The Origin of Christmas
History reveals that Christmas originated in Babylon as a festival celebrated by the heathens in honour of their pagan gods, but it was given meaning by the Catholic Church in order to convert the idol worshippers to Constantine's new "Christian" religion. The catholic church simply took the seasonal feasts and festivals celebrated by the idolatrous heathens and "transformed" them into "Christian" celebrations in order to make Christianity more meaningful to pagan converts.
The celebration of Christmas actually outdates Christianity by about 4000 years! In Mesopotamia the festival was celebrated to mark the renewal of the world for yet another year.
This ancient Babylonian festival moved westward through Greece into Rome and merged with the Roman festival of Saturnalia. Under the influence of Constantine (who united church and state) it all became "Christianised." The bright fires, the Yule log, the giving of presents, carnivals with their floats, merry makings and clowning, the carol singing from house to house, the feasting and church processions with light and song, all date back many centuries before the Messiah was born. But, since the time of Constantine these same activities have been practiced as praise to the Christian god.
"Christmas" has nothing to do with Yeshua HaMashiach , but has everything to do with the Roman god Mithras.1,
The date of 25th December is itself evidence that this holiday is not about the Messiah of the Scriptures. For while we do not know the exact day of Yeshua's birth, we can be certain that it was not 25th December. All the Biblical evidence is stacked against such a date. During that particular season, the shepherds would not have been in the fields with their sheep. They would have had them sheltering indoors against the bitter cold of the Judean winter. However, the Gospel of Luke reports that the shepherds were 'in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night' which suggests that Yeshua was born either late summer or early fall. It is also unlikely that Caesar would have required the citizens of Judea to return to the cities of their birth in the dead of the winter, so that a tax-census could be taken.
We might ask, where did this date originate? Ancient history provides us with an answer. It marked the winter solstice, and was considered a special day in many pagan religions. It was particularly important in the cult of Mithras, which became popular in the Old Roman Empire. Mithras who was originally a Persian deity whose cult penetrated the Roman world in the first century BCE. Besides the Mithraic influence, other pagan forces were at work. Prior to the celebration of Christmas; 25th December in the Roman world was the time to celebrate "Dies Natalis Solis Invicti," 2 (the Birthday of the Unconquerable Sun). This feast took place just after the winter solstice of the Julian calendar, in honour of the Sun God. Between the seventeenth to the twenty-third of December, the Romans also celebrated the ancient feast of Saturnalia 3 to commemorate the Golden Age of Saturn, the god of sowing and husbandry.
Until the last two centuries one would have had difficulty finding a "Protestant Christian" who would have anything to do with any of these pagan feasts. But, now they have become the norm for many "Protestant" churches, and woe to anyone who speaks against them.
In an article dated 23/12/83 from "USA TODAY" it states: "A broad element of English Christianity considered the Christmas celebration a pagan blasphemy. The Puritans, Baptists, Quakers, Presbyterians, Calvinists and other denominations brought this opposition to early New England and strong opposition to the holiday lasted in America until the middle of the 18th century." Indeed, many Protestants abhorred this pagan day until recent times. Henry Ward Beecher, a Congregationalist, wrote in 1874 of his New England boyhood: "to me Christmas is a foreign day, and I shall die so. When I was a boy I wondered what Christmas was. I knew there was such a time, because we had an Episcopal church in our town, and I saw them dressing it with evergreens, and wondered what they were taking the woods into the church for; but I got no satisfactory explanation. A little later I understood it was a Romish institution, kept by the Roman Church."
Anyone who has the desire can soon find out for themselves that "Christmas" is a thoroughly pagan festival - in its origin, its trappings, and in all its traditions. No honest person can deny these truths. The Roman Catholic Church, which originated this festival, admits that it was taken from paganism and adapted for its own purposes.
How should we, as Messianic Believers respond to these and other pagan festivals? The answer lies in the first two verses of Jeremiah chapter 10, which give us specific instructions:- "Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by signs in the sky, though the nations are terrified by them. For the customs of the peoples are worthless…."
