasion of Armenia, Syria, and Palestine.
>Nominal Roman rule was reestablished under Antipater, the father of Herod,
>who retreated before another Parthian invasion in 40 B.C.
>Mark Anthony re-established Roman sovereignty in 37 B.C., and, like Carssus
>before him, also embarked on a similarly ill-fated Parthian expedition. His
>disastrous retreat was followed by another wave of invading Parthians, which
>swept all Roman opposition completely out of Palestine (including Herod
>himself, who fled to Alexandria and then to Rome).
>With Parthian collaboration, Jewish sovereignty was restored and Jerusalem
>was fortified with a Jewish garrison.
>Herod, by this time, secured from Augustus Caesar the title of "King of the
>Jews." However, it was not for three years (including a five month's siege
>by Roman troops) that he was able to occupy his own capital city. Herod had
>thus gained the throne of a rebellious buffer state which was situated
>between two mighty contending empires. At any time, his own subjects might
>conspire in bringing the Parthians to their aid.]
>
>[Note: Daniels Role: It is entirely conceivable that the messianic
>prophecies of Daniel was of profound motivating significance to the wise
>men. Daniel, who was a principal administrator in two world empires, the
>Babylonian and subsequent Persian empire, was considered to be one of their
>own magicians, he was given the title "master of the magicians" (Daniel 4:9;
>5:11). When Darius appointed him, a Jew, over the previously hereditary
>Median priesthood, the resulting repercussions resulted in the plots leading
>to the lion's den.(Daniel 6). Perhaps the wise men were entrusted to a
>messianic vision, to be announced in due time by a "star"? Another
>interesting note is that the Angel Gabriel, who gave Daniel skill and
>understanding concerning the time when the messiah will present Himself, is
>also the Angel mentioned in Luke 1:19.]
>
>Consulting the Jewish priests and scribes, Herod discovered that the
>Promised One, the Messiah, would be born in Bethlehem (Matthew 2:4-6; Micah
>5:2). Hiding his concern and expressing sincere interest, Herod requested
>that the wise men keep him informed (Matthew 2:7-8).
>
>Did they bring these gifts to the manger?
>
>FACT-The Bible clearly states in Matthew 2:7-16, that the wise men followed
>the star for two years (v16), and they presented the gifts to the young
>child (Jesus was two years old when the men finally arrived) in His house
>(v11). Thus their giving had nothing to do with a birthday.
>
>After presenting their prophetic gifts to the young child, the wise men
>"being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod
>(Matthew 2:12-13), (a form of communication most acceptable to them)
>departed to their own country, ignoring Herod's request.
>
>Didn't the wise men come to worship the child?
>
>FACT-Matthew 2:2, states that the "wise men" came to worship the King of the
>Jews, it is interesting to note that in verse 8, Herod said that he wanted
>to worship "the young child". Wise men worship the King, but men will
>worship the child. Asking Herod, "where is he that is born King of the
>Jews?" (Matthew 2:2) was probably also a calculated insult by the wise men,
>because Herod was an Edomite, a traditional enemy of Israel, who had most
>probably contrived and bribed his way into that office.
>
>Was Jesus born on December 25th?
>
>FACT-In December it is the winter season, rainy and cold and the shepherds
>do not keep their flocks out at night grazing in the winter (Luke 2:8). It
>was customary for the shepherds to herd their flocks and take them in after
>Mid-October and release them in early spring. Thus the Luke 2 account of the
>birth of Jesus could not have been in December.
>
>FACT- No man knows when Jesus was born, but we can be pretty sure that it
>was not the twenty-fifth of December. If God desired us to remember Christ's
>birthday, He would have left us the precise date. But in so doing, He would
>have vindicated every astrologer in the past 2,000 years, because in occult
>circles, the anniversary of a person's birth is the most important
>metaphysical day of the year. The Bible recognizes no such significance. It
>is intriguing that there are only two birthday celebrations recorded in the
>entire Bible and they were both those of ungodly kings, and both resulted in
>an execution (Genesis 40:16-22 and Matthew 14:6-10/Mark 6:21-27). Although
>Luke places the birth in a historical perspective, even the year cannot be
>exactly determined. The Bible does tells us though, that He was born before
>the death of Herod the Great who died in 4 B.C, so the 1AD date is certainly
>wrong.
>
>FACT- God has warned us about getting entangled with special days (Galations
>4:9-10). There is no record in the Bible of people observing or worshipping
>Jesus because of his birth, it is not taught, or preached. What we are
>taught though, is to remember Him in His death, but no special day was
>specified for this either, any day of the year will do. (Matthew 26:26-31;
>Mark 14:22-27; Luke 22:17-20).
>
>For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That
>the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: And when
>he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body,
>which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner
>also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new
>testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of
>me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the
>Lords death till he come (1 Corinthians 11:23-26)
>
>To commemorate His death is Scriptural. To commemorate His birth is not, it
>is extra-Scriptural (Deuteronomy 4:2; 12:32; Proverbs 30:6; Revelation
>22:19).
>
>But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the
>Greeks foolishness; (1 Corinthians 1:23)
>
>Joseph and Mary did not just show up in Bethlehem, go to an Inn, find there
>was no room, and had to go to a dirty stable with animals to have a baby.
>
>We even have this fixed picture in our minds of what "there was no room for
>them in the inn" (Luke 2:7) may have meant. The word "inn" in Luke 2:7
>[kataluma], is used again by Luke in 22:11:
>
>And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling
>clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the
>inn. (Luke 2:7)
>
>And ye shall say unto the goodman of the house, The Master saith unto thee,
>Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples?
>(Luke 22:11)
>
>kataluma, Greek 2646, Strong's kataluma, kat-al'-oo-mah; from Greek 2647
>(kataluo); properly a dissolution (breaking up of a journey), i.e. (by
>implication) a lodging-place :- guestchamber, inn.
>
>The same word for inn (kataluma) in Luke 2:7, is used for "guestchamber" in
>Luke 22:11. The guestchamber was the upper room of a house for guests (see
>Luke 22:12-13).
>
>FACT- Joseph was returning to his home town of Bethlehem to be counted with
>his family in the Roman census (Luke 2:1-2). Joseph must of had relatives
>living there, and it must have been Joseph's intention to stay with his
>family, he knew Mary was with child and due soon. Since many out-of-town
>family members would have been arriving at the same time, the inn, which was
>the upstairs room, on the roof of the house, used for guests, was already
>full (Notice that it is not 'at an inn', but 'in the inn', Luke 2:7). Mary
>and Joseph found space in the area that comprised the first floor of the
>house - the manger. Here it was usually warm and would have been comfortable
>for the birthing. And even though used for domesticated animals and shelter,
>it would have been clean. Also notice, that the Bible states that they had
>been there a while, and the days were accomplished that she should be
>delivered (Luke 2:6).
>
>Now in the days of Jesus, when a family was poor, the manger was a part of
>their house where the families lived and it was the lower part or portion of
>the house which would represent his humbleness or humility when born into
>this earth. This manger was usually adjacent to the living quarters of the
>family and they would keep their domesticated animals there. The manger or
>trough was usually hewn out of rock (Bakers Encyclopedia of the Bible, Vol.2
>page 1392).
>
>A manger was usually hewn out of rock, which would be scripturally fitting,
>for our Lord Jesus is the ROCK of our salvation, we are to build our house
>on the ROCK, and His tomb was hewn out of a ROCK.
>
>And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual
>Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ. (1 Corinthians 10:4)
>
>He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the
>foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently
>upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a
>rock.(Luke 6:48, see also Matthew 7:24-25)
>
>And he bought fine linen, and took him down, and wrapped him in the linen,
>and laid him in a sepulchre which was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a stone
>unto the door of the sepulchre. (Mark 15:46, see also Matthew 27:60)
>
>If Mary had to wait until after her purification to bring Jesus into the
>temple to present him to the Father (Luke 2:22), then what makes you think
>that HE would allow her to give birth in an unclean, straw dunged stable?
>Wouldn't taking a newborn baby and laying him in straw or hay dangerous?
>Isn't cut straw or hay very sharp?
>
>Today's depiction, or "Manger Scene", with animals, hay or straw, Joseph,
>Mary, baby Jesus in a straw laden crib, three wise men bowing down and
>giving gifts, shepherds, and a star over a stable, all come from St. Francis
>of Assisi, A Catholic Monk. None of it is the truth, yet isn't it amazing
>what people believe as truth because of what men say?
>
>Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the
>tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
>(Colossians 2:8)
>
>"...no room for them in the inn" (Luke 2:7) was probably not a rejection of
>Jesus Christ, as we are taught, but a gracious accommodation in the best
>circumstances the family could provide, which would represent his humbleness
>or humility when born into this earth. Notice also that, while there was no
>room in the upper part of the house for Jesus on his first night on earth,
>that is exactly where he spent his last night on earth with His disciples
>before going to Gethsemane (Luke 22:11-13), and then to Calvary to shed
>blood for our sins.
>
>Is your foundation of Christmas beginning to crumble? Is Christmas now
>sounding a bit confused?
>
>For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of
>the saints. (1 Corinthians 14:33)
>
>"For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work."
>(James 3:16) This verse could just as easily be applied to the Chrismas
>season, with the envy of presents, and the strife the pressures of the
>season can cause. The pressures of the season bring people to loneliness,
>despair, alcohol, debt, and it is also the season of the year that holds the
>highest record of yearly suicides.
>
>Sometimes our souls do not like being weaned from the doctrines of men,
>especially when we have believed something for so long. But the truth will
>set you free, and stear you on the right course.
>
>And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. (John 8:32)
>
>We should now ask ourselves two things: If Christmas is not found in the
>Bible then where did it come from? And if Christmas is not celebrating
>Jesus' birthday, then whose birthday is it celebrating?
>
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>"Christians have been conditioned to accept that Christmas and Easter are
>essentially part of the Christian tradition. The facts are that neither are
>at all Christian and both have their roots in the mystery cults, The
>Saturnalia, the worship of the Mother goddess system and the worship of the
>Sun god. They are directly contradictory to the laws of God and His system.
>
>The Saturnalia
>
>There was a festival celebrated in December in Rome. It is necessary to any
>understanding of what is happening at Christmas. That festival was termed
>the Saturnalia. It was the festival of Saturn to whom the inhabitants of
>Latium, the Latins, attributed agriculture and the arts necessary to
>civilised life (Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, 2nd ed.,
>London 1851, p. 1009). It fell towards the end of December and was viewed by
>the population as a time of absolute relaxation and merriment. During its
>continuance, the law courts were closed. No public business could be
>transacted. The schools kept holiday. To commence a war was impious and to
>punish a malefactor involved pollution (ibid.). Slaves were relieved of
>onerous toils and permitted to wear the pileus or badge of freedom. They
>were granted freedom of speech and were waited on at a special banquet by
>their masters whose clothes they wore (ibid.). All ranks devoted themselves
>to feasting and mirth with presents exchanged among friends.
>
>
>Wax tapers were given by the more humble to their superiors. The crowds
>thronged the streets and Smith says many of the customs had a remarkable
>resemblance to those of Christmas and the Italian carnival (ibid.).
>
>
>Public gambling was condoned by the authorities as was later card-playing
>indulged even by the most rigid in later times at Christmas eve. The whole
>populace threw off the toga, wore the loose gown called the synthesis and
>walked about with the pileus on their heads. Smith's Dictionary says this
>practice is reminiscent of the dominoes, peaked caps and other disguises
>worn at later Christmas festivals by masques and mummers. The cerei or wax
>tapers or lights, were probably employed as the moccoli are on the last
>night of the carnival. Our traditions of Christmas lights probably stems
>from this tradition.
>
>
>Lastly, for amusement in private society, was the election of a mock king
>which is immediately recognised in the ceremony of Twelfth Night (ibid.). We
>will come across this later.
>
>
>Sir James George Frazer, in his classic study of magic and religion (The
>Golden Bough, McMillan, 1976), says this mock king was an allusion back to
>the idyllic days of the reign of Saturn and the slaves being given temporary
>freedom at this time hearkened back to these days when all were free and
>things were just (ibid., ix, p. 308 ff). Roman soldiers stationed on the
>Danube in the reign of Maximian and Diocletian are recorded (by Franz
>Cumont) to have chosen a young and handsome man to resemble Saturn from
>among them by lot thirty days before the festival. They dressed him in royal
>attire to resemble Saturn. He went about in public attended by a retinue of
>soldiers and indulged his passions no matter how base and shameful. At the
>end of thirty days, he then cut his own throat on the altar of the god he
>personated. In the year 303, the lot fell upon the Christian soldier Dasius
>but he refused to play the part of the heathen god and to soil his last days
>by debauchery. He refused to give in to the intimidation of his commanding
>officer Bassus and was accordingly beheaded by the soldier John at
>Durostorum on Friday 20 November 303 being the twenty-fourth day of the Moon
>at the fourth hour (Frazer, ibid.).
>
>
>This historical account has been confirmed, after its publication by Franz
>Cumont, by the discovery in the crypt of the cathedral at Ancona, of the
>white marble sarcophagus in script characteristic of the age of Justinian
>with the Greek inscription:
>
>Here lies the holy martyr Dasius, brought from Durostorum.
>
>The sarcophagus had been brought there from the church of St Pellegrino in
>1848 where it lay under the high altar and was recorded as being there in
>1650 (Frazer, p. 310).
>
>
>Frazer says this sets a new light on the nature of the Lord of the
>Saturnalia, the ancient Lord of Misrule, who presided over the winter revels
>at Rome (ibid., p. 311). Here we see the extent of the traditions and the
>elements of human sacrifice, which extend into the festivals in both
>December and at the equinox. Dasius the Christian suffered martyrdom rather
>than participate in these revels.
>
>
>As Saturnus was an ancient national god of Latium, the institution of the
>Saturnalia is lost in remote antiquity (ibid.).
>
>There are three traditions associated with it.
>
>
>It is ascribed to Janus who on the sudden disappearance of his benefactor
>from the abodes of men erected an altar to him as a deity in the forum and
>ordained annual sacrifices.
>
>According to Varro, it is attributed to the wanderings of Pelasagi on their
>first settlement in Italy. Hercules then on his return from Spain was said
>to have abolished the worship and practice of immolating human sacrifice;
>and
>
>The third tradition attributes the Saturnalia to the followers of Hercules
>who set it up after his return to Greece.
>
>In either of the last two we see a commonality. The practice of this
>agricultural festival thus has certain common elements with the spring
>festival of Easter as we will see later. The element of human sacrifice
>common to all traditions can also be traced to the worship of Moloch as the
>Moon god Sin and also of Ishtar (see the paper The Golden Calf (No. 222)).
>This sacrificial aspect also appeared in the worship of the god Attis (see
>below).
>
>
>The erection of temples in historical times are recorded, such as during the
>reign of Tatius, Tarquinius superbus, to the consulship of A Sempronius or M
>Minucius (497 BCE) or in that of T Larcius the previous year. It appears the
>ceremonies were at varying stages neglected or corrupted and then revived
>and extended (ibid.).
>
>
>The Saturnalia originally fell on 14 Kalend January. When the Julian
>calendar was introduced it was extended to 16 Kalend January which caused
>confusion among the more ignorant and Augustus enacted that three whole days
>(namely 17, 18 and 19 December) should be hallowed in all time coming
>(ibid.). Some unknown authority added a fourth day and Caligula added a
>fifth day, the Juvenalis. This fell into disuse and was later restored by
>the emperor Claudius.
>
>
>Strictly speaking, one day only was consecrated to religious observance in
>the days of the Republic. However, the celebrations lasted over a much
>longer period. Historically, Livy speaks of the first day of the Saturnalia
>(Liv. xxx, 36). Cicero writes of the second and third days (ad Att., v 20;
>xv 32). From Novius (Attelanae) the term seven days of the Saturnalia was
>used and this phrase was also used by Memmius (Macrobius, i, 10) and Martial
>(xiv, 72; cf. Smith, ibid.). Martial also speaks of the five days enacted by
>Caligula and Claudius.
>
>These five days have an ancient calendrical significance also.
>
>
>Smith says that in reality three festivals were involved over this period.
>
>The Saturnalia proper commenced on 17 December (16 Kalend December).
>
>
>This was followed by the Opalia (14 Kalend January or 19 December) which was
>anciently coincidental to the Saturnalia. These two together lasted for five
>days. This festival was celebrated in honour of Opis who was allegedly the
>wife of Saturn. Originally, it was celebrated on the same day and, thus, the
>Mother goddess and lover theme is evident in the origins of this festival.
>We will meet this theme throughout. The followers of Opis paid their vows
>sitting and touched the earth of whom she was goddess (Smith, ibid., art.
>Opalia, p. 835).
>
>
>The sixth and seventh days were occupied by the Sigillaria which was named
>for the little earthenware figures which were displayed for sale on the
>period as toys to be given as presents for children.
>
>Thus, the period ran from 17 December until 23 December under the Julian
>Calendar, when the presents were given to the children.
>
>
>We now proceed to examine further the theology behind these festivals. The
>commonality of the traditions of the festivals are too obvious to be
>ignored.
>
>
>The Heavenly Virgin as Mother goddess
>
>Frazer notes that:
>
>the worship of the Great Mother of the Gods and her lover or son was very
>popular under the Roman Empire (v, pp. 298 ff),
>
>From the inscription we know that the two [as Mother and lover or Mother and
>son] received divine honours not only in Italy but in all the provinces -
>particularly in Africa, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany and Bulgaria
>(ibid.). Their worship survived the establishment of Christianity by
>Constantine.
>
>
>Thus, the symbolism of the Heavenly Virgin and the infant child paraded on a
>yearly basis are not of Christian origin. They stem from the Mother goddess
>religion which is very ancient. We will see more of this later.
>
>
>Frazer notes Symmachus as recording the festival of the Great Mother. In the
>days of Augustine her effeminate priests still paraded the streets and
>squares of Carthage and, like the mendicant friars of the middle ages,
>begged alms from the passers-by (ibid., cf. S Dill Roman Society in the Last
> Century of the Western Empire, London, 1899, p. 16; and Augustine City of
>God, vii, 26).
>
>
>The Greeks on the other hand rejected the more barbarous rites in favour of
>those similar but gentler rites of the worship of Adonis (ibid.).
>
>Frazer says that the same features which shocked and repelled the Greeks
>were what attracted the Romans and the barbarians of the west (ibid., pp.
>298-299).
>
>The ecstatic frenzies which were mistaken for divine inspiration, the
>mangling of the body and the theory of a new birth and the remission of sin
>through the shedding of blood, have all their origin in savagery (ibid.).
>
>Frazer holds that their true character was often disguised under a decent
>veil of allegory and philosophical interpretation, which drew the more
>cultivated of them to things which might otherwise have filled them with
>horror and disgust. Modern Pentecostalism draws its inspiration from the
>ideas behind these religious festivals.
>
>
>The religion of the Great Mother was only one of a multitude of similar
>oriental faiths, which spread across the Roman Empire imposing themselves on
>the Europeans. According to Frazer, this gradually undermined the whole
>fabric of ancient civilisation.
>
>
>The entire Greek and Roman society was based on the concept of the
>subordination of individual to the state and one's whole life was dedicated
>to the perpetuation of the society. If one shrank from supreme sacrifice
>then it never occurred to anyone that they acted other than for base
>reasons.
>
>
>Oriental religion taught the reverse of this doctrine. It inculcated the
>communion of the "Soul" with God and its eternal salvation as the only
>objects of existence and in comparison with the prosperity and even the
>existence of the state were insignificant.
>
>
>The inevitable consequence of this selfish and immoral doctrine was to draw
>the individual more and more from the public service and to concentrate, in
>the individual, a contempt for the present life.
>
>
>The misapplication of these mystery doctrines or oriental religions and
>their application in Gnosticism, when placed on the biblical narrative of
>the City of God as a spiritual edifice, was to have disastrous consequences
>for the ordering of society. The effect was to loosen the ties of the family
>and the state and to generally disintegrate the political body of the state.
>The society tended to relapse into its individual elements and thereby into
>barbarism. Civilisation is only possible through the active cooperation of
>the individual and the subordination of the interests of the individual to
>that of the common good (ibid., p. 301).
>
>
>People refused to defend their countries and even to continue their own kind
>in ascetic celibacy (ibid., see also the papers Vegetarianism and the Bible
>(No. 183) and also Wine in the Bible (No. 188)).
>
>
>Frazer holds that this obsession lasted for a thousand years. He held that
>it only changed at the end of the Middle Ages with the revival of Roman law,
>of Aristotelian philosophy and of ancient art and literature to saner and
>more manly views of the world. The fact of the matter is that if the true
>biblical model was implemented no such problem would have existed. The
>problem arose from Oriental Mysteries combined with the Gnostic system which
>is more prevalent today. Frazer held that the tide of this oriental invasion
>had turned at last and was ebbing still. He was wrong in this regard
>although he also allows that bad government and a ruinous fiscal system are
>two major causes which strike down civilisations as they did the Turkish
>Empire in his day.
>
>
>We will look at the effects of the Great Mother religion and the Mithras
>system and its applications under Gnostic influence in Christianity to see
>that it is still there as strong as ever in more subtle forms. Yet much of
>its traditional trappings are the same.
>
>
>Mithras
>
>One of the gods who competed for the worship of the west was the Persian
>deity Mithra.
>
>
>The immense popularity of this cult should not be underestimated. The
>monuments dedicated to this system are scattered all over the Roman Empire
>and right through Europe (a map of the extent of the monuments is found in
>David Ulansey The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries, Oxford, New York, 1989,
>p. 5).
>
>
>This was a secret cult whose mysteries were never written down and, so,
>little is known exactly of their ritual except what we can deduce from their
>shrines and places of worship. However, we do know that they had two forms
>of worship. The private and secret form was Mithraism. The public form,
>however, was Elagabalism and we know more of its system from this. Both were
>based on Sun worship.
>
>
>Much of its religion was similar to the religion of the Mother of the Gods
>and also to what was understood to have been later Christianity (cf. Frazer,
>ibid., p. 302). The similarity struck the Christian doctors themselves and
>it was explained to them as the work of the devil by counterfeiting a
>version of the true faith (ibid.). Tertullian explained how the fasts of
>Isis and Cybele were similar to the fasts of Christianity (De jejunio 16).
>
>
>Justin Martyr explains how the death, resurrection and ascension of
>Dionysius, the virgin birth of Perseus, and Bellerophon mounted on Pegasus
>were parodies of the true Christian stories written by the demons in
>advance, even down to the story of Christ riding on an ass which was
>contained in the Psalms as prophecy (cf. Apol., i, 54).
>
>
>The conflict between Mithraism and Christianity was so great that for a time
>the outcome hung in the balance. The fact of the matter is that the result
>was decided by adopting their practices and giving them Christian names. The
>most important single relic of this pagan syncretism is that of Christmas
>which Frazer says the Church seems to have borrowed directly from its
>heathen rival (p. 303).
>
>
>The army became devotees of Mithras and it is obvious from the records
>regarding Dasius that the Saturnalia was held in conjunction with the
>worship of Mithras. Thus, the Saturnalia simply preceded the Solstice
>festival and became a part of it.
>
>
>Christmas and the Heavenly Virgin
>
>In the Julian calendar, 25 December was reckoned as the winter solstice
>(Frazer, ibid., p. 303; cf. Pliny Natural History, xviii, p. 221). It was
>regarded as the nativity of the Sun as its days began to lengthen and its
>power increase from that turning point of the year.
>
>
>The ritual of the nativity, Frazer holds, as it was celebrated in Syria and
>Egypt was remarkable. The celebrants retired into certain inner shrines from
>which at midnight they issued a loud cry, The Virgin has brought forth! The
>Light is waxing! (ibid., cf. Cosmas Hierosolymitanus, see fn. 3 to p. 303)
>
>
>The Egyptians even represented the newborn Sun by an image of an infant
>which, on his birthday (the winter solstice), they brought forth and
>exhibited to his worshippers (ibid., cf., Macrobius Saturnalia, i, 18, 10)
>
>Frazer says:
>
>No doubt the Virgin who thus conceived and bore a son on the twenty-fifth of
>December was the great Oriental goddess whom the Semites called the Heavenly
>Virgin or simply the Heavenly Goddess; in Semitic lands she was a form of
>Astarte (ibid., noting Franz Cumont s.v. Caelestis in Pauly-Wissowa's
>Real-Encyclop�die der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, v, 1, 1247, sqq).
>
>This is the origin of the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of the mother
>of Jesus Christ. It has no basis in the Bible or in fact. Christ's mother
>was not named Mary and the Bible is clear that she bore other children. We
>will return to this myth later.
>
>
>The legend of the three kings
>
>25 December was an ancient Sun-worshipping festival and the three kings
>associated with it do not appear to relate to the wise men from the east in
>the biblical narrative but to a perhaps older tradition relating to the
>so-called twelve days of Christmas. The Twelfth Day sequence is associated
>with the three kings in France, Spain, Belgium, Germany and Austria. Their
>names are Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar. In Germany and Austria it is known
>as the Day of the Three Kings (Dreikonigstag) and in France as the Festival
>of the Kings (F�te des Rois). The kings go around in some areas represented
>by mummers who sing songs and collect from the householders. It is given a
>Christian basis but there is no basis in the Bible for assuming there were
>three people (other than the three types of gifts) or that they were kings.
>They are recorded as magi or wise men. This seems to have another basis (cf.
>Frazer, ix, p. 329). From the customs in Franche-Comte and also the Vosges
>Mountains, Melchior is supposed to have been a black king and the face of
>the boy playing him is blackened (ibid., p. 330). These three are invoked
>for healing with rituals involving three nails placed in the earth. This
>smacks of the triune systems of the Celts in France long before the
>Christian system.
>
>
>In Czech and German Bohemia, the rituals of fumigation and spices are found
>being used on the twelfth day. The initials C.M.B (Caspar, Melchior and
>Balthasar) together with three crosses are marked on doors after fumigation
>to guard against evil influences and infectious diseases. They were invoked
>under the words pray for us now and at the hour of our deaths.
>
>
>The Lord of Misrule and the King of Beans
>
>In this tradition also we see the Lord of Misrule emerge among the
>traditions. The full extent of time was from All-hallows eve (31 October,
>the eve of All Saints day) to Candlemas (2 February). Generally, it was
>however confined to the twelve days at Christmas, termed the twelve nights.
>The Lord of Misrule was elected from the Court of the Sovereign in England
>through every office of the land. This Lord of Misrule was also elected at
>Merton College Oxford as King of the Beans (cf. Frazer, ix, p. 332).
>
>
>The Festival of Fools
>
>In France, the counterparts of the English Lords of Misrule masqueraded as
>mock clergy, bishops, archbishops, popes or abbots. This was known as the
>Festival of Fools and was held either on Christmas day, St Stephen's day (26
>December), New Year's day, or Twelfth day depending on place.
>
>
>At these times there were parodies of the most solemn rites of the church
>where priests wearing masks and sometimes dressed as women danced in the
>choir and sang obscene chants; laymen disguised as monks mingled with the
>clergy and the altar was turned into a tavern where the deacons and
>sub-deacons ate sausage and black-pudding or played dice and cards under the
>nose of the celebrant. The censers were filled with bits of old shoes,
>filling the church with a foul stench.
>
>
>In some areas of France, for example at Autun, an ass was led into the
>church where a parody of the mass was said over it. A regular Latin liturgy
>was said over it and the celebrant priest initiated the braying of an ass
>(Frazer, pp. 334-335).
>
>
>At Beauvais on 14 January a young woman with a child in her arms rode on the
>back of an ass allegedly in imitation of the flight into Egypt. She was led
>in triumph from the cathedral to the parish church of St Stephen where she
>and the ass were placed on the left side of the altar. A long mass was said
>consisting of scraps borrowed indiscriminately from many church services
>throughout the year. The singers quenched their thirst in the intervals as
>did the congregation and the ass was fed and watered. Afterwards, the ass
>was brought from the chancel into the nave where the entire congregation,
>clergy and laity danced round it braying like asses. After vespers, a large
>procession proceeded to a great theatre opposite the church where they
>watched indecent farces.
>
>
>All of this is reminiscent of the rites in North Africa of the effeminate
>priests of the Mother Goddess system and the Saturnalia. Frazer says there
>is no direct evidence that one is derived from the other but the Saturnalia,
>with the licence that characterised it and the temporary reign of a mock
>king, makes it appear so (ix, p. 339). These traditions were kept up until
>the nineteenth century when Victorian England and Napoleonic France
>following on the Revolution did away with them in some fashion. They were
>replaced as we will see with another form of the same errors. Much of the
>modern insanity derives from the USA and its commercialism.
>
>
>The twelve days of Christmas, cakes, beans and money
>
>The King of the Bean is also associated with the Festival of Fools in France
>and there is a more ancient significance to it. The Festival of Fools goes
>on to the Twelfth day of Christmas (Twelfth Night is the night of 6
>January). The eve, which is 5 January and thus the Epiphany of 6 January,
>marks the end of the two periods of the pre-Christmas festivities which are
>associated with the Saturnalia and the Sun system which commence from the
>Solstice on 25 December and continue until 5 January.
>
>
>In some areas, the king has a queen consort both of whom have an
>agricultural significance and seem to be related to the rites also of the
>Saturnalia.
>
>
>The king and queen are elected by lot on the Twelfth Night (i.e. Epiphany 6
>January) or on the eve of that festival on 5 January. It was common in
>France, Belgium, Germany and England. It is still kept in some parts of
>France. The Court acknowledged the practice and each family elected its own
>king. On the eve of the festival, a great cake was baked with a bean in it.
>It was divided into portions - one for each member of the family; one for
>God; one for the Heavenly Virgin and, sometimes, one for the poor. The
>person getting the portion with the bean was proclaimed King of the Bean
>(Frazer, ix, p. 313). Sometimes a second bean was placed in the cake for the
>election of the queen. At Blankenheim near Neuerburg, in the Eiffel a black
>and a white bean were baked in the cake - the black for the king and the
>white for the queen. In Franche-Comte they used to put as many white haricot
>beans in a hat as there where people present. Two coloured beans were
>included and drawn at random by a child. Those receiving the coloured beans
>were king and queen.
>
>
>In England, the practice was to put a bean in the hat for the king and a pea
>for the queen. However, in some places, only the king was elected by lot and
>he chose his queen himself. Sometimes a coin was substituted for the bean in
>the cake. This custom was followed in southern Germany as early as the first
>half of the sixteenth century. It is, however, considered by Frazer to be a
>variation on the earlier bean. It shows reasonably clearly that the custom
>of placing coins in Christmas pudding stems from this custom of an earlier
>time.
>
>
>In France, the young child present was placed under a table. It was
>addressed as Phoebe or Tebe and he answered in Latin Domine. The pieces of
>the cake were distributed according to the child's direction. The etymology
>has been attributed to the oracle of Apollo by some scholars. Frazer thinks
>it may be simply derived from the word for the bean (Lat. faba, Fr. f�ve).
>
>
>Every time the king or queen drank the company cried the king or queen
>drinks and they all did likewise. Anyone failing to do so had their faces
>blackened by corks or soot or the lees of wine. In some parts of the
>Ardennes, the practice was to fasten great horns of paper in the hair and
>put a huge pair of spectacles on their nose. This was worn until the end of
>the festival. This is probably the origin of the Dunce's Cap.
>
>
>This is still kept in northern France where a miniature porcelain figure is
>substituted for the bean and drawn by a child. If it is drawn by a boy he
>chooses his queen; if it drawn by a girl she chooses her king.
>
>
>These kings and queens placed white crosses on the rafters of houses to ban
>hobgoblins, witches and bugs. There was, however, a more serious
>significance to some of the office. In Lorraine, the height of the hemp crop
>was said to be determined from the height of the king and queen. If the king
>was taller, the male hemp would be higher than the female and vice versa. In
>the Vosges Mountains on the border of France-Compte, the practice of dancing
>on the roof was observed to make the hemp grow tall.
>
>
>In many areas, the beans used in the cake were taken to be blessed by the
>clergy and divination was employed on Twelfth Night to determine the month
>of the year in which the price of wheat would be dearest.
>
>
>The practice of lighting bonfires is still carried out in some areas and, at
>the time Frazer wrote, it was still done in the Montagne du Doubs on the eve
>of Twelfth Night (ix, p. 316). This was seemingly to ensure the fertility of
>the crops. There seems to be a definite, if distant, relationship to the
>Yule festivals of the pagans.
>
>
>While it burned, the people danced around it singing Good year come back,
>Bread and wine come back!
>
>
>The youth of Pontarlier carry torches over the sowed lands shouting
>couaille, couaille, blanconnie; the meaning of which is lost in antiquity.
>
>
>In the Bocage of Normandy on the same day, it is the fruit trees that are
>fired. These twinkling lights are everywhere as the peasants celebrate the
>Ceremony of the Moles and Field-mice (Taupes et Mulots). Villages compete in
>the blaze and woods and hedges are scoured for materials. They scour the
>fields threatening the moles and field mice and, thus, they believe the crop
>will be larger that autumn.
>
>
>The bonfires on the eve of Epiphany were also observed in the Ardennes. It
>is useful to look at the customs here in regard to festivals of the goddess
>Hecate in Rome and Europe generally and the fields and the crosses involved
>there (cf. the paper The Cross: Its Origin and Significance (No. 39)).
>
>
>Similar fire customs are experienced in the UK in Gloucester and in
>Hertfordshire with twelve fires at the end of twelve lands (Gloucester)
>designed to prevent smut in wheat. There is a thirteenth larger fire lit in
>both cases - the latter being on a hill (Frazer, ix, p. 318).
>
>
>This custom of making twelve fires of straw and drinking toasts of cider or
>ale is called Wassailing and is ancient. Oxen are also toasted in this
>strange ritual in some areas with a cake placed on the horns of the lead ox
>and then thrown by tickling the ox.
>
>
>The explanation of the practice of lighting fires and especially this
>largest is found in examination against the practice not only in UK and
>France but in Macedonia. The large fires are to burn the witches and
>malefactors that roam the fields at night. They are called by the
>Macedonians karkantzari or skatzanzari. They are overcome by binding with
>straw rope. They resume their human shape during the day. Over the twelve
>days of Christmas, they must be overcome by strenuous effort. Some places
>start on Christmas eve and in others it continues or is done on Twelfth
>Night.
>
>
>On Christmas eve, some people burn the karkantzari by burning holm-oak
>faggots and throwing them out in the streets at early dawn. Here, again, we
>have reference to the Yule festivals of the Druids. The later oak faggots
>were remnants of the earlier log burning.
>
>
>In Ireland, they set up sheaves of oats. This was done in Roscommon where
>they held that Twelfth Night which is Old Christmas Day is greater than
>Christmas Day itself (Frazer, ix, p. 321).
>
>
>They set up thirteen candles in the sheaf, twelve smaller and one greater in
>the centre and attribute these to the apostles at the Last Supper; but these
>are at Christmas and not Passover. Thirteen candles of rushlight named after
>each member of the family (or relations to make up the number) are placed in
>cakes of cow dung and burned to determine the length of life of each person
>(ix, p. 322).
>
>
>The origin of candles
>
>The use of candles goes back to the ancient Aryan religion, which used them
>at the Yule ceremony to ward off the gods of thunder, storm and tempest
>(Frazer, x, p. 264 (n. 4) and also p. 265). They were lit and tied to the
>sacred oak (ibid., ii, 327).
>
>
>In some areas (Ruthenia and Europe generally) they were used by thieves and
>burglars to cause sleep (Frazer, i, pp. 148-149) and in this case they were
>made of human tallow (ibid., i, p. 236). Parts of the human anatomy were
>also used as candles or human bones were filled with tallow made from the
>fat of hanged men (ibid., p. 149). Sometimes, candles were made from the
>fingers of new born or, preferably as they saw it, unborn children. As late
>as the seventeenth century in Europe robbers used to murder pregnant women
>to extract such candles from their wombs (ibid.).
>
>
>Candles were burnt to ward off witches. They entered Christianity through
>the Catholic or Orthodox Church (cf. Frazer, ibid., i, p. 13).
>
>
>The ancient Aryan practice continued among the Germans of lighting new fire
>by means of a Bonfire at Easter and sending the sticks to each home to start
>the fires to ward off the gods of thunder, storm and tempest. The practice
>was introduced to Catholicism as the Easter candle. This single giant candle
>was lit at Easter on Saturday night before the Easter Sunday and then all
>the candles of the church were lit from it. This continued for the year
>until next Easter when the single Easter candle was again lit.
>
>
>The practice of lighting the candle appears to take place on the night
>before the day of the Sun as part of the ancient Sun worshipping system.
>
>
>In the Temple, incense was burned. Candles were not burned other than as the
>Menorah.
>
>
>This practice of burning lights as candles or tapers was similar to that of
>the Saturnalia. We know from the Book of Baruch 6:19 ff that the practice of
>lighting candles before idols overlaid with precious metals was Babylonian.
