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can pagans celebrate christmas? by Preston Peet (ptpeet@cs.com) - December 23, 2000 |
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| As a young kid, I would love to lie in my upperbunk, listening to the pipe organ music my Dad would be playing on his stereo in the living room. Hearing the voices of my grandparents, parents, and parents' friends, as they chattered away by the Christmas tree outside my bedroom door. We would put the tree up a couple of weeks before Christmas every year, decorating it immediately, making it an annual special family event. The light from the treelights would flicker and flash on the ceiling of my bedroom every night, which I shared with my older brother. The light would flow through the space between the door and the doorframe, making vast triangular designs of light above me: a veritable lightshow that I would fall asleep watching, every year. I loved this rite of passage, and it gave me a feeling of safety and warmth I can still remember to this day. The part of Christmas I didn't much like was going to church, and in my family, that was the biggest part. We were a church-going family, riding our bicycles in a long line to the church every Sunday down in Florida. I was an alter boy, and in the choir. I participated in every church celebration, including Christmas of course. My favorite part would be after the Midnight Mass, when the multi-ton church bells would let loose at the end of the service, annoying the church's neighbours, who lived in an expensive high-rise adjacent to the church, overlooking Sarasota Bay. As a child I was thrilled with the incredibly loud racket those bells could raise. I can even vaguely remember the Sunday School discussions about the origin of Christmas, the stories of the angels and the shepherds, and the primal manger scene under the Star of Bethlehem. What the clergy never discussed with us little kids was the fact that Christmas fell at the same time of year as many other religious celebrations throughout history, and even has many of its roots firmly imbedded in the pagan holiday rituals. Apparently, the Mesopotamians had their own holiday around the end of what would someday become December, celebrating the New Year. Culminating a 12 day fest, they would have a mock King declared, using some poor criminal who would assume the mantle of King for one day, at the end of which he would be slaughtered in place of the real King, who was expected to go join their main god Marduk in battling the monstrous lords of chaos. The Babylonians celebrated a New Year festival, as did the Persians, called Sacaea, in which masters and slaves would exchange places for a day. The Northern Europeans would have their Winter Solstice celebrations One ritual was the Yuletide, where they would light bonfires, to thank god for the soon return of the sun which doesn't shine during the long, cold Scandinavian winters. Then there were the Romans, who had their Jo Saturnalia, which began in the middle of December, and continued to the first of the New Year. They also had the tradition of slave-master place exchange for a day: they would deck the halls with trees and laurel wreaths, and twould decorate trees with burning candles. One theory contends that the early Christian rulers tried to make sure that new recruits to the Christian faith wouldn't be lead astray by the New Year celebrations of their heathen neighbors, by basically appropriating the Pagan holiday as their own, arbitrarily assigning the birth of their Christ to this same time of celebrations already observed for thousands of years prior to the (supposed) birth of Jesus. If someone says to you this year, "Remember the true meaning of Christmas," then ask them whose true meaning they are referring to. Then celebrate it or not, in your own way, even the original Pagan ways if you would like. Christians themselves can't seem to figure out if it is OK to celebrate a Pagan-based Christmas or not, but just because some Christians stole your holiday long ago doesn't mean you have to stop celebrating, or celebrate their way. I myself will enjoy this Christmas, I hope peacefully, with those who I love, and who love me. That is Christmas to me. Happy Holidays to all! |
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Christmas and Easter are Pagan Holidays Christmas: A Pagan Holiday The Ankerberg Theological Research Institute Christmas on the Net: The History of Christmas Is Christmas Pagan? Why We Didn't Celebrate Christmas This Year How the Christmas Holiday Appears in Each Epoch Where'd All These Christian Holidays Come From: Yule/Christmas Christmas Paganism and Peace in Bible Codes Christmas Christmas: A Demon Holiday Should Christians Celebrate Christmas? |
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