It's only the beginning of November, and walking through stores and malls we can already see shops getting ready for Christmas. As we get closer and closer to the date, the streets will be lined with lights, and people will be swarming said shops looking for decorations and gifts. Over the centuries, Christians have come to "own" the date. Every religion likes to believe that it's "right" about it's beliefs regarding any subject, and the Winter Solstice is no different. Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ, but that's really not what it's about.
In fact, there are over 30 different celebrations about to take place, all over the world. Most of them, needless to say, are no longer celebrated. They're ancient history, but the reasons for their acknowledgement are the same as those still in practice today. They all revolve around the Winter Solstice... yet only one of them involves Jesus.
Alphatbetically... Amaterasu celebration, in Japan. The Beiwe Festival, in Finland, Sweden, and Norway. Brumalia, celebrated in ancient Rome. Choimus or Chaomos, in Pakistan. Deuorius Riuri, in ancient Gaul. Deygan, or Maidyarem, in ancient Persia (Zoroastrian.) The Dongzhi Festival, in East Asia (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese Buddhism.) Goru, in ancient Mali. Hogmanay, in Scotland. Inti Raymi, in the ancient Incan civilizations (Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador.) Junkanoo, in the Bahamas. Karachun, in ancient western Slavic civilizations. Koleda, an ancient eastern Slavic tradition. Lanaea, in ancient Greece. Lucia, a feast in ancient Scandanavia, later appropriated by the Catholic Church and renamed to the Feast of St. Lucy (those sly dogs.) Makara Sankranti, in India and Nepal. Maruaroa o Takura, by the New Zealand Maori. Mean Geimhridh, by the ancient Celtic people. (This includes Montol, Wren day, and Alban Arthan, holidays celebrated on the same days all around what is now the UK.) Midvinterblot, a holiday belonging to an old Swedish Folk religion. Midwinter, a modern celebration for people working in Antarctica. Modranicht, and the Perchta ritual, two ancient Germanic celebrations. Rozhanitsa Feast, in Russa. Shab-e Chelleh, a four thousand year old Persian celebration. Sanghamitta Day, a Buddhist holiday. Saturnalia, in ancient Greece. Seva Zistane, a Kurdish holiday. The Sol Invictus Festival, a 3rd centuray Roman Holiday. Soyal, a holiday for the natives of North America (the Zuni and Hopi.) Wayeb, celebrated by the Mayans. We Tripantu, in southern Chile. Yule (Jul, Jol, Joul, Joulu, Joulud, Geol, Geul) Pagan celebrations. Zagmuk, an ancient Mesopotamian celebration. Ziemassvetki, an ancient Latvian celebration.
Oh, and Christmas. There were so many to make note of that I nearly forgot it. One has to consider, with so many holidays being celebrated at the exact same time, what's so special about it? Why December 22nd to the 25th? If this holiday is so widely accepted as the birth of Jesus Christ, why was it being celebrated two thousand years before he was even supposed to have been born? Does it not seem at least a little strange that a day celebrating the birth of a deity is shared by so many different holidays, several of which celebrate the births of various other deities?
If there's one thing that could be considered common knowledge about ancient cultures, it's their obsession with astrology. Many of these civilizations used the stars for everything from naming their children to navigation to predicting seasonal changes. The Winter Solstice, and all celebrations associated with it fit into the latter of those three examples. Observing the stars and where the sun would rise and set each day would allow them to predict just how far along they were into a season. The reason the Winter Solstice was cause for celebration is that it signalled the beginning of the end of winter. From that date on, the days would get longer, the nights would be shorter, and spring seemed right around the corner. These ancient peoples celebrated the time by telling stories and creating metaphorical deities, and Jesus Christ is just another one of those metaphors, another character in a four thousand year old group of fairy tales.
Rather than explain exactly what occurs in the sky during the Winter Solstice, or what took place during all of those celebrations, I'll encourage you to read up on it. Take a few minutes to look into it, and educate yourself.
yes I was aware that Dec 25 is the Sol Invictus celebration, it was chosen by the early church for two reasons: people were already used to celebrating the day, and the symbolism of Jesus arriving in the darkest time of the year and things getting brighter from there was appealing to them. The date was chosen quite some time after Jesus died so I don't think they made hm up for that purpose. I don't think the Christmas thing implies that he's made up. (Quinn)
ReplyDeleteChristmas itself does not mean that Yeshua ben Yosef was a fictional character. Its placement and acquired (read: hijacked) symbolism, however, speaks volumes to the religious hegemony the early church exercised over non-Christian celebrations. Most Christians aren't even aware of the original symbolism of the trees or the plants we decorate with (much less Oestre, dear god).
ReplyDeleteChristmas is great and everything, but I personally have no respect for it anymore, and choose not to observe it.