>The practice of lighting multiple candles probably entered Judaism through
>the Babylonian system. We will deal with it in more detail in the section on
>Easter.
>
>
>The Menorah was seven branched and ordered by God for the Temple. In
>Solomon's Temple, there were ten tables of seven candles representing the
>Council of the Elohim of which the Sanhedrin was a copy. The nine branches
>are given mystical symbolism. There is no biblical authority for them.
>
>
>Weather
>
>The weather of the twelve days of Christmas was said to determine the
>weather of the forthcoming year.
>
>
>It is based on what appears to be a form of ancient zodiacal division of
>dividing the twelve days into four quadrants of three days per quadrant.
>This was done in the British Isles and it extended through Germany and
>German Austria into western Europe.
>
>
>From the weather on each of the twelve days it was possible to divine the
>weather of each successive month of the year. It was held to be accurate and
>apply also to the Twelfth day itself where the weather on each hour would
>determine the weather for the corresponding month. The days were thus a
>system of divination for the year ahead in its agricultural aspects.
>
>
>In Swabia, the days were called the twelve lot days. More precise divination
>was determined by making twelve circles divided into four quadrants. Each
>quadrant represented a quarter of the month. These were drawn on paper and
>hung over the door. As each day of the twelve days passed from Christmas to
>Epiphany, the weather on each quarter day was shaded and the weather for
>that quarter month was determined.
>
>
>In Switzerland, Germany and Austria it was done somewhat differently. On
>Christmas, New Year's day or on another of the twelve days, one sliced an
>onion in two, peeled off twelve coats, and sprinkled a pinch of salt in each
>of them. From the moisture left in them the next morning, it was considered
>possible to determine the weather for the next twelve months of the year.
>
>
>This was not confined to the Germanic tribes or the Teutons - it was found
>also in France and among the Celts of Brittany and in Scotland.
>
>
>In the Bocage of Normandy, the temperature was divined for the year from the
>temperature of the twelve days. This was considered more accurate than the
>predictions of the Double-Li�gois. In Cornouaille Brittany, the twelve days
>were determined from Christmas to the Epiphany - being the last six days of
>December and the first six of January. In other parts of Brittany and in
>Scotland the twelve days were determined from 1 January. They were known in
>Brittany as the gour-deziou or male days. It is said to mean properly the
>additional or supplementary days. This concept takes us back to another
>ancient concept of the calendar and the five excess days of the year.
>
>
>The Scots from their almanac, from the last day of December, or the first
>day of January (depending on place) determine the weather of the forthcoming
>year by that of the twelve days of Christmas. Thus, January is determined by
>the weather of 31 December and so on as an infallible rule.
>
>
>The Celts of Scotland, as elsewhere in France, are divided as to the
>beginning of the days either at Christmas on 1 January or on 31 December.
>Frazer considers this an important indicator of the origin of the beliefs
>(ibid., ix, p. 24).
>
>
>This concept is very ancient and is found among the Aryans of the Vedic age
>in India. This predates Christ by many centuries.
>
>They, too, appear to have invested days in midwinter with a sacred character
>as a time when the three Ribhus or genii of the seasons rested from their
>labours in the home of the sun-god, and these twelve rest-days they called
>'an image or copy of the year' (Frazer, ix, pp. 324-325).
>
>Frazer follows A Weber in this explanation of the common views of the East
>and West (cf. fn. 3 to ix, p. 325).
>
>
>The system was thus an ancient system of the Aryans who conquered India from
>the Steppes with the use of iron age implements and harnessed horses about
>1000 BCE.
>
>
>Their relatives took the same festivals west into Europe. These movements
>are part of the dispersion of the ancient mysteries of the Babylonian system
>which found its way into the nomadic Shamans. This religion was Animism.
>
>
>Ancient calendar systems
>
>The division of the twelve days came from the ancient Aryan calendar which
>was divided according to the phases of the Moon and not that of the Sun. The
>various Aryan languages have the name for month as the name for Moon.
>
>
>The days of the month alternate between twenty nine and thirty days every
>two months. These days at fifty-nine times six fall short of the actual
>solar year by almost twelve days (eleven and one quarter days).
>
>
>This appears to have been an intercalation to adjust the lunar to the solar
>year which was a perversion of the true intercalation system adopted by the
>Hebrews and the Assyro-Babylonians and the Greco-Romans. It thus seems to
>have been a perversion of Sun-worship from the earliest days of the
>movements of the Middle Eastern tribes. The Celtic Hittites, being the first
>to move into Europe, took the system with them and its implementation
>corrupted subsequent colonisation from the Assyrian relocations and the
>movement of the Parthian and Gothic horde.
>
>
>We now know much more about the calendar system in use in Europe and the
>midwinter solstice in use in Europe and the UK. The circles were designed to
>determine the solstice exactly on midwinter's day.
>
>
>The twelve days were distinct from the five days and they appear to have
>been variously added to or combined in different areas.
>
>
>It appears that the five extra days of the year making the 365 days over and
>above the 360 days considered to be the normal year was a very ancient
>belief and system of intercalary practice where, from the Mayas of Yucatan
>to the pyramids of Egypt, people regarded them as useless for any religious
>or civil purpose and did nothing on those days. This may have also had some
>basis for the practices. The texts of the pyramids expressly mention the
>five days over and above the year comprised of twelve months of thirty days
>(ibid., p. 340). The Aztecs and the American system, however, has eighteen
>months of twenty days and so did not follow any lunar system. The five days
>were considered, because of their mathematical values in the divisions of
>the calendar, to be useless and the object of no work and a general malaise
>of the society. This had no relationship to the Hebrew prophetic year of
>twelve thirty-day months which is a symbolic idealisation of the actual
>revolutions of the true intercalary nineteen year cycle. This religious
>symbolism and structure is detailed in the Bible.
>
>
>The five day sequence related to the calendar in
>
>use in solar systems or Sun-worshipping systems. The twelve days were an
>adjustment of the lunar to the solar which one would expect to find in the
>more ancient Moon-Sun-Morning Star systems which were common at the time of
>the Exodus (see the paper The Golden Calf (No. 222)).
>
>
>The Sun god
>
>25 December was also associated with Mithras, as he was Sun god.
>
>
>The Catholic liturgist Mario Righetti (in addition to Duchesne and also
>Cullman) held that:
>
>After the peace of the Church of Rome, to facilitate the acceptance of the
>faith by the pagan masses, found it convenient (sic) to institute the 25th
>of December as the feast of the temporal birth of Christ, to divert them
>from the pagan feast, celebrated on the same day in honour of the
>"Invincible Sun" Mithras, the conqueror of darkness (fn 74, II, p. 67 quote
>also in Bacchiocchi, From Sabbath to Sunday, Pontifical Gregorian University
>Press, Rome, 1977, p. 260).
>
>Thus, Mithras was the god of the festival of the solstice on 25th December,
>which followed immediately on from the Saturnalia. With this deity, we see
>Sunday worship emerge in Rome.
>
>
>The dedications to Mithra was as Soli invicto Mithrae or the Invincible
>Sun - the Unconquered Sun as Frazer terms it (p. 304). It was also related
>to him as Sol Invictus Elagabal in the public form of the religion.
>
>
>The term Father was a rank held by the priests of Mithra. The term is
>forbidden to Christians (Mat. 23:9). It entered Christianity with the
>Mystery cults.
>
>
>What actually occurred was that the original calendars of the Roman system
>began the week on Saturday and were in use in the first years of the
>Augustan era (27 BCE to 14 CE) following the discovery of the calendar of
>Nola (cf. A Degrassi, fn. 26, p. 104; cf. Bacchiocchi, ibid., p. 244). This
>structure appears to be related to the system of Mithras (as we know from
>the Epicurean Celcus (c. 140-180 CE) where the Sun occupied the highest
>place on the ladder of ascent through the seven gates of
>
>the Mithraic ladder from Saturn to the Sun. This is classic Shamanism and is
>practiced by animistic religion throughout the world. In Origen Contra
>Celsum, 6,21-22 we see that Celsus lists the planets in the reverse order
>enabling the Sun to occupy the significant seventh position.
>
>
>We later see this system emerge as the eight day symbolism in the Roman
>system for the week beginning on Saturn's day or Saturday and ending with
>the day of the Sun or Sunday which was always a holiday. The planetary week
>was also not in the accepted order of the planets and people could not
>account for the difference (cf. Plutarch Complete Works, III, p. 230; cf.
>Bacchiocchi, ibid., p. 246).
>
>
>The differences can be seen also by comparison with the Ziggurat of the
>Babylonian system and the seven levels of ascent to the Moon god there (cf.
>the paper The Golden Calf (No. 222)).
>
>
>The statement of Tertullian (Ad Nationes, 1, 13, ANF, III, p. 123), attempts
>to refute the charge of Sun-worship. Tertullian admits that, by then,
>Christians had commenced praying towards the east and made Sunday a day of
>festivity. He directly places the responsibility for Sunday worship over the
>Sabbath on the Sun-worshipping cults where he says they selected its day in
>preference to the previous day of the week (i.e. the Sabbath or Saturday)
>(cf. Bacchiocchi, pp. 248-249). However, by then, they were both worshipping
>on that day as well as the Christian Sabbath.
>
>
>Prayer to the Sun in the east
>
>Apparently, prayer to the east originated by prayer towards Jerusalem as
>Irenaeus mentions being the custom of the Ebionites (Adv. Her., 1,26, ANF,
>I, p. 352). By the time of Clement of Alexandria and Origen, we see the
>orientation to be towards the source of light that dispels the darkness of
>the night although Clement still mentions the ancient temples (Stromateis,
>7,7,43, GCS, 3, 32; cf. Bacchiocchi, p. 255).
>
>
>Bacchiocchi makes it clear that the association between the Christian Sunday
>and the pagan veneration of the day of the Sun is not explicit before the
>time of Eusebius (c. 260-340 CE). Although previous writers associated him
>as true light and sun of justice, no deliberate attempt prior to Eusebius
>was made to justify Sunday observance by means of the symbology of the day
>of the Sun (ibid., p. 261).
>
>
>The process thus entered Christianity by means of the earlier December
>festival, which was originally derived from the worship of Saturn and Opis
>in the Saturnalia, and its association with the Heavenly Virgin or Mother
>goddess and her infant child.
>
>
>The gospels say nothing as to the day of Christ's birth and the early Church
>did not celebrate it.
>
>
>The custom of celebrating Christ's birth began in Egypt, being derived from
>the Mother goddess cult there, and the Christians there celebrated it on 6
>January. By the fourth century it had become generally established in the
>East (Frazer, v, p. 304). The western church had never recognised 6 January
>as the true date and, in time, its decision was accepted by the eastern
>church. At Antioch this change was not introduced until about 375 CE
>(Frazer, ibid.).
>
>
>The origin of the practice is plainly recorded by the Syrian Christians as
>we see from Frazer quoting also Credner and Momsen and also Usener (v, pp.
>304-305).
>
>The reason why the fathers transferred the celebration of the sixth of
>January to the twenty fifth of December was this. It was a custom of the
>heathen to celebrate on the same twenty-fifth of December the birthday of
>the Sun, at which they kindled lights in token of festivity. In these
>solemnities and festivities the Christians also took part. Accordingly when
>the doctors of the Church perceived that the Christians had a leaning to
>this festival, they took counsel and resolved that the true Nativity should
>be solemnized on that day and the festival of the Epiphany on the sixth of
>January. Accordingly, along with this custom, the practice has prevailed of
>kindling fires till the sixth.
>
>Thus, the Saturnalia led up to the solstice when presents were given to
>children from 23 December or now Christmas eve on 24 December in the
>Gregorian calendar. The rites of the solstice then took over from the
>original Saturnalia but the period then became lengthened from three to
>seven days to which was added the twelve days.
>
>
>When we count five days from 25 December we come to 31 December from which
>some of the Celts and Germans begin the count. The addition of St Stephen's
>Day (or Boxing Day) brings the five day period from 27 December in line to 1
>January.
>
>
>The pagan origin of Christmas is also evident in Augustine when he exhorts
>his brethren not to celebrate this solemn day like the heathen on account of
>the Sun but on account of him who made the Sun (Augustine Serm., cxc, 1; in
>Migne Patriologia Latina, xxxviii, 1007). Leo called the Great likewise
>rebuked the pestilent belief that Christmas was solemnised because of the
>birth of the new Sun, and not because of the nativity of Christ (Frazer,
>ibid.; cf. Leo the Great Serm., xxii (al xxi) 6 and Migne, liv, 198).
>
>However, by then, it was a hopeless cause. The entire system was endemic to
>Christianity and the Mother goddess cult was entrenched.
>
>
>Frazer says:
>
>Thus it appears that the Christian Church chose to celebrate the birthday of
>its Founder on the twenty-fifth of December in order to transfer the
>devotion of the heathen from the Sun to him who was called the Sun of
>Righteousness (p. 305).
>
>There was a theory put forward by one Mgr Duchesne that 25 December arose
>from the conformity with the equinox on 25 March and this was the day on
>which Christ was killed and also on which his mother conceived. This digs an
>even deeper pit because 25 March was indeed initially adopted in Africa and
>elsewhere as the date of the crucifixion. However, it was on a Sunday in the
>only year that 14 Nisan could have fallen on 25 March. It is thus
>destructive to the theory. Moreover, 25 March is associated with the
>festival of the god Attis as Frazer notes in his footnote to page 305. We
>will examine this in the sections below.
>
>
>The Goat and the Bear
>
>On the twelve days we also see mummers playing the part of a goat and a
>bear.
>
>
>In the highlands of Scotland and St Kilda down until the last half of the
>eighteenth century, at least a cowherd would wrap himself in a skin on New
>Year's eve. The young people would meet and with staves they would beat the
>hide as a drum and proceed from house to house where the one covered with
>the hide runs three times round deiseil, i.e. in the way the Sun revolves.
>He was pursued by the crowd crying in Gaelic:
>
>let us raise the noise louder and louder let us beat the hide (Frazer, viii,
>p. 323).
>
>They go from house to house repeating verses. On entry, they call down
>blessings on the house and its cattle, stones and timber, its produce and
>health. A part of the hide was then burnt and applied to the noses of every
>person and domestic animal in order to protect the inhabitants against
>disease and misfortune for the coming year.
>
>
>This last day of the year is called Hogmanay.
>
>
>Each of the party, after the rhyme had been said and the Rann Calluin or
>Christmas Rhyme had been repeated, in return entered and had refreshment.
>The general thing that was burnt in lieu of the strip of hide was a
>Casein-uchd made of the breast strip of a sheep (or deer or goat) wrapped
>around the point of a shinty stick. This was singed in the fire and put
>three times around the family and to the nose of all. No drink was taken
>until this ceremony had been completed. The purpose was to protect the
>household against witchcraft and disease.
>
>
>On the Isle of Man, the feather of the wren was used (viii, p. 324).
>
>
>The custom appears to be related to an older custom involving human
>sacrifice. Frazer notes that the Khonds slew a human victim as a divinity
>and took him from house to house and everyone took a relic of his sacred
>person (cf. i, pp. 246 ff). The cowhide no doubt substituted for this
>victim. The communion substituted for the body and blood of the god.
>
>While these customs may not have connection with agriculture, the similar
>customs of Plough Monday certainly do and the processions we see in Europe
>of men clad as animals probably identify with the corn spirit. They may have
>association with the Gilyak procession of the bear and the Indian procession
>of the snake (ibid.).
>
>
>Often in these processions (as in the last days of the carnival in Bohemia)
>a man was swathed from head to foot in pease-straw and wrapped around in
>straw ropes (Frazer, ibid.). This harkens back to the wicca man in ancient
>Britain.
>
>
>These festivals of agriculture were associated with both the midwinter
>solstice and the spring equinox - both heralding the return of growth and
>warmth and life as the power of the Sun and summer to nature.
>
>
>The Bohemian man goes by the name of the Shrovetide or Carnival bear
>(Fastnachtsb�r).
>
>
>After he has danced at every house with the girls and maids and the
>housewife herself they all retire to the ale house:
>
>For at Shrovetide, but especially at Shrove Tuesday, every one must dance,
>if the flax, the vegetables and the corn are to thrive (Frazer, viii, p.
>326).
>
>The straw of the bear is put in the nests of the hens and geese. The bear
>represents the spirit of fertility. The purpose of the dancing is to make
>fertile both animal and vegetable in all aspects.
>
>
>In parts of Bohemia, this person is not called a bear but an oats-goat.
>
>
>In Prussian Lithuania on Twelfth day a man is wrapped in pease-straw to
>represent the bear and another in oats-straw to represent the goat.
>
>
>In Marburg in Steiermark, men appear as both a wolf and a bear (Frazer,
>ibid.).
>
>
>The man who gave the last stroke at threshing is called the wolf. He keeps
>the name Wolf until Christmas when he is wrapped in a goat's skin and led
>from house to house as a pease-bear at the end of a rope. His dress as a
>goat marks him out and appears to associate the symbols of goat and bear and
>wolf in this ancient ritual of the corn-spirit.
>
>
>In Scandinavia, the appearance of the corn-spirit as a goat is common
>(ibid.). In Sweden, led about with horns on his head, he personated the
>Yule-goat. In parts of Sweden they make a pretence of slaughtering the goat
>who comes to life again (ibid., p. 327). The two men who slaughter him sing
>verses referring to the mantles of varying colours, red, blue, white and
>yellow, which they laid on him.
>
>
>After supper on Christmas evening, the people dance the "angel dance" to
>ensure a good crop. Yule straw, either of wheat or rye, is made into the
>likeness of a goat and thrown among the dancers with the cry of catch the
>Yule-goat. In Dalarne it is called the Yule-ram.
>
>
>In Denmark and Sweden, it is customary to bake cakes of fine meal at
>Christmas in the shape of goats, rams and boars (Frazer, ibid., p. 328).
>They are often made out of the last sheaf at harvest and kept until
>sowing-time where they are partly mixed with the seed corn and partly eaten
>by the people and the plough oxen in the hope of securing a good harvest.
>The commonality of the customs from the British Isles to Europe and
>Scandinavia and the East establishes beyond doubt the ancient practice as
>appeasement of the corn-spirit and the ancient gods. The appearance as a
>wether and a boar is also ancient and widespread.
>
>
>The Straw-bear was witnessed in Wittlesy Cambridgeshire, being performed as
>it had been for centuries on the day after Plough Monday, by Professor Moore
>Smith of Sheffield University in January 1909 (see letter of 13 January
>1909; cf. Frazer, viii, p. 329).
>
>
>Plough Monday is the first Monday of January after Twelfth day. It is beyond
>dispute that we are dealing with an ancient agricultural festival which is
>directed at appeasement of the ancient agricultural gods in the sequence of
>the midwinter festivals which run from the Saturnalia to the solstice high
>day and then on to the twelve days of so-called Christmas to the plough
>festival of Plough Monday and Shrove Tuesday.
>
>
>It appears to have been anciently associated with human sacrifice - perhaps
>in each of the three aspects or perhaps as single festivals.
>
>
>Plough Monday in England was normally associated with a team of human plough
>bullocks, one of whom was disguised as an old crone called Bessy. They went
>about leaping and dancing in high fashion presumably to make the corn grow
>as high as they leapt. This was similar to the practice of the Straw-bears
>or Yule-goats on the continent and elsewhere in UK.
>
>
>The same practices are found in Thrace and Bulgaria on the same day, i.e.
>the Monday of the last week of Carnival. One dancer (the Kuker) is a man
>clad in goatskin. Another dancer (the Kukerica), disguised in petticoats as
>the old woman or baba, has "her" face blackened.
>
>
>Bears are represented by dogs wrapped in bearskins. A mock court is set up
>of a king and judge and other officials. The plays of the Kuker and Kukerica
>are wanton and lascivious.
>
>
>Towards evening, two people are yoked to a plough and the Kuker ploughs a
>few furrows and sows some corn. He then takes off his disguise and is paid
>for his trouble.
>
>
>The people believe that the person who plays the Kuker commits a deadly sin
>and the priests also make vain efforts to abolish the customs. The Kuker in
>Losengrad district has a cake with money in it which is distributed to those
>present. If a farmer gets the coin, the crops will be good; if a herdsman
>gets it, the herds will be good. The Kuker also symbolically ploughs the
>ground and waves to and fro to imitate the waving corn. The man with the
>coin is bound and dragged by the feet over the ground to quicken the
>fertility of the ground. This drawing by lot is reminiscent also of the
>Saturnalia sacrifice we saw above.
>
>In Bulgaria itself, the festival has the Old Woman or Mother as the leading
>personage, played by a man in woman's clothing. The Kuker and Kukerica are
>subordinate to the "Old Woman". They wear fantastic masks of human heads
>with animal horns or birds heads and skins with a girdle of lime bark. On
>their back is a hump made out of rags. This festival in Bulgaria, being the
>Monday of the last week of Carnival, is called Cheese Monday. It is
>nevertheless associated with the Ploughing festival.
>
>
>The same rituals associated in western Europe of going round the house and
>the blessings conferred by the presence of the "old woman" on the fertility
>of the village is uppermost in the minds of all. Incursion by masked people
>from any other village is seen as a threat and a drawing away of the
>fertility of the village. Such incursions are resisted.
>
>
>The similarity between the Old Woman with the black face of Demeter and the
>two aides of Pluto and Persephone are probably behind the origins of the
>three kings custom, with the black Mechior representing Demeter.
>
>The festival of Befana in Rome on the night before Epiphany is clearly
>related to this festival of Demeter and the term Befana is obviously a
>corruption of Epiphany. She is clearly an old witch and the noise of this
>festival is clearly associated with an ancient custom of clearing the area
>of evil influences (see also below). The same ceremonies involving Befana on
>the eve of Epiphany were or are observed in Tuscan Romagna and elsewhere in
>Italy (Frazer, ix, p. 167).
>
>
>Frazer rightly sees in the Old Woman of the Bulgarian and Thracian system a
>reference to the Corn Mother-goddess Demeter who in the likeness of an old
>woman brought blessing to the house of Celeus, king of Eleusis and restored
>the lost fertility to the fallow Eleusinian fields. The Kuker and Kukerica,
>the male and female mummers, represent Pluto and Persephone. These rituals
>are extant from East to West and represent the oldest of the religious
>festivals (Frazer, viii, pp. 334-335). We are thus directly in the middle of
>the Eleusinian Mystery cults and linked with the same Mystery cults of
>ancient times from the cult of Apollo in early Europe and of Dionysius and
>of agricultural symbols in the cult of worship of the Sun god. The
>Bull-slaying cults are thus also involved and we see from the times of
>dedication of the Bulls sacrificed by the Greeks in Magnesia after its
>dedication in the beginning of the sowing that we have a common idea of the
>festival. Zeus is the partner of Demeter and the final product is the
>slaying of the Bull to Zeus in the equivalent of the month of May.
>
>
>Yule logs, the holly and ivy, and mistletoe
>
>The summer and winter solstice were seen as the two great turning points of
>the year. Fires were lit on both solstices. The midsummer fires were lit in
>the open and youths jumped the fires. This practice was found among the
>Celts in Ireland, Britain and Gaul and also among the north Africans in
>Morocco and the Atlas Mountains. Their practice is much more ancient than
>the Islam they also profess. The practice of lighting fires happened
>anciently among the pagans on May Day and on Halloween (1 November) called
>All Saints Day. The asymmetric nature of these festivals with that of the
>solstice should be noted. The Festival of Walpurgis on the last day of April
>preceding May Day is the Festival of the Burning of the Witches. This type
>of festival is also associated with the twelve days between Christmas 25
>December and the Epiphany of 6 January. Fires of pine-resin are lit on these
>nights to keep the witches away. The fires are generally larger on Twelfth
>Night. In Silesia, people burn fires of pine-resin between Christmas and New
>Year to drive witches away from the farmhouses. This was the "proper time
>for the expulsion of the forces of darkness". On Christmas eve and New Year'
>s eve, shots are fired over the fields and people wrap straw around the
>fruit trees to prevent evil forces from doing them harm.
>
>
>In Biggar in Lanarkshire UK, New Year's eve is the traditional time for this
>fire which has been lit since time immemorial.
>
>In 1644, nine witches of flesh and blood were burnt on Leith Links in
>Scotland (Frazer, ix, p. 165).
>
>
>Fires are lit in the Autumn but are not significant. The festival of the
>nativity of the Virgin on 8 September was traditionally associated with
>noise and uproar associated with Befana at Rome and traditionally involved
>assassinations. Prof. Housman noted that when he witnessed the festival at
>Capri in 1897, a few more than the usual eight or ten were murdered (Frazer,
>x, p. 221).
>
>
>Fires are also traditionally lit on the midwinter solstice on 25 December.
>The difference between the midsummer and midwinter fires being that the
>midwinter fires are lit indoors and form part of the ritual of the
>invocation of the Sun god to his place of supremacy in the heavens. Thus,
>the midwinter fires developed a more cloistered or family type atmosphere.
>
>
>It is perhaps of significance that in the Shetland Islands, the Yule or
>Christmas holidays began seven days before Christmas and ended at Antinmas,
>i.e. the twenty-fourth day after Christmas.
>
>
>The Shetlanders name these holidays the Yules. Seven days before Christmas,
>the elves called Trows by the Shetlanders are let free from their homes in
>the earth and dwell above ground if it pleases them. This is the probable
>origin of the elf symbolism of and with Santa Claus. It seems to relate back
>to the concept of the misrule of the seven days of the Saturnalia leading up
>to 25 December.
>
>
>The most important of the rituals in Yule was the saining which had to be
>properly carried out to deal with the grey folk as the elves were called.
>
>
>The modern myths emanating from the USA regarding alien greys is none other
>than the revamping of the elves at Yule.
>
>
>On the last day of the holidays, the twenty-fourth day after Christmas,
>called up-helly-a, or Uphalliday in Shetland, the doors were all opened and
>a great deal of pantomimic chasing went on to rid the area of the
>mischievous elves. People piously read the Bible and displayed iron
>ostentatiously "for it is well known that elves cannot abide the sight of
>iron." The infants were carefully guarded and sained by learned wise women.
>No doubt, we have the sign of the evil eye involved here as an ancient
>custom (cf. also the paper The Cross: Its Origin and Significance (No. 39)).
>
>
>When day dawned after twenty-fourth night, the Trows or Grey-folk had
>vanished and the Yules were ended.
>
>
>The customs of banishing evil forces and witches on a night set aside for
>the purpose in the period of the winter solstice and festivals can thus be
>traced from Rome and Calabria in the south as far north as the Shetlands. It
>also runs from Ireland to the Steppes and down to North Africa.
>
>
>The log
>
>We know that the Germans burnt the Yule log which was an ancient custom even
>by the eleventh century. In 1184, the parish priest of Ahlen in M�nsterland
>records bringing a tree to kindle the festal fire at the Lord's nativity
>(Frazer, x, p. 247). This was found in Britain in ancient times and was
>common to the Teutons and apparently the Celts. John Brand is quoted by
>Frazer as saying that the Yule block is a counterpart of the midsummer fires
>made within doors because of the cold weather at the winter solstice (ibid.,
>n. 2). This was nothing other than the erroneous application to 25 December
>of the solstice which was set aside for the worship of the Sun (Frazer, x,
>p. 246). This lighting of the tree fire was to assist the Sun to relight its
>ailing lamp, and the entire system of fires and candles at the nativity
>before the Heavenly Virgin is the ancient worship of the Mother goddess and
>her infant child, the Sun. The lamps assist in the lighting of the heavenly
>fire of the Sun and this is the basic idea behind flame and its use in
>Zoroastrianism.
>
>
>The Yule log was also kept among European groups and placed on the fire to
>ward off thunder and the effects of storms. Thus, the relationship is
>clearly made between the ancient gods of the Teutons over thunder and
>lightning and weather and the Yule log at the solstice.
>
>
>Mistletoe
>
>Mistletoe was sacred in the religion of the Druids. The Druids who came via
>Egypt as Magi were picked up by the Milesians in Spain from among the
>Gadelians before the Scoto-Milesians went to Ireland. From there they spread
>into Britain and Europe (MacGeohagen The History of Ireland, Sadlier, NY, p.
>42; cf. Frazer, ii, pp. 358,362; xi, pp. 76 ff,301).
>
>
>Pliny (Natural History, xvi, pp. 249-251) derives the word Druid from the
>Greek word for oak which is drus. It is, however, the same or similar in the
>Celtic being daur. The Druids are thus priests of the oak. Their cult is
>thus ancient and associated with the oak groves. Other scholars prefer to
>derive the name from the root meaning knowledge or wisdom - hence, they were
>the wizards or magicians. This is also borne from the title Magi which they
>held (cf. Frazer, xi, pp. 76-77, n. 1 to p. 76).
>
>
>The Druidic cycle of the calendar was of thirty years and there appears to
>be a common relationship in their worship with that of the Boetians who,
>like they, worship or conjured the oak and, thus, both may have a common
>Aryan connection. The Boetian cycle, in the festival of the great Daedala,
>was one of sixty years and not thirty. This may have application to the
>Aryan practice observed among the Indians of the sixty year cycle based on
>the sidereal cycle of Jupiter.
>
>
>The mistletoe is cut with a golden scythe on the first or sixth day of the
>Moon (Frazer, xi, pp. 77-78). It is associated with fertility and was held
>to make barren animals and women to bring forth. It was thought to have
>fallen from the sky and was called the all-healer (Frazer, xi, pp.
>77-79,82). Two white bulls were sacrificed at its cutting on the sixth day
>for this purpose. The priest was dressed in a white robe. It was cut on the
>first day of the Moon by the Italians and on the sixth by the Druids. This
>difference is probably accounted for because of the commencement of the
>lunar month in both systems. Neither cut the mistletoe with an iron
>implement. It was not allowed to touch the earth and, hence, it was caught
>in a white cloth.
>
>
>The Italians believed that mistletoe growing on oak had similar properties
>if we accept Pliny and, thus, there was a commonality of belief to both
>systems.
>
>
>We are thus back again to the fertility system of the Saturnalia and the
>healing of the Mysteries and Apollo, but in an ancient form common to the
>Aryans before 1000 BCE.
>
>
>This system was so ancient that it was common even to the Ainu of Japan who
>also held it sacred. They, however, use mistletoe cut from a willow because
>that tree is sacred to them. They agree with both the Druids (in its
>curative properties) and the Italians (regarding the fertility of women for
>childbirth) in their beliefs (Frazer, xi, p. 79).
>
>
>This belief extends down to the natives of Mabuig Island in the Torres
>Strait (ibid.). The common belief is also found in Africa among the Walos of
>Senegambia (ibid.).
>
>
>The veneration of mistletoe as an all-healer is found among Swiss peasants
>and among the Swedes (ibid., p. 82).
>
>
>The Norse god Balder was said to have been slain by mistletoe and Frazer
>gives an extensive account of this matter in his work.
>
>
>Mistletoe was used as a remedy for epilepsy generally and by high medical
>authorities in the UK and Holland as late as the eighteenth century (ibid.,
>p. 83, noting Ray of UK in 1700, Boerhaave of Holland in 1720 and his pupil
>Van Swieten in 1745).
>
>
>Mistletoe is held to be a protection against lightning and fire and, hence,
>associated with the Yule system also (Frazer, xi, p. 85).
>
>
>It was most commonly used at the midsummer fires and at this time was
>associated with the death of the god Balder. This seems to have involved
>actual human sacrifice at this time in Denmark, Norway and Sweden (Frazer,
>xi, p. 87). The practice of throwing the victim chosen by lot into the
>Beltane fire and also the Green wolf of the midsummer fires are associated
>with this system of worship as tree spirits or gods of vegetation (ibid., p.
>88).
>
>
>The worship of mistletoe is associated directly with the cult of the worship
>of the oak and was common to all the Aryans. The Celts in Asia Minor
>worshiped at the grove called Drynemetum which is pure Celtic, meaning
>Temple of the Oak. These are the groves which also contained a phallus
>spoken against by the Bible.
>
>
>Among the Slavs, the oak was the sacred symbol of the great god Perun and
>the oak ranks first among the holy trees of the Germans. It was adored by
>them anciently and certain of these practices and attitudes survive to the
>present day (Frazer, ibid., p. 89).
>
>
>The oak was also sacred to the Italians and the image of Jupiter on the
>Capitol was originally nothing but a natural oak tree. At Dodona, Zeus was
>also worshipped as being immanent in the oak. Frazer concludes that the
>Aryans, including Celts, Germans and Lithuanians, commonly held the oak
>sacred before their dispersion and this common land must have been
>plentifully supplied with oak. The mistletoe is merely its symbol, as heaven
>sent aspect of healing, protection and fertility.
>
>
>The kindling of sacred fire, whether among the Celts, Germans or Slavs, is
>always by use of the oak in rubbing two of the sticks together or by rubbing
>oak on a grey stone (not red). The same types of practice are found from
>Germany to the highlands of Scotland in kindling the need-fire (cf. Frazer,
>xi, p. 91).
>
>
>Frazer says the perpetual fire of Vesta in Rome was fed with oak wood. Oak
>wood also burnt in the perpetual fire before the sacred oak at Romove in
>Lithuania. The blocks of oak are burnt also from the midwinter solstice
>through to the end of the year and replaced with the new log and the ashes
>are mixed among the seed etc. for fertility.
>
>
>The common link in all these stories is the burning of the fires and the
>cutting of the mistletoe. The ancient Aryans believed, as we can deduce from
>the myth of Balder, that the oak was the god and the mistletoe's link with
>it ensured its longevity. The human sacrifice at the midsummer fires ensured
>the life of the crops. The use of mistletoe and the Yule log at the
>midwinter solstice also looked to the sacrifice of the god represented by
>the human who took his place, and the return of the Sun system. This is the
>underlying symbolism of the Christmas tradition (cf. Frazer, xi, p. 93).
>
>
>While the mistletoe stood, neither the god nor his substitute could be
>injured. The cutting of the mistletoe was both the signal and the cause of
>his death.
>
>
>Holly and ivy
>
>Holly and ivy allegedly represent male and female. The ivy clings and
>twines - supposedly representing the female. The holly is prickly and
>erect - supposedly representing the male.
>
>
>In Surrey England, a holly tree is used to pass a child through a cleft to
>heal rupture whereas it is usually an ash elsewhere (Frazer, xi, p. 169, n.
>2).
>
>The holly-oak was sacred to the Fratres Arvales or Brethren of the Tilled
>Fields. This was a Roman college of twelve priests who performed public
>religious rites for the purposes of agriculture. They wore wreaths of ears
>of corn. Their sacrifices were made in the grove of the goddess Dia some
>five miles down the Tiber from Rome. This grove contained laurels and
>holly-oaks. It was so hallowed that expiatory sacrifices were offered every
>time a tree or even a bough of a tree fell to the ground. This was obviously
>especially prone to occur with the advent of snow and storms at the winter
>solstice. Hence, the concept also of holly and the white Christmas. More
>elaborate sacrifices had to be made when one of the trees were struck by
>lightning. They were then dug up by the roots, split and burnt and others
>planted in their stead. At the Roman festival of the Parilia which was for
>the welfare of flocks and herds, peasants prayed for forgiveness if they
>entered a hallowed grove, sat under a sacred tree, or lopped a holy bough to
>feed sheep (cf. Frazer, ii, p. 123).
>
>
>Pliny says the woods were formerly the temples of the deities and that even
>in his time the peasants dedicated a tall tree to a god with the ritual of
>olden times (Pliny Natural History, xii, p. 3).
>
>
>The ivy is the symbol of the Mystery cults. It is chewed by the Bacchanalian
>feast-goers. It is identified with the god Dionysius, or Bacchus.
>
>
>Ivy was used by the Greeks as one of the two firesticks. The board of the
>pair was made out of a parasitic or creeping plant which was usually ivy.
>The borer was usually laurel. Oak was also used as the borer.
>
>
>The ancient Indians used a parasite (the climbing fig) as the borer using
>the parasite as the male concept. The Greeks seemed to have reversed this
>concept. The ivy is considered female and the laurel male. Yet in the Greek,
>the word ivy is masculine and the ivy was identified anciently with the male
>god Dionysius. The word for laurel is feminine and is identified with a
>nymph. Thus, we may conclude that the Greeks, like the Indians, considered
>the concepts similarly in very ancient times but modified them perhaps
>though expedience (Frazer, ii, pp. 251-252).
>
>
>Anciently, ivy was prohibited to touch or name (Frazer, iii, pp. 13 ff.).
>Ivy was also sacred to the god Attis and, hence, we come then to the pine
>tree which was also sacred to that god (cf. Frazer, v, p. 278 and see the
>paper The Cross: Its Origin and Significance (No. 39)).
>
>
>Ivy was also sacred to the god Osirus (Frazer, vi, p. 112) and also for
>dreams (ibid., x, p. 242). Thus, we see a commonality to the system of the
>Triune god and the Mystery cults generally which ties in naturally with the
>solstice system and Sun worship. Thus, the holly and the ivy are the symbols
>also of the oak and other groves dedicated to the deities so condemned by
>the Bible.