Rather we should always look to Adonai Elohim for guidance through His Torah by embracing the cycle of His Moedim (Levitical festivals) as commanded in Scripture. Let us also acknowledge through the celebration of Hanukkah and Purim, how Adonai honours those who are faithful to His Torah. By observing these festivals alone we begin to acknowledge Yeshua HaMashiach, as the real light of the world.
Footnotes
1. MITHRAS or Mithraism
Mithraism seems to have inspired certain symbolic religious elements of Christmas. Mithraism arose in the Mediterranean world at the same time as Christianity, either imported from Iran, or as a new religion which borrowed the name Mithras from the Persians, as the Congress of Mithraic Studies suggested in 1971. Most of the information available about this ancient religion, the favourite of Roman soldiers, comes to us from the two volumes by Belgian scholar Franz Cumont, Textes et monuments figurés relatifs aux mystères de Mithra (1896 and 1899). More recently, David Ulansey has added to the discussion with his The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries: Cosmology and Salvation in the Ancient World.
Mithraism radiated from India where there is evidence of its practice from 1400 B.C. Mitra was part of the Hindu pantheon and Mithra was a minor Zoroastrian deity, the god of the airy light between heaven and earth. He was also a military general in Chinese mythology .
The soldiers' god, even in Rome (although the faith was embraced by male emperors, farmers, bureaucrats, merchants, and slaves, as well as soldiers), demanded a high standard of behaviour, "temperance, self-control, and compassion -- even in victory". Thus, Tertullian chides his fellow Christians for unbecoming behaviour: "Are you not ashamed, my fellow soldiers of Christ, that you will be condemned, not by Christ, but by some soldier of Mithras?"
The comparison between Mithraists and Christians is not coincidental, as 25th December was Mithras' birthday before it was the supposed birthday of Jesus. The Online Mithraic Faith Newsletter [no longer available] says:
"Since earliest history, the Sun has been celebrated with rituals by many cultures when it began it's journey into dominance after it's apparent weakness during winter. The origin of these rites, Mithrasists believe, is this proclamation at the dawn of human history by Mithras commanding his followers to observe such rites on that day to celebrate the birth of Mithras, the Invincible Sun."
Roman Mithraism was a mystery religion with sacrifice and initiation. Like other mystery cults, there's little recorded literary evidence. What we do know comes mainly from archaeological evidence from mithraic temples, inscriptions, and artistic representations of the god and other aspects of the cult.
In an EAWC (Exploring Ancient World Cultures) essay entitled Mithraism, Alison Griffith explains Cumont's theory of a Zoroastrian origin for the Roman Mithraist religion. While this theory is disputed, there was a Mitra in the Hindu pantheon and a minor deity named Mithra among the Persians as well. Cumont came to believe the religion spread westward from Eastern Roman provinces. However, as Griffith explains, there is little remaining evidence of a Mithra cult apart from in the western portion of the empire from which Cumont correctly deduced that "Mithraism was most popular among legionaries (of all ranks), and the members of the more marginal social groups who were not Roman citizens: freedmen, slaves, and merchants from various provinces...."
2. DIES NATALIS SOLIS INVICTI The actual choice of December 25 for Christmas was made under the Emperor Aurelian because this was the date of the Winter Solstice and was the day devotees of Mithras celebrated the dies natalis solis invicti (birthday of the invincible sun).
In Ancient Rome, the mythical age of Saturn's kingship was a golden age of happiness for all men, without theft or servitude, and without private property. Saturn, dethroned by his son Jupiter, had joined Janus as ruler in Italy, but when his time as earthly king was up, he disappeared. "It is said that to this day He lies in a magic sleep on a secret island near Britain, and at some future time ... He will return to inaugurate another Golden Age."
Janus instituted the Saturnalia as a yearly tribute to his friend. For mortals, the festival provided a yearly symbolic return to the Golden Age. Thus, it was an offence during this period to punish a criminal or start a war. The meal normally prepared only for the masters was prepared and served first to the slaves by the masters. All people were equal and, because Saturn ruled before the current cosmic order, Misrule, with its lord (Saturnalia Princeps), was the order of the day.
Complied by Graeme Purdie -18/12/01