>
>
>The Christmas tree
>
>The decorated pine tree stems directly from the Mystery cults and the
>worship of the god Attis. He is held to have been a man who became a tree
>and, hence, is the embodiment of the ancient tree-spirit we meet in ancient
>Indian or Indus mythology from as early as Harappa and Mohenjo Daro. He is
>clearly a fertility god of corn and wears a Phrygian cap like Mithras (from
>the statue in the Lateran; Frazer, v, p. 279).
>
>
>The bringing in of the pine tree decked in violets and woollen bands is like
>bringing in the May-tree or Summer-tree in modern folk custom. The effigy
>which was attached to the tree was a duplicate representative of the god
>Attis. This was traditionally kept until the next year when it was burnt
>(Firmicus Maternus De errore profanarum religionum; cf. Frazer, v, p. 277
>and n. 2).
>
>The original intent of this custom was to maintain the spirit of vegetation
>intact throughout the coming year. The Phrygians worshipped the pine tree
>above all others and it is from this area that we derive the Mysteries and
>the Mithras system. It is probably sacred to the cults in that it is an
>evergreen lasting through the solstice period over a large area, when other
>trees are bare. Remember also that pine resin was burnt at the solstice
>festivals. The origins are lost in the antiquity of the Assyro-Babylonian
>system.
>
>
>The resemblance of the god Attis was changed to the Sun symbol as a
>monstrance on the top and then to angels and other types of decorations. The
>decorations are easily identifiable as the Sun, Moon, and stars of the
>Triune system of the Babylonians as Sin Ishtar and Shamash or Isis, Osirus
>and Horus of the Egyptians (see the paper The Golden Calf (No. 222)).
>
>Ivy was also sacred to Attis and his eunuch priests were tattooed with the
>symbol of the ivy leaf (Frazer, v, p. 278).
>
>
>Pine nuts were used to produce a wine used in the orgiastic rites of Cybele
>which were in effect counterparts of the Dionysian orgies and Strabo
>compared them (Strabo, x, 3. 12 ff).
>
>
>At the festival of Thesmophoria, they were thrown along with pigs and other
>agents or emblems of fertility into the sacred vaults of Demeter for the
>purpose of increasing the fertility of the earth and of women (Frazer, v, p.
>278). Thus, we are back again to the Demeter festivals and the aspects that
>have kept on and which are associated with Christmas in Europe generally as
>we have already seen.
>
>
>The Epiphany
>
>The term Epiphany means manifestation as the appearance of some divine or
>superhuman being. It was applied to Antiochus IV Epiphanes, king of Syria
>(175-164 BCE).
>
>
>It was also known as: the dies luminum (day of lights); as three kings day
>or the twelfth day. All of these are dealt with above. The practices
>associated with it are all derived from the ancient sources we see in the
>text and have little to do with the faith.
>
>The name survives in the great festival of Befana at Rome (cf. Catholic
>Encyclopedia, art., Epiphany, Robert Appleton, NY, 1909, Vol. V, p. 504).
>The CE says:
>
>It is difficult to say how closely the practice then observed of buying all
>sorts of earthenware images, combined with whistles and representing some
>type of Roman life, is to be connected with the rather similar custom in
>vogue during the December feast of the Saturnalia (ibid.).
>
>It is hardly difficult to identify. The practices were the same and the term
>is applied to the manifestation of the Befana as the goddess as we see
>above. The attempt to place the reference in Hippolytus on the Sacrament of
>Baptism is incorrect as he uses the term theophaneia not epiphania (ibid.).
>
>
>The first substantive reference is in Clement (Stromateis, I, xxi, p. 45).
>The CE quotes this text as follows and then goes on to say:
>
>'There are those, too, who over-curiously assign to the Birth of our Saviour
>not only its year but its day, which they say to be on 25 Pachon (20 May) in
>the twenty eighth year of Augustus. But the followers of Basilides celebrate
>the day of his Baptism too, spending the previous night in readings. And
>they say that it was the 15th of the month Tybi of the 15th year of Tiberius
>Caesar. And some say that it was observed the 11th of the same month.' Now,
>15 and 11 Tybi are 6 and 10 January.
>
>Both the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church try to draw from this
>practice of the Gnostics under Basilides (teaching at Rome in the middle of
>the second century) support for the celebration of the nativity as well as
>the baptism of Christ but there is no real evidence for this conjecture. The
>evidence of the festivals themselves indicate that the practice was the
>ancient fertility festival and the blessing of the produce. From this arose
>the practice of blessing the waters and the practice of throwing crucifixes
>into the sea to make the seas productive for fisherman. All are based in
>ancient paganism and were not evident in Christianity until the fourth
>century. This addition was well after Origen writing in the third century as
>he makes no mention of the Epiphany in his list of the festivals. The first
>reference to it as a feast of the church is in 361 (cf. CE, p. 505).
>
>
>From Saint Nicholas to Santa Claus
>
>Santa Claus is a rather late invention and comes to us as a product of late
>American commercialism. It is derived chiefly from German and Dutch
>folklore. It has its origins in the entity referred to as Saint Nicholas.
>
>
>The man usually known as Saint Nicholas is Nicholas of Myra in Lycia. He
>died on 6 December 345 or 352 (Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. XI, p. 63). He is
>popular in both the Greek and the Latin church but there is scarcely
>anything certain about him except that he was bishop of Myra in the fourth
>century (ibid., p. 64). He was born at Parara in Lycia of Asia Minor. In his
>youth, he made a pilgrimage to Egypt and Palestine. On his return he was
>made bishop of Myra and was imprisoned during the persecution of Diocletian.
>He was released on the ascension of Constantine. The Catholics allege he was
>present at Nicaea but his name does not appear on any of the records by
>their own admission (ibid.).
>
>
>In 1087, Italian merchants stole his body at Myra and took it to Bari. His
>cult in Italy dates from this point. It appears this may have been prompted
>by a cult that had developed concerning him in Europe. The numerous miracles
>attributed to him are the outgrowth of a long tradition but, as we will see,
>much of it has pagan origins that would have little to do with the original
>man.
>
>
>His cult in the Greek church is old and especially prominent in the Russian
>church although they were long after him (c. 1000 CE). The emperor Justinian
>I built a church in his honour at Constantinople and his name appears on the
>liturgy ascribed to John Chrysostom (ibid.).
>
>
>His cult in Europe started from the time of Otto II whose wife Theophano was
>a Grecian. Bishop Reginald of Eichstadt (d. 991) wrote a metric entitled the
>Vita S. Nicholai. He is, or was, honoured as patron saint in Greece, Russia,
>the kingdom of Naples, Sicily, Lorraine, the Diocese of Liege, and many
>cities in Italy, Germany, Austria and Belgium, Campen in the Netherlands,
>Corfu in Greece, Frieburg in Switzerland and Moscow in Russia (ibid.). He
>was patron of mariners, merchants, bankers and children.
>
>
>His relics are still preserved in the church of S. Nicola in Bari. An oily
>substance, known as Manna di S. Nicola, is said to exude from his relics. It
>is valued for medicinal purposes. His relationship with the festivals of 5/6
>December are examined below.
>
>
>One legend associated with him relates to the formation of three golden
>balls, each made from his wages for one year, and rolled through the window
>of a needy family of good birth over a period of years. The first ball
>allegedly landed in a stocking (hence the Christmas stocking). This enabled
>the needy recipients to marry off their daughters. He was allegedly seen on
>the last time. This is no doubt the origin of the three golden balls of the
>pawn brokers and the symbol of his patronage of merchants. These stories we
>will see have relationship with other myths.
>
>
>The traditions associated with his generosity caused the practice of Norman
>French nuns giving to the poor on Saint Nicolas day or eve and this came to
>be called Boxing Day from the alms box of the church. This became the
>tradition behind the Boxing Day of 26 December. In Germany, Christ Bundles
>were also given to the poor and the annual parades took on the Heavenly
>Mother goddess tokens of the Mysteries.
>
>
>The practice of children saving all year for the annual pig at Christmas in
>Holland led to the introduction of the piggy bank.
>
>
>The amalgam also of the false Roman robes of the clergy worn on the Festival
>of Fools and the tales of Odin's wild ride and the beards of the Magi with
>the elves of the Yule festivals saw a gradual evolution.
>
>
>Nicholas of Myra was a saint in the Roman Catholic Church until 1969 when he
>suffered the fate of many other myths.
>
>Sinterklaas - the precursor of Santa Claus
>
>Sinterklaas, or Saint Nicolas, is a typical Dutch folklore, celebrated in
>the Netherlands and partly in Belgium.
>
>
>The celebration of Sinterklaas is always on the evening, after sunset of 5
>December in the Netherlands and 6 December in Belgium.
>
>
>In the celebration of the evening and night, the children are assembled
>around the chimney, singing songs to Sinterklaas:
>
>"Heerlijk avondje is gekomen. Kom maar binnen met je knecht".
>
>"The nice (or lordlike) evening has come. Come in with your servant".
>
>
>His servant, Black Peter, is black. He is always portrayed as a Negro with
>thick lips and earrings and clothed in funny clothes. This probably stems
>from the Demeter/Melchior nexus and later associated with good and evil
>being embodied in the legend of Woden and N�wi.
>
>
>Sinterklaas himself is as a bishop with mitre and a book with the good deeds
>and sins. He has the staff of a shepherd and rides on a white horse over the
>roof tops. Black Peter listens at the chimneys to determine whether the
>children are singing the right songs and presenting the right offerings to
>the horse in the form of hay and carrots.
>
>
>The presents for the children are put through the chimney.
>
>
>Sinterklaas is a syncretic product of the old Germanic or Teutonic religion.
>The Germanic roots can be explained as follows:
>
>The god Woden (also known as Odin), who is still remembered by the use of
>Wednesday, was the most important god of the old Germanic tribes (not the
>small group of people we understand as Germans today). Woden, who is a
>figure of history, was made into the personification of the multitude of
>earlier gods - the gods of wind and war, the god of the dead, the god of
>fertility, the god of wisdom and the Sun god. We will find him in
>mythological legends "riding through the air on his faithful white horse,
>clothed in a flowing robe." Further, he is described as a figure with a long
>white beard, and with a big hat on his head. Because he was also held to be
>the god of wisdom, he had a book in his hand written in rune letters, and he
>carried a great spear.
>
>
>In these stories Woden was accompanied by the giant N�wi, who had a black
>countenance because he was the father of the night. He was, according to
>legend, well versed in making rhymes and poems. He carried in his hand, as a
>sign of fertility, a bunch of twigs.
>
>
>From these aspects - the white horse, the wide robe, the big hat, the book,
>the spear, and the black N�wi, with a bunch of twigs, and the poems or
>poetic traditions - we have so many parallels with our today's Sinterklaas
>and Zwarte Piet (Black Peter) that is beyond mere coincidence. We see here,
>also, the parallels with Demeter and the three wise kings one of whom was
>also the black Melchior.
>
>
>If we now add to this the traditional customs, we will complete the picture.
>
>
>The old Germanic tribes or Teutons always left, after the harvest, a sheaf
>on the land for the white horse of Woden. The children offered, during the
>Sinterklaas time, hay in their shoes at the chimney (stockings at the
>chimney at Christmas) for his horse.
>
>
>We see here the same traditions as found among the Celts of burning the
>twelve fires and the thirteenth major fire of the straw. We also see the
>black faces of the Mother goddess system. We can deduce a much earlier
>origin than that attributed to Woden. This is part of the early cults of
>fertility related to Apollo as Sun god and master of the Mystery religions
>among the states of the Danube and into the Hyperborean Celts. He was drawn
>across the sky in a chariot and often this was pictured being drawn not just
>by horses but by geese or swans. The similarity of these feasts was with the
>old ceremonies of the Saturnalia which was traditionally prior to Christmas.
>In the Netherlands, we see a much earlier date than is normal now. It was
>some thirty days before the Epiphany. It was, however, not thirty days
>before the solstice as we saw in the Saturnalia examples above. We see the
>same tradition but removed so that the thirty days of the Lord of Misrule as
>the god Saturn and Apollo relate to the Epiphany rather than the end of the
>Saturnalia.
>
>
>Today's tradition in the Netherlands is to give letters of chocolate or
>almond pastry. The connection with the ancient runes seems very obvious. The
>German Wotan feast was a mixture of sacrifice and fertility festivals during
>and around the midwinter feasts. The lads and lassies of the Germanic tribes
>prayed in those early times for a partner. The presents from Sinterklaas
>were also in the form of lovers made from speculatius or other cakes. Also,
>presents were of animals in the form of sugar mice and pigs, to substitute
>for the real animal sacrifices.
>
>
>Sinterklaas is also the patron of the city of Amsterdam and the seamen who
>sail from her ports.
>
>
>The apparel of Sinterklaas is Roman Catholic. It was little wonder that, in
>the sixteenth century, the Reformation tried to stamp out these customs. It
>was not entirely successful in the Netherlands. Sinterklaas came to life
>again after an absence of some centuries (or being underground) in
>Protestant Netherlands in the first half of the twentieth century.
>Sinterklaas disappeared in England and Germany and went underground. Many of
>the traditions simply were moved to 25 December and completed with the
>Christmas tree and Santa Claus. The acceptance of the 'rebirth' of
>Sinterklaas in Protestant Netherlands was sooner and earlier than the
>acceptance of the Christmas tree. Today, commercialism has to fight to get
>Santa Claus accepted in the Netherlands, as many are against this imposter
>of Sinterklaas, even though its rebirth in the Netherlands was because of
>what was done in the USA.
>
>
>Santa Claus in the USA
>
>When migrants went to the United Sates, they brought with them the Yule
>traditions from Europe and particularly the three elements which went to
>make up the Santa Claus myth.
>
>
>The Dutch contributed the Sinterklaas myth which was adapted from its
>traditional place. The Pere Noel tradition of the red robes was also
>contributed from Europe. The Germans brought with them the Christ Bundle
>tradition and termed it Christkindl or Christ Child tradition. The name Kris
>Kringle developed from this term.
>
>
>Washington Irving in the Knickerbocker Tales (c. 1820) discusses the elf
>Santa Claus who presents the stocking as did St Nicholas.
>
>
>Clement Clark Moore introduced many new elements in his poem A Visit from
>Saint Nicholas which was renamed 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. He
>introduced new elements such as eight reindeer including the traditional
>representation we see regarding thunder and lightning as the gods of the
>Yule festival in the form of Donner (Donder) and Blitzen.
>
>
>Santa Claus was still an elf of the Yule tradition however until the
>American Civil War when Thomas Nast of Harpers Weekly was commissioned to do
>a series of Santa Claus cartoons. He continued this after the Civil War and
>the publishing company McLaughlin Brothers Printing Company experimented
>with the colour of Santa's leather and decided on red.
>
>
>The final change was made in 1931. The Scandinavian Haddon Sundblom was
>hired by Coca Cola to paint Santa Claus. On the death of his model, he
>fashioned Santa Claus on his own face. This continued for twenty-five years.
>
>
>In 1941, the song Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was written. It was
>recorded by the cowboy singer Gene Autry.
>
>
>The Coca Cola model and colours and the American myths surrounding the
>figure are now the final product of at least 3,000 years of pagan idolatry
>wrapped in the crass commercialism that first emanated from the merchants of
>the Roman Saturnalia and which was perfected in the USA.
>
>
>There is nothing Christian about so-called Christmas and, indeed, it is so
>steeped in false religious superstition that it is a direct breach of
>biblical law. No Christian can observe it and remain a Christian.
>
>-- 
>BEWARE! there are people on this newsgroup who are only here to slander and
>lie about Jehovah's Witnesses. They do not offer any alternative
>organization... as a matter of fact, some are admitted atheists (Matthew
>12:30; John 8:44-47) I have all of their posts filtered out because they can
>not hold an intelligent conversation and often resort to lies. They claim to
>be quoting from Watch Tower literature but these are *NOT* exact quotes,
>they change words and quote things out of context. I don't respond to
>spurious fabrications. Hence if you see that I am not answering someone, it
>is because their previous attempts at deception have earned them a place in
>the 'block sender' file. They exist here only to destroy (1 Corinthians
>10:6-11) They speak not as Christians (Ephesians 4:31-32) I do not need to
>name them for by their fruits you will recognize them (Matthew 7:16-20) One
>has to wonder, why was a newsgroup set up to attack this *one* organization?
>Matthew 5:10-12

"torresD" <nospam@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:2s40fmF1gjq0vU1@uni-berlin.de...
> There are many religions in the world who call themselves 'christian' but
> there is only one Christian organization that is actually cleansing itself
> of all pagan ritualistic defilement. The facts regarding xmas are common
> knowledge to all educated religious leaders, so why don't they cleanse
their
> worship? It is a very important question to ask...why is the united
worlwide
> organization of Christians known as Jehovah's Witnesses the only Christian
> organization endeavoring to correct past mistakes and cleanse their
worship
> of all paganistic defilement? For those who are not yet familiar with the
> well known facts about xmas, here is some information, *not* from
Jehovah's
> Witnesses but from *other* religious scholars and theologians...
>
> Outside of the Word of God there is no truth (John 14:6), yet Christians
> today are too lazy to "Prove all things" (1 Thessalonians 5:19-22), and
try
> the spirits (I John 4:1-5). It is only by searching the scriptures that we
> can assure ourselves of fact, truth, and protection from deception (Acts
> 17:11). Do not be deceived by the vain words of men (Ephesians 5:6-11). We
> must not substitute views, opinions, emotions or feelings, for Word of
God.
> If we please men then we should not be the servants of Jesus Christ
> (Galatians 1:10).
>
> Every feast, holy day or ceremonial observation for the glory of the Lord,
> was always written in the Word of God, and our Heavenly Father always gave
> instructions on how to do it. For religious commemorations or
celebrations,
> we must have a Biblical command or precedent. We are told in Deuteronomy
> 12:29-32, that not only did God want to prevent His people from being
> enticed to worship false gods, by telling them to destroy all vestiges of
> pagan worship that they found in the "Promised Land.", but He specifically
> revealed that He did not want His people to worship Him in the same manner
> in which the heathen worshiped their gods. Our Lord is displeased by
> practices which profess to honor Him, but which are copied from the
> tradition of false religions. God commanded them to worship Him only in
the
> way He commands, not to add to them nor take away from them.
>
> The sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, were slain in the temple for offering
up
> "strange fire" before the Lord God (Leviticus 10:1,2; Numbers 3:4 &
26:61).
> Strange fire is offering something to God that He has not asked for, does
> not receive, does not observe, it is worshiping God your way (how you
think
> He should be worshipped), instead of Gods way. Saul disobeyed God's
prophet
> in order to worship God in his way (1 Samuel 15:1-3, 7-9, 21-23). Is not
the
> celebration of Christmas, with all its pagan symbols and forms, one of
man's
> ways of worshiping Christ, a "strange fire" unto the Lord, a form of
worship
>  contrary to what God commands? If we truly love Jesus we will keep His
word
> and offer no strange fire before Him. (John 14:15, 23; Luke 6:46)
>
> Exposing the Lies:
> Did the orginal Apostles - our spiritual fathers and foundation in the
faith
> and those who knew Jesus personally, ever teach or celebrate His birthday?
>
> FACT-There is no Biblical warrant, precedent, nor precept for the
> remembrance of the day of Christ's birth as a day of special religious
> celebration. The early church did not celebrate Christ's birth, such
> celebrations only came into the church with the "Christianization" of
pagan
> rites as Catholicism was made the state religion by Constantine in the
> fourth century A.D. The Word of God does not support the tradition of
> Christmas.
>
> But didn't the Angels and Shepherds come and worship Him?
>
> FACT-No, they did not. If you will read your Bible in Luke 2:13-20, you
will
> see that when the Angels announced this to the shepherds, they (the
Angels)
> glorified "God in the highest" (v14), in other words, the Heavenly Father,
> and the Shepherds returned (from Bethlehem), "glorifying and praising God,
> for all the things that they had heard and seen" (v20).
>
> [Note: For background on why it was Bethlehem, study the Book of Ruth]
>
> Did not the three wise men come and worship Jesus in the manger? And did
not
> the three wise men give gifts to Him when he was born?
>
> [Note: Wise men is a translation of the Greek word magoi, the ancient
Greek
> transliteration of the Persian original for a select sect of priests. The
> word 'magic' comes from the same root. Magi is the Latinized form.
> The Magi were a hereditary priesthood of the Medes credited with
> extraordinary religious knowledge. After some Magi, who had been attached
to
> the Median court, proved to be expert in the interpretation of dreams,
> Darius the Great established them over the state religion of Persia.
> (Oneiromancy, not astrology, is the key skill mentioned by Herodotus, 1.1
> 07, 120; Vil.19.) Contrary to popular belief, the Magi were not originally
> followers of Zoroaster.(Encyclopedia Britannica, 7:691.) That all came
> later.
> It was in this dual capacity whereby civil and political counsel was
> invested with religious authority, that the Magi became the supreme
priestly
> caste of the Persian empire, and continued to be prominent during the
> subsequent Seleucid, Parthian, Sasanian periods. (Zondervan Pictorial
> Encyclopedia of the Bible, 4:31-34.)]
>
> FACT-There is not one record of there being three wise men! The Bible says
> in Matthew 2:1, there came wise men from the east. They brought three
gifts
> which were also prophetic, gold (for his "diety"), frankincense (a spice
> used in the priestly duties, signifying His office as priest), and myrrh
(an
> embalming ointment signifying His sacrificial death, as savior). Because
> there was three gifts, man's imagination changes the Bible, and says,
there
> were three men. In the millennium, He will also receive the gifts of gold
> and frankincense; (Isaiah 60:6) but no myrrh. His death was once and for
> all.
>
> FACT-Matthew 2:3 says that Herod and all Jerusalem were troubled. I do not
> think that three men on camels would be noticed much in a city of great
size
> like Jerusalem, the city would have been filled daily with men on camels.
> The wise men were a supreme priestly caste who held the governmental
office
> of the upper house of the Council of the Megistanes ("magistrates"). Their
> duties included the absolute choice and election of the king of the realm.
> It was therefore a group of Persian-Parthian "king makers" who entered
> Jerusalem in the latter days of the reign of Herod. Their sudden
appearance
> in Jerusalem (wise men usually traveled in caravans of 40 or more in
> number), probably traveling in force with every imaginable oriental pomp,
> and accompanied by adequate calvary escort to insure their safe
penetration
> of Roman territory, certainly alarmed Herod and the populace of Jerusalem.
> Herod's reaction would of been one of fear when one considers the
background
> of Roman Parthian rivalry that prevailed during his lifetime (see note
below
> ). It would seem as if these wise men were attempting to perpetrate a
border
> incident which could bring swift reprisal from Parthian armies.
>
> [Note: Political Background: Since the days of Daniel, both the Persian
and
> the Jewish nations had, in their turn, fallen under Seleucid domination in
> the wake of Alexander's conquests. Subsequently both had regained their
> independence: the Jews under Maccabean leadership, and the Persians as the
> dominating ruling group within the Parthian Empire.
> Pompey, the first Roman conqueror of Jerusalem, attacked the Armenian
> outpost of Parthia in 63 B.C. In 55 B.C. Carssus led Roman legions in
> sacking Jerusalem and, in a subsequent attack, Parthia proper. The Romans
> were decisively defeated at the battle of Carrhae with the loss of 30,000
> troops, including their commander. The Parthians counter attacked with a
> token invasion of Armenia, Syria, and Palestine.
> Nominal Roman rule was reestablished under Antipater, the father of Herod,
> who retreated before another Parthian invasion in 40 B.C.
> Mark Anthony re-established Roman sovereignty in 37 B.C., and, like
Carssus
> before him, also embarked on a similarly ill-fated Parthian expedition.
His
> disastrous retreat was followed by another wave of invading Parthians,
which
> swept all Roman opposition completely out of Palestine (including Herod
> himself, who fled to Alexandria and then to Rome).
> With Parthian collaboration, Jewish sovereignty was restored and Jerusalem
> was fortified with a Jewish garrison.
> Herod, by this time, secured from Augustus Caesar the title of "King of
the
> Jews." However, it was not for three years (including a five month's siege
> by Roman troops) that he was able to occupy his own capital city. Herod
had
> thus gained the throne of a rebellious buffer state which was situated
> between two mighty contending empires. At any time, his own subjects might
> conspire in bringing the Parthians to their aid.]
>
> [Note: Daniels Role: It is entirely conceivable that the messianic
> prophecies of Daniel was of profound motivating significance to the wise
> men. Daniel, who was a principal administrator in two world empires, the
> Babylonian and subsequent Persian empire, was considered to be one of
their
> own magicians, he was given the title "master of the magicians" (Daniel
4:9;
> 5:11). When Darius appointed him, a Jew, over the previously hereditary
> Median priesthood, the resulting repercussions resulted in the plots
leading
> to the lion's den.(Daniel 6). Perhaps the wise men were entrusted to a
> messianic vision, to be announced in due time by a "star"? Another
> interesting note is that the Angel Gabriel, who gave Daniel skill and
> understanding concerning the time when the messiah will present Himself,
is
> also the Angel mentioned in Luke 1:19.]
>
> Consulting the Jewish priests and scribes, Herod discovered that the
> Promised One, the Messiah, would be born in Bethlehem (Matthew 2:4-6;
Micah
> 5:2). Hiding his concern and expressing sincere interest, Herod requested
> that the wise men keep him informed (Matthew 2:7-8).
>
> Did they bring these gifts to the manger?
>
> FACT-The Bible clearly states in Matthew 2:7-16, that the wise men
followed
> the star for two years (v16), and they presented the gifts to the young
> child (Jesus was two years old when the men finally arrived) in His house
> (v11). Thus their giving had nothing to do with a birthday.
>
> After presenting their prophetic gifts to the young child, the wise men
> "being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod
> (Matthew 2:12-13), (a form of communication most acceptable to them)
> departed to their own country, ignoring Herod's request.
>
> Didn't the wise men come to worship the child?
>
> FACT-Matthew 2:2, states that the "wise men" came to worship the King of
the
> Jews, it is interesting to note that in verse 8, Herod said that he wanted
> to worship "the young child". Wise men worship the King, but men will
> worship the child. Asking Herod, "where is he that is born King of the
> Jews?" (Matthew 2:2) was probably also a calculated insult by the wise
men,
> because Herod was an Edomite, a traditional enemy of Israel, who had most
> probably contrived and bribed his way into that office.
>
> Was Jesus born on December 25th?
>
> FACT-In December it is the winter season, rainy and cold and the shepherds
> do not keep their flocks out at night grazing in the winter (Luke 2:8). It
> was customary for the shepherds to herd their flocks and take them in
after
> Mid-October and release them in early spring. Thus the Luke 2 account of
the
> birth of Jesus could not have been in December.
>
> FACT- No man knows when Jesus was born, but we can be pretty sure that it
> was not the twenty-fifth of December. If God desired us to remember
Christ's
> birthday, He would have left us the precise date. But in so doing, He
would
> have vindicated every astrologer in the past 2,000 years, because in
occult
> circles, the anniversary of a person's birth is the most important
> metaphysical day of the year. The Bible recognizes no such significance.
It
> is intriguing that there are only two birthday celebrations recorded in
the
> entire Bible and they were both those of ungodly kings, and both resulted
in
> an execution (Genesis 40:16-22 and Matthew 14:6-10/Mark 6:21-27). Although
> Luke places the birth in a historical perspective, even the year cannot be
> exactly determined. The Bible does tells us though, that He was born
before
> the death of Herod the Great who died in 4 B.C, so the 1AD date is
certainly
> wrong.
>
> FACT- God has warned us about getting entangled with special days
(Galations
> 4:9-10). There is no record in the Bible of people observing or
worshipping
> Jesus because of his birth, it is not taught, or preached. What we are
> taught though, is to remember Him in His death, but no special day was
> specified for this either, any day of the year will do. (Matthew 26:26-31;
> Mark 14:22-27; Luke 22:17-20).
>
> For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That
> the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: And
when
> he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body,
> which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same
manner
> also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new
> testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance
of
> me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the
> Lords death till he come (1 Corinthians 11:23-26)
>
> To commemorate His death is Scriptural. To commemorate His birth is not,
it
> is extra-Scriptural (Deuteronomy 4:2; 12:32; Proverbs 30:6; Revelation
> 22:19).
>
> But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto
the
> Greeks foolishness; (1 Corinthians 1:23)
>
> Joseph and Mary did not just show up in Bethlehem, go to an Inn, find
there
> was no room, and had to go to a dirty stable with animals to have a baby.
>
> We even have this fixed picture in our minds of what "there was no room
for
> them in the inn" (Luke 2:7) may have meant. The word "inn" in Luke 2:7
> [kataluma], is used again by Luke in 22:11:
>
> And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling
> clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in
the
> inn. (Luke 2:7)
>
> And ye shall say unto the goodman of the house, The Master saith unto
thee,
> Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the passover with my
disciples?
> (Luke 22:11)
>
> kataluma, Greek 2646, Strong's kataluma, kat-al'-oo-mah; from Greek 2647
> (kataluo); properly a dissolution (breaking up of a journey), i.e. (by
> implication) a lodging-place :- guestchamber, inn.
>
> The same word for inn (kataluma) in Luke 2:7, is used for "guestchamber"
in
> Luke 22:11. The guestchamber was the upper room of a house for guests (see
> Luke 22:12-13).
>
> FACT- Joseph was returning to his home town of Bethlehem to be counted
with
> his family in the Roman census (Luke 2:1-2). Joseph must of had relatives
> living there, and it must have been Joseph's intention to stay with his
> family, he knew Mary was with child and due soon. Since many out-of-town
> family members would have been arriving at the same time, the inn, which
was
> the upstairs room, on the roof of the house, used for guests, was already
> full (Notice that it is not 'at an inn', but 'in the inn', Luke 2:7). Mary
> and Joseph found space in the area that comprised the first floor of the
> house - the manger. Here it was usually warm and would have been
comfortable
> for the birthing. And even though used for domesticated animals and
shelter,
> it would have been clean. Also notice, that the Bible states that they had
> been there a while, and the days were accomplished that she should be
> delivered (Luke 2:6).
>
> Now in the days of Jesus, when a family was poor, the manger was a part of
> their house where the families lived and it was the lower part or portion
of
> the house which would represent his humbleness or humility when born into
> this earth. This manger was usually adjacent to the living quarters of the
> family and they would keep their domesticated animals there. The manger or
> trough was usually hewn out of rock (Bakers Encyclopedia of the Bible,
Vol.2
> page 1392).
>
> A manger was usually hewn out of rock, which would be scripturally
fitting,
> for our Lord Jesus is the ROCK of our salvation, we are to build our house
> on the ROCK, and His tomb was hewn out of a ROCK.
>
> And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that
spiritual
> Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ. (1 Corinthians 10:4)
>
> He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the
> foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently
> upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a
> rock.(Luke 6:48, see also Matthew 7:24-25)
>
> And he bought fine linen, and took him down, and wrapped him in the linen,
> and laid him in a sepulchre which was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a
stone
> unto the door of the sepulchre. (Mark 15:46, see also Matthew 27:60)
>
> If Mary had to wait until after her purification to bring Jesus into the
> temple to present him to the Father (Luke 2:22), then what makes you think
> that HE would allow her to give birth in an unclean, straw dunged stable?
> Wouldn't taking a newborn baby and laying him in straw or hay dangerous?
> Isn't cut straw or hay very sharp?
>
> Today's depiction, or "Manger Scene", with animals, hay or straw, Joseph,
> Mary, baby Jesus in a straw laden crib, three wise men bowing down and
> giving gifts, shepherds, and a star over a stable, all come from St.
Francis
> of Assisi, A Catholic Monk. None of it is the truth, yet isn't it amazing
> what people believe as truth because of what men say?
>
> Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after
the
> tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
> (Colossians 2:8)
>
> "...no room for them in the inn" (Luke 2:7) was probably not a rejection
of
> Jesus Christ, as we are taught, but a gracious accommodation in the best
> circumstances the family could provide, which would represent his
humbleness
> or humility when born into this earth. Notice also that, while there was
no
> room in the upper part of the house for Jesus on his first night on earth,
> that is exactly where he spent his last night on earth with His disciples
> before going to Gethsemane (Luke 22:11-13), and then to Calvary to shed
> blood for our sins.
>
> Is your foundation of Christmas beginning to crumble? Is Christmas now
> sounding a bit confused?
>
> For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches
of
> the saints. (1 Corinthians 14:33)
>
> "For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work."
> (James 3:16) This verse could just as easily be applied to the Chrismas
> season, with the envy of presents, and the strife the pressures of the
> season can cause. The pressures of the season bring people to loneliness,
> despair, alcohol, debt, and it is also the season of the year that holds
the
> highest record of yearly suicides.
>
> Sometimes our souls do not like being weaned from the doctrines of men,
> especially when we have believed something for so long. But the truth will
> set you free, and stear you on the right course.
>
> And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. (John
8:32)
>
> We should now ask ourselves two things: If Christmas is not found in the
> Bible then where did it come from? And if Christmas is not celebrating
> Jesus' birthday, then whose birthday is it celebrating?
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> "Christians have been conditioned to accept that Christmas and Easter are
> essentially part of the Christian tradition. The facts are that neither
are
> at all Christian and both have their roots in the mystery cults, The
> Saturnalia, the worship of the Mother goddess system and the worship of
the
> Sun god. They are directly contradictory to the laws of God and His
system.
>
> The Saturnalia
>
> There was a festival celebrated in December in Rome. It is necessary to
any
> understanding of what is happening at Christmas. That festival was termed
> the Saturnalia. It was the festival of Saturn to whom the inhabitants of
> Latium, the Latins, attributed agriculture and the arts necessary to
> civilised life (Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, 2nd
ed.,
> London 1851, p. 1009). It fell towards the end of December and was viewed
by
> the population as a time of absolute relaxation and merriment. During its
> continuance, the law courts were closed. No public business could be
> transacted. The schools kept holiday. To commence a war was impious and to
> punish a malefactor involved pollution (ibid.). Slaves were relieved of
> onerous toils and permitted to wear the pileus or badge of freedom. They
> were granted freedom of speech and were waited on at a special banquet by
> their masters whose clothes they wore (ibid.). All ranks devoted
themselves
> to feasting and mirth with presents exchanged among friends.
>
>
> Wax tapers were given by the more humble to their superiors. The crowds
> thronged the streets and Smith says many of the customs had a remarkable
> resemblance to those of Christmas and the Italian carnival (ibid.).
>
>
> Public gambling was condoned by the authorities as was later card-playing
> indulged even by the most rigid in later times at Christmas eve. The whole
> populace threw off the toga, wore the loose gown called the synthesis and
> walked about with the pileus on their heads. Smith's Dictionary says this
> practice is reminiscent of the dominoes, peaked caps and other disguises
> worn at later Christmas festivals by masques and mummers. The cerei or wax
> tapers or lights, were probably employed as the moccoli are on the last
> night of the carnival. Our traditions of Christmas lights probably stems
> from this tradition.
>
>
> Lastly, for amusement in private society, was the election of a mock king
> which is immediately recognised in the ceremony of Twelfth Night (ibid.).
We
> will come across this later.
>
>
> Sir James George Frazer, in his classic study of magic and religion (The
> Golden Bough, McMillan, 1976), says this mock king was an allusion back to
> the idyllic days of the reign of Saturn and the slaves being given
temporary
> freedom at this time hearkened back to these days when all were free and
> things were just (ibid., ix, p. 308 ff). Roman soldiers stationed on the
> Danube in the reign of Maximian and Diocletian are recorded (by Franz
> Cumont) to have chosen a young and handsome man to resemble Saturn from
> among them by lot thirty days before the festival. They dressed him in
royal
> attire to resemble Saturn. He went about in public attended by a retinue
of
> soldiers and indulged his passions no matter how base and shameful. At the
> end of thirty days, he then cut his own throat on the altar of the god he
> personated. In the year 303, the lot fell upon the Christian soldier
Dasius
> but he refused to play the part of the heathen god and to soil his last
days
> by debauchery. He refused to give in to the intimidation of his commanding
> officer Bassus and was accordingly beheaded by the soldier John at
> Durostorum on Friday 20 November 303 being the twenty-fourth day of the
Moon
> at the fourth hour (Frazer, ibid.).
>
>
> This historical account has been confirmed, after its publication by Franz
> Cumont, by the discovery in the crypt of the cathedral at Ancona, of the
> white marble sarcophagus in script characteristic of the age of Justinian
> with the Greek inscription:
>
> Here lies the holy martyr Dasius, brought from Durostorum.
>
> The sarcophagus had been brought there from the church of St Pellegrino in
> 1848 where it lay under the high altar and was recorded as being there in
> 1650 (Frazer, p. 310).
>
>
> Frazer says this sets a new light on the nature of the Lord of the
> Saturnalia, the ancient Lord of Misrule, who presided over the winter
revels
> at Rome (ibid., p. 311). Here we see the extent of the traditions and the
> elements of human sacrifice, which extend into the festivals in both
> December and at the equinox. Dasius the Christian suffered martyrdom
rather
> than participate in these revels.
>
>
> As Saturnus was an ancient national god of Latium, the institution of the
> Saturnalia is lost in remote antiquity (ibid.).
>
> There are three traditions associated with it.
>
>
> It is ascribed to Janus who on the sudden disappearance of his benefactor
> from the abodes of men erected an altar to him as a deity in the forum and
> ordained annual sacrifices.
>
> According to Varro, it is attributed to the wanderings of Pelasagi on
their
> first settlement in Italy. Hercules then on his return from Spain was said
> to have abolished the worship and practice of immolating human sacrifice;
> and
>
> The third tradition attributes the Saturnalia to the followers of Hercules
> who set it up after his return to Greece.
>
> In either of the last two we see a commonality. The practice of this
> agricultural festival thus has certain common elements with the spring
> festival of Easter as we will see later. The element of human sacrifice
> common to all traditions can also be traced to the worship of Moloch as
the
> Moon god Sin and also of Ishtar (see the paper The Golden Calf (No. 222)).
> This sacrificial aspect also appeared in the worship of the god Attis (see
> below).
>
>
> The erection of temples in historical times are recorded, such as during
the
> reign of Tatius, Tarquinius superbus, to the consulship of A Sempronius or
M
> Minucius (497 BCE) or in that of T Larcius the previous year. It appears
the
> ceremonies were at varying stages neglected or corrupted and then revived
> and extended (ibid.).
>
>
> The Saturnalia originally fell on 14 Kalend January. When the Julian
> calendar was introduced it was extended to 16 Kalend January which caused
> confusion among the more ignorant and Augustus enacted that three whole
days
> (namely 17, 18 and 19 December) should be hallowed in all time coming
> (ibid.). Some unknown authority added a fourth day and Caligula added a
> fifth day, the Juvenalis. This fell into disuse and was later restored by
> the emperor Claudius.
>
>
> Strictly speaking, one day only was consecrated to religious observance in
> the days of the Republic. However, the celebrations lasted over a much
> longer period. Historically, Livy speaks of the first day of the
Saturnalia
> (Liv. xxx, 36). Cicero writes of the second and third days (ad Att., v 20;
> xv 32). From Novius (Attelanae) the term seven days of the Saturnalia was
> used and this phrase was also used by Memmius (Macrobius, i, 10) and
Martial
> (xiv, 72; cf. Smith, ibid.). Martial also speaks of the five days enacted
by
> Caligula and Claudius.
>
> These five days have an ancient calendrical significance also.
>
>
> Smith says that in reality three festivals were involved over this period.
>
> The Saturnalia proper commenced on 17 December (16 Kalend December).
>
>
> This was followed by the Opalia (14 Kalend January or 19 December) which
was
> anciently coincidental to the Saturnalia. These two together lasted for
five
> days. This festival was celebrated in honour of Opis who was allegedly the
> wife of Saturn. Originally, it was celebrated on the same day and, thus,
the
> Mother goddess and lover theme is evident in the origins of this festival.
> We will meet this theme throughout. The followers of Opis paid their vows
> sitting and touched the earth of whom she was goddess (Smith, ibid., art.
> Opalia, p. 835).
>
>
> The sixth and seventh days were occupied by the Sigillaria which was named
> for the little earthenware figures which were displayed for sale on the
> period as toys to be given as presents for children.
>
> Thus, the period ran from 17 December until 23 December under the Julian
> Calendar, when the presents were given to the children.
>
>
> We now proceed to examine further the theology behind these festivals. The
> commonality of the traditions of the festivals are too obvious to be
> ignored.
>
>
> The Heavenly Virgin as Mother goddess
>
> Frazer notes that:
>
> the worship of the Great Mother of the Gods and her lover or son was very
> popular under the Roman Empire (v, pp. 298 ff),
>
> From the inscription we know that the two [as Mother and lover or Mother
and
> son] received divine honours not only in Italy but in all the provinces -
> particularly in Africa, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany and Bulgaria
> (ibid.). Their worship survived the establishment of Christianity by
> Constantine.
>
>
> Thus, the symbolism of the Heavenly Virgin and the infant child paraded on
a
> yearly basis are not of Christian origin. They stem from the Mother
goddess
> religion which is very ancient. We will see more of this later.
>
>
> Frazer notes Symmachus as recording the festival of the Great Mother. In
the
> days of Augustine her effeminate priests still paraded the streets and
> squares of Carthage and, like the mendicant friars of the middle ages,
> begged alms from the passers-by (ibid., cf. S Dill Roman Society in the
Last
>  Century of the Western Empire, London, 1899, p. 16; and Augustine City of
> God, vii, 26).
>
>
> The Greeks on the other hand rejected the more barbarous rites in favour
of
> those similar but gentler rites of the worship of Adonis (ibid.).
>
> Frazer says that the same features which shocked and repelled the Greeks
> were what attracted the Romans and the barbarians of the west (ibid., pp.
> 298-299).
>
> The ecstatic frenzies which were mistaken for divine inspiration, the
> mangling of the body and the theory of a new birth and the remission of
sin
> through the shedding of blood, have all their origin in savagery (ibid.).
>
> Frazer holds that their true character was often disguised under a decent
> veil of allegory and philosophical interpretation, which drew the more
> cultivated of them to things which might otherwise have filled them with
> horror and disgust. Modern Pentecostalism draws its inspiration from the
> ideas behind these religious festivals.
>
>
> The religion of the Great Mother was only one of a multitude of similar
> oriental faiths, which spread across the Roman Empire imposing themselves
on
> the Europeans. According to Frazer, this gradually undermined the whole
> fabric of ancient civilisation.
>
>
> The entire Greek and Roman society was based on the concept of the
> subordination of individual to the state and one's whole life was
dedicated
> to the perpetuation of the society. If one shrank from supreme sacrifice
> then it never occurred to anyone that they acted other than for base
> reasons.
>
>
> Oriental religion taught the reverse of this doctrine. It inculcated the
> communion of the "Soul" with God and its eternal salvation as the only
> objects of existence and in comparison with the prosperity and even the
> existence of the state were insignificant.
>
>
> The inevitable consequence of this selfish and immoral doctrine was to
draw
> the individual more and more from the public service and to concentrate,
in
> the individual, a contempt for the present life.
>
>
> The misapplication of these mystery doctrines or oriental religions and
> their application in Gnosticism, when placed on the biblical narrative of
> the City of God as a spiritual edifice, was to have disastrous
consequences
> for the ordering of society. The effect was to loosen the ties of the
family
> and the state and to generally disintegrate the political body of the
state.
> The society tended to relapse into its individual elements and thereby
into
> barbarism. Civilisation is only possible through the active cooperation of
> the individual and the subordination of the interests of the individual to
> that of the common good (ibid., p. 301).
>
>
> People refused to defend their countries and even to continue their own
kind
> in ascetic celibacy (ibid., see also the papers Vegetarianism and the
Bible
> (No. 183) and also Wine in the Bible (No. 188)).
>
>
> Frazer holds that this obsession lasted for a thousand years. He held that
> it only changed at the end of the Middle Ages with the revival of Roman
law,
> of Aristotelian philosophy and of ancient art and literature to saner and
> more manly views of the world. The fact of the matter is that if the true
> biblical model was implemented no such problem would have existed. The
> problem arose from Oriental Mysteries combined with the Gnostic system
which
> is more prevalent today. Frazer held that the tide of this oriental
invasion
> had turned at last and was ebbing still. He was wrong in this regard
> although he also allows that bad government and a ruinous fiscal system
are
> two major causes which strike down civilisations as they did the Turkish
> Empire in his day.
>
>
> We will look at the effects of the Great Mother religion and the Mithras
> system and its applications under Gnostic influence in Christianity to see
> that it is still there as strong as ever in more subtle forms. Yet much of
> its traditional trappings are the same.
>
>
> Mithras
>
> One of the gods who competed for the worship of the west was the Persian
> deity Mithra.
>
>
> The immense popularity of this cult should not be underestimated. The
> monuments dedicated to this system are scattered all over the Roman Empire
> and right through Europe (a map of the extent of the monuments is found in
> David Ulansey The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries, Oxford, New York,
1989,
> p. 5).
>
>
> This was a secret cult whose mysteries were never written down and, so,
> little is known exactly of their ritual except what we can deduce from
their
> shrines and places of worship. However, we do know that they had two forms
> of worship. The private and secret form was Mithraism. The public form,
> however, was Elagabalism and we know more of its system from this. Both
were
> based on Sun worship.
>
>
> Much of its religion was similar to the religion of the Mother of the Gods
> and also to what was understood to have been later Christianity (cf.
Frazer,
> ibid., p. 302). The similarity struck the Christian doctors themselves and
> it was explained to them as the work of the devil by counterfeiting a
> version of the true faith (ibid.). Tertullian explained how the fasts of
> Isis and Cybele were similar to the fasts of Christianity (De jejunio 16).
>
>
> Justin Martyr explains how the death, resurrection and ascension of
> Dionysius, the virgin birth of Perseus, and Bellerophon mounted on Pegasus
> were parodies of the true Christian stories written by the demons in
> advance, even down to the story of Christ riding on an ass which was
> contained in the Psalms as prophecy (cf. Apol., i, 54).
>
>
> The conflict between Mithraism and Christianity was so great that for a
time
> the outcome hung in the balance. The fact of the matter is that the result
> was decided by adopting their practices and giving them Christian names.
The
> most important single relic of this pagan syncretism is that of Christmas
> which Frazer says the Church seems to have borrowed directly from its
> heathen rival (p. 303).
>
>
> The army became devotees of Mithras and it is obvious from the records
> regarding Dasius that the Saturnalia was held in conjunction with the
> worship of Mithras. Thus, the Saturnalia simply preceded the Solstice
> festival and became a part of it.
>
>
> Christmas and the Heavenly Virgin
>
> In the Julian calendar, 25 December was reckoned as the winter solstice
> (Frazer, ibid., p. 303; cf. Pliny Natural History, xviii, p. 221). It was
> regarded as the nativity of the Sun as its days began to lengthen and its
> power increase from that turning point of the year.
>
>
> The ritual of the nativity, Frazer holds, as it was celebrated in Syria
and
> Egypt was remarkable. The celebrants retired into certain inner shrines
from
> which at midnight they issued a loud cry, The Virgin has brought forth!
The
> Light is waxing! (ibid., cf. Cosmas Hierosolymitanus, see fn. 3 to p. 303)
>
>
> The Egyptians even represented the newborn Sun by an image of an infant
> which, on his birthday (the winter solstice), they brought forth and
> exhibited to his worshippers (ibid., cf., Macrobius Saturnalia, i, 18, 10)
>
> Frazer says:
>
> No doubt the Virgin who thus conceived and bore a son on the twenty-fifth
of
> December was the great Oriental goddess whom the Semites called the
Heavenly
> Virgin or simply the Heavenly Goddess; in Semitic lands she was a form of
> Astarte (ibid., noting Franz Cumont s.v. Caelestis in Pauly-Wissowa's
> Real-Encyclop�die der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, v, 1, 1247, sqq).
>
> This is the origin of the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of the
mother
> of Jesus Christ. It has no basis in the Bible or in fact. Christ's mother
> was not named Mary and the Bible is clear that she bore other children. We
> will return to this myth later.
>
>
> The legend of the three kings
>
> 25 December was an ancient Sun-worshipping festival and the three kings
> associated with it do not appear to relate to the wise men from the east
in
> the biblical narrative but to a perhaps older tradition relating to the
> so-called twelve days of Christmas. The Twelfth Day sequence is associated
> with the three kings in France, Spain, Belgium, Germany and Austria. Their
> names are Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar. In Germany and Austria it is
known
> as the Day of the Three Kings (Dreikonigstag) and in France as the
Festival
> of the Kings (F�te des Rois). The kings go around in some areas
represented
> by mummers who sing songs and collect from the householders. It is given a
> Christian basis but there is no basis in the Bible for assuming there were
> three people (other than the three types of gifts) or that they were
kings.
> They are recorded as magi or wise men. This seems to have another basis
(cf.
> Frazer, ix, p. 329). From the customs in Franche-Comte and also the Vosges
> Mountains, Melchior is supposed to have been a black king and the face of
> the boy playing him is blackened (ibid., p. 330). These three are invoked
> for healing with rituals involving three nails placed in the earth. This
> smacks of the triune systems of the Celts in France long before the
> Christian system.
>
>
> In Czech and German Bohemia, the rituals of fumigation and spices are
found
> being used on the twelfth day. The initials C.M.B (Caspar, Melchior and
> Balthasar) together with three crosses are marked on doors after
fumigation
> to guard against evil influences and infectious diseases. They were
invoked
> under the words pray for us now and at the hour of our deaths.
>
>
> The Lord of Misrule and the King of Beans
>
> In this tradition also we see the Lord of Misrule emerge among the
> traditions. The full extent of time was from All-hallows eve (31 October,
> the eve of All Saints day) to Candlemas (2 February). Generally, it was
> however confined to the twelve days at Christmas, termed the twelve
nights.
> The Lord of Misrule was elected from the Court of the Sovereign in England
> through every office of the land. This Lord of Misrule was also elected at
> Merton College Oxford as King of the Beans (cf. Frazer, ix, p. 332).
>
>
> The Festival of Fools
>
> In France, the counterparts of the English Lords of Misrule masqueraded as
> mock clergy, bishops, archbishops, popes or abbots. This was known as the
> Festival of Fools and was held either on Christmas day, St Stephen's day
(26
> December), New Year's day, or Twelfth day depending on place.
>
>
> At these times there were parodies of the most solemn rites of the church
> where priests wearing masks and sometimes dressed as women danced in the
> choir and sang obscene chants; laymen disguised as monks mingled with the
> clergy and the altar was turned into a tavern where the deacons and
> sub-deacons ate sausage and black-pudding or played dice and cards under
the
> nose of the celebrant. The censers were filled with bits of old shoes,
> filling the church with a foul stench.
>
>
> In some areas of France, for example at Autun, an ass was led into the
> church where a parody of the mass was said over it. A regular Latin
liturgy
> was said over it and the celebrant priest initiated the braying of an ass
> (Frazer, pp. 334-335).
>
>
> At Beauvais on 14 January a young woman with a child in her arms rode on
the
> back of an ass allegedly in imitation of the flight into Egypt. She was
led
> in triumph from the cathedral to the parish church of St Stephen where she
> and the ass were placed on the left side of the altar. A long mass was
said
> consisting of scraps borrowed indiscriminately from many church services
> throughout the year. The singers quenched their thirst in the intervals as
> did the congregation and the ass was fed and watered. Afterwards, the ass
> was brought from the chancel into the nave where the entire congregation,
> clergy and laity danced round it braying like asses. After vespers, a
large
> procession proceeded to a great theatre opposite the church where they
> watched indecent farces.
>
>
> All of this is reminiscent of the rites in North Africa of the effeminate
> priests of the Mother Goddess system and the Saturnalia. Frazer says there
> is no direct evidence that one is derived from the other but the
Saturnalia,
> with the licence that characterised it and the temporary reign of a mock
> king, makes it appear so (ix, p. 339). These traditions were kept up until
> the nineteenth century when Victorian England and Napoleonic France
> following on the Revolution did away with them in some fashion. They were
> replaced as we will see with another form of the same errors. Much of the
> modern insanity derives from the USA and its commercialism.
>
>
> The twelve days of Christmas, cakes, beans and money
>
> The King of the Bean is also associated with the Festival of Fools in
France
> and there is a more ancient significance to it. The Festival of Fools goes
> on to the Twelfth day of Christmas (Twelfth Night is the night of 6
> January). The eve, which is 5 January and thus the Epiphany of 6 January,
> marks the end of the two periods of the pre-Christmas festivities which
are
> associated with the Saturnalia and the Sun system which commence from the
> Solstice on 25 December and continue until 5 January.
>
>
> In some areas, the king has a queen consort both of whom have an
> agricultural significance and seem to be related to the rites also of the
> Saturnalia.
>
>
> The king and queen are elected by lot on the Twelfth Night (i.e. Epiphany
6
> January) or on the eve of that festival on 5 January. It was common in
> France, Belgium, Germany and England. It is still kept in some parts of
> France. The Court acknowledged the practice and each family elected its
own
> king. On the eve of the festival, a great cake was baked with a bean in
it.
> It was divided into portions - one for each member of the family; one for
> God; one for the Heavenly Virgin and, sometimes, one for the poor. The
> person getting the portion with the bean was proclaimed King of the Bean
> (Frazer, ix, p. 313). Sometimes a second bean was placed in the cake for
the
> election of the queen. At Blankenheim near Neuerburg, in the Eiffel a
black
> and a white bean were baked in the cake - the black for the king and the
> white for the queen. In Franche-Comte they used to put as many white
haricot
> beans in a hat as there where people present. Two coloured beans were
> included and drawn at random by a child. Those receiving the coloured
beans
> were king and queen.
>
>
> In England, the practice was to put a bean in the hat for the king and a
pea
> for the queen. However, in some places, only the king was elected by lot
and
> he chose his queen himself. Sometimes a coin was substituted for the bean
in
> the cake. This custom was followed in southern Germany as early as the
first
> half of the sixteenth century. It is, however, considered by Frazer to be
a
> variation on the earlier bean. It shows reasonably clearly that the custom
> of placing coins in Christmas pudding stems from this custom of an earlier
> time.
>
>
> In France, the young child present was placed under a table. It was
> addressed as Phoebe or Tebe and he answered in Latin Domine. The pieces of
> the cake were distributed according to the child's direction. The
etymology
> has been attributed to the oracle of Apollo by some scholars. Frazer
thinks
> it may be simply derived from the word for the bean (Lat. faba, Fr. f�ve).
>
>
> Every time the king or queen drank the company cried the king or queen
> drinks and they all did likewise. Anyone failing to do so had their faces
> blackened by corks or soot or the lees of wine. In some parts of the
> Ardennes, the practice was to fasten great horns of paper in the hair and
> put a huge pair of spectacles on their nose. This was worn until the end
of
> the festival. This is probably the origin of the Dunce's Cap.
>
>
> This is still kept in northern France where a miniature porcelain figure
is
> substituted for the bean and drawn by a child. If it is drawn by a boy he
> chooses his queen; if it drawn by a girl she chooses her king.
>
>
> These kings and queens placed white crosses on the rafters of houses to
ban
> hobgoblins, witches and bugs. There was, however, a more serious
> significance to some of the office. In Lorraine, the height of the hemp
crop
> was said to be determined from the height of the king and queen. If the
king
> was taller, the male hemp would be higher than the female and vice versa.
In
> the Vosges Mountains on the border of France-Compte, the practice of
dancing
> on the roof was observed to make the hemp grow tall.
>
>
> In many areas, the beans used in the cake were taken to be blessed by the
> clergy and divination was employed on Twelfth Night to determine the month
> of the year in which the price of wheat would be dearest.
>
>
> The practice of lighting bonfires is still carried out in some areas and,
at
> the time Frazer wrote, it was still done in the Montagne du Doubs on the
eve
> of Twelfth Night (ix, p. 316). This was seemingly to ensure the fertility
of
> the crops. There seems to be a definite, if distant, relationship to the
> Yule festivals of the pagans.
>
>
> While it burned, the people danced around it singing Good year come back,
> Bread and wine come back!
>
>
> The youth of Pontarlier carry torches over the sowed lands shouting
> couaille, couaille, blanconnie; the meaning of which is lost in antiquity.
>
>
> In the Bocage of Normandy on the same day, it is the fruit trees that are
> fired. These twinkling lights are everywhere as the peasants celebrate the
> Ceremony of the Moles and Field-mice (Taupes et Mulots). Villages compete
in
> the blaze and woods and hedges are scoured for materials. They scour the
> fields threatening the moles and field mice and, thus, they believe the
crop
> will be larger that autumn.
>
>
> The bonfires on the eve of Epiphany were also observed in the Ardennes. It
> is useful to look at the customs here in regard to festivals of the
goddess
> Hecate in Rome and Europe generally and the fields and the crosses
involved
> there (cf. the paper The Cross: Its Origin and Significance (No. 39)).
>
>
> Similar fire customs are experienced in the UK in Gloucester and in
> Hertfordshire with twelve fires at the end of twelve lands (Gloucester)
> designed to prevent smut in wheat. There is a thirteenth larger fire lit
in
> both cases - the latter being on a hill (Frazer, ix, p. 318).
>
>
> This custom of making twelve fires of straw and drinking toasts of cider
or
> ale is called Wassailing and is ancient. Oxen are also toasted in this
> strange ritual in some areas with a cake placed on the horns of the lead
ox
> and then thrown by tickling the ox.
>
>
> The explanation of the practice of lighting fires and especially this
> largest is found in examination against the practice not only in UK and
> France but in Macedonia. The large fires are to burn the witches and
> malefactors that roam the fields at night. They are called by the
> Macedonians karkantzari or skatzanzari. They are overcome by binding with
> straw rope. They resume their human shape during the day. Over the twelve
> days of Christmas, they must be overcome by strenuous effort. Some places
> start on Christmas eve and in others it continues or is done on Twelfth
> Night.
>
>
> On Christmas eve, some people burn the karkantzari by burning holm-oak
> faggots and throwing them out in the streets at early dawn. Here, again,
we
> have reference to the Yule festivals of the Druids. The later oak faggots
> were remnants of the earlier log burning.
>
>
> In Ireland, they set up sheaves of oats. This was done in Roscommon where
> they held that Twelfth Night which is Old Christmas Day is greater than
> Christmas Day itself (Frazer, ix, p. 321).
>
>
> They set up thirteen candles in the sheaf, twelve smaller and one greater
in
> the centre and attribute these to the apostles at the Last Supper; but
these
> are at Christmas and not Passover. Thirteen candles of rushlight named
after
> each member of the family (or relations to make up the number) are placed
in
> cakes of cow dung and burned to determine the length of life of each
person
> (ix, p. 322).
>
>
> The origin of candles
>
> The use of candles goes back to the ancient Aryan religion, which used
them
> at the Yule ceremony to ward off the gods of thunder, storm and tempest
> (Frazer, x, p. 264 (n. 4) and also p. 265). They were lit and tied to the
> sacred oak (ibid., ii, 327).
>
>
> In some areas (Ruthenia and Europe generally) they were used by thieves
and
> burglars to cause sleep (Frazer, i, pp. 148-149) and in this case they
were
> made of human tallow (ibid., i, p. 236). Parts of the human anatomy were
> also used as candles or human bones were filled with tallow made from the
> fat of hanged men (ibid., p. 149). Sometimes, candles were made from the
> fingers of new born or, preferably as they saw it, unborn children. As
late
> as the seventeenth century in Europe robbers used to murder pregnant women
> to extract such candles from their wombs (ibid.).
>
>
> Candles were burnt to ward off witches. They entered Christianity through
> the Catholic or Orthodox Church (cf. Frazer, ibid., i, p. 13).
>
>
> The ancient Aryan practice continued among the Germans of lighting new
fire
> by means of a Bonfire at Easter and sending the sticks to each home to
start
> the fires to ward off the gods of thunder, storm and tempest. The practice
> was introduced to Catholicism as the Easter candle. This single giant
candle
> was lit at Easter on Saturday night before the Easter Sunday and then all
> the candles of the church were lit from it. This continued for the year
> until next Easter when the single Easter candle was again lit.
>
>
> The practice of lighting the candle appears to take place on the night
> before the day of the Sun as part of the ancient Sun worshipping system.
>
>
> In the Temple, incense was burned. Candles were not burned other than as
the
> Menorah.
>
>
> This practice of burning lights as candles or tapers was similar to that
of
> the Saturnalia. We know from the Book of Baruch 6:19 ff that the practice
of
> lighting candles before idols overlaid with precious metals was
Babylonian.
> The practice of lighting multiple candles probably entered Judaism through
> the Babylonian system. We will deal with it in more detail in the section
on
> Easter.
>
>
> The Menorah was seven branched and ordered by God for the Temple. In
> Solomon's Temple, there were ten tables of seven candles representing the
> Council of the Elohim of which the Sanhedrin was a copy. The nine branches
> are given mystical symbolism. There is no biblical authority for them.
>
>
> Weather
>
> The weather of the twelve days of Christmas was said to determine the
> weather of the forthcoming year.
>
>
> It is based on what appears to be a form of ancient zodiacal division of
> dividing the twelve days into four quadrants of three days per quadrant.
> This was done in the British Isles and it extended through Germany and
> German Austria into western Europe.
>
>
> From the weather on each of the twelve days it was possible to divine the
> weather of each successive month of the year. It was held to be accurate
and
> apply also to the Twelfth day itself where the weather on each hour would
> determine the weather for the corresponding month. The days were thus a
> system of divination for the year ahead in its agricultural aspects.
>
>
> In Swabia, the days were called the twelve lot days. More precise
divination
> was determined by making twelve circles divided into four quadrants. Each
> quadrant represented a quarter of the month. These were drawn on paper and
> hung over the door. As each day of the twelve days passed from Christmas
to
> Epiphany, the weather on each quarter day was shaded and the weather for
> that quarter month was determined.
>
>
> In Switzerland, Germany and Austria it was done somewhat differently. On
> Christmas, New Year's day or on another of the twelve days, one sliced an
> onion in two, peeled off twelve coats, and sprinkled a pinch of salt in
each
> of them. From the moisture left in them the next morning, it was
considered
> possible to determine the weather for the next twelve months of the year.
>
>
> This was not confined to the Germanic tribes or the Teutons - it was found
> also in France and among the Celts of Brittany and in Scotland.
>
>
> In the Bocage of Normandy, the temperature was divined for the year from
the
> temperature of the twelve days. This was considered more accurate than the
> predictions of the Double-Li�gois. In Cornouaille Brittany, the twelve
days
> were determined from Christmas to the Epiphany - being the last six days
of
> December and the first six of January. In other parts of Brittany and in
> Scotland the twelve days were determined from 1 January. They were known
in
> Brittany as the gour-deziou or male days. It is said to mean properly the
> additional or supplementary days. This concept takes us back to another
> ancient concept of the calendar and the five excess days of the year.
>
>
> The Scots from their almanac, from the last day of December, or the first
> day of January (depending on place) determine the weather of the
forthcoming
> year by that of the twelve days of Christmas. Thus, January is determined
by
> the weather of 31 December and so on as an infallible rule.
>
>
> The Celts of Scotland, as elsewhere in France, are divided as to the
> beginning of the days either at Christmas on 1 January or on 31 December.
> Frazer considers this an important indicator of the origin of the beliefs
> (ibid., ix, p. 24).
>
>
> This concept is very ancient and is found among the Aryans of the Vedic
age
> in India. This predates Christ by many centuries.
>
> They, too, appear to have invested days in midwinter with a sacred
character
> as a time when the three Ribhus or genii of the seasons rested from their
> labours in the home of the sun-god, and these twelve rest-days they called
> 'an image or copy of the year' (Frazer, ix, pp. 324-325).
>
> Frazer follows A Weber in this explanation of the common views of the East
> and West (cf. fn. 3 to ix, p. 325).
>
>
> The system was thus an ancient system of the Aryans who conquered India
from
> the Steppes with the use of iron age implements and harnessed horses about

> 1000 BCE.
>
>
> Their relatives took the same festivals west into Europe. These movements
> are part of the dispersion of the ancient mysteries of the Babylonian
system
> which found its way into the nomadic Shamans. This religion was Animism.
>
>
> Ancient calendar systems
>
> The division of the twelve days came from the ancient Aryan calendar which
> was divided according to the phases of the Moon and not that of the Sun.
The
> various Aryan languages have the name for month as the name for Moon.
>
>
> The days of the month alternate between twenty nine and thirty days every
> two months. These days at fifty-nine times six fall short of the actual
> solar year by almost twelve days (eleven and one quarter days).
>
>
> This appears to have been an intercalation to adjust the lunar to the
solar
> year which was a perversion of the true intercalation system adopted by
the
> Hebrews and the Assyro-Babylonians and the Greco-Romans. It thus seems to
> have been a perversion of Sun-worship from the earliest days of the
> movements of the Middle Eastern tribes. The Celtic Hittites, being the
first
> to move into Europe, took the system with them and its implementation
> corrupted subsequent colonisation from the Assyrian relocations and the
> movement of the Parthian and Gothic horde.
>
>
> We now know much more about the calendar system in use in Europe and the
> midwinter solstice in use in Europe and the UK. The circles were designed
to
> determine the solstice exactly on midwinter's day.
>
>
> The twelve days were distinct from the five days and they appear to have
> been variously added to or combined in different areas.
>
>
> It appears that the five extra days of the year making the 365 days over
and
> above the 360 days considered to be the normal year was a very ancient
> belief and system of intercalary practice where, from the Mayas of Yucatan
> to the pyramids of Egypt, people regarded them as useless for any
religious
> or civil purpose and did nothing on those days. This may have also had
some
> basis for the practices. The texts of the pyramids expressly mention the
> five days over and above the year comprised of twelve months of thirty
days
> (ibid., p. 340). The Aztecs and the American system, however, has eighteen
> months of twenty days and so did not follow any lunar system. The five
days
> were considered, because of their mathematical values in the divisions of
> the calendar, to be useless and the object of no work and a general
malaise
> of the society. This had no relationship to the Hebrew prophetic year of
> twelve thirty-day months which is a symbolic idealisation of the actual
> revolutions of the true intercalary nineteen year cycle. This religious
> symbolism and structure is detailed in the Bible.
>
>
> The five day sequence related to the calendar in
>
> use in solar systems or Sun-worshipping systems. The twelve days were an
> adjustment of the lunar to the solar which one would expect to find in the
> more ancient Moon-Sun-Morning Star systems which were common at the time
of
> the Exodus (see the paper The Golden Calf (No. 222)).
>
>
> The Sun god
>
> 25 December was also associated with Mithras, as he was Sun god.
>
>
> The Catholic liturgist Mario Righetti (in addition to Duchesne and also
> Cullman) held that:
>
> After the peace of the Church of Rome, to facilitate the acceptance of the
> faith by the pagan masses, found it convenient (sic) to institute the 25th
> of December as the feast of the temporal birth of Christ, to divert them
> from the pagan feast, celebrated on the same day in honour of the
> "Invincible Sun" Mithras, the conqueror of darkness (fn 74, II, p. 67
quote
> also in Bacchiocchi, From Sabbath to Sunday, Pontifical Gregorian
University
> Press, Rome, 1977, p. 260).
>
> Thus, Mithras was the god of the festival of the solstice on 25th
December,
> which followed immediately on from the Saturnalia. With this deity, we see
> Sunday worship emerge in Rome.
>
>
> The dedications to Mithra was as Soli invicto Mithrae or the Invincible
> Sun - the Unconquered Sun as Frazer terms it (p. 304). It was also related
> to him as Sol Invictus Elagabal in the public form of the religion.
>
>
> The term Father was a rank held by the priests of Mithra. The term is
> forbidden to Christians (Mat. 23:9). It entered Christianity with the
> Mystery cults.
>
>
> What actually occurred was that the original calendars of the Roman system
> began the week on Saturday and were in use in the first years of the
> Augustan era (27 BCE to 14 CE) following the discovery of the calendar of
> Nola (cf. A Degrassi, fn. 26, p. 104; cf. Bacchiocchi, ibid., p. 244).
This
> structure appears to be related to the system of Mithras (as we know from
> the Epicurean Celcus (c. 140-180 CE) where the Sun occupied the highest
> place on the ladder of ascent through the seven gates of
>
> the Mithraic ladder from Saturn to the Sun. This is classic Shamanism and
is
> practiced by animistic religion throughout the world. In Origen Contra
> Celsum, 6,21-22 we see that Celsus lists the planets in the reverse order
> enabling the Sun to occupy the significant seventh position.
>
>
> We later see this system emerge as the eight day symbolism in the Roman
> system for the week beginning on Saturn's day or Saturday and ending with
> the day of the Sun or Sunday which was always a holiday. The planetary
week
> was also not in the accepted order of the planets and people could not
> account for the difference (cf. Plutarch Complete Works, III, p. 230; cf.
> Bacchiocchi, ibid., p. 246).
>
>
> The differences can be seen also by comparison with the Ziggurat of the
> Babylonian system and the seven levels of ascent to the Moon god there
(cf.
> the paper The Golden Calf (No. 222)).
>
>
> The statement of Tertullian (Ad Nationes, 1, 13, ANF, III, p. 123),
attempts
> to refute the charge of Sun-worship. Tertullian admits that, by then,
> Christians had commenced praying towards the east and made Sunday a day of
> festivity. He directly places the responsibility for Sunday worship over
the
> Sabbath on the Sun-worshipping cults where he says they selected its day
in
> preference to the previous day of the week (i.e. the Sabbath or Saturday)
> (cf. Bacchiocchi, pp. 248-249). However, by then, they were both
worshipping
> on that day as well as the Christian Sabbath.
>
>
> Prayer to the Sun in the east
>
> Apparently, prayer to the east originated by prayer towards Jerusalem as
> Irenaeus mentions being the custom of the Ebionites (Adv. Her., 1,26, ANF,
> I, p. 352). By the time of Clement of Alexandria and Origen, we see the
> orientation to be towards the source of light that dispels the darkness of
> the night although Clement still mentions the ancient temples (Stromateis,
> 7,7,43, GCS, 3, 32; cf. Bacchiocchi, p. 255).
>
>
> Bacchiocchi makes it clear that the association between the Christian
Sunday
> and the pagan veneration of the day of the Sun is not explicit before the
> time of Eusebius (c. 260-340 CE). Although previous writers associated him
> as true light and sun of justice, no deliberate attempt prior to Eusebius
> was made to justify Sunday observance by means of the symbology of the day
> of the Sun (ibid., p. 261).
>
>
> The process thus entered Christianity by means of the earlier December
> festival, which was originally derived from the worship of Saturn and Opis
> in the Saturnalia, and its association with the Heavenly Virgin or Mother
> goddess and her infant child.
>
>
> The gospels say nothing as to the day of Christ's birth and the early
Church
> did not celebrate it.
>
>
> The custom of celebrating Christ's birth began in Egypt, being derived
from
> the Mother goddess cult there, and the Christians there celebrated it on 6
> January. By the fourth century it had become generally established in the
> East (Frazer, v, p. 304). The western church had never recognised 6
January
> as the true date and, in time, its decision was accepted by the eastern
> church. At Antioch this change was not introduced until about 375 CE
> (Frazer, ibid.).
>
>
> The origin of the practice is plainly recorded by the Syrian Christians as
> we see from Frazer quoting also Credner and Momsen and also Usener (v, pp.
> 304-305).
>
> The reason why the fathers transferred the celebration of the sixth of
> January to the twenty fifth of December was this. It was a custom of the
> heathen to celebrate on the same twenty-fifth of December the birthday of
> the Sun, at which they kindled lights in token of festivity. In these
> solemnities and festivities the Christians also took part. Accordingly
when
> the doctors of the Church perceived that the Christians had a leaning to
> this festival, they took counsel and resolved that the true Nativity
should
> be solemnized on that day and the festival of the Epiphany on the sixth of
> January. Accordingly, along with this custom, the practice has prevailed
of
> kindling fires till the sixth.
>
> Thus, the Saturnalia led up to the solstice when presents were given to
> children from 23 December or now Christmas eve on 24 December in the
> Gregorian calendar. The rites of the solstice then took over from the
> original Saturnalia but the period then became lengthened from three to
> seven days to which was added the twelve days.
>
>
> When we count five days from 25 December we come to 31 December from which
> some of the Celts and Germans begin the count. The addition of St
Stephen's
> Day (or Boxing Day) brings the five day period from 27 December in line to
1
> January.
>
>
> The pagan origin of Christmas is also evident in Augustine when he exhorts
> his brethren not to celebrate this solemn day like the heathen on account
of
> the Sun but on account of him who made the Sun (Augustine Serm., cxc, 1;
in
> Migne Patriologia Latina, xxxviii, 1007). Leo called the Great likewise
> rebuked the pestilent belief that Christmas was solemnised because of the
> birth of the new Sun, and not because of the nativity of Christ (Frazer,
> ibid.; cf. Leo the Great Serm., xxii (al xxi) 6 and Migne, liv, 198).
>
> However, by then, it was a hopeless cause. The entire system was endemic
to
> Christianity and the Mother goddess cult was entrenched.
>
>
> Frazer says:
>
> Thus it appears that the Christian Church chose to celebrate the birthday
of
> its Founder on the twenty-fifth of December in order to transfer the
> devotion of the heathen from the Sun to him who was called the Sun of
> Righteousness (p. 305).
>
> There was a theory put forward by one Mgr Duchesne that 25 December arose
> from the conformity with the equinox on 25 March and this was the day on
> which Christ was killed and also on which his mother conceived. This digs
an
> even deeper pit because 25 March was indeed initially adopted in Africa
and
> elsewhere as the date of the crucifixion. However, it was on a Sunday in
the
> only year that 14 Nisan could have fallen on 25 March. It is thus
> destructive to the theory. Moreover, 25 March is associated with the
> festival of the god Attis as Frazer notes in his footnote to page 305. We
> will examine this in the sections below.
>
>
> The Goat and the Bear
>
> On the twelve days we also see mummers playing the part of a goat and a
> bear.
>
>
> In the highlands of Scotland and St Kilda down until the last half of the
> eighteenth century, at least a cowherd would wrap himself in a skin on New
> Year's eve. The young people would meet and with staves they would beat
the
> hide as a drum and proceed from house to house where the one covered with
> the hide runs three times round deiseil, i.e. in the way the Sun revolves.
> He was pursued by the crowd crying in Gaelic:
>
> let us raise the noise louder and louder let us beat the hide (Frazer,
viii,
> p. 323).
>
> They go from house to house repeating verses. On entry, they call down
> blessings on the house and its cattle, stones and timber, its produce and
> health. A part of the hide was then burnt and applied to the noses of
every
> person and domestic animal in order to protect the inhabitants against
> disease and misfortune for the coming year.
>
>
> This last day of the year is called Hogmanay.
>
>
> Each of the party, after the rhyme had been said and the Rann Calluin or
> Christmas Rhyme had been repeated, in return entered and had refreshment.
> The general thing that was burnt in lieu of the strip of hide was a
> Casein-uchd made of the breast strip of a sheep (or deer or goat) wrapped
> around the point of a shinty stick. This was singed in the fire and put
> three times around the family and to the nose of all. No drink was taken
> until this ceremony had been completed. The purpose was to protect the
> household against witchcraft and disease.
>
>
> On the Isle of Man, the feather of the wren was used (viii, p. 324).
>
>
> The custom appears to be related to an older custom involving human
> sacrifice. Frazer notes that the Khonds slew a human victim as a divinity
> and took him from house to house and everyone took a relic of his sacred
> person (cf. i, pp. 246 ff). The cowhide no doubt substituted for this
> victim. The communion substituted for the body and blood of the god.
>
> While these customs may not have connection with agriculture, the similar
> customs of Plough Monday certainly do and the processions we see in Europe
> of men clad as animals probably identify with the corn spirit. They may
have
> association with the Gilyak procession of the bear and the Indian
procession
> of the snake (ibid.).
>
>
> Often in these processions (as in the last days of the carnival in
Bohemia)
> a man was swathed from head to foot in pease-straw and wrapped around in
> straw ropes (Frazer, ibid.). This harkens back to the wicca man in ancient
> Britain.
>
>
> These festivals of agriculture were associated with both the midwinter
> solstice and the spring equinox - both heralding the return of growth and
> warmth and life as the power of the Sun and summer to nature.
>
>
> The Bohemian man goes by the name of the Shrovetide or Carnival bear
> (Fastnachtsb�r).
>
>
> After he has danced at every house with the girls and maids and the
> housewife herself they all retire to the ale house:
>
> For at Shrovetide, but especially at Shrove Tuesday, every one must dance,
> if the flax, the vegetables and the corn are to thrive (Frazer, viii, p.
> 326).
>
> The straw of the bear is put in the nests of the hens and geese. The bear
> represents the spirit of fertility. The purpose of the dancing is to make
> fertile both animal and vegetable in all aspects.
>
>
> In parts of Bohemia, this person is not called a bear but an oats-goat.
>
>
> In Prussian Lithuania on Twelfth day a man is wrapped in pease-straw to
> represent the bear and another in oats-straw to represent the goat.
>
>
> In Marburg in Steiermark, men appear as both a wolf and a bear (Frazer,
> ibid.).
>
>
> The man who gave the last stroke at threshing is called the wolf. He keeps
> the name Wolf until Christmas when he is wrapped in a goat's skin and led
> from house to house as a pease-bear at the end of a rope. His dress as a
> goat marks him out and appears to associate the symbols of goat and bear
and
> wolf in this ancient ritual of the corn-spirit.
>
>
> In Scandinavia, the appearance of the corn-spirit as a goat is common
> (ibid.). In Sweden, led about with horns on his head, he personated the
> Yule-goat. In parts of Sweden they make a pretence of slaughtering the
goat
> who comes to life again (ibid., p. 327). The two men who slaughter him
sing
> verses referring to the mantles of varying colours, red, blue, white and
> yellow, which they laid on him.
>
>
> After supper on Christmas evening, the people dance the "angel dance" to
> ensure a good crop. Yule straw, either of wheat or rye, is made into the
> likeness of a goat and thrown among the dancers with the cry of catch the
> Yule-goat. In Dalarne it is called the Yule-ram.
>
>
> In Denmark and Sweden, it is customary to bake cakes of fine meal at
> Christmas in the shape of goats, rams and boars (Frazer, ibid., p. 328).
> They are often made out of the last sheaf at harvest and kept until
> sowing-time where they are partly mixed with the seed corn and partly
eaten
> by the people and the plough oxen in the hope of securing a good harvest.
> The commonality of the customs from the British Isles to Europe and
> Scandinavia and the East establishes beyond doubt the ancient practice as
> appeasement of the corn-spirit and the ancient gods. The appearance as a
> wether and a boar is also ancient and widespread.
>
>
> The Straw-bear was witnessed in Wittlesy Cambridgeshire, being performed
as
> it had been for centuries on the day after Plough Monday, by Professor
Moore
> Smith of Sheffield University in January 1909 (see letter of 13 January
> 1909; cf. Frazer, viii, p. 329).
>
>
> Plough Monday is the first Monday of January after Twelfth day. It is
beyond
> dispute that we are dealing with an ancient agricultural festival which is
> directed at appeasement of the ancient agricultural gods in the sequence
of
> the midwinter festivals which run from the Saturnalia to the solstice high
> day and then on to the twelve days of so-called Christmas to the plough
> festival of Plough Monday and Shrove Tuesday.
>
>
> It appears to have been anciently associated with human sacrifice -
perhaps
> in each of the three aspects or perhaps as single festivals.
>
>
> Plough Monday in England was normally associated with a team of human
plough
> bullocks, one of whom was disguised as an old crone called Bessy. They
went
> about leaping and dancing in high fashion presumably to make the corn grow
> as high as they leapt. This was similar to the practice of the Straw-bears
> or Yule-goats on the continent and elsewhere in UK.
>
>
> The same practices are found in Thrace and Bulgaria on the same day, i.e.
> the Monday of the last week of Carnival. One dancer (the Kuker) is a man
> clad in goatskin. Another dancer (the Kukerica), disguised in petticoats
as
> the old woman or baba, has "her" face blackened.
>
>
> Bears are represented by dogs wrapped in bearskins. A mock court is set up
> of a king and judge and other officials. The plays of the Kuker and
Kukerica
> are wanton and lascivious.
>
>
> Towards evening, two people are yoked to a plough and the Kuker ploughs a
> few furrows and sows some corn. He then takes off his disguise and is paid
> for his trouble.
>
>
> The people believe that the person who plays the Kuker commits a deadly
sin
> and the priests also make vain efforts to abolish the customs. The Kuker
in
> Losengrad district has a cake with money in it which is distributed to
those
> present. If a farmer gets the coin, the crops will be good; if a herdsman
> gets it, the herds will be good. The Kuker also symbolically ploughs the
> ground and waves to and fro to imitate the waving corn. The man with the
> coin is bound and dragged by the feet over the ground to quicken the
> fertility of the ground. This drawing by lot is reminiscent also of the
> Saturnalia sacrifice we saw above.
>
> In Bulgaria itself, the festival has the Old Woman or Mother as the
leading
> personage, played by a man in woman's clothing. The Kuker and Kukerica are
> subordinate to the "Old Woman". They wear fantastic masks of human heads
> with animal horns or birds heads and skins with a girdle of lime bark. On
> their back is a hump made out of rags. This festival in Bulgaria, being
the
> Monday of the last week of Carnival, is called Cheese Monday. It is
> nevertheless associated with the Ploughing festival.
>
>
> The same rituals associated in western Europe of going round the house and
> the blessings conferred by the presence of the "old woman" on the
fertility
> of the village is uppermost in the minds of all. Incursion by masked
people
> from any other village is seen as a threat and a drawing away of the
> fertility of the village. Such incursions are resisted.
>
>
> The similarity between the Old Woman with the black face of Demeter and
the
> two aides of Pluto and Persephone are probably behind the origins of the
> three kings custom, with the black Mechior representing Demeter.
>
> The festival of Befana in Rome on the night before Epiphany is clearly
> related to this festival of Demeter and the term Befana is obviously a
> corruption of Epiphany. She is clearly an old witch and the noise of this
> festival is clearly associated with an ancient custom of clearing the area
> of evil influences (see also below). The same ceremonies involving Befana
on
> the eve of Epiphany were or are observed in Tuscan Romagna and elsewhere
in
> Italy (Frazer, ix, p. 167).
>
>
> Frazer rightly sees in the Old Woman of the Bulgarian and Thracian system
a
> reference to the Corn Mother-goddess Demeter who in the likeness of an old
> woman brought blessing to the house of Celeus, king of Eleusis and
restored
> the lost fertility to the fallow Eleusinian fields. The Kuker and
Kukerica,
> the male and female mummers, represent Pluto and Persephone. These rituals
> are extant from East to West and represent the oldest of the religious
> festivals (Frazer, viii, pp. 334-335). We are thus directly in the middle
of
> the Eleusinian Mystery cults and linked with the same Mystery cults of
> ancient times from the cult of Apollo in early Europe and of Dionysius and
> of agricultural symbols in the cult of worship of the Sun god. The
> Bull-slaying cults are thus also involved and we see from the times of
> dedication of the Bulls sacrificed by the Greeks in Magnesia after its
> dedication in the beginning of the sowing that we have a common idea of
the
> festival. Zeus is the partner of Demeter and the final product is the
> slaying of the Bull to Zeus in the equivalent of the month of May.
>
>
> Yule logs, the holly and ivy, and mistletoe
>
> The summer and winter solstice were seen as the two great turning points
of
> the year. Fires were lit on both solstices. The midsummer fires were lit
in
> the open and youths jumped the fires. This practice was found among the
> Celts in Ireland, Britain and Gaul and also among the north Africans in
> Morocco and the Atlas Mountains. Their practice is much more ancient than
> the Islam they also profess. The practice of lighting fires happened
> anciently among the pagans on May Day and on Halloween (1 November) called
> All Saints Day. The asymmetric nature of these festivals with that of the
> solstice should be noted. The Festival of Walpurgis on the last day of
April
> preceding May Day is the Festival of the Burning of the Witches. This type
> of festival is also associated with the twelve days between Christmas 25
> December and the Epiphany of 6 January. Fires of pine-resin are lit on
these
> nights to keep the witches away. The fires are generally larger on Twelfth
> Night. In Silesia, people burn fires of pine-resin between Christmas and
New
> Year to drive witches away from the farmhouses. This was the "proper time
> for the expulsion of the forces of darkness". On Christmas eve and New
Year'
> s eve, shots are fired over the fields and people wrap straw around the
> fruit trees to prevent evil forces from doing them harm.
>
>
> In Biggar in Lanarkshire UK, New Year's eve is the traditional time for
this
> fire which has been lit since time immemorial.
>
> In 1644, nine witches of flesh and blood were burnt on Leith Links in
> Scotland (Frazer, ix, p. 165).
>
>
> Fires are lit in the Autumn but are not significant. The festival of the
> nativity of the Virgin on 8 September was traditionally associated with
> noise and uproar associated with Befana at Rome and traditionally involved
> assassinations. Prof. Housman noted that when he witnessed the festival at
> Capri in 1897, a few more than the usual eight or ten were murdered
(Frazer,
> x, p. 221).
>
>
> Fires are also traditionally lit on the midwinter solstice on 25 December.
> The difference between the midsummer and midwinter fires being that the
> midwinter fires are lit indoors and form part of the ritual of the
> invocation of the Sun god to his place of supremacy in the heavens. Thus,
> the midwinter fires developed a more cloistered or family type atmosphere.
>
>
> It is perhaps of significance that in the Shetland Islands, the Yule or
> Christmas holidays began seven days before Christmas and ended at
Antinmas,
> i.e. the twenty-fourth day after Christmas.
>
>
> The Shetlanders name these holidays the Yules. Seven days before
Christmas,
> the elves called Trows by the Shetlanders are let free from their homes in
> the earth and dwell above ground if it pleases them. This is the probable
> origin of the elf symbolism of and with Santa Claus. It seems to relate
back
> to the concept of the misrule of the seven days of the Saturnalia leading
up
> to 25 December.
>
>
> The most important of the rituals in Yule was the saining which had to be
> properly carried out to deal with the grey folk as the elves were called.
>
>
> The modern myths emanating from the USA regarding alien greys is none
other
> than the revamping of the elves at Yule.
>
>
> On the last day of the holidays, the twenty-fourth day after Christmas,
> called up-helly-a, or Uphalliday in Shetland, the doors were all opened
and
> a great deal of pantomimic chasing went on to rid the area of the
> mischievous elves. People piously read the Bible and displayed iron
> ostentatiously "for it is well known that elves cannot abide the sight of
> iron." The infants were carefully guarded and sained by learned wise
women.
> No doubt, we have the sign of the evil eye involved here as an ancient
> custom (cf. also the paper The Cross: Its Origin and Significance (No.
39)).
>
>
> When day dawned after twenty-fourth night, the Trows or Grey-folk had
> vanished and the Yules were ended.
>
>
> The customs of banishing evil forces and witches on a night set aside for
> the purpose in the period of the winter solstice and festivals can thus be
> traced from Rome and Calabria in the south as far north as the Shetlands.
It
> also runs from Ireland to the Steppes and down to North Africa.
>
>
> The log
>
> We know that the Germans burnt the Yule log which was an ancient custom
even
> by the eleventh century. In 1184, the parish priest of Ahlen in
M�nsterland
> records bringing a tree to kindle the festal fire at the Lord's nativity
> (Frazer, x, p. 247). This was found in Britain in ancient times and was
> common to the Teutons and apparently the Celts. John Brand is quoted by
> Frazer as saying that the Yule block is a counterpart of the midsummer
fires
> made within doors because of the cold weather at the winter solstice
(ibid.,
> n. 2). This was nothing other than the erroneous application to 25
December
> of the solstice which was set aside for the worship of the Sun (Frazer, x,
> p. 246). This lighting of the tree fire was to assist the Sun to relight
its
> ailing lamp, and the entire system of fires and candles at the nativity
> before the Heavenly Virgin is the ancient worship of the Mother goddess
and
> her infant child, the Sun. The lamps assist in the lighting of the
heavenly
> fire of the Sun and this is the basic idea behind flame and its use in
> Zoroastrianism.
>
>
> The Yule log was also kept among European groups and placed on the fire to
> ward off thunder and the effects of storms. Thus, the relationship is
> clearly made between the ancient gods of the Teutons over thunder and
> lightning and weather and the Yule log at the solstice.
>
>
> Mistletoe
>
> Mistletoe was sacred in the religion of the Druids. The Druids who came
via
> Egypt as Magi were picked up by the Milesians in Spain from among the
> Gadelians before the Scoto-Milesians went to Ireland. From there they
spread
> into Britain and Europe (MacGeohagen The History of Ireland, Sadlier, NY,
p.
> 42; cf. Frazer, ii, pp. 358,362; xi, pp. 76 ff,301).
>
>
> Pliny (Natural History, xvi, pp. 249-251) derives the word Druid from the
> Greek word for oak which is drus. It is, however, the same or similar in
the
> Celtic being daur. The Druids are thus priests of the oak. Their cult is
> thus ancient and associated with the oak groves. Other scholars prefer to
> derive the name from the root meaning knowledge or wisdom - hence, they
were
> the wizards or magicians. This is also borne from the title Magi which
they
> held (cf. Frazer, xi, pp. 76-77, n. 1 to p. 76).
>
>
> The Druidic cycle of the calendar was of thirty years and there appears to
> be a common relationship in their worship with that of the Boetians who,
> like they, worship or conjured the oak and, thus, both may have a common
> Aryan connection. The Boetian cycle, in the festival of the great Daedala,
> was one of sixty years and not thirty. This may have application to the
> Aryan practice observed among the Indians of the sixty year cycle based on
> the sidereal cycle of Jupiter.
>
>
> The mistletoe is cut with a golden scythe on the first or sixth day of the
> Moon (Frazer, xi, pp. 77-78). It is associated with fertility and was held
> to make barren animals and women to bring forth. It was thought to have
> fallen from the sky and was called the all-healer (Frazer, xi, pp.
> 77-79,82). Two white bulls were sacrificed at its cutting on the sixth day
> for this purpose. The priest was dressed in a white robe. It was cut on
the
> first day of the Moon by the Italians and on the sixth by the Druids. This
> difference is probably accounted for because of the commencement of the
> lunar month in both systems. Neither cut the mistletoe with an iron
> implement. It was not allowed to touch the earth and, hence, it was caught
> in a white cloth.
>
>
> The Italians believed that mistletoe growing on oak had similar properties
> if we accept Pliny and, thus, there was a commonality of belief to both
> systems.
>
>
> We are thus back again to the fertility system of the Saturnalia and the
> healing of the Mysteries and Apollo, but in an ancient form common to the
> Aryans before 1000 BCE.
>
>
> This system was so ancient that it was common even to the Ainu of Japan
who
> also held it sacred. They, however, use mistletoe cut from a willow
because
> that tree is sacred to them. They agree with both the Druids (in its
> curative properties) and the Italians (regarding the fertility of women
for
> childbirth) in their beliefs (Frazer, xi, p. 79).
>
>
> This belief extends down to the natives of Mabuig Island in the Torres
> Strait (ibid.). The common belief is also found in Africa among the Walos
of
> Senegambia (ibid.).
>
>
> The veneration of mistletoe as an all-healer is found among Swiss peasants
> and among the Swedes (ibid., p. 82).
>
>
> The Norse god Balder was said to have been slain by mistletoe and Frazer
> gives an extensive account of this matter in his work.
>
>
> Mistletoe was used as a remedy for epilepsy generally and by high medical
> authorities in the UK and Holland as late as the eighteenth century
(ibid.,
> p. 83, noting Ray of UK in 1700, Boerhaave of Holland in 1720 and his
pupil
> Van Swieten in 1745).
>
>
> Mistletoe is held to be a protection against lightning and fire and,
hence,
> associated with the Yule system also (Frazer, xi, p. 85).
>
>
> It was most commonly used at the midsummer fires and at this time was
> associated with the death of the god Balder. This seems to have involved
> actual human sacrifice at this time in Denmark, Norway and Sweden (Frazer,
> xi, p. 87). The practice of throwing the victim chosen by lot into the
> Beltane fire and also the Green wolf of the midsummer fires are associated
> with this system of worship as tree spirits or gods of vegetation (ibid.,
p.
> 88).
>
>
> The worship of mistletoe is associated directly with the cult of the
worship
> of the oak and was common to all the Aryans. The Celts in Asia Minor
> worshiped at the grove called Drynemetum which is pure Celtic, meaning
> Temple of the Oak. These are the groves which also contained a phallus
> spoken against by the Bible.
>
>
> Among the Slavs, the oak was the sacred symbol of the great god Perun and
> the oak ranks first among the holy trees of the Germans. It was adored by
> them anciently and certain of these practices and attitudes survive to the
> present day (Frazer, ibid., p. 89).
>
>
> The oak was also sacred to the Italians and the image of Jupiter on the
> Capitol was originally nothing but a natural oak tree. At Dodona, Zeus was
> also worshipped as being immanent in the oak. Frazer concludes that the
> Aryans, including Celts, Germans and Lithuanians, commonly held the oak
> sacred before their dispersion and this common land must have been
> plentifully supplied with oak. The mistletoe is merely its symbol, as
heaven
> sent aspect of healing, protection and fertility.
>
>
> The kindling of sacred fire, whether among the Celts, Germans or Slavs, is
> always by use of the oak in rubbing two of the sticks together or by
rubbing
> oak on a grey stone (not red). The same types of practice are found from
> Germany to the highlands of Scotland in kindling the need-fire (cf.
Frazer,
> xi, p. 91).
>
>
> Frazer says the perpetual fire of Vesta in Rome was fed with oak wood. Oak
> wood also burnt in the perpetual fire before the sacred oak at Romove in
> Lithuania. The blocks of oak are burnt also from the midwinter solstice
> through to the end of the year and replaced with the new log and the ashes
> are mixed among the seed etc. for fertility.
>
>
> The common link in all these stories is the burning of the fires and the
> cutting of the mistletoe. The ancient Aryans believed, as we can deduce
from
> the myth of Balder, that the oak was the god and the mistletoe's link with
> it ensured its longevity. The human sacrifice at the midsummer fires
ensured
> the life of the crops. The use of mistletoe and the Yule log at the
> midwinter solstice also looked to the sacrifice of the god represented by
> the human who took his place, and the return of the Sun system. This is
the
> underlying symbolism of the Christmas tradition (cf. Frazer, xi, p. 93).
>
>
> While the mistletoe stood, neither the god nor his substitute could be
> injured. The cutting of the mistletoe was both the signal and the cause of
> his death.
>
>
> Holly and ivy
>
> Holly and ivy allegedly represent male and female. The ivy clings and
> twines - supposedly representing the female. The holly is prickly and
> erect - supposedly representing the male.
>
>
> In Surrey England, a holly tree is used to pass a child through a cleft to
> heal rupture whereas it is usually an ash elsewhere (Frazer, xi, p. 169,
n.
> 2).
>
> The holly-oak was sacred to the Fratres Arvales or Brethren of the Tilled
> Fields. This was a Roman college of twelve priests who performed public
> religious rites for the purposes of agriculture. They wore wreaths of ears
> of corn. Their sacrifices were made in the grove of the goddess Dia some
> five miles down the Tiber from Rome. This grove contained laurels and
> holly-oaks. It was so hallowed that expiatory sacrifices were offered
every
> time a tree or even a bough of a tree fell to the ground. This was
obviously
> especially prone to occur with the advent of snow and storms at the winter
> solstice. Hence, the concept also of holly and the white Christmas. More
> elaborate sacrifices had to be made when one of the trees were struck by
> lightning. They were then dug up by the roots, split and burnt and others
> planted in their stead. At the Roman festival of the Parilia which was for
> the welfare of flocks and herds, peasants prayed for forgiveness if they
> entered a hallowed grove, sat under a sacred tree, or lopped a holy bough
to
> feed sheep (cf. Frazer, ii, p. 123).
>
>
> Pliny says the woods were formerly the temples of the deities and that
even
> in his time the peasants dedicated a tall tree to a god with the ritual of
> olden times (Pliny Natural History, xii, p. 3).
>
>
> The ivy is the symbol of the Mystery cults. It is chewed by the
Bacchanalian
> feast-goers. It is identified with the god Dionysius, or Bacchus.
>
>
> Ivy was used by the Greeks as one of the two firesticks. The board of the
> pair was made out of a parasitic or creeping plant which was usually ivy.
> The borer was usually laurel. Oak was also used as the borer.
>
>
> The ancient Indians used a parasite (the climbing fig) as the borer using
> the parasite as the male concept. The Greeks seemed to have reversed this
> concept. The ivy is considered female and the laurel male. Yet in the
Greek,
> the word ivy is masculine and the ivy was identified anciently with the
male
> god Dionysius. The word for laurel is feminine and is identified with a
> nymph. Thus, we may conclude that the Greeks, like the Indians, considered
> the concepts similarly in very ancient times but modified them perhaps
> though expedience (Frazer, ii, pp. 251-252).
>
>
> Anciently, ivy was prohibited to touch or name (Frazer, iii, pp. 13 ff.).
> Ivy was also sacred to the god Attis and, hence, we come then to the pine
> tree which was also sacred to that god (cf. Frazer, v, p. 278 and see the
> paper The Cross: Its Origin and Significance (No. 39)).
>
>
> Ivy was also sacred to the god Osirus (Frazer, vi, p. 112) and also for
> dreams (ibid., x, p. 242). Thus, we see a commonality to the system of the
> Triune god and the Mystery cults generally which ties in naturally with
the
> solstice system and Sun worship. Thus, the holly and the ivy are the
symbols
> also of the oak and other groves dedicated to the deities so condemned by
> the Bible.
>
>
> The Christmas tree
>
> The decorated pine tree stems directly from the Mystery cults and the
> worship of the god Attis. He is held to have been a man who became a tree
> and, hence, is the embodiment of the ancient tree-spirit we meet in
ancient
> Indian or Indus mythology from as early as Harappa and Mohenjo Daro. He is
> clearly a fertility god of corn and wears a Phrygian cap like Mithras
(from
> the statue in the Lateran; Frazer, v, p. 279).
>
>
> The bringing in of the pine tree decked in violets and woollen bands is
like
> bringing in the May-tree or Summer-tree in modern folk custom. The effigy
> which was attached to the tree was a duplicate representative of the god
> Attis. This was traditionally kept until the next year when it was burnt
> (Firmicus Maternus De errore profanarum religionum; cf. Frazer, v, p. 277
> and n. 2).
>
> The original intent of this custom was to maintain the spirit of
vegetation
> intact throughout the coming year. The Phrygians worshipped the pine tree
> above all others and it is from this area that we derive the Mysteries and
> the Mithras system. It is probably sacred to the cults in that it is an
> evergreen lasting through the solstice period over a large area, when
other
> trees are bare. Remember also that pine resin was burnt at the solstice
> festivals. The origins are lost in the antiquity of the Assyro-Babylonian
> system.
>
>
> The resemblance of the god Attis was changed to the Sun symbol as a
> monstrance on the top and then to angels and other types of decorations.
The
> decorations are easily identifiable as the Sun, Moon, and stars of the
> Triune system of the Babylonians as Sin Ishtar and Shamash or Isis, Osirus
> and Horus of the Egyptians (see the paper The Golden Calf (No. 222)).
>
> Ivy was also sacred to Attis and his eunuch priests were tattooed with the
> symbol of the ivy leaf (Frazer, v, p. 278).
>
>
> Pine nuts were used to produce a wine used in the orgiastic rites of
Cybele
> which were in effect counterparts of the Dionysian orgies and Strabo
> compared them (Strabo, x, 3. 12 ff).
>
>
> At the festival of Thesmophoria, they were thrown along with pigs and
other
> agents or emblems of fertility into the sacred vaults of Demeter for the
> purpose of increasing the fertility of the earth and of women (Frazer, v,
p.
> 278). Thus, we are back again to the Demeter festivals and the aspects
that
> have kept on and which are associated with Christmas in Europe generally
as
> we have already seen.
>
>
> The Epiphany
>
> The term Epiphany means manifestation as the appearance of some divine or
> superhuman being. It was applied to Antiochus IV Epiphanes, king of Syria
> (175-164 BCE).
>
>
> It was also known as: the dies luminum (day of lights); as three kings day
> or the twelfth day. All of these are dealt with above. The practices
> associated with it are all derived from the ancient sources we see in the
> text and have little to do with the faith.
>
> The name survives in the great festival of Befana at Rome (cf. Catholic
> Encyclopedia, art., Epiphany, Robert Appleton, NY, 1909, Vol. V, p. 504).
> The CE says:
>
> It is difficult to say how closely the practice then observed of buying
all
> sorts of earthenware images, combined with whistles and representing some
> type of Roman life, is to be connected with the rather similar custom in
> vogue during the December feast of the Saturnalia (ibid.).
>
> It is hardly difficult to identify. The practices were the same and the
term
> is applied to the manifestation of the Befana as the goddess as we see
> above. The attempt to place the reference in Hippolytus on the Sacrament
of
> Baptism is incorrect as he uses the term theophaneia not epiphania
(ibid.).
>
>
> The first substantive reference is in Clement (Stromateis, I, xxi, p. 45).
> The CE quotes this text as follows and then goes on to say:
>
> 'There are those, too, who over-curiously assign to the Birth of our
Saviour
> not only its year but its day, which they say to be on 25 Pachon (20 May)
in
> the twenty eighth year of Augustus. But the followers of Basilides
celebrate
> the day of his Baptism too, spending the previous night in readings. And
> they say that it was the 15th of the month Tybi of the 15th year of
Tiberius
> Caesar. And some say that it was observed the 11th of the same month.'
Now,
> 15 and 11 Tybi are 6 and 10 January.
>
> Both the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church try to draw from
this
> practice of the Gnostics under Basilides (teaching at Rome in the middle
of
> the second century) support for the celebration of the nativity as well as
> the baptism of Christ but there is no real evidence for this conjecture.
The
> evidence of the festivals themselves indicate that the practice was the
> ancient fertility festival and the blessing of the produce. From this
arose
> the practice of blessing the waters and the practice of throwing
crucifixes
> into the sea to make the seas productive for fisherman. All are based in
> ancient paganism and were not evident in Christianity until the fourth
> century. This addition was well after Origen writing in the third century
as
> he makes no mention of the Epiphany in his list of the festivals. The
first
> reference to it as a feast of the church is in 361 (cf. CE, p. 505).
>
>
> From Saint Nicholas to Santa Claus
>
> Santa Claus is a rather late invention and comes to us as a product of
late
> American commercialism. It is derived chiefly from German and Dutch
> folklore. It has its origins in the entity referred to as Saint Nicholas.
>
>
> The man usually known as Saint Nicholas is Nicholas of Myra in Lycia. He
> died on 6 December 345 or 352 (Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. XI, p. 63). He
is
> popular in both the Greek and the Latin church but there is scarcely
> anything certain about him except that he was bishop of Myra in the fourth
> century (ibid., p. 64). He was born at Parara in Lycia of Asia Minor. In
his
> youth, he made a pilgrimage to Egypt and Palestine. On his return he was
> made bishop of Myra and was imprisoned during the persecution of
Diocletian.
> He was released on the ascension of Constantine. The Catholics allege he
was
> present at Nicaea but his name does not appear on any of the records by
> their own admission (ibid.).
>
>
> In 1087, Italian merchants stole his body at Myra and took it to Bari. His
> cult in Italy dates from this point. It appears this may have been
prompted
> by a cult that had developed concerning him in Europe. The numerous
miracles
> attributed to him are the outgrowth of a long tradition but, as we will
see,
> much of it has pagan origins that would have little to do with the
original
> man.
>
>
> His cult in the Greek church is old and especially prominent in the
Russian
> church although they were long after him (c. 1000 CE). The emperor
Justinian
> I built a church in his honour at Constantinople and his name appears on
the
> liturgy ascribed to John Chrysostom (ibid.).
>
>
> His cult in Europe started from the time of Otto II whose wife Theophano
was
> a Grecian. Bishop Reginald of Eichstadt (d. 991) wrote a metric entitled
the
> Vita S. Nicholai. He is, or was, honoured as patron saint in Greece,
Russia,
> the kingdom of Naples, Sicily, Lorraine, the Diocese of Liege, and many
> cities in Italy, Germany, Austria and Belgium, Campen in the Netherlands,
> Corfu in Greece, Frieburg in Switzerland and Moscow in Russia (ibid.). He
> was patron of mariners, merchants, bankers and children.
>
>
> His relics are still preserved in the church of S. Nicola in Bari. An oily
> substance, known as Manna di S. Nicola, is said to exude from his relics.
It
> is valued for medicinal purposes. His relationship with the festivals of
5/6
> December are examined below.
>
>
> One legend associated with him relates to the formation of three golden
> balls, each made from his wages for one year, and rolled through the
window
> of a needy family of good birth over a period of years. The first ball
> allegedly landed in a stocking (hence the Christmas stocking). This
enabled
> the needy recipients to marry off their daughters. He was allegedly seen
on
> the last time. This is no doubt the origin of the three golden balls of
the
> pawn brokers and the symbol of his patronage of merchants. These stories
we
> will see have relationship with other myths.
>
>
> The traditions associated with his generosity caused the practice of
Norman
> French nuns giving to the poor on Saint Nicolas day or eve and this came
to
> be called Boxing Day from the alms box of the church. This became the
> tradition behind the Boxing Day of 26 December. In Germany, Christ Bundles
> were also given to the poor and the annual parades took on the Heavenly
> Mother goddess tokens of the Mysteries.
>
>
> The practice of children saving all year for the annual pig at Christmas
in
> Holland led to the introduction of the piggy bank.
>
>
> The amalgam also of the false Roman robes of the clergy worn on the
Festival
> of Fools and the tales of Odin's wild ride and the beards of the Magi with
> the elves of the Yule festivals saw a gradual evolution.
>
>
> Nicholas of Myra was a saint in the Roman Catholic Church until 1969 when
he
> suffered the fate of many other myths.
>
> Sinterklaas - the precursor of Santa Claus
>
> Sinterklaas, or Saint Nicolas, is a typical Dutch folklore, celebrated in
> the Netherlands and partly in Belgium.
>
>
> The celebration of Sinterklaas is always on the evening, after sunset of 5
> December in the Netherlands and 6 December in Belgium.
>
>
> In the celebration of the evening and night, the children are assembled
> around the chimney, singing songs to Sinterklaas:
>
> "Heerlijk avondje is gekomen. Kom maar binnen met je knecht".
>
> "The nice (or lordlike) evening has come. Come in with your servant".
>
>
> His servant, Black Peter, is black. He is always portrayed as a Negro with
> thick lips and earrings and clothed in funny clothes. This probably stems
> from the Demeter/Melchior nexus and later associated with good and evil
> being embodied in the legend of Woden and N�wi.
>
>
> Sinterklaas himself is as a bishop with mitre and a book with the good
deeds
> and sins. He has the staff of a shepherd and rides on a white horse over
the
> roof tops. Black Peter listens at the chimneys to determine whether the
> children are singing the right songs and presenting the right offerings to
> the horse in the form of hay and carrots.
>
>
> The presents for the children are put through the chimney.
>
>
> Sinterklaas is a syncretic product of the old Germanic or Teutonic
religion.
> The Germanic roots can be explained as follows:
>
> The god Woden (also known as Odin), who is still remembered by the use of
> Wednesday, was the most important god of the old Germanic tribes (not the
> small group of people we understand as Germans today). Woden, who is a
> figure of history, was made into the personification of the multitude of
> earlier gods - the gods of wind and war, the god of the dead, the god of
> fertility, the god of wisdom and the Sun god. We will find him in
> mythological legends "riding through the air on his faithful white horse,
> clothed in a flowing robe." Further, he is described as a figure with a
long
> white beard, and with a big hat on his head. Because he was also held to
be
> the god of wisdom, he had a book in his hand written in rune letters, and
he
> carried a great spear.
>
>
> In these stories Woden was accompanied by the giant N�wi, who had a black
> countenance because he was the father of the night. He was, according to
> legend, well versed in making rhymes and poems. He carried in his hand, as
a
> sign of fertility, a bunch of twigs.
>
>
> From these aspects - the white horse, the wide robe, the big hat, the
book,
> the spear, and the black N�wi, with a bunch of twigs, and the poems or
> poetic traditions - we have so many parallels with our today's Sinterklaas
> and Zwarte Piet (Black Peter) that is beyond mere coincidence. We see
here,
> also, the parallels with Demeter and the three wise kings one of whom was
> also the black Melchior.
>
>
> If we now add to this the traditional customs, we will complete the
picture.
>
>
> The old Germanic tribes or Teutons always left, after the harvest, a sheaf
> on the land for the white horse of Woden. The children offered, during the
> Sinterklaas time, hay in their shoes at the chimney (stockings at the
> chimney at Christmas) for his horse.
>
>
> We see here the same traditions as found among the Celts of burning the
> twelve fires and the thirteenth major fire of the straw. We also see the
> black faces of the Mother goddess system. We can deduce a much earlier
> origin than that attributed to Woden. This is part of the early cults of
> fertility related to Apollo as Sun god and master of the Mystery religions
> among the states of the Danube and into the Hyperborean Celts. He was
drawn
> across the sky in a chariot and often this was pictured being drawn not
just
> by horses but by geese or swans. The similarity of these feasts was with
the
> old ceremonies of the Saturnalia which was traditionally prior to
Christmas.
> In the Netherlands, we see a much earlier date than is normal now. It was
> some thirty days before the Epiphany. It was, however, not thirty days
> before the solstice as we saw in the Saturnalia examples above. We see the
> same tradition but removed so that the thirty days of the Lord of Misrule
as
> the god Saturn and Apollo relate to the Epiphany rather than the end of
the
> Saturnalia.
>
>
> Today's tradition in the Netherlands is to give letters of chocolate or
> almond pastry. The connection with the ancient runes seems very obvious.
The
> German Wotan feast was a mixture of sacrifice and fertility festivals
during
> and around the midwinter feasts. The lads and lassies of the Germanic
tribes
> prayed in those early times for a partner. The presents from Sinterklaas
> were also in the form of lovers made from speculatius or other cakes.
Also,
> presents were of animals in the form of sugar mice and pigs, to substitute
> for the real animal sacrifices.
>
>
> Sinterklaas is also the patron of the city of Amsterdam and the seamen who
> sail from her ports.
>
>
> The apparel of Sinterklaas is Roman Catholic. It was little wonder that,
in
> the sixteenth century, the Reformation tried to stamp out these customs.
It
> was not entirely successful in the Netherlands. Sinterklaas came to life
> again after an absence of some centuries (or being underground) in
> Protestant Netherlands in the first half of the twentieth century.
> Sinterklaas disappeared in England and Germany and went underground. Many
of
> the traditions simply were moved to 25 December and completed with the
> Christmas tree and Santa Claus. The acceptance of the 'rebirth' of
> Sinterklaas in Protestant Netherlands was sooner and earlier than the
> acceptance of the Christmas tree. Today, commercialism has to fight to get
> Santa Claus accepted in the Netherlands, as many are against this imposter
> of Sinterklaas, even though its rebirth in the Netherlands was because of
> what was done in the USA.
>
>
> Santa Claus in the USA
>
> When migrants went to the United Sates, they brought with them the Yule
> traditions from Europe and particularly the three elements which went to
> make up the Santa Claus myth.
>
>
> The Dutch contributed the Sinterklaas myth which was adapted from its
> traditional place. The Pere Noel tradition of the red robes was also
> contributed from Europe. The Germans brought with them the Christ Bundle
> tradition and termed it Christkindl or Christ Child tradition. The name
Kris
> Kringle developed from this term.
>
>
> Washington Irving in the Knickerbocker Tales (c. 1820) discusses the elf
> Santa Claus who presents the stocking as did St Nicholas.
>
>
> Clement Clark Moore introduced many new elements in his poem A Visit from
> Saint Nicholas which was renamed 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. He
> introduced new elements such as eight reindeer including the traditional
> representation we see regarding thunder and lightning as the gods of the
> Yule festival in the form of Donner (Donder) and Blitzen.
>
>
> Santa Claus was still an elf of the Yule tradition however until the
> American Civil War when Thomas Nast of Harpers Weekly was commissioned to
do
> a series of Santa Claus cartoons. He continued this after the Civil War
and
> the publishing company McLaughlin Brothers Printing Company experimented
> with the colour of Santa's leather and decided on red.
>
>
> The final change was made in 1931. The Scandinavian Haddon Sundblom was
> hired by Coca Cola to paint Santa Claus. On the death of his model, he
> fashioned Santa Claus on his own face. This continued for twenty-five
years.
>
>
> In 1941, the song Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was written. It was
> recorded by the cowboy singer Gene Autry.
>
>
> The Coca Cola model and colours and the American myths surrounding the
> figure are now the final product of at least 3,000 years of pagan idolatry
> wrapped in the crass commercialism that first emanated from the merchants
of
> the Roman Saturnalia and which was perfected in the USA.
>
>
> There is nothing Christian about so-called Christmas and, indeed, it is so
> steeped in false religious superstition that it is a direct breach of
> biblical law. No Christian can observe it and remain a Christian.
>
> -- 
> BEWARE! there are people on this newsgroup who are only here to slander
and
> lie about Jehovah's Witnesses. They do not offer any alternative
> organization... as a matter of fact, some are admitted atheists (Matthew
> 12:30; John 8:44-47) I have all of their posts filtered out because they
can
> not hold an intelligent conversation and often resort to lies. They claim
to
> be quoting from Watch Tower literature but these are *NOT* exact quotes,
> they change words and quote things out of context. I don't respond to
> spurious fabrications. Hence if you see that I am not answering someone,
it
> is because their previous attempts at deception have earned them a place
in
> the 'block sender' file. They exist here only to destroy (1 Corinthians
> 10:6-11) They speak not as Christians (Ephesians 4:31-32) I do not need to
> name them for by their fruits you will recognize them (Matthew 7:16-20)
One
> has to wonder, why was a newsgroup set up to attack this *one*
organization?
> Matthew 5:10-12
>
>
>
> -- 
> BEWARE! there are people on this newsgroup who are only here to slander
and
> lie about Jehovah's Witnesses. They do not offer any alternative
> organization... as a matter of fact, some are admitted atheists (Matthew
> 12:30; John 8:44-47) I have all of their posts filtered out because they
can
> not hold an intelligent conversation and often resort to lies. They claim
to
> be quoting from Watch Tower literature but these are *NOT* exact quotes,
> they change words and quote things out of context. I don't respond to
> spurious fabrications. Hence if you see that I am not answering someone,
it
> is because their previous attempts at deception have earned them a place
in
> the 'block sender' file. They exist here only to destroy (1 Corinthians
> 10:6-11) They speak not as Christians (Ephesians 4:31-32) I do not need to
> name them for by their fruits you will recognize them (Matthew 7:16-20)
One
> has to wonder, why was a newsgroup set up to attack this *one*
organization?
> Matthew 5:10-12
> "L Perez" <LPerezDncr@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:7uOdnZCMzLzpYd7cRVn-gA@comcast.com...
> > there are many religions in the world who call themselves 'christian'
but
> > there is only one Christian organization that is actually cleansing
itself
> > of all pagan ritualistic defilement. The facts regarding xmas are common
> > knowledge to all educated religious leaders, so why don't they cleanse
> their
> > worship? It is a very important question to ask...why is the united
> worlwide
> > organization of Christians known as Jehovah's Witnesses the only
Christian
> > organization endeavoring to correct past mistakes and cleanse their
> worship
> > of all paganistic defilement? For those who are not yet familiar with
the
> > well known facts about xmas, here is some information, *not* from
> Jehovah's
> > Witnesses but from *other* religious scholars and theologians...
> >
> > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> >
> > Outside of the Word of God there is no truth (John 14:6), yet Christians
> > today are too lazy to "Prove all things" (1 Thessalonians 5:19-22), and
> try
> > the spirits (I John 4:1-5). It is only by searching the scriptures that
we
> > can assure ourselves of fact, truth, and protection from deception (Acts
> > 17:11). Do not be deceived by the vain words of men (Ephesians 5:6-11).
We
> > must not substitute views, opinions, emotions or feelings, for Word of
> God.
> > If we please men then we should not be the servants of Jesus Christ
> > (Galatians 1:10).
> >
> > Every feast, holy day or ceremonial observation for the glory of the
Lord,
> > was always written in the Word of God, and our Heavenly Father always
gave
> > instructions on how to do it. For religious commemorations or
> celebrations,
> > we must have a Biblical command or precedent. We are told in Deuteronomy
> > 12:29-32, that not only did God want to prevent His people from being
> > enticed to worship false gods, by telling them to destroy all vestiges
of
> > pagan worship that they found in the "Promised Land.", but He
specifically
> > revealed that He did not want His people to worship Him in the same
manner
> > in which the heathen worshiped their gods. Our Lord is displeased by
> > practices which profess to honor Him, but which are copied from the
> > tradition of false religions. God commanded them to worship Him only in
> the
> > way He commands, not to add to them nor take away from them.
> >
> > The sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, were slain in the temple for
offering
> up
> > "strange fire" before the Lord God (Leviticus 10:1,2; Numbers 3:4 &
> 26:61).
> > Strange fire is offering something to God that He has not asked for,
does
> > not receive, does not observe, it is worshiping God your way (how you
> think
> > He should be worshipped), instead of Gods way. Saul disobeyed God's
> prophet
> > in order to worship God in his way (1 Samuel 15:1-3, 7-9, 21-23). Is not
> the
> > celebration of Christmas, with all its pagan symbols and forms, one of
> man's
> > ways of worshiping Christ, a "strange fire" unto the Lord, a form of
> worship
> >  contrary to what God commands? If we truly love Jesus we will keep His
> word
> > and offer no strange fire before Him. (John 14:15, 23; Luke 6:46)
> >
> > Exposing the Lies:
> > Did the orginal Apostles - our spiritual fathers and foundation in the
> faith
> > and those who knew Jesus personally, ever teach or celebrate His
birthday?
> >
> > FACT-There is no Biblical warrant, precedent, nor precept for the
> > remembrance of the day of Christ's birth as a day of special religious
> > celebration. The early church did not celebrate Christ's birth, such
> > celebrations only came into the church with the "Christianization" of
> pagan
> > rites as Catholicism was made the state religion by Constantine in the
> > fourth century A.D. The Word of God does not support the tradition of
> > Christmas.
> >
> > But didn't the Angels and Shepherds come and worship Him?
> >
> > FACT-No, they did not. If you will read your Bible in Luke 2:13-20, you
> will
> > see that when the Angels announced this to the shepherds, they (the
> Angels)
> > glorified "God in the highest" (v14), in other words, the Heavenly
Father,
> > and the Shepherds returned (from Bethlehem), "glorifying and praising
God,
> > for all the things that they had heard and seen" (v20).
> >
> > [Note: For background on why it was Bethlehem, study the Book of Ruth]
> >
> > Did not the three wise men come and worship Jesus in the manger? And did
> not
> > the three wise men give gifts to Him when he was born?
> >
> > [Note: Wise men is a translation of the Greek word magoi, the ancient
> Greek
> > transliteration of the Persian original for a select sect of priests.
The
> > word 'magic' comes from the same root. Magi is the Latinized form.
> > The Magi were a hereditary priesthood of the Medes credited with
> > extraordinary religious knowledge. After some Magi, who had been
attached
> to
> > the Median court, proved to be expert in the interpretation of dreams,
> > Darius the Great established them over the state religion of Persia.
> > (Oneiromancy, not astrology, is the key skill mentioned by Herodotus,
1.1
> > 07, 120; Vil.19.) Contrary to popular belief, the Magi were not
originally
> > followers of Zoroaster.(Encyclopedia Britannica, 7:691.) That all came
> > later.
> > It was in this dual capacity whereby civil and political counsel was
> > invested with religious authority, that the Magi became the supreme
> priestly
> > caste of the Persian empire, and continued to be prominent during the
> > subsequent Seleucid, Parthian, Sasanian periods. (Zondervan Pictorial
> > Encyclopedia of the Bible, 4:31-34.)]
> >
> > FACT-There is not one record of there being three wise men! The Bible
says
> > in Matthew 2:1, there came wise men from the east. They brought three
> gifts
> > which were also prophetic, gold (for his "diety"), frankincense (a spice
> > used in the priestly duties, signifying His office as priest), and myrrh
> (an
> > embalming ointment signifying His sacrificial death, as savior). Because
> > there was three gifts, man's imagination changes the Bible, and says,
> there
> > were three men. In the millennium, He will also receive the gifts of
gold
> > and frankincense; (Isaiah 60:6) but no myrrh. His death was once and for
> > all.
> >
> > FACT-Matthew 2:3 says that Herod and all Jerusalem were troubled. I do
not
> > think that three men on camels would be noticed much in a city of great
> size
> > like Jerusalem, the city would have been filled daily with men on
camels.
> > The wise men were a supreme priestly caste who held the governmental
> office
> > of the upper house of the Council of the Megistanes ("magistrates").
Their
> > duties included the absolute choice and election of the king of the
realm.
> > It was therefore a group of Persian-Parthian "king makers" who entered
> > Jerusalem in the latter days of the reign of Herod. Their sudden
> appearance
> > in Jerusalem (wise men usually traveled in caravans of 40 or more in
> > number), probably traveling in force with every imaginable oriental
pomp,
> > and accompanied by adequate calvary escort to insure their safe
> penetration
> > of Roman territory, certainly alarmed Herod and the populace of
Jerusalem.
> > Herod's reaction would of been one of fear when one considers the
> background
> > of Roman Parthian rivalry that prevailed during his lifetime (see note
> below
> > ). It would seem as if these wise men were attempting to perpetrate a
> border
> > incident which could bring swift reprisal from Parthian armies.
> >
> > [Note: Political Background: Since the days of Daniel, both the Persian
> and
> > the Jewish nations had, in their turn, fallen under Seleucid domination
in
> > the wake of Alexander's conquests. Subsequently both had regained their
> > independence: the Jews under Maccabean leadership, and the Persians as
the
> > dominating ruling group within the Parthian Empire.
> > Pompey, the first Roman conqueror of Jerusalem, attacked the Armenian
> > outpost of Parthia in 63 B.C. In 55 B.C. Carssus led Roman legions in
> > sacking Jerusalem and, in a subsequent attack, Parthia proper. The
Romans
> > were decisively defeated at the battle of Carrhae with the loss of
30,000
> > troops, including their commander. The Parthians counter attacked with a
> > token invasion of Armenia, Syria, and Palestine.
> > Nominal Roman rule was reestablished under Antipater, the father of
Herod,
> > who retreated before another Parthian invasion in 40 B.C.
> > Mark Anthony re-established Roman sovereignty in 37 B.C., and, like
> Carssus
> > before him, also embarked on a similarly ill-fated Parthian expedition.
> His
> > disastrous retreat was followed by another wave of invading Parthians,
> which
> > swept all Roman opposition completely out of Palestine (including Herod
> > himself, who fled to Alexandria and then to Rome).
> > With Parthian collaboration, Jewish sovereignty was restored and
Jerusalem
> > was fortified with a Jewish garrison.
> > Herod, by this time, secured from Augustus Caesar the title of "King of
> the
> > Jews." However, it was not for three years (including a five month's
siege
> > by Roman troops) that he was able to occupy his own capital city. Herod
> had
> > thus gained the throne of a rebellious buffer state which was situated
> > between two mighty contending empires. At any time, his own subjects
might
> > conspire in bringing the Parthians to their aid.]
> >
> > [Note: Daniels Role: It is entirely conceivable that the messianic
> > prophecies of Daniel was of profound motivating significance to the wise
> > men. Daniel, who was a principal administrator in two world empires, the
> > Babylonian and subsequent Persian empire, was considered to be one of
> their
> > own magicians, he was given the title "master of the magicians" (Daniel
> 4:9;
> > 5:11). When Darius appointed him, a Jew, over the previously hereditary
> > Median priesthood, the resulting repercussions resulted in the plots
> leading
> > to the lion's den.(Daniel 6). Perhaps the wise men were entrusted to a
> > messianic vision, to be announced in due time by a "star"? Another
> > interesting note is that the Angel Gabriel, who gave Daniel skill and
> > understanding concerning the time when the messiah will present Himself,
> is
> > also the Angel mentioned in Luke 1:19.]
> >
> > Consulting the Jewish priests and scribes, Herod discovered that the
> > Promised One, the Messiah, would be born in Bethlehem (Matthew 2:4-6;
> Micah
> > 5:2). Hiding his concern and expressing sincere interest, Herod
requested
> > that the wise men keep him informed (Matthew 2:7-8).
> >
> > Did they bring these gifts to the manger?
> >
> > FACT-The Bible clearly states in Matthew 2:7-16, that the wise men
> followed
> > the star for two years (v16), and they presented the gifts to the young
> > child (Jesus was two years old when the men finally arrived) in His
house
> > (v11). Thus their giving had nothing to do with a birthday.
> >
> > After presenting their prophetic gifts to the young child, the wise men
> > "being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod
> > (Matthew 2:12-13), (a form of communication most acceptable to them)
> > departed to their own country, ignoring Herod's request.
> >
> > Didn't the wise men come to worship the child?
> >
> > FACT-Matthew 2:2, states that the "wise men" came to worship the King of
> the
> > Jews, it is interesting to note that in verse 8, Herod said that he
wanted
> > to worship "the young child". Wise men worship the King, but men will
> > worship the child. Asking Herod, "where is he that is born King of the
> > Jews?" (Matthew 2:2) was probably also a calculated insult by the wise
> men,
> > because Herod was an Edomite, a traditional enemy of Israel, who had
most
> > probably contrived and bribed his way into that office.
> >
> > Was Jesus born on December 25th?
> >
> > FACT-In December it is the winter season, rainy and cold and the
shepherds
> > do not keep their flocks out at night grazing in the winter (Luke 2:8).
It
> > was customary for the shepherds to herd their flocks and take them in
> after
> > Mid-October and release them in early spring. Thus the Luke 2 account of
> the
> > birth of Jesus could not have been in December.
> >
> > FACT- No man knows when Jesus was born, but we can be pretty sure that
it
> > was not the twenty-fifth of December. If God desired us to remember
> Christ's
> > birthday, He would have left us the precise date. But in so doing, He
> would
> > have vindicated every astrologer in the past 2,000 years, because in
> occult
> > circles, the anniversary of a person's birth is the most important
> > metaphysical day of the year. The Bible recognizes no such significance.
> It
> > is intriguing that there are only two birthday celebrations recorded in
> the
> > entire Bible and they were both those of ungodly kings, and both
resulted
> in
> > an execution (Genesis 40:16-22 and Matthew 14:6-10/Mark 6:21-27).
Although
> > Luke places the birth in a historical perspective, even the year cannot
be
> > exactly determined. The Bible does tells us though, that He was born
> before
> > the death of Herod the Great who died in 4 B.C, so the 1AD date is
> certainly
> > wrong.
> >
> > FACT- God has warned us about getting entangled with special days
> (Galations
> > 4:9-10). There is no record in the Bible of people observing or
> worshipping
> > Jesus because of his birth, it is not taught, or preached. What we are
> > taught though, is to remember Him in His death, but no special day was
> > specified for this either, any day of the year will do. (Matthew
26:26-31;
> > Mark 14:22-27; Luke 22:17-20).
> >
> > For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you,
That
> > the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: And
> when
> > he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body,
> > which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same
> manner
> > also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new
> > testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance
> of
> > me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew
the
> > Lords death till he come (1 Corinthians 11:23-26)
> >
> > To commemorate His death is Scriptural. To commemorate His birth is not,
> it
> > is extra-Scriptural (Deuteronomy 4:2; 12:32; Proverbs 30:6; Revelation
> > 22:19).
> >
> > But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto
> the
> > Greeks foolishness; (1 Corinthians 1:23)
> >
> > Joseph and Mary did not just show up in Bethlehem, go to an Inn, find
> there
> > was no room, and had to go to a dirty stable with animals to have a
baby.
> >
> > We even have this fixed picture in our minds of what "there was no room
> for
> > them in the inn" (Luke 2:7) may have meant. The word "inn" in Luke 2:7
> > [kataluma], is used again by Luke in 22:11:
> >
> > And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling
> > clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in
> the
> > inn. (Luke 2:7)
> >
> > And ye shall say unto the goodman of the house, The Master saith unto
> thee,
> > Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the passover with my
> disciples?
> > (Luke 22:11)
> >
> > kataluma, Greek 2646, Strong's kataluma, kat-al'-oo-mah; from Greek 2647
> > (kataluo); properly a dissolution (breaking up of a journey), i.e. (by
> > implication) a lodging-place :- guestchamber, inn.
> >
> > The same word for inn (kataluma) in Luke 2:7, is used for "guestchamber"
> in
> > Luke 22:11. The guestchamber was the upper room of a house for guests
(see
> > Luke 22:12-13).
> >
> > FACT- Joseph was returning to his home town of Bethlehem to be counted
> with
> > his family in the Roman census (Luke 2:1-2). Joseph must of had
relatives
> > living there, and it must have been Joseph's intention to stay with his
> > family, he knew Mary was with child and due soon. Since many out-of-town
> > family members would have been arriving at the same time, the inn, which
> was
> > the upstairs room, on the roof of the house, used for guests, was
already
> > full (Notice that it is not 'at an inn', but 'in the inn', Luke 2:7).
Mary
> > and Joseph found space in the area that comprised the first floor of the
> > house - the manger. Here it was usually warm and would have been
> comfortable
> > for the birthing. And even though used for domesticated animals and
> shelter,
> > it would have been clean. Also notice, that the Bible states that they
had
> > been there a while, and the days were accomplished that she should be
> > delivered (Luke 2:6).
> >
> > Now in the days of Jesus, when a family was poor, the manger was a part
of
> > their house where the families lived and it was the lower part or
portion
> of
> > the house which would represent his humbleness or humility when born
into
> > this earth. This manger was usually adjacent to the living quarters of
the
> > family and they would keep their domesticated animals there. The manger
or
> > trough was usually hewn out of rock (Bakers Encyclopedia of the Bible,
> Vol.2
> > page 1392).
> >
> > A manger was usually hewn out of rock, which would be scripturally
> fitting,
> > for our Lord Jesus is the ROCK of our salvation, we are to build our
house
> > on the ROCK, and His tomb was hewn out of a ROCK.
> >
> > And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that
> spiritual
> > Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ. (1 Corinthians 10:4)
> >
> > He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the
> > foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat
vehemently
> > upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a
> > rock.(Luke 6:48, see also Matthew 7:24-25)
> >
> > And he bought fine linen, and took him down, and wrapped him in the
linen,
> > and laid him in a sepulchre which was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a
> stone
> > unto the door of the sepulchre. (Mark 15:46, see also Matthew 27:60)
> >
> > If Mary had to wait until after her purification to bring Jesus into the
> > temple to present him to the Father (Luke 2:22), then what makes you
think
> > that HE would allow her to give birth in an unclean, straw dunged
stable?
> > Wouldn't taking a newborn baby and laying him in straw or hay dangerous?
> > Isn't cut straw or hay very sharp?
> >
> > Today's depiction, or "Manger Scene", with animals, hay or straw,
Joseph,
> > Mary, baby Jesus in a straw laden crib, three wise men bowing down and
> > giving gifts, shepherds, and a star over a stable, all come from St.
> Francis
> > of Assisi, A Catholic Monk. None of it is the truth, yet isn't it
amazing
> > what people believe as truth because of what men say?
> >
> > Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after
> the
> > tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after
Christ.
> > (Colossians 2:8)
> >
> > "...no room for them in the inn" (Luke 2:7) was probably not a rejection
> of
> > Jesus Christ, as we are taught, but a gracious accommodation in the best
> > circumstances the family could provide, which would represent his
> humbleness
> > or humility when born into this earth. Notice also that, while there was
> no
> > room in the upper part of the house for Jesus on his first night on
earth,
> > that is exactly where he spent his last night on earth with His
disciples
> > before going to Gethsemane (Luke 22:11-13), and then to Calvary to shed
> > blood for our sins.
> >
> > Is your foundation of Christmas beginning to crumble? Is Christmas now
> > sounding a bit confused?
> >
> > For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches
> of
> > the saints. (1 Corinthians 14:33)
> >
> > "For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil
work."
> > (James 3:16) This verse could just as easily be applied to the Chrismas
> > season, with the envy of presents, and the strife the pressures of the
> > season can cause. The pressures of the season bring people to
loneliness,
> > despair, alcohol, debt, and it is also the season of the year that holds
> the
> > highest record of yearly suicides.
> >
> > Sometimes our souls do not like being weaned from the doctrines of men,
> > especially when we have believed something for so long. But the truth
will
> > set you free, and stear you on the right course.
> >
> > And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. (John
> 8:32)
> >
> > We should now ask ourselves two things: If Christmas is not found in the
> > Bible then where did it come from? And if Christmas is not celebrating
> > Jesus' birthday, then whose birthday is it celebrating?
> >
> > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> >
> > "Christians have been conditioned to accept that Christmas and Easter
are
> > essentially part of the Christian tradition. The facts are that neither
> are
> > at all Christian and both have their roots in the mystery cults, The
> > Saturnalia, the worship of the Mother goddess system and the worship of
> the
> > Sun god. They are directly contradictory to the laws of God and His
> system.
> >
> > The Saturnalia
> >
> > There was a festival celebrated in December in Rome. It is necessary to
> any
> > understanding of what is happening at Christmas. That festival was
termed
> > the Saturnalia. It was the festival of Saturn to whom the inhabitants of
> > Latium, the Latins, attributed agriculture and the arts necessary to
> > civilised life (Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, 2nd
> ed.,
> > London 1851, p. 1009). It fell towards the end of December and was
viewed
> by
> > the population as a time of absolute relaxation and merriment. During
its
> > continuance, the law courts were closed. No public business could be
> > transacted. The schools kept holiday. To commence a war was impious and
to
> > punish a malefactor involved pollution (ibid.). Slaves were relieved of
> > onerous toils and permitted to wear the pileus or badge of freedom. They
> > were granted freedom of speech and were waited on at a special banquet
by
> > their masters whose clothes they wore (ibid.). All ranks devoted
> themselves
> > to feasting and mirth with presents exchanged among friends.
> >
> >
> > Wax tapers were given by the more humble to their superiors. The crowds
> > thronged the streets and Smith says many of the customs had a remarkable
> > resemblance to those of Christmas and the Italian carnival (ibid.).
> >
> >
> > Public gambling was condoned by the authorities as was later
card-playing
> > indulged even by the most rigid in later times at Christmas eve. The
whole
> > populace threw off the toga, wore the loose gown called the synthesis
and
> > walked about with the pileus on their heads. Smith's Dictionary says
this
> > practice is reminiscent of the dominoes, peaked caps and other disguises
> > worn at later Christmas festivals by masques and mummers. The cerei or
wax
> > tapers or lights, were probably employed as the moccoli are on the last
> > night of the carnival. Our traditions of Christmas lights probably stems
> > from this tradition.
> >
> >
> > Lastly, for amusement in private society, was the election of a mock
king
> > which is immediately recognised in the ceremony of Twelfth Night
(ibid.).
> We
> > will come across this later.
> >
> >
> > Sir James George Frazer, in his classic study of magic and religion (The
> > Golden Bough, McMillan, 1976), says this mock king was an allusion back
to
> > the idyllic days of the reign of Saturn and the slaves being given
> temporary
> > freedom at this time hearkened back to these days when all were free and
> > things were just (ibid., ix, p. 308 ff). Roman soldiers stationed on the
> > Danube in the reign of Maximian and Diocletian are recorded (by Franz
> > Cumont) to have chosen a young and handsome man to resemble Saturn from
> > among them by lot thirty days before the festival. They dressed him in
> royal
> > attire to resemble Saturn. He went about in public attended by a retinue
> of
> > soldiers and indulged his passions no matter how base and shameful. At
the
> > end of thirty days, he then cut his own throat on the altar of the god
he
> > personated. In the year 303, the lot fell upon the Christian soldier
> Dasius
> > but he refused to play the part of the heathen god and to soil his last
> days
> > by debauchery. He refused to give in to the intimidation of his
commanding
> > officer Bassus and was accordingly beheaded by the soldier John at
> > Durostorum on Friday 20 November 303 being the twenty-fourth day of the
> Moon
> > at the fourth hour (Frazer, ibid.).
> >
> >
> > This historical account has been confirmed, after its publication by
Franz
> > Cumont, by the discovery in the crypt of the cathedral at Ancona, of the
> > white marble sarcophagus in script characteristic of the age of
Justinian
> > with the Greek inscription:
> >
> > Here lies the holy martyr Dasius, brought from Durostorum.
> >
> > The sarcophagus had been brought there from the church of St Pellegrino
in
> > 1848 where it lay under the high altar and was recorded as being there
in
> > 1650 (Frazer, p. 310).
> >
> >
> > Frazer says this sets a new light on the nature of the Lord of the
> > Saturnalia, the ancient Lord of Misrule, who presided over the winter
> revels
> > at Rome (ibid., p. 311). Here we see the extent of the traditions and
the
> > elements of human sacrifice, which extend into the festivals in both
> > December and at the equinox. Dasius the Christian suffered martyrdom
> rather
> > than participate in these revels.
> >
> >
> > As Saturnus was an ancient national god of Latium, the institution of
the
> > Saturnalia is lost in remote antiquity (ibid.).
> >
> > There are three traditions associated with it.
> >
> >
> > It is ascribed to Janus who on the sudden disappearance of his
benefactor
> > from the abodes of men erected an altar to him as a deity in the forum
and
> > ordained annual sacrifices.
> >
> > According to Varro, it is attributed to the wanderings of Pelasagi on
> their
> > first settlement in Italy. Hercules then on his return from Spain was
said
> > to have abolished the worship and practice of immolating human
sacrifice;
> > and
> >
> > The third tradition attributes the Saturnalia to the followers of
Hercules
> > who set it up after his return to Greece.
> >
> > In either of the last two we see a commonality. The practice of this
> > agricultural festival thus has certain common elements with the spring
> > festival of Easter as we will see later. The element of human sacrifice
> > common to all traditions can also be traced to the worship of Moloch as
> the
> > Moon god Sin and also of Ishtar (see the paper The Golden Calf (No.
222)).
> > This sacrificial aspect also appeared in the worship of the god Attis
(see
> > below).
> >
> >
> > The erection of temples in historical times are recorded, such as during
> the
> > reign of Tatius, Tarquinius superbus, to the consulship of A Sempronius
or
> M
> > Minucius (497 BCE) or in that of T Larcius the previous year. It appears
> the
> > ceremonies were at varying stages neglected or corrupted and then
revived
> > and extended (ibid.).
> >
> >
> > The Saturnalia originally fell on 14 Kalend January. When the Julian
> > calendar was introduced it was extended to 16 Kalend January which
caused
> > confusion among the more ignorant and Augustus enacted that three whole
> days
> > (namely 17, 18 and 19 December) should be hallowed in all time coming
> > (ibid.). Some unknown authority added a fourth day and Caligula added a
> > fifth day, the Juvenalis. This fell into disuse and was later restored
by
> > the emperor Claudius.
> >
> >
> > Strictly speaking, one day only was consecrated to religious observance
in
> > the days of the Republic. However, the celebrations lasted over a much
> > longer period. Historically, Livy speaks of the first day of the
> Saturnalia
> > (Liv. xxx, 36). Cicero writes of the second and third days (ad Att., v
20;
> > xv 32). From Novius (Attelanae) the term seven days of the Saturnalia
was
> > used and this phrase was also used by Memmius (Macrobius, i, 10) and
> Martial
> > (xiv, 72; cf. Smith, ibid.). Martial also speaks of the five days
enacted
> by
> > Caligula and Claudius.
> >
> > These five days have an ancient calendrical significance also.
> >
> >
> > Smith says that in reality three festivals were involved over this
period.
> >
> > The Saturnalia proper commenced on 17 December (16 Kalend December).
> >
> >
> > This was followed by the Opalia (14 Kalend January or 19 December) which
> was
> > anciently coincidental to the Saturnalia. These two together lasted for
> five
> > days. This festival was celebrated in honour of Opis who was allegedly
the
> > wife of Saturn. Originally, it was celebrated on the same day and, thus,
> the
> > Mother goddess and lover theme is evident in the origins of this
festival.
> > We will meet this theme throughout. The followers of Opis paid their
vows
> > sitting and touched the earth of whom she was goddess (Smith, ibid.,
art.
> > Opalia, p. 835).
> >
> >
> > The sixth and seventh days were occupied by the Sigillaria which was
named
> > for the little earthenware figures which were displayed for sale on the
> > period as toys to be given as presents for children.
> >
> > Thus, the period ran from 17 December until 23 December under the Julian
> > Calendar, when the presents were given to the children.
> >
> >
> > We now proceed to examine further the theology behind these festivals.
The
> > commonality of the traditions of the festivals are too obvious to be
> > ignored.
> >
> >
> > The Heavenly Virgin as Mother goddess
> >
> > Frazer notes that:
> >
> > the worship of the Great Mother of the Gods and her lover or son was
very
> > popular under the Roman Empire (v, pp. 298 ff),
> >
> > From the inscription we know that the two [as Mother and lover or Mother
> and
> > son] received divine honours not only in Italy but in all the
provinces -
> > particularly in Africa, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany and Bulgaria
> > (ibid.). Their worship survived the establishment of Christianity by
> > Constantine.
> >
> >
> > Thus, the symbolism of the Heavenly Virgin and the infant child paraded
on
> a
> > yearly basis are not of Christian origin. They stem from the Mother
> goddess
> > religion which is very ancient. We will see more of this later.
> >
> >
> > Frazer notes Symmachus as recording the festival of the Great Mother. In
> the
> > days of Augustine her effeminate priests still paraded the streets and
> > squares of Carthage and, like the mendicant friars of the middle ages,
> > begged alms from the passers-by (ibid., cf. S Dill Roman Society in the
> Last
> >  Century of the Western Empire, London, 1899, p. 16; and Augustine City
of
> > God, vii, 26).
> >
> >
> > The Greeks on the other hand rejected the more barbarous rites in favour
> of
> > those similar but gentler rites of the worship of Adonis (ibid.).
> >
> > Frazer says that the same features which shocked and repelled the Greeks
> > were what attracted the Romans and the barbarians of the west (ibid.,
pp.
> > 298-299).
> >
> > The ecstatic frenzies which were mistaken for divine inspiration, the
> > mangling of the body and the theory of a new birth and the remission of
> sin
> > through the shedding of blood, have all their origin in savagery
(ibid.).
> >
> > Frazer holds that their true character was often disguised under a
decent
> > veil of allegory and philosophical interpretation, which drew the more
> > cultivated of them to things which might otherwise have filled them with
> > horror and disgust. Modern Pentecostalism draws its inspiration from the
> > ideas behind these religious festivals.
> >
> >
> > The religion of the Great Mother was only one of a multitude of similar
> > oriental faiths, which spread across the Roman Empire imposing
themselves
> on
> > the Europeans. According to Frazer, this gradually undermined the whole
> > fabric of ancient civilisation.
> >
> >
> > The entire Greek and Roman society was based on the concept of the
> > subordination of individual to the state and one's whole life was
> dedicated
> > to the perpetuation of the society. If one shrank from supreme sacrifice
> > then it never occurred to anyone that they acted other than for base
> > reasons.
> >
> >
> > Oriental religion taught the reverse of this doctrine. It inculcated the
> > communion of the "Soul" with God and its eternal salvation as the only
> > objects of existence and in comparison with the prosperity and even the
> > existence of the state were insignificant.
> >
> >
> > The inevitable consequence of this selfish and immoral doctrine was to
> draw
> > the individual more and more from the public service and to concentrate,
> in
> > the individual, a contempt for the present life.
> >
> >
> > The misapplication of these mystery doctrines or oriental religions and
> > their application in Gnosticism, when placed on the biblical narrative
of
> > the City of God as a spiritual edifice, was to have disastrous
> consequences
> > for the ordering of society. The effect was to loosen the ties of the
> family
> > and the state and to generally disintegrate the political body of the
> state.
> > The society tended to relapse into its individual elements and thereby
> into
> > barbarism. Civilisation is only possible through the active cooperation
of
> > the individual and the subordination of the interests of the individual
to
> > that of the common good (ibid., p. 301).
> >
> >
> > People refused to defend their countries and even to continue their own
> kind
> > in ascetic celibacy (ibid., see also the papers Vegetarianism and the
> Bible
> > (No. 183) and also Wine in the Bible (No. 188)).
> >
> >
> > Frazer holds that this obsession lasted for a thousand years. He held
that
> > it only changed at the end of the Middle Ages with the revival of Roman
> law,
> > of Aristotelian philosophy and of ancient art and literature to saner
and
> > more manly views of the world. The fact of the matter is that if the
true
> > biblical model was implemented no such problem would have existed. The
> > problem arose from Oriental Mysteries combined with the Gnostic system
> which
> > is more prevalent today. Frazer held that the tide of this oriental
> invasion
> > had turned at last and was ebbing still. He was wrong in this regard
> > although he also allows that bad government and a ruinous fiscal system
> are
> > two major causes which strike down civilisations as they did the Turkish
> > Empire in his day.
> >
> >
> > We will look at the effects of the Great Mother religion and the Mithras
> > system and its applications under Gnostic influence in Christianity to
see
> > that it is still there as strong as ever in more subtle forms. Yet much
of
> > its traditional trappings are the same.
> >
> >
> > Mithras
> >
> > One of the gods who competed for the worship of the west was the Persian
> > deity Mithra.
> >
> >
> > The immense popularity of this cult should not be underestimated. The
> > monuments dedicated to this system are scattered all over the Roman
Empire
> > and right through Europe (a map of the extent of the monuments is found
in
> > David Ulansey The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries, Oxford, New York,
> 1989,
> > p. 5).
> >
> >
> > This was a secret cult whose mysteries were never written down and, so,
> > little is known exactly of their ritual except what we can deduce from
> their
> > shrines and places of worship. However, we do know that they had two
forms
> > of worship. The private and secret form was Mithraism. The public form,
> > however, was Elagabalism and we know more of its system from this. Both
> were
> > based on Sun worship.
> >
> >
> > Much of its religion was similar to the religion of the Mother of the
Gods
> > and also to what was understood to have been later Christianity (cf.
> Frazer,
> > ibid., p. 302). The similarity struck the Christian doctors themselves
and
> > it was explained to them as the work of the devil by counterfeiting a
> > version of the true faith (ibid.). Tertullian explained how the fasts of
> > Isis and Cybele were similar to the fasts of Christianity (De jejunio
16).
> >
> >
> > Justin Martyr explains how the death, resurrection and ascension of
> > Dionysius, the virgin birth of Perseus, and Bellerophon mounted on
Pegasus
> > were parodies of the true Christian stories written by the demons in
> > advance, even down to the story of Christ riding on an ass which was
> > contained in the Psalms as prophecy (cf. Apol., i, 54).
> >
> >
> > The conflict between Mithraism and Christianity was so great that for a
> time
> > the outcome hung in the balance. The fact of the matter is that the
result
> > was decided by adopting their practices and giving them Christian names.
> The
> > most important single relic of this pagan syncretism is that of
Christmas
> > which Frazer says the Church seems to have borrowed directly from its
> > heathen rival (p. 303).
> >
> >
> > The army became devotees of Mithras and it is obvious from the records
> > regarding Dasius that the Saturnalia was held in conjunction with the
> > worship of Mithras. Thus, the Saturnalia simply preceded the Solstice
> > festival and became a part of it.
> >
> >
> > Christmas and the Heavenly Virgin
> >
> > In the Julian calendar, 25 December was reckoned as the winter solstice
> > (Frazer, ibid., p. 303; cf. Pliny Natural History, xviii, p. 221). It
was
> > regarded as the nativity of the Sun as its days began to lengthen and
its
> > power increase from that turning point of the year.
> >
> >
> > The ritual of the nativity, Frazer holds, as it was celebrated in Syria
> and
> > Egypt was remarkable. The celebrants retired into certain inner shrines
> from
> > which at midnight they issued a loud cry, The Virgin has brought forth!
> The
> > Light is waxing! (ibid., cf. Cosmas Hierosolymitanus, see fn. 3 to p.
303)
> >
> >
> > The Egyptians even represented the newborn Sun by an image of an infant
> > which, on his birthday (the winter solstice), they brought forth and
> > exhibited to his worshippers (ibid., cf., Macrobius Saturnalia, i, 18,
10)
> >
> > Frazer says:
> >
> > No doubt the Virgin who thus conceived and bore a son on the
twenty-fifth
> of
> > December was the great Oriental goddess whom the Semites called the
> Heavenly
> > Virgin or simply the Heavenly Goddess; in Semitic lands she was a form
of
> > Astarte (ibid., noting Franz Cumont s.v. Caelestis in Pauly-Wissowa's
> > Real-Encyclop�die der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, v, 1, 1247,
sqq).
> >
> > This is the origin of the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of the
> mother
> > of Jesus Christ. It has no basis in the Bible or in fact. Christ's
mother
> > was not named Mary and the Bible is clear that she bore other children.
We
> > will return to this myth later.
> >
> >
> > The legend of the three kings
> >
> > 25 December was an ancient Sun-worshipping festival and the three kings
> > associated with it do not appear to relate to the wise men from the east
> in
> > the biblical narrative but to a perhaps older tradition relating to the
> > so-called twelve days of Christmas. The Twelfth Day sequence is
associated
> > with the three kings in France, Spain, Belgium, Germany and Austria.
Their
> > names are Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar. In Germany and Austria it is
> known
> > as the Day of the Three Kings (Dreikonigstag) and in France as the
> Festival
> > of the Kings (F�te des Rois). The kings go around in some areas
> represented
> > by mummers who sing songs and collect from the householders. It is given
a
> > Christian basis but there is no basis in the Bible for assuming there
were
> > three people (other than the three types of gifts) or that they were
> kings.
> > They are recorded as magi or wise men. This seems to have another basis
> (cf.
> > Frazer, ix, p. 329). From the customs in Franche-Comte and also the
Vosges
> > Mountains, Melchior is supposed to have been a black king and the face
of
> > the boy playing him is blackened (ibid., p. 330). These three are
invoked
> > for healing with rituals involving three nails placed in the earth. This
> > smacks of the triune systems of the Celts in France long before the
> > Christian system.
> >
> >
> > In Czech and German Bohemia, the rituals of fumigation and spices are
> found
> > being used on the twelfth day. The initials C.M.B (Caspar, Melchior and
> > Balthasar) together with three crosses are marked on doors after
> fumigation
> > to guard against evil influences and infectious diseases. They were
> invoked
> > under the words pray for us now and at the hour of our deaths.
> >
> >
> > The Lord of Misrule and the King of Beans
> >
> > In this tradition also we see the Lord of Misrule emerge among the
> > traditions. The full extent of time was from All-hallows eve (31
October,
> > the eve of All Saints day) to Candlemas (2 February). Generally, it was
> > however confined to the twelve days at Christmas, termed the twelve
> nights.
> > The Lord of Misrule was elected from the Court of the Sovereign in
England
> > through every office of the land. This Lord of Misrule was also elected
at
> > Merton College Oxford as King of the Beans (cf. Frazer, ix, p. 332).
> >
> >
> > The Festival of Fools
> >
> > In France, the counterparts of the English Lords of Misrule masqueraded
as
> > mock clergy, bishops, archbishops, popes or abbots. This was known as
the
> > Festival of Fools and was held either on Christmas day, St Stephen's day
> (26
> > December), New Year's day, or Twelfth day depending on place.
> >
> >
> > At these times there were parodies of the most solemn rites of the
church
> > where priests wearing masks and sometimes dressed as women danced in the
> > choir and sang obscene chants; laymen disguised as monks mingled with
the
> > clergy and the altar was turned into a tavern where the deacons and
> > sub-deacons ate sausage and black-pudding or played dice and cards under
> the
> > nose of the celebrant. The censers were filled with bits of old shoes,
> > filling the church with a foul stench.
> >
> >
> > In some areas of France, for example at Autun, an ass was led into the
> > church where a parody of the mass was said over it. A regular Latin
> liturgy
> > was said over it and the celebrant priest initiated the braying of an
ass
> > (Frazer, pp. 334-335).
> >
> >
> > At Beauvais on 14 January a young woman with a child in her arms rode on
> the
> > back of an ass allegedly in imitation of the flight into Egypt. She was
> led
> > in triumph from the cathedral to the parish church of St Stephen where
she
> > and the ass were placed on the left side of the altar. A long mass was
> said
> > consisting of scraps borrowed indiscriminately from many church services
> > throughout the year. The singers quenched their thirst in the intervals
as
> > did the congregation and the ass was fed and watered. Afterwards, the
ass
> > was brought from the chancel into the nave where the entire
congregation,
> > clergy and laity danced round it braying like asses. After vespers, a
> large
> > procession proceeded to a great theatre opposite the church where they
> > watched indecent farces.
> >
> >
> > All of this is reminiscent of the rites in North Africa of the
effeminate
> > priests of the Mother Goddess system and the Saturnalia. Frazer says
there
> > is no direct evidence that one is derived from the other but the
> Saturnalia,
> > with the licence that characterised it and the temporary reign of a mock
> > king, makes it appear so (ix, p. 339). These traditions were kept up
until
> > the nineteenth century when Victorian England and Napoleonic France
> > following on the Revolution did away with them in some fashion. They
were
> > replaced as we will see with another form of the same errors. Much of
the
> > modern insanity derives from the USA and its commercialism.
> >
> >
> > The twelve days of Christmas, cakes, beans and money
> >
> > The King of the Bean is also associated with the Festival of Fools in
> France
> > and there is a more ancient significance to it. The Festival of Fools
goes
> > on to the Twelfth day of Christmas (Twelfth Night is the night of 6
> > January). The eve, which is 5 January and thus the Epiphany of 6
January,
> > marks the end of the two periods of the pre-Christmas festivities which
> are
> > associated with the Saturnalia and the Sun system which commence from
the
> > Solstice on 25 December and continue until 5 January.
> >
> >
> > In some areas, the king has a queen consort both of whom have an
> > agricultural significance and seem to be related to the rites also of
the
> > Saturnalia.
> >
> >
> > The king and queen are elected by lot on the Twelfth Night (i.e.
Epiphany
> 6
> > January) or on the eve of that festival on 5 January. It was common in
> > France, Belgium, Germany and England. It is still kept in some parts of
> > France. The Court acknowledged the practice and each family elected its
> own
> > king. On the eve of the festival, a great cake was baked with a bean in
> it.
> > It was divided into portions - one for each member of the family; one
for
> > God; one for the Heavenly Virgin and, sometimes, one for the poor. The
> > person getting the portion with the bean was proclaimed King of the Bean
> > (Frazer, ix, p. 313). Sometimes a second bean was placed in the cake for
> the
> > election of the queen. At Blankenheim near Neuerburg, in the Eiffel a
> black
> > and a white bean were baked in the cake - the black for the king and the
> > white for the queen. In Franche-Comte they used to put as many white
> haricot
> > beans in a hat as there where people present. Two coloured beans were
> > included and drawn at random by a child. Those receiving the coloured
> beans
> > were king and queen.
> >
> >
> > In England, the practice was to put a bean in the hat for the king and a
> pea
> > for the queen. However, in some places, only the king was elected by lot
> and
> > he chose his queen himself. Sometimes a coin was substituted for the
bean
> in
> > the cake. This custom was followed in southern Germany as early as the
> first
> > half of the sixteenth century. It is, however, considered by Frazer to
be
> a
> > variation on the earlier bean. It shows reasonably clearly that the
custom
> > of placing coins in Christmas pudding stems from this custom of an
earlier
> > time.
> >
> >
> > In France, the young child present was placed under a table. It was
> > addressed as Phoebe or Tebe and he answered in Latin Domine. The pieces
of
> > the cake were distributed according to the child's direction. The
> etymology
> > has been attributed to the oracle of Apollo by some scholars. Frazer
> thinks
> > it may be simply derived from the word for the bean (Lat. faba, Fr.
f�ve).
> >
> >
> > Every time the king or queen drank the company cried the king or queen
> > drinks and they all did likewise. Anyone failing to do so had their
faces
> > blackened by corks or soot or the lees of wine. In some parts of the
> > Ardennes, the practice was to fasten great horns of paper in the hair
and
> > put a huge pair of spectacles on their nose. This was worn until the end
> of
> > the festival. This is probably the origin of the Dunce's Cap.
> >
> >
> > This is still kept in northern France where a miniature porcelain figure
> is
> > substituted for the bean and drawn by a child. If it is drawn by a boy
he
> > chooses his queen; if it drawn by a girl she chooses her king.
> >
> >
> > These kings and queens placed white crosses on the rafters of houses to
> ban
> > hobgoblins, witches and bugs. There was, however, a more serious
> > significance to some of the office. In Lorraine, the height of the hemp
> crop
> > was said to be determined from the height of the king and queen. If the
> king
> > was taller, the male hemp would be higher than the female and vice
versa.
> In
> > the Vosges Mountains on the border of France-Compte, the practice of
> dancing
> > on the roof was observed to make the hemp grow tall.
> >
> >
> > In many areas, the beans used in the cake were taken to be blessed by
the
> > clergy and divination was employed on Twelfth Night to determine the
month
> > of the year in which the price of wheat would be dearest.
> >
> >
> > The practice of lighting bonfires is still carried out in some areas
and,
> at
> > the time Frazer wrote, it was still done in the Montagne du Doubs on the
> eve
> > of Twelfth Night (ix, p. 316). This was seemingly to ensure the
fertility
> of
> > the crops. There seems to be a definite, if distant, relationship to the
> > Yule festivals of the pagans.
> >
> >
> > While it burned, the people danced around it singing Good year come
back,
> > Bread and wine come back!
> >
> >
> > The youth of Pontarlier carry torches over the sowed lands shouting
> > couaille, couaille, blanconnie; the meaning of which is lost in
antiquity.
> >
> >
> > In the Bocage of Normandy on the same day, it is the fruit trees that
are
> > fired. These twinkling lights are everywhere as the peasants celebrate
the
> > Ceremony of the Moles and Field-mice (Taupes et Mulots). Villages
compete
> in
> > the blaze and woods and hedges are scoured for materials. They scour the
> > fields threatening the moles and field mice and, thus, they believe the
> crop
> > will be larger that autumn.
> >
> >
> > The bonfires on the eve of Epiphany were also observed in the Ardennes.
It
> > is useful to look at the customs here in regard to festivals of the
> goddess
> > Hecate in Rome and Europe generally and the fields and the crosses
> involved
> > there (cf. the paper The Cross: Its Origin and Significance (No. 39)).
> >
> >
> > Similar fire customs are experienced in the UK in Gloucester and in
> > Hertfordshire with twelve fires at the end of twelve lands (Gloucester)
> > designed to prevent smut in wheat. There is a thirteenth larger fire lit
> in
> > both cases - the latter being on a hill (Frazer, ix, p. 318).
> >
> >
> > This custom of making twelve fires of straw and drinking toasts of cider
> or
> > ale is called Wassailing and is ancient. Oxen are also toasted in this
> > strange ritual in some areas with a cake placed on the horns of the lead
> ox
> > and then thrown by tickling the ox.
> >
> >
> > The explanation of the practice of lighting fires and especially this
> > largest is found in examination against the practice not only in UK and
> > France but in Macedonia. The large fires are to burn the witches and
> > malefactors that roam the fields at night. They are called by the
> > Macedonians karkantzari or skatzanzari. They are overcome by binding
with
> > straw rope. They resume their human shape during the day. Over the
twelve
> > days of Christmas, they must be overcome by strenuous effort. Some
places
> > start on Christmas eve and in others it continues or is done on Twelfth
> > Night.
> >
> >
> > On Christmas eve, some people burn the karkantzari by burning holm-oak
> > faggots and throwing them out in the streets at early dawn. Here, again,
> we
> > have reference to the Yule festivals of the Druids. The later oak
faggots
> > were remnants of the earlier log burning.
> >
> >
> > In Ireland, they set up sheaves of oats. This was done in Roscommon
where
> > they held that Twelfth Night which is Old Christmas Day is greater than
> > Christmas Day itself (Frazer, ix, p. 321).
> >
> >
> > They set up thirteen candles in the sheaf, twelve smaller and one
greater
> in
> > the centre and attribute these to the apostles at the Last Supper; but
> these
> > are at Christmas and not Passover. Thirteen candles of rushlight named
> after
> > each member of the family (or relations to make up the number) are
placed
> in
> > cakes of cow dung and burned to determine the length of life of each
> person
> > (ix, p. 322).
> >
> >
> > The origin of candles
> >
> > The use of candles goes back to the ancient Aryan religion, which used
> them
> > at the Yule ceremony to ward off the gods of thunder, storm and tempest
> > (Frazer, x, p. 264 (n. 4) and also p. 265). They were lit and tied to
the
> > sacred oak (ibid., ii, 327).
> >
> >
> > In some areas (Ruthenia and Europe generally) they were used by thieves
> and
> > burglars to cause sleep (Frazer, i, pp. 148-149) and in this case they
> were
> > made of human tallow (ibid., i, p. 236). Parts of the human anatomy were
> > also used as candles or human bones were filled with tallow made from
the
> > fat of hanged men (ibid., p. 149). Sometimes, candles were made from the
> > fingers of new born or, preferably as they saw it, unborn children. As
> late
> > as the seventeenth century in Europe robbers used to murder pregnant
women
> > to extract such candles from their wombs (ibid.).
> >
> >
> > Candles were burnt to ward off witches. They entered Christianity
through
> > the Catholic or Orthodox Church (cf. Frazer, ibid., i, p. 13).
> >
> >
> > The ancient Aryan practice continued among the Germans of lighting new
> fire
> > by means of a Bonfire at Easter and sending the sticks to each home to
> start
> > the fires to ward off the gods of thunder, storm and tempest. The
practice
> > was introduced to Catholicism as the Easter candle. This single giant
> candle
> > was lit at Easter on Saturday night before the Easter Sunday and then
all
> > the candles of the church were lit from it. This continued for the year
> > until next Easter when the single Easter candle was again lit.
> >
> >
> > The practice of lighting the candle appears to take place on the night
> > before the day of the Sun as part of the ancient Sun worshipping system.
> >
> >
> > In the Temple, incense was burned. Candles were not burned other than as
> the
> > Menorah.
> >
> >
> > This practice of burning lights as candles or tapers was similar to that
> of
> > the Saturnalia. We know from the Book of Baruch 6:19 ff that the
practice
> of
> > lighting candles before idols overlaid with precious metals was
> Babylonian.
> > The practice of lighting multiple candles probably entered Judaism
through
> > the Babylonian system. We will deal with it in more detail in the
section
> on
> > Easter.
> >
> >
> > The Menorah was seven branched and ordered by God for the Temple. In
> > Solomon's Temple, there were ten tables of seven candles representing
the
> > Council of the Elohim of which the Sanhedrin was a copy. The nine
branches
> > are given mystical symbolism. There is no biblical authority for them.
> >
> >
> > Weather
> >
> > The weather of the twelve days of Christmas was said to determine the
> > weather of the forthcoming year.
> >
> >
> > It is based on what appears to be a form of ancient zodiacal division of
> > dividing the twelve days into four quadrants of three days per quadrant.
> > This was done in the British Isles and it extended through Germany and
> > German Austria into western Europe.
> >
> >
> > From the weather on each of the twelve days it was possible to divine
the
> > weather of each successive month of the year. It was held to be accurate
> and
> > apply also to the Twelfth day itself where the weather on each hour
would
> > determine the weather for the corresponding month. The days were thus a
> > system of divination for the year ahead in its agricultural aspects.
> >
> >
> > In Swabia, the days were called the twelve lot days. More precise
> divination
> > was determined by making twelve circles divided into four quadrants.
Each
> > quadrant represented a quarter of the month. These were drawn on paper
and
> > hung over the door. As each day of the twelve days passed from Christmas
> to
> > Epiphany, the weather on each quarter day was shaded and the weather for
> > that quarter month was determined.
> >
> >
> > In Switzerland, Germany and Austria it was done somewhat differently. On
> > Christmas, New Year's day or on another of the twelve days, one sliced
an
> > onion in two, peeled off twelve coats, and sprinkled a pinch of salt in
> each
> > of them. From the moisture left in them the next morning, it was
> considered
> > possible to determine the weather for the next twelve months of the
year.
> >
> >
> > This was not confined to the Germanic tribes or the Teutons - it was
found
> > also in France and among the Celts of Brittany and in Scotland.
> >
> >
> > In the Bocage of Normandy, the temperature was divined for the year from
> the
> > temperature of the twelve days. This was considered more accurate than
the
> > predictions of the Double-Li�gois. In Cornouaille Brittany, the twelve
> days
> > were determined from Christmas to the Epiphany - being the last six days
> of
> > December and the first six of January. In other parts of Brittany and in
> > Scotland the twelve days were determined from 1 January. They were known
> in
> > Brittany as the gour-deziou or male days. It is said to mean properly
the
> > additional or supplementary days. This concept takes us back to another
> > ancient concept of the calendar and the five excess days of the year.
> >
> >
> > The Scots from their almanac, from the last day of December, or the
first
> > day of January (depending on place) determine the weather of the
> forthcoming
> > year by that of the twelve days of Christmas. Thus, January is
determined
> by
> > the weather of 31 December and so on as an infallible rule.
> >
> >
> > The Celts of Scotland, as elsewhere in France, are divided as to the
> > beginning of the days either at Christmas on 1 January or on 31
December.
> > Frazer considers this an important indicator of the origin of the
beliefs
> > (ibid., ix, p. 24).
> >
> >
> > This concept is very ancient and is found among the Aryans of the Vedic
> age
> > in India. This predates Christ by many centuries.
> >
> > They, too, appear to have invested days in midwinter with a sacred
> character
> > as a time when the three Ribhus or genii of the seasons rested from
their
> > labours in the home of the sun-god, and these twelve rest-days they
called
> > 'an image or copy of the year' (Frazer, ix, pp. 324-325).
> >
> > Frazer follows A Weber in this explanation of the common views of the
East
> > and West (cf. fn. 3 to ix, p. 325).
> >
> >
> > The system was thus an ancient system of the Aryans who conquered India
> from
> > the Steppes with the use of iron age implements and harnessed horses
about
> > 1000 BCE.
> >
> >
> > Their relatives took the same festivals west into Europe. These
movements
> > are part of the dispersion of the ancient mysteries of the Babylonian
> system
> > which found its way into the nomadic Shamans. This religion was Animism.
> >
> >
> > Ancient calendar systems
> >
> > The division of the twelve days came from the ancient Aryan calendar
which
> > was divided according to the phases of the Moon and not that of the Sun.
> The
> > various Aryan languages have the name for month as the name for Moon.
> >
> >
> > The days of the month alternate between twenty nine and thirty days
every
> > two months. These days at fifty-nine times six fall short of the actual
> > solar year by almost twelve days (eleven and one quarter days).
> >
> >
> > This appears to have been an intercalation to adjust the lunar to the
> solar
> > year which was a perversion of the true intercalation system adopted by
> the
> > Hebrews and the Assyro-Babylonians and the Greco-Romans. It thus seems
to
> > have been a perversion of Sun-worship from the earliest days of the
> > movements of the Middle Eastern tribes. The Celtic Hittites, being the
> first
> > to move into Europe, took the system with them and its implementation
> > corrupted subsequent colonisation from the Assyrian relocations and the
> > movement of the Parthian and Gothic horde.
> >
> >
> > We now know much more about the calendar system in use in Europe and the
> > midwinter solstice in use in Europe and the UK. The circles were
designed
> to
> > determine the solstice exactly on midwinter's day.
> >
> >
> > The twelve days were distinct from the five days and they appear to have
> > been variously added to or combined in different areas.
> >
> >
> > It appears that the five extra days of the year making the 365 days over
> and
> > above the 360 days considered to be the normal year was a very ancient
> > belief and system of intercalary practice where, from the Mayas of
Yucatan
> > to the pyramids of Egypt, people regarded them as useless for any
> religious
> > or civil purpose and did nothing on those days. This may have also had
> some
> > basis for the practices. The texts of the pyramids expressly mention the
> > five days over and above the year comprised of twelve months of thirty
> days
> > (ibid., p. 340). The Aztecs and the American system, however, has
eighteen
> > months of twenty days and so did not follow any lunar system. The five
> days
> > were considered, because of their mathematical values in the divisions
of
> > the calendar, to be useless and the object of no work and a general
> malaise
> > of the society. This had no relationship to the Hebrew prophetic year of
> > twelve thirty-day months which is a symbolic idealisation of the actual
> > revolutions of the true intercalary nineteen year cycle. This religious
> > symbolism and structure is detailed in the Bible.
> >
> >
> > The five day sequence related to the calendar in
> >
> > use in solar systems or Sun-worshipping systems. The twelve days were an
> > adjustment of the lunar to the solar which one would expect to find in
the
> > more ancient Moon-Sun-Morning Star systems which were common at the time
> of
> > the Exodus (see the paper The Golden Calf (No. 222)).
> >
> >
> > The Sun god
> >
> > 25 December was also associated with Mithras, as he was Sun god.
> >
> >
> > The Catholic liturgist Mario Righetti (in addition to Duchesne and also
> > Cullman) held that:
> >
> > After the peace of the Church of Rome, to facilitate the acceptance of
the
> > faith by the pagan masses, found it convenient (sic) to institute the
25th
> > of December as the feast of the temporal birth of Christ, to divert them
> > from the pagan feast, celebrated on the same day in honour of the
> > "Invincible Sun" Mithras, the conqueror of darkness (fn 74, II, p. 67
> quote
> > also in Bacchiocchi, From Sabbath to Sunday, Pontifical Gregorian
> University
> > Press, Rome, 1977, p. 260).
> >
> > Thus, Mithras was the god of the festival of the solstice on 25th
> December,
> > which followed immediately on from the Saturnalia. With this deity, we
see
> > Sunday worship emerge in Rome.
> >
> >
> > The dedications to Mithra was as Soli invicto Mithrae or the Invincible
> > Sun - the Unconquered Sun as Frazer terms it (p. 304). It was also
related
> > to him as Sol Invictus Elagabal in the public form of the religion.
> >
> >
> > The term Father was a rank held by the priests of Mithra. The term is
> > forbidden to Christians (Mat. 23:9). It entered Christianity with the
> > Mystery cults.
> >
> >
> > What actually occurred was that the original calendars of the Roman
system
> > began the week on Saturday and were in use in the first years of the
> > Augustan era (27 BCE to 14 CE) following the discovery of the calendar
of
> > Nola (cf. A Degrassi, fn. 26, p. 104; cf. Bacchiocchi, ibid., p. 244).
> This
> > structure appears to be related to the system of Mithras (as we know
from
> > the Epicurean Celcus (c. 140-180 CE) where the Sun occupied the highest
> > place on the ladder of ascent through the seven gates of
> >
> > the Mithraic ladder from Saturn to the Sun. This is classic Shamanism
and
> is
> > practiced by animistic religion throughout the world. In Origen Contra
> > Celsum, 6,21-22 we see that Celsus lists the planets in the reverse
order
> > enabling the Sun to occupy the significant seventh position.
> >
> >
> > We later see this system emerge as the eight day symbolism in the Roman
> > system for the week beginning on Saturn's day or Saturday and ending
with
> > the day of the Sun or Sunday which was always a holiday. The planetary
> week
> > was also not in the accepted order of the planets and people could not
> > account for the difference (cf. Plutarch Complete Works, III, p. 230;
cf.
> > Bacchiocchi, ibid., p. 246).
> >
> >
> > The differences can be seen also by comparison with the Ziggurat of the
> > Babylonian system and the seven levels of ascent to the Moon god there
> (cf.
> > the paper The Golden Calf (No. 222)).
> >
> >
> > The statement of Tertullian (Ad Nationes, 1, 13, ANF, III, p. 123),
> attempts
> > to refute the charge of Sun-worship. Tertullian admits that, by then,
> > Christians had commenced praying towards the east and made Sunday a day
of
> > festivity. He directly places the responsibility for Sunday worship over
> the
> > Sabbath on the Sun-worshipping cults where he says they selected its day
> in
> > preference to the previous day of the week (i.e. the Sabbath or
Saturday)
> > (cf. Bacchiocchi, pp. 248-249). However, by then, they were both
> worshipping
> > on that day as well as the Christian Sabbath.
> >
> >
> > Prayer to the Sun in the east
> >
> > Apparently, prayer to the east originated by prayer towards Jerusalem as
> > Irenaeus mentions being the custom of the Ebionites (Adv. Her., 1,26,
ANF,
> > I, p. 352). By the time of Clement of Alexandria and Origen, we see the
> > orientation to be towards the source of light that dispels the darkness
of
> > the night although Clement still mentions the ancient temples
(Stromateis,
> > 7,7,43, GCS, 3, 32; cf. Bacchiocchi, p. 255).
> >
> >
> > Bacchiocchi makes it clear that the association between the Christian
> Sunday
> > and the pagan veneration of the day of the Sun is not explicit before
the
> > time of Eusebius (c. 260-340 CE). Although previous writers associated
him
> > as true light and sun of justice, no deliberate attempt prior to
Eusebius
> > was made to justify Sunday observance by means of the symbology of the
day
> > of the Sun (ibid., p. 261).
> >
> >
> > The process thus entered Christianity by means of the earlier December
> > festival, which was originally derived from the worship of Saturn and
Opis
> > in the Saturnalia, and its association with the Heavenly Virgin or
Mother
> > goddess and her infant child.
> >
> >
> > The gospels say nothing as to the day of Christ's birth and the early
> Church
> > did not celebrate it.
> >
> >
> > The custom of celebrating Christ's birth began in Egypt, being derived
> from
> > the Mother goddess cult there, and the Christians there celebrated it on
6
> > January. By the fourth century it had become generally established in
the
> > East (Frazer, v, p. 304). The western church had never recognised 6
> January
> > as the true date and, in time, its decision was accepted by the eastern
> > church. At Antioch this change was not introduced until about 375 CE
> > (Frazer, ibid.).
> >
> >
> > The origin of the practice is plainly recorded by the Syrian Christians
as
> > we see from Frazer quoting also Credner and Momsen and also Usener (v,
pp.
> > 304-305).
> >
> > The reason why the fathers transferred the celebration of the sixth of
> > January to the twenty fifth of December was this. It was a custom of the
> > heathen to celebrate on the same twenty-fifth of December the birthday
of
> > the Sun, at which they kindled lights in token of festivity. In these
> > solemnities and festivities the Christians also took part. Accordingly
> when
> > the doctors of the Church perceived that the Christians had a leaning to
> > this festival, they took counsel and resolved that the true Nativity
> should
> > be solemnized on that day and the festival of the Epiphany on the sixth
of
> > January. Accordingly, along with this custom, the practice has prevailed
> of
> > kindling fires till the sixth.
> >
> > Thus, the Saturnalia led up to the solstice when presents were given to
> > children from 23 December or now Christmas eve on 24 December in the
> > Gregorian calendar. The rites of the solstice then took over from the
> > original Saturnalia but the period then became lengthened from three to
> > seven days to which was added the twelve days.
> >
> >
> > When we count five days from 25 December we come to 31 December from
which
> > some of the Celts and Germans begin the count. The addition of St
> Stephen's
> > Day (or Boxing Day) brings the five day period from 27 December in line
to
> 1
> > January.
> >
> >
> > The pagan origin of Christmas is also evident in Augustine when he
exhorts
> > his brethren not to celebrate this solemn day like the heathen on
account
> of
> > the Sun but on account of him who made the Sun (Augustine Serm., cxc, 1;
> in
> > Migne Patriologia Latina, xxxviii, 1007). Leo called the Great likewise
> > rebuked the pestilent belief that Christmas was solemnised because of
the
> > birth of the new Sun, and not because of the nativity of Christ (Frazer,
> > ibid.; cf. Leo the Great Serm., xxii (al xxi) 6 and Migne, liv, 198).
> >
> > However, by then, it was a hopeless cause. The entire system was endemic
> to
> > Christianity and the Mother goddess cult was entrenched.
> >
> >
> > Frazer says:
> >
> > Thus it appears that the Christian Church chose to celebrate the
birthday
> of
> > its Founder on the twenty-fifth of December in order to transfer the
> > devotion of the heathen from the Sun to him who was called the Sun of
> > Righteousness (p. 305).
> >
> > There was a theory put forward by one Mgr Duchesne that 25 December
arose
> > from the conformity with the equinox on 25 March and this was the day on
> > which Christ was killed and also on which his mother conceived. This
digs
> an
> > even deeper pit because 25 March was indeed initially adopted in Africa
> and
> > elsewhere as the date of the crucifixion. However, it was on a Sunday in
> the
> > only year that 14 Nisan could have fallen on 25 March. It is thus
> > destructive to the theory. Moreover, 25 March is associated with the
> > festival of the god Attis as Frazer notes in his footnote to page 305.
We
> > will examine this in the sections below.
> >
> >
> > The Goat and the Bear
> >
> > On the twelve days we also see mummers playing the part of a goat and a
> > bear.
> >
> >
> > In the highlands of Scotland and St Kilda down until the last half of
the
> > eighteenth century, at least a cowherd would wrap himself in a skin on
New
> > Year's eve. The young people would meet and with staves they would beat
> the
> > hide as a drum and proceed from house to house where the one covered
with
> > the hide runs three times round deiseil, i.e. in the way the Sun
revolves.
> > He was pursued by the crowd crying in Gaelic:
> >
> > let us raise the noise louder and louder let us beat the hide (Frazer,
> viii,
> > p. 323).
> >
> > They go from house to house repeating verses. On entry, they call down
> > blessings on the house and its cattle, stones and timber, its produce
and
> > health. A part of the hide was then burnt and applied to the noses of
> every
> > person and domestic animal in order to protect the inhabitants against
> > disease and misfortune for the coming year.
> >
> >
> > This last day of the year is called Hogmanay.
> >
> >
> > Each of the party, after the rhyme had been said and the Rann Calluin or
> > Christmas Rhyme had been repeated, in return entered and had
refreshment.
> > The general thing that was burnt in lieu of the strip of hide was a
> > Casein-uchd made of the breast strip of a sheep (or deer or goat)
wrapped
> > around the point of a shinty stick. This was singed in the fire and put
> > three times around the family and to the nose of all. No drink was taken
> > until this ceremony had been completed. The purpose was to protect the
> > household against witchcraft and disease.
> >
> >
> > On the Isle of Man, the feather of the wren was used (viii, p. 324).
> >
> >
> > The custom appears to be related to an older custom involving human
> > sacrifice. Frazer notes that the Khonds slew a human victim as a
divinity
> > and took him from house to house and everyone took a relic of his sacred
> > person (cf. i, pp. 246 ff). The cowhide no doubt substituted for this
> > victim. The communion substituted for the body and blood of the god.
> >
> > While these customs may not have connection with agriculture, the
similar
> > customs of Plough Monday certainly do and the processions we see in
Europe
> > of men clad as animals probably identify with the corn spirit. They may
> have
> > association with the Gilyak procession of the bear and the Indian
> procession
> > of the snake (ibid.).
> >
> >
> > Often in these processions (as in the last days of the carnival in
> Bohemia)
> > a man was swathed from head to foot in pease-straw and wrapped around in
> > straw ropes (Frazer, ibid.). This harkens back to the wicca man in
ancient
> > Britain.
> >
> >
> > These festivals of agriculture were associated with both the midwinter
> > solstice and the spring equinox - both heralding the return of growth
and
> > warmth and life as the power of the Sun and summer to nature.
> >
> >
> > The Bohemian man goes by the name of the Shrovetide or Carnival bear
> > (Fastnachtsb�r).
> >
> >
> > After he has danced at every house with the girls and maids and the
> > housewife herself they all retire to the ale house:
> >
> > For at Shrovetide, but especially at Shrove Tuesday, every one must
dance,
> > if the flax, the vegetables and the corn are to thrive (Frazer, viii, p.
> > 326).
> >
> > The straw of the bear is put in the nests of the hens and geese. The
bear
> > represents the spirit of fertility. The purpose of the dancing is to
make
> > fertile both animal and vegetable in all aspects.
> >
> >
> > In parts of Bohemia, this person is not called a bear but an oats-goat.
> >
> >
> > In Prussian Lithuania on Twelfth day a man is wrapped in pease-straw to
> > represent the bear and another in oats-straw to represent the goat.
> >
> >
> > In Marburg in Steiermark, men appear as both a wolf and a bear (Frazer,
> > ibid.).
> >
> >
> > The man who gave the last stroke at threshing is called the wolf. He
keeps
> > the name Wolf until Christmas when he is wrapped in a goat's skin and
led
> > from house to house as a pease-bear at the end of a rope. His dress as a
> > goat marks him out and appears to associate the symbols of goat and bear
> and
> > wolf in this ancient ritual of the corn-spirit.
> >
> >
> > In Scandinavia, the appearance of the corn-spirit as a goat is common
> > (ibid.). In Sweden, led about with horns on his head, he personated the
> > Yule-goat. In parts of Sweden they make a pretence of slaughtering the
> goat
> > who comes to life again (ibid., p. 327). The two men who slaughter him
> sing
> > verses referring to the mantles of varying colours, red, blue, white and
> > yellow, which they laid on him.
> >
> >
> > After supper on Christmas evening, the people dance the "angel dance" to
> > ensure a good crop. Yule straw, either of wheat or rye, is made into the
> > likeness of a goat and thrown among the dancers with the cry of catch
the
> > Yule-goat. In Dalarne it is called the Yule-ram.
> >
> >
> > In Denmark and Sweden, it is customary to bake cakes of fine meal at
> > Christmas in the shape of goats, rams and boars (Frazer, ibid., p. 328).
> > They are often made out of the last sheaf at harvest and kept until
> > sowing-time where they are partly mixed with the seed corn and partly
> eaten
> > by the people and the plough oxen in the hope of securing a good
harvest.
> > The commonality of the customs from the British Isles to Europe and
> > Scandinavia and the East establishes beyond doubt the ancient practice
as
> > appeasement of the corn-spirit and the ancient gods. The appearance as a
> > wether and a boar is also ancient and widespread.
> >
> >
> > The Straw-bear was witnessed in Wittlesy Cambridgeshire, being performed
> as
> > it had been for centuries on the day after Plough Monday, by Professor
> Moore
> > Smith of Sheffield University in January 1909 (see letter of 13 January
> > 1909; cf. Frazer, viii, p. 329).
> >
> >
> > Plough Monday is the first Monday of January after Twelfth day. It is
> beyond
> > dispute that we are dealing with an ancient agricultural festival which
is
> > directed at appeasement of the ancient agricultural gods in the sequence
> of
> > the midwinter festivals which run from the Saturnalia to the solstice
high
> > day and then on to the twelve days of so-called Christmas to the plough
> > festival of Plough Monday and Shrove Tuesday.
> >
> >
> > It appears to have been anciently associated with human sacrifice -
> perhaps
> > in each of the three aspects or perhaps as single festivals.
> >
> >
> > Plough Monday in England was normally associated with a team of human
> plough
> > bullocks, one of whom was disguised as an old crone called Bessy. They
> went
> > about leaping and dancing in high fashion presumably to make the corn
grow
> > as high as they leapt. This was similar to the practice of the
Straw-bears
> > or Yule-goats on the continent and elsewhere in UK.
> >
> >
> > The same practices are found in Thrace and Bulgaria on the same day,
i.e.
> > the Monday of the last week of Carnival. One dancer (the Kuker) is a man
> > clad in goatskin. Another dancer (the Kukerica), disguised in petticoats
> as
> > the old woman or baba, has "her" face blackened.
> >
> >
> > Bears are represented by dogs wrapped in bearskins. A mock court is set
up
> > of a king and judge and other officials. The plays of the Kuker and
> Kukerica
> > are wanton and lascivious.
> >
> >
> > Towards evening, two people are yoked to a plough and the Kuker ploughs
a
> > few furrows and sows some corn. He then takes off his disguise and is
paid
> > for his trouble.
> >
> >
> > The people believe that the person who plays the Kuker commits a deadly
> sin
> > and the priests also make vain efforts to abolish the customs. The Kuker
> in
> > Losengrad district has a cake with money in it which is distributed to
> those
> > present. If a farmer gets the coin, the crops will be good; if a
herdsman
> > gets it, the herds will be good. The Kuker also symbolically ploughs the
> > ground and waves to and fro to imitate the waving corn. The man with the
> > coin is bound and dragged by the feet over the ground to quicken the
> > fertility of the ground. This drawing by lot is reminiscent also of the
> > Saturnalia sacrifice we saw above.
> >
> > In Bulgaria itself, the festival has the Old Woman or Mother as the
> leading
> > personage, played by a man in woman's clothing. The Kuker and Kukerica
are
> > subordinate to the "Old Woman". They wear fantastic masks of human heads
> > with animal horns or birds heads and skins with a girdle of lime bark.
On
> > their back is a hump made out of rags. This festival in Bulgaria, being
> the
> > Monday of the last week of Carnival, is called Cheese Monday. It is
> > nevertheless associated with the Ploughing festival.
> >
> >
> > The same rituals associated in western Europe of going round the house
and
> > the blessings conferred by the presence of the "old woman" on the
> fertility
> > of the village is uppermost in the minds of all. Incursion by masked
> people
> > from any other village is seen as a threat and a drawing away of the
> > fertility of the village. Such incursions are resisted.
> >
> >
> > The similarity between the Old Woman with the black face of Demeter and
> the
> > two aides of Pluto and Persephone are probably behind the origins of the
> > three kings custom, with the black Mechior representing Demeter.
> >
> > The festival of Befana in Rome on the night before Epiphany is clearly
> > related to this festival of Demeter and the term Befana is obviously a
> > corruption of Epiphany. She is clearly an old witch and the noise of
this
> > festival is clearly associated with an ancient custom of clearing the
area
> > of evil influences (see also below). The same ceremonies involving
Befana
> on
> > the eve of Epiphany were or are observed in Tuscan Romagna and elsewhere
> in
> > Italy (Frazer, ix, p. 167).
> >
> >
> > Frazer rightly sees in the Old Woman of the Bulgarian and Thracian
system
> a
> > reference to the Corn Mother-goddess Demeter who in the likeness of an
old
> > woman brought blessing to the house of Celeus, king of Eleusis and
> restored
> > the lost fertility to the fallow Eleusinian fields. The Kuker and
> Kukerica,
> > the male and female mummers, represent Pluto and Persephone. These
rituals
> > are extant from East to West and represent the oldest of the religious
> > festivals (Frazer, viii, pp. 334-335). We are thus directly in the
middle
> of
> > the Eleusinian Mystery cults and linked with the same Mystery cults of
> > ancient times from the cult of Apollo in early Europe and of Dionysius
and
> > of agricultural symbols in the cult of worship of the Sun god. The
> > Bull-slaying cults are thus also involved and we see from the times of
> > dedication of the Bulls sacrificed by the Greeks in Magnesia after its
> > dedication in the beginning of the sowing that we have a common idea of
> the
> > festival. Zeus is the partner of Demeter and the final product is the
> > slaying of the Bull to Zeus in the equivalent of the month of May.
> >
> >
> > Yule logs, the holly and ivy, and mistletoe
> >
> > The summer and winter solstice were seen as the two great turning points
> of
> > the year. Fires were lit on both solstices. The midsummer fires were lit
> in
> > the open and youths jumped the fires. This practice was found among the
> > Celts in Ireland, Britain and Gaul and also among the north Africans in
> > Morocco and the Atlas Mountains. Their practice is much more ancient
than
> > the Islam they also profess. The practice of lighting fires happened
> > anciently among the pagans on May Day and on Halloween (1 November)
called
> > All Saints Day. The asymmetric nature of these festivals with that of
the
> > solstice should be noted. The Festival of Walpurgis on the last day of
> April
> > preceding May Day is the Festival of the Burning of the Witches. This
type
> > of festival is also associated with the twelve days between Christmas 25
> > December and the Epiphany of 6 January. Fires of pine-resin are lit on
> these
> > nights to keep the witches away. The fires are generally larger on
Twelfth
> > Night. In Silesia, people burn fires of pine-resin between Christmas and
> New
> > Year to drive witches away from the farmhouses. This was the "proper
time
> > for the expulsion of the forces of darkness". On Christmas eve and New
> Year'
> > s eve, shots are fired over the fields and people wrap straw around the
> > fruit trees to prevent evil forces from doing them harm.
> >
> >
> > In Biggar in Lanarkshire UK, New Year's eve is the traditional time for
> this
> > fire which has been lit since time immemorial.
> >
> > In 1644, nine witches of flesh and blood were burnt on Leith Links in
> > Scotland (Frazer, ix, p. 165).
> >
> >
> > Fires are lit in the Autumn but are not significant. The festival of the
> > nativity of the Virgin on 8 September was traditionally associated with
> > noise and uproar associated with Befana at Rome and traditionally
involved
> > assassinations. Prof. Housman noted that when he witnessed the festival
at
> > Capri in 1897, a few more than the usual eight or ten were murdered
> (Frazer,
> > x, p. 221).
> >
> >
> > Fires are also traditionally lit on the midwinter solstice on 25
December.
> > The difference between the midsummer and midwinter fires being that the
> > midwinter fires are lit indoors and form part of the ritual of the
> > invocation of the Sun god to his place of supremacy in the heavens.
Thus,
> > the midwinter fires developed a more cloistered or family type
atmosphere.
> >
> >
> > It is perhaps of significance that in the Shetland Islands, the Yule or
> > Christmas holidays began seven days before Christmas and ended at
> Antinmas,
> > i.e. the twenty-fourth day after Christmas.
> >
> >
> > The Shetlanders name these holidays the Yules. Seven days before
> Christmas,
> > the elves called Trows by the Shetlanders are let free from their homes
in
> > the earth and dwell above ground if it pleases them. This is the
probable
> > origin of the elf symbolism of and with Santa Claus. It seems to relate
> back
> > to the concept of the misrule of the seven days of the Saturnalia
leading
> up
> > to 25 December.
> >
> >
> > The most important of the rituals in Yule was the saining which had to
be
> > properly carried out to deal with the grey folk as the elves were
called.
> >
> >
> > The modern myths emanating from the USA regarding alien greys is none
> other
> > than the revamping of the elves at Yule.
> >
> >
> > On the last day of the holidays, the twenty-fourth day after Christmas,
> > called up-helly-a, or Uphalliday in Shetland, the doors were all opened
> and
> > a great deal of pantomimic chasing went on to rid the area of the
> > mischievous elves. People piously read the Bible and displayed iron
> > ostentatiously "for it is well known that elves cannot abide the sight
of
> > iron." The infants were carefully guarded and sained by learned wise
> women.
> > No doubt, we have the sign of the evil eye involved here as an ancient
> > custom (cf. also the paper The Cross: Its Origin and Significance (No.
> 39)).
> >
> >
> > When day dawned after twenty-fourth night, the Trows or Grey-folk had
> > vanished and the Yules were ended.
> >
> >
> > The customs of banishing evil forces and witches on a night set aside
for
> > the purpose in the period of the winter solstice and festivals can thus
be
> > traced from Rome and Calabria in the south as far north as the
Shetlands.
> It
> > also runs from Ireland to the Steppes and down to North Africa.
> >
> >
> > The log
> >
> > We know that the Germans burnt the Yule log which was an ancient custom
> even
> > by the eleventh century. In 1184, the parish priest of Ahlen in
> M�nsterland
> > records bringing a tree to kindle the festal fire at the Lord's nativity
> > (Frazer, x, p. 247). This was found in Britain in ancient times and was
> > common to the Teutons and apparently the Celts. John Brand is quoted by
> > Frazer as saying that the Yule block is a counterpart of the midsummer
> fires
> > made within doors because of the cold weather at the winter solstice
> (ibid.,
> > n. 2). This was nothing other than the erroneous application to 25
> December
> > of the solstice which was set aside for the worship of the Sun (Frazer,
x,
> > p. 246). This lighting of the tree fire was to assist the Sun to relight
> its
> > ailing lamp, and the entire system of fires and candles at the nativity
> > before the Heavenly Virgin is the ancient worship of the Mother goddess
> and
> > her infant child, the Sun. The lamps assist in the lighting of the
> heavenly
> > fire of the Sun and this is the basic idea behind flame and its use in
> > Zoroastrianism.
> >
> >
> > The Yule log was also kept among European groups and placed on the fire
to
> > ward off thunder and the effects of storms. Thus, the relationship is
> > clearly made between the ancient gods of the Teutons over thunder and
> > lightning and weather and the Yule log at the solstice.
> >
> >
> > Mistletoe
> >
> > Mistletoe was sacred in the religion of the Druids. The Druids who came
> via
> > Egypt as Magi were picked up by the Milesians in Spain from among the
> > Gadelians before the Scoto-Milesians went to Ireland. From there they
> spread
> > into Britain and Europe (MacGeohagen The History of Ireland, Sadlier,
NY,
> p.
> > 42; cf. Frazer, ii, pp. 358,362; xi, pp. 76 ff,301).
> >
> >
> > Pliny (Natural History, xvi, pp. 249-251) derives the word Druid from
the
> > Greek word for oak which is drus. It is, however, the same or similar in
> the
> > Celtic being daur. The Druids are thus priests of the oak. Their cult is
> > thus ancient and associated with the oak groves. Other scholars prefer
to
> > derive the name from the root meaning knowledge or wisdom - hence, they
> were
> > the wizards or magicians. This is also borne from the title Magi which
> they
> > held (cf. Frazer, xi, pp. 76-77, n. 1 to p. 76).
> >
> >
> > The Druidic cycle of the calendar was of thirty years and there appears
to
> > be a common relationship in their worship with that of the Boetians who,
> > like they, worship or conjured the oak and, thus, both may have a common
> > Aryan connection. The Boetian cycle, in the festival of the great
Daedala,
> > was one of sixty years and not thirty. This may have application to the
> > Aryan practice observed among the Indians of the sixty year cycle based
on
> > the sidereal cycle of Jupiter.
> >
> >
> > The mistletoe is cut with a golden scythe on the first or sixth day of
the
> > Moon (Frazer, xi, pp. 77-78). It is associated with fertility and was
held
> > to make barren animals and women to bring forth. It was thought to have
> > fallen from the sky and was called the all-healer (Frazer, xi, pp.
> > 77-79,82). Two white bulls were sacrificed at its cutting on the sixth
day
> > for this purpose. The priest was dressed in a white robe. It was cut on
> the
> > first day of the Moon by the Italians and on the sixth by the Druids.
This
> > difference is probably accounted for because of the commencement of the
> > lunar month in both systems. Neither cut the mistletoe with an iron
> > implement. It was not allowed to touch the earth and, hence, it was
caught
> > in a white cloth.
> >
> >
> > The Italians believed that mistletoe growing on oak had similar
properties
> > if we accept Pliny and, thus, there was a commonality of belief to both
> > systems.
> >
> >
> > We are thus back again to the fertility system of the Saturnalia and the
> > healing of the Mysteries and Apollo, but in an ancient form common to
the
> > Aryans before 1000 BCE.
> >
> >
> > This system was so ancient that it was common even to the Ainu of Japan
> who
> > also held it sacred. They, however, use mistletoe cut from a willow
> because
> > that tree is sacred to them. They agree with both the Druids (in its
> > curative properties) and the Italians (regarding the fertility of women
> for
> > childbirth) in their beliefs (Frazer, xi, p. 79).
> >
> >
> > This belief extends down to the natives of Mabuig Island in the Torres
> > Strait (ibid.). The common belief is also found in Africa among the
Walos
> of
> > Senegambia (ibid.).
> >
> >
> > The veneration of mistletoe as an all-healer is found among Swiss
peasants
> > and among the Swedes (ibid., p. 82).
> >
> >
> > The Norse god Balder was said to have been slain by mistletoe and Frazer
> > gives an extensive account of this matter in his work.
> >
> >
> > Mistletoe was used as a remedy for epilepsy generally and by high
medical
> > authorities in the UK and Holland as late as the eighteenth century
> (ibid.,
> > p. 83, noting Ray of UK in 1700, Boerhaave of Holland in 1720 and his
> pupil
> > Van Swieten in 1745).
> >
> >
> > Mistletoe is held to be a protection against lightning and fire and,
> hence,
> > associated with the Yule system also (Frazer, xi, p. 85).
> >
> >
> > It was most commonly used at the midsummer fires and at this time was
> > associated with the death of the god Balder. This seems to have involved
> > actual human sacrifice at this time in Denmark, Norway and Sweden
(Frazer,
> > xi, p. 87). The practice of throwing the victim chosen by lot into the
> > Beltane fire and also the Green wolf of the midsummer fires are
associated
> > with this system of worship as tree spirits or gods of vegetation
(ibid.,
> p.
> > 88).
> >
> >
> > The worship of mistletoe is associated directly with the cult of the
> worship
> > of the oak and was common to all the Aryans. The Celts in Asia Minor
> > worshiped at the grove called Drynemetum which is pure Celtic, meaning
> > Temple of the Oak. These are the groves which also contained a phallus
> > spoken against by the Bible.
> >
> >
> > Among the Slavs, the oak was the sacred symbol of the great god Perun
and
> > the oak ranks first among the holy trees of the Germans. It was adored
by
> > them anciently and certain of these practices and attitudes survive to
the
> > present day (Frazer, ibid., p. 89).
> >
> >
> > The oak was also sacred to the Italians and the image of Jupiter on the
> > Capitol was originally nothing but a natural oak tree. At Dodona, Zeus
was
> > also worshipped as being immanent in the oak. Frazer concludes that the
> > Aryans, including Celts, Germans and Lithuanians, commonly held the oak
> > sacred before their dispersion and this common land must have been
> > plentifully supplied with oak. The mistletoe is merely its symbol, as
> heaven
> > sent aspect of healing, protection and fertility.
> >
> >
> > The kindling of sacred fire, whether among the Celts, Germans or Slavs,
is
> > always by use of the oak in rubbing two of the sticks together or by
> rubbing
> > oak on a grey stone (not red). The same types of practice are found from
> > Germany to the highlands of Scotland in kindling the need-fire (cf.
> Frazer,
> > xi, p. 91).
> >
> >
> > Frazer says the perpetual fire of Vesta in Rome was fed with oak wood.
Oak
> > wood also burnt in the perpetual fire before the sacred oak at Romove in
> > Lithuania. The blocks of oak are burnt also from the midwinter solstice
> > through to the end of the year and replaced with the new log and the
ashes
> > are mixed among the seed etc. for fertility.
> >
> >
> > The common link in all these stories is the burning of the fires and the
> > cutting of the mistletoe. The ancient Aryans believed, as we can deduce
> from
> > the myth of Balder, that the oak was the god and the mistletoe's link
with
> > it ensured its longevity. The human sacrifice at the midsummer fires
> ensured
> > the life of the crops. The use of mistletoe and the Yule log at the
> > midwinter solstice also looked to the sacrifice of the god represented
by
> > the human who took his place, and the return of the Sun system. This is
> the
> > underlying symbolism of the Christmas tradition (cf. Frazer, xi, p. 93).
> >
> >
> > While the mistletoe stood, neither the god nor his substitute could be
> > injured. The cutting of the mistletoe was both the signal and the cause
of
> > his death.
> >
> >
> > Holly and ivy
> >
> > Holly and ivy allegedly represent male and female. The ivy clings and
> > twines - supposedly representing the female. The holly is prickly and
> > erect - supposedly representing the male.
> >
> >
> > In Surrey England, a holly tree is used to pass a child through a cleft
to
> > heal rupture whereas it is usually an ash elsewhere (Frazer, xi, p. 169,
> n.
> > 2).
> >
> > The holly-oak was sacred to the Fratres Arvales or Brethren of the
Tilled
> > Fields. This was a Roman college of twelve priests who performed public
> > religious rites for the purposes of agriculture. They wore wreaths of
ears
> > of corn. Their sacrifices were made in the grove of the goddess Dia some
> > five miles down the Tiber from Rome. This grove contained laurels and
> > holly-oaks. It was so hallowed that expiatory sacrifices were offered
> every
> > time a tree or even a bough of a tree fell to the ground. This was
> obviously
> > especially prone to occur with the advent of snow and storms at the
winter
> > solstice. Hence, the concept also of holly and the white Christmas. More
> > elaborate sacrifices had to be made when one of the trees were struck by
> > lightning. They were then dug up by the roots, split and burnt and
others
> > planted in their stead. At the Roman festival of the Parilia which was
for
> > the welfare of flocks and herds, peasants prayed for forgiveness if they
> > entered a hallowed grove, sat under a sacred tree, or lopped a holy
bough
> to
> > feed sheep (cf. Frazer, ii, p. 123).
> >
> >
> > Pliny says the woods were formerly the temples of the deities and that
> even
> > in his time the peasants dedicated a tall tree to a god with the ritual
of
> > olden times (Pliny Natural History, xii, p. 3).
> >
> >
> > The ivy is the symbol of the Mystery cults. It is chewed by the
> Bacchanalian
> > feast-goers. It is identified with the god Dionysius, or Bacchus.
> >
> >
> > Ivy was used by the Greeks as one of the two firesticks. The board of
the
> > pair was made out of a parasitic or creeping plant which was usually
ivy.
> > The borer was usually laurel. Oak was also used as the borer.
> >
> >
> > The ancient Indians used a parasite (the climbing fig) as the borer
using
> > the parasite as the male concept. The Greeks seemed to have reversed
this
> > concept. The ivy is considered female and the laurel male. Yet in the
> Greek,
> > the word ivy is masculine and the ivy was identified anciently with the
> male
> > god Dionysius. The word for laurel is feminine and is identified with a
> > nymph. Thus, we may conclude that the Greeks, like the Indians,
considered
> > the concepts similarly in very ancient times but modified them perhaps
> > though expedience (Frazer, ii, pp. 251-252).
> >
> >
> > Anciently, ivy was prohibited to touch or name (Frazer, iii, pp. 13
ff.).
> > Ivy was also sacred to the god Attis and, hence, we come then to the
pine
> > tree which was also sacred to that god (cf. Frazer, v, p. 278 and see
the
> > paper The Cross: Its Origin and Significance (No. 39)).
> >
> >
> > Ivy was also sacred to the god Osirus (Frazer, vi, p. 112) and also for
> > dreams (ibid., x, p. 242). Thus, we see a commonality to the system of
the
> > Triune god and the Mystery cults generally which ties in naturally with
> the
> > solstice system and Sun worship. Thus, the holly and the ivy are the
> symbols
> > also of the oak and other groves dedicated to the deities so condemned
by
> > the Bible.
> >
> >
> > The Christmas tree
> >
> > The decorated pine tree stems directly from the Mystery cults and the
> > worship of the god Attis. He is held to have been a man who became a
tree
> > and, hence, is the embodiment of the ancient tree-spirit we meet in
> ancient
> > Indian or Indus mythology from as early as Harappa and Mohenjo Daro. He
is
> > clearly a fertility god of corn and wears a Phrygian cap like Mithras
> (from
> > the statue in the Lateran; Frazer, v, p. 279).
> >
> >
> > The bringing in of the pine tree decked in violets and woollen bands is
> like
> > bringing in the May-tree or Summer-tree in modern folk custom. The
effigy
> > which was attached to the tree was a duplicate representative of the god
> > Attis. This was traditionally kept until the next year when it was burnt
> > (Firmicus Maternus De errore profanarum religionum; cf. Frazer, v, p.
277
> > and n. 2).
> >
> > The original intent of this custom was to maintain the spirit of
> vegetation
> > intact throughout the coming year. The Phrygians worshipped the pine
tree
> > above all others and it is from this area that we derive the Mysteries
and
> > the Mithras system. It is probably sacred to the cults in that it is an
> > evergreen lasting through the solstice period over a large area, when
> other
> > trees are bare. Remember also that pine resin was burnt at the solstice
> > festivals. The origins are lost in the antiquity of the
Assyro-Babylonian
> > system.
> >
> >
> > The resemblance of the god Attis was changed to the Sun symbol as a
> > monstrance on the top and then to angels and other types of decorations.
> The
> > decorations are easily identifiable as the Sun, Moon, and stars of the
> > Triune system of the Babylonians as Sin Ishtar and Shamash or Isis,
Osirus
> > and Horus of the Egyptians (see the paper The Golden Calf (No. 222)).
> >
> > Ivy was also sacred to Attis and his eunuch priests were tattooed with
the
> > symbol of the ivy leaf (Frazer, v, p. 278).
> >
> >
> > Pine nuts were used to produce a wine used in the orgiastic rites of
> Cybele
> > which were in effect counterparts of the Dionysian orgies and Strabo
> > compared them (Strabo, x, 3. 12 ff).
> >
> >
> > At the festival of Thesmophoria, they were thrown along with pigs and
> other
> > agents or emblems of fertility into the sacred vaults of Demeter for the
> > purpose of increasing the fertility of the earth and of women (Frazer,
v,
> p.
> > 278). Thus, we are back again to the Demeter festivals and the aspects
> that
> > have kept on and which are associated with Christmas in Europe generally
> as
> > we have already seen.
> >
> >
> > The Epiphany
> >
> > The term Epiphany means manifestation as the appearance of some divine
or
> > superhuman being. It was applied to Antiochus IV Epiphanes, king of
Syria
> > (175-164 BCE).
> >
> >
> > It was also known as: the dies luminum (day of lights); as three kings
day
> > or the twelfth day. All of these are dealt with above. The practices
> > associated with it are all derived from the ancient sources we see in
the
> > text and have little to do with the faith.
> >
> > The name survives in the great festival of Befana at Rome (cf. Catholic
> > Encyclopedia, art., Epiphany, Robert Appleton, NY, 1909, Vol. V, p.
504).
> > The CE says:
> >
> > It is difficult to say how closely the practice then observed of buying
> all
> > sorts of earthenware images, combined with whistles and representing
some
> > type of Roman life, is to be connected with the rather similar custom in
> > vogue during the December feast of the Saturnalia (ibid.).
> >
> > It is hardly difficult to identify. The practices were the same and the
> term
> > is applied to the manifestation of the Befana as the goddess as we see
> > above. The attempt to place the reference in Hippolytus on the Sacrament
> of
> > Baptism is incorrect as he uses the term theophaneia not epiphania
> (ibid.).
> >
> >
> > The first substantive reference is in Clement (Stromateis, I, xxi, p.
45).
> > The CE quotes this text as follows and then goes on to say:
> >
> > 'There are those, too, who over-curiously assign to the Birth of our
> Saviour
> > not only its year but its day, which they say to be on 25 Pachon (20
May)
> in
> > the twenty eighth year of Augustus. But the followers of Basilides
> celebrate
> > the day of his Baptism too, spending the previous night in readings. And
> > they say that it was the 15th of the month Tybi of the 15th year of
> Tiberius
> > Caesar. And some say that it was observed the 11th of the same month.'
> Now,
> > 15 and 11 Tybi are 6 and 10 January.
> >
> > Both the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church try to draw from
> this
> > practice of the Gnostics under Basilides (teaching at Rome in the middle
> of
> > the second century) support for the celebration of the nativity as well
as
> > the baptism of Christ but there is no real evidence for this conjecture.
> The
> > evidence of the festivals themselves indicate that the practice was the
> > ancient fertility festival and the blessing of the produce. From this
> arose
> > the practice of blessing the waters and the practice of throwing
> crucifixes
> > into the sea to make the seas productive for fisherman. All are based in
> > ancient paganism and were not evident in Christianity until the fourth
> > century. This addition was well after Origen writing in the third
century
> as
> > he makes no mention of the Epiphany in his list of the festivals. The
> first
> > reference to it as a feast of the church is in 361 (cf. CE, p. 505).
> >
> >
> > From Saint Nicholas to Santa Claus
> >
> > Santa Claus is a rather late invention and comes to us as a product of
> late
> > American commercialism. It is derived chiefly from German and Dutch
> > folklore. It has its origins in the entity referred to as Saint
Nicholas.
> >
> >
> > The man usually known as Saint Nicholas is Nicholas of Myra in Lycia. He
> > died on 6 December 345 or 352 (Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. XI, p. 63).
He
> is
> > popular in both the Greek and the Latin church but there is scarcely
> > anything certain about him except that he was bishop of Myra in the
fourth
> > century (ibid., p. 64). He was born at Parara in Lycia of Asia Minor. In
> his
> > youth, he made a pilgrimage to Egypt and Palestine. On his return he was
> > made bishop of Myra and was imprisoned during the persecution of
> Diocletian.
> > He was released on the ascension of Constantine. The Catholics allege he
> was
> > present at Nicaea but his name does not appear on any of the records by
> > their own admission (ibid.).
> >
> >
> > In 1087, Italian merchants stole his body at Myra and took it to Bari.
His
> > cult in Italy dates from this point. It appears this may have been
> prompted
> > by a cult that had developed concerning him in Europe. The numerous
> miracles
> > attributed to him are the outgrowth of a long tradition but, as we will
> see,
> > much of it has pagan origins that would have little to do with the
> original
> > man.
> >
> >
> > His cult in the Greek church is old and especially prominent in the
> Russian
> > church although they were long after him (c. 1000 CE). The emperor
> Justinian
> > I built a church in his honour at Constantinople and his name appears on
> the
> > liturgy ascribed to John Chrysostom (ibid.).
> >
> >
> > His cult in Europe started from the time of Otto II whose wife Theophano
> was
> > a Grecian. Bishop Reginald of Eichstadt (d. 991) wrote a metric entitled
> the
> > Vita S. Nicholai. He is, or was, honoured as patron saint in Greece,
> Russia,
> > the kingdom of Naples, Sicily, Lorraine, the Diocese of Liege, and many
> > cities in Italy, Germany, Austria and Belgium, Campen in the
Netherlands,
> > Corfu in Greece, Frieburg in Switzerland and Moscow in Russia (ibid.).
He
> > was patron of mariners, merchants, bankers and children.
> >
> >
> > His relics are still preserved in the church of S. Nicola in Bari. An
oily
> > substance, known as Manna di S. Nicola, is said to exude from his
relics.
> It
> > is valued for medicinal purposes. His relationship with the festivals of
> 5/6
> > December are examined below.
> >
> >
> > One legend associated with him relates to the formation of three golden
> > balls, each made from his wages for one year, and rolled through the
> window
> > of a needy family of good birth over a period of years. The first ball
> > allegedly landed in a stocking (hence the Christmas stocking). This
> enabled
> > the needy recipients to marry off their daughters. He was allegedly seen
> on
> > the last time. This is no doubt the origin of the three golden balls of
> the
> > pawn brokers and the symbol of his patronage of merchants. These stories
> we
> > will see have relationship with other myths.
> >
> >
> > The traditions associated with his generosity caused the practice of
> Norman
> > French nuns giving to the poor on Saint Nicolas day or eve and this came
> to
> > be called Boxing Day from the alms box of the church. This became the
> > tradition behind the Boxing Day of 26 December. In Germany, Christ
Bundles
> > were also given to the poor and the annual parades took on the Heavenly
> > Mother goddess tokens of the Mysteries.
> >
> >
> > The practice of children saving all year for the annual pig at Christmas
> in
> > Holland led to the introduction of the piggy bank.
> >
> >
> > The amalgam also of the false Roman robes of the clergy worn on the
> Festival
> > of Fools and the tales of Odin's wild ride and the beards of the Magi
with
> > the elves of the Yule festivals saw a gradual evolution.
> >
> >
> > Nicholas of Myra was a saint in the Roman Catholic Church until 1969
when
> he
> > suffered the fate of many other myths.
> >
> > Sinterklaas - the precursor of Santa Claus
> >
> > Sinterklaas, or Saint Nicolas, is a typical Dutch folklore, celebrated
in
> > the Netherlands and partly in Belgium.
> >
> >
> > The celebration of Sinterklaas is always on the evening, after sunset of
5
> > December in the Netherlands and 6 December in Belgium.
> >
> >
> > In the celebration of the evening and night, the children are assembled
> > around the chimney, singing songs to Sinterklaas:
> >
> > "Heerlijk avondje is gekomen. Kom maar binnen met je knecht".
> >
> > "The nice (or lordlike) evening has come. Come in with your servant".
> >
> >
> > His servant, Black Peter, is black. He is always portrayed as a Negro
with
> > thick lips and earrings and clothed in funny clothes. This probably
stems
> > from the Demeter/Melchior nexus and later associated with good and evil
> > being embodied in the legend of Woden and N�wi.
> >
> >
> > Sinterklaas himself is as a bishop with mitre and a book with the good
> deeds
> > and sins. He has the staff of a shepherd and rides on a white horse over
> the
> > roof tops. Black Peter listens at the chimneys to determine whether the
> > children are singing the right songs and presenting the right offerings
to
> > the horse in the form of hay and carrots.
> >
> >
> > The presents for the children are put through the chimney.
> >
> >
> > Sinterklaas is a syncretic product of the old Germanic or Teutonic
> religion.
> > The Germanic roots can be explained as follows:
> >
> > The god Woden (also known as Odin), who is still remembered by the use
of
> > Wednesday, was the most important god of the old Germanic tribes (not
the
> > small group of people we understand as Germans today). Woden, who is a
> > figure of history, was made into the personification of the multitude of
> > earlier gods - the gods of wind and war, the god of the dead, the god of
> > fertility, the god of wisdom and the Sun god. We will find him in
> > mythological legends "riding through the air on his faithful white
horse,
> > clothed in a flowing robe." Further, he is described as a figure with a
> long
> > white beard, and with a big hat on his head. Because he was also held to
> be
> > the god of wisdom, he had a book in his hand written in rune letters,
and
> he
> > carried a great spear.
> >
> >
> > In these stories Woden was accompanied by the giant N�wi, who had a
black
> > countenance because he was the father of the night. He was, according to
> > legend, well versed in making rhymes and poems. He carried in his hand,
as
> a
> > sign of fertility, a bunch of twigs.
> >
> >
> > From these aspects - the white horse, the wide robe, the big hat, the
> book,
> > the spear, and the black N�wi, with a bunch of twigs, and the poems or
> > poetic traditions - we have so many parallels with our today's
Sinterklaas
> > and Zwarte Piet (Black Peter) that is beyond mere coincidence. We see
> here,
> > also, the parallels with Demeter and the three wise kings one of whom
was
> > also the black Melchior.
> >
> >
> > If we now add to this the traditional customs, we will complete the
> picture.
> >
> >
> > The old Germanic tribes or Teutons always left, after the harvest, a
sheaf
> > on the land for the white horse of Woden. The children offered, during
the
> > Sinterklaas time, hay in their shoes at the chimney (stockings at the
> > chimney at Christmas) for his horse.
> >
> >
> > We see here the same traditions as found among the Celts of burning the
> > twelve fires and the thirteenth major fire of the straw. We also see the
> > black faces of the Mother goddess system. We can deduce a much earlier
> > origin than that attributed to Woden. This is part of the early cults of
> > fertility related to Apollo as Sun god and master of the Mystery
religions
> > among the states of the Danube and into the Hyperborean Celts. He was
> drawn
> > across the sky in a chariot and often this was pictured being drawn not
> just
> > by horses but by geese or swans. The similarity of these feasts was with
> the
> > old ceremonies of the Saturnalia which was traditionally prior to
> Christmas.
> > In the Netherlands, we see a much earlier date than is normal now. It
was
> > some thirty days before the Epiphany. It was, however, not thirty days
> > before the solstice as we saw in the Saturnalia examples above. We see
the
> > same tradition but removed so that the thirty days of the Lord of
Misrule
> as
> > the god Saturn and Apollo relate to the Epiphany rather than the end of
> the
> > Saturnalia.
> >
> >
> > Today's tradition in the Netherlands is to give letters of chocolate or
> > almond pastry. The connection with the ancient runes seems very obvious.
> The
> > German Wotan feast was a mixture of sacrifice and fertility festivals
> during
> > and around the midwinter feasts. The lads and lassies of the Germanic
> tribes
> > prayed in those early times for a partner. The presents from Sinterklaas
> > were also in the form of lovers made from speculatius or other cakes.
> Also,
> > presents were of animals in the form of sugar mice and pigs, to
substitute
> > for the real animal sacrifices.
> >
> >
> > Sinterklaas is also the patron of the city of Amsterdam and the seamen
who
> > sail from her ports.
> >
> >
> > The apparel of Sinterklaas is Roman Catholic. It was little wonder that,
> in
> > the sixteenth century, the Reformation tried to stamp out these customs.
> It
> > was not entirely successful in the Netherlands. Sinterklaas came to life
> > again after an absence of some centuries (or being underground) in
> > Protestant Netherlands in the first half of the twentieth century.
> > Sinterklaas disappeared in England and Germany and went underground.
Many
> of
> > the traditions simply were moved to 25 December and completed with the
> > Christmas tree and Santa Claus. The acceptance of the 'rebirth' of
> > Sinterklaas in Protestant Netherlands was sooner and earlier than the
> > acceptance of the Christmas tree. Today, commercialism has to fight to
get
> > Santa Claus accepted in the Netherlands, as many are against this
imposter
> > of Sinterklaas, even though its rebirth in the Netherlands was because
of
> > what was done in the USA.
> >
> >
> > Santa Claus in the USA
> >
> > When migrants went to the United Sates, they brought with them the Yule
> > traditions from Europe and particularly the three elements which went to
> > make up the Santa Claus myth.
> >
> >
> > The Dutch contributed the Sinterklaas myth which was adapted from its
> > traditional place. The Pere Noel tradition of the red robes was also
> > contributed from Europe. The Germans brought with them the Christ Bundle
> > tradition and termed it Christkindl or Christ Child tradition. The name
> Kris
> > Kringle developed from this term.
> >
> >
> > Washington Irving in the Knickerbocker Tales (c. 1820) discusses the elf
> > Santa Claus who presents the stocking as did St Nicholas.
> >
> >
> > Clement Clark Moore introduced many new elements in his poem A Visit
from
> > Saint Nicholas which was renamed 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. He
> > introduced new elements such as eight reindeer including the traditional
> > representation we see regarding thunder and lightning as the gods of the
> > Yule festival in the form of Donner (Donder) and Blitzen.
> >
> >
> > Santa Claus was still an elf of the Yule tradition however until the
> > American Civil War when Thomas Nast of Harpers Weekly was commissioned
to
> do
> > a series of Santa Claus cartoons. He continued this after the Civil War
> and
> > the publishing company McLaughlin Brothers Printing Company experimented
> > with the colour of Santa's leather and decided on red.
> >
> >
> > The final change was made in 1931. The Scandinavian Haddon Sundblom was
> > hired by Coca Cola to paint Santa Claus. On the death of his model, he
> > fashioned Santa Claus on his own face. This continued for twenty-five
> years.
> >
> >
> > In 1941, the song Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was written. It was
> > recorded by the cowboy singer Gene Autry.
> >
> >
> > The Coca Cola model and colours and the American myths surrounding the
> > figure are now the final product of at least 3,000 years of pagan
idolatry
> > wrapped in the crass commercialism that first emanated from the
merchants
> of
> > the Roman Saturnalia and which was perfected in the USA.
> >
> >
> > There is nothing Christian about so-called Christmas and, indeed, it is
so
> > steeped in false religious superstition that it is a direct breach of
> > biblical law. No Christian can observe it and remain a Christian.
> >
> > -- 
> > BEWARE! there are people on this newsgroup who are only here to slander
> and
> > lie about Jehovah's Witnesses. They do not offer any alternative
> > organization... as a matter of fact, some are admitted atheists (Matthew
> > 12:30; John 8:44-47) I have all of their posts filtered out because they
> can
> > not hold an intelligent conversation and often resort to lies. They
claim
> to
> > be quoting from Watch Tower literature but these are *NOT* exact quotes,
> > they change words and quote things out of context. I don't respond to
> > spurious fabrications. Hence if you see that I am not answering someone,
> it
> > is because their previous attempts at deception have earned them a place
> in
> > the 'block sender' file. They exist here only to destroy (1 Corinthians
> > 10:6-11) They speak not as Christians (Ephesians 4:31-32) I do not need
to
> > name them for by their fruits you will recognize them (Matthew 7:16-20)
> One
> > has to wonder, why was a newsgroup set up to attack this *one*
> organization?
> > Matthew 5:10-12
> >
> >
>
>
>