Christmas Origin History And Traditions.
'Jesus' is the Reason for the Season! Wait, what?
Christmas: It's Origin, History, And Traditions.
No matter how good the feeling, a lie is still a lie. And this one's a Whopper.
"Holiday", (Definition of holiday in Oxford Dictionaries). For most people today, that word is applied to one celebration in particular, Christmas!
The definition of the word "holiday" reveals a religious element of which many people are unaware. It is a shortened form of the term 'holy day', or 'holy days'.
Holiday: "a religious festival; [a] holy day." (Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary)
Christmas is a religious holiday. Despite all the commercial trappings of the modern celebration, Christmas remains, at heart, a religious festival. It is a time when a deity is remembered and honored.
The church in Rome, and her proselytising Christian daughters, celebrate the birth of 'Jesus' at Christmas time. They exchange gifts in honor of the "greatest gift ever given." They say: 'Jesus' is the Reason for the Season, and speak of putting the 'Christ', back into Christmas.
The problem is 'Jesus', the so called 'Saviour', was never "in" Christmas to begin with! While Scripture does not supply his birth date, most scholars agree that he was born in the fall, not December 25!
To discover the 'god' being honored at Christmas, it is necessary to trace its pagan origins. Celebrations on December 25 began shortly after the flood with the birth of 'Tammuz' as the reincarnation of 'Nimrod'. Today's Christmas traditions come directly from ancient Babylon and pagan Rome.
Statue Of 'Saturn' And Child Victim.
The pagan Romans honored the 'god', 'Saturn', with a week-long festival in December called Saturnalia. 'Saturn' was the Roman 'god' of time and of the harvest, so he was usually depicted holding a scythe. He was the cruelest, most evil of all the pagan 'gods'. He demanded child sacrifice.
The Romans were not alone in worshipping this evil 'god'. Worship of the 'planet Saturn' was prevalent in the ancient world. The Israelites practiced Star-worship when they worshipped 'Saturn' when in rebellion against heaven. The 'god' Israel most frequently worshipped when in apostasy, was the 'god' 'Saturn', referred to in the Bible as ['Chiun' (Strongs H3594), and 'Molech']. See (Amos 5:25-27). Even the Israelites offered their children in sacrifice to the vile, blood-thirsty 'god', 'Molech'.
'Saturn' had become the champion of African paganism as well, indeed as 'Baal-Hammon' in Phoenician Carthage, he was the object of child sacrifice. Although a fertility 'god', 'Saturn-Baal', was nonetheless ruthless in the sacrifices he exacted. (Quodvultdeus of Carthage, translation and commentaries, Thomas Macy Finn, pp. 14 & 115.)
Although the Romans quit offering human sacrifice early on, blood was still spilled by the gladiators during the Saturnalia celebrations in December. Saturnalia was a religious celebration and all understood that the blood shed by gladiators was a sacrificial offering to 'Saturn'.
"The gladiatorial shows were sacred [to 'Saturn']." (Johann D. Fuss, Roman Antiquities, p. 359)
"The amphitheatre claims its gladiators for itself, when at the end of December they propitiate with their blood the sickle-bearing Son of Heaven ['Saturn']." (Ausonius, Eclog, i. p. 156)
"The gladiators fought on the Saturnalia, and they did so for the purpose of appeasing and propitiating 'Saturn'." (Justus Lipsius, tom. ii. Saturnalia Sermonum Libri Duo, Qui De Gladiatoribus, lib. i. cap. 5)
"The principle on which these [gladiatorial] shows were conducted was [that] they were celebrated as propitiatory sacrifices, when such multitudes of men were 'Butchered to make a Roman holiday.' When it is remembered that 'Saturn' himself was cut in pieces, it is easy to see how the idea would arise of offering a welcome sacrifice to him by setting men to cut one another in pieces on his birthday, by way of propitiating his favor." (Alexander Hislop, The Two Babylons, p. 153)
Despite the violence and bloodshed, Saturnalia was a time of feasting and merry making. The various ancient celebrations honoring this most blood-thirsty 'god' have come down to today as the much-beloved Christmas traditions celebrated the world over.
These traditions include:
The Twelve Days of Christmas.
Treats left out in the evening.
Christmas trees* decorated with lights (originally candles made from the fat of the burned bodies of child sacrifice victims).
Christmas trees* hung with balls (anciently decapitated heads of sacrificial victims).
Parties with noise-makers.
Gift exchanges.
Kissing under the mistletoe.
Holly berries (the food of the 'gods').
Evergreen boughs.
Caroling from house to house. (Originally done by naked singers engaging in licentious behavior. More on this Here.).
"Advent" candles.
Christmas cards.
...and many more.
*Regarding the christmas tree, the ETERNAL specifically states not to cut them down, and decorate them:
(Jeremiah 10:1-4)[1] (KJV) 1Hear ye the word which the ETERNAL speaketh unto you, O house of Israel: 2Thus saith the ETERNAL, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. 3For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. 4They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.
Even the imagery of Father Christmas, or Santa Claus, bears a striking resemblance to 'Saturn': an old man, with a long beard, surrounded by children.
'Saturn', the evil, child-sacrifice demanding old man, appears in modern society in two more guises. Every December, 'Saturn', the 'god' of time, reemerges as "Old Father Time." Baby New Year is a symbol of the child-victim.
A chilling representation of Father Time with Baby New Year can be found in this illustration from the 19th century (below). Father Time, ('Saturn', as the 'god' of time), is standing in front of a large clock, holding his scythe. The old years are passing away as full-grown bodies wrapped in burial shrouds. The New Year is coming in as a young child. While the picture is quite dark, light from the fire is lighting the little boy while on either side are swirls of smoke. The new years still to come are portrayed as children ready to be sacrificed. Victims of child sacrifice were always heavily veiled so that their parents would not recognize when their child was burned. All the grotesque elements of this hideous 'god' are contained in this picture.
Father Time ('Saturn') And Baby New Year.
'Saturn' also emerges in modern society as the Grim Reaper, gathering in his bleak harvest of souls. Very few in modern society have recognized that Father Christmas, the Grim Reaper and Old Father Time are none other than this most loathsome of all the 'gods'. However, an ancient would immediately recognize them all as being none other than 'Saturn'. The emblems which identified 'Saturn' are the same which identify Old Father Time and the Grim Reaper: scythes and something to mark the passage of time.
There are many excuses given by sincere people today for clinging to pagan holidays honoring 'Saturn':
"Christmas is a wonderful time for spending with family. We are so busy throughout the year this is really our only chance to get together."
"Christmas is a great time to witness! People are more open at this time of year so I use it as an opportunity to share."
"Christmas is the only holiday that really focuses on 'Jesus'!"
"I know that 'Jesus' was not really born then. I am not deceived. Besides, I am not worshipping any pagan 'gods', so it is alright for me!"
'Saturn' In Flying Chariot Being Pulled By Two Winged Serpents.
The pagans were ignorant of the ETERNAL, the Creator. They worshipped demon 'gods' because they did not know any better. The same cannot be said of Christians today.
To know that Christmas is a pagan holiday, to know that the modern rituals are identical to the ancient pagan rites that honored 'Saturn', and yet to claim exemption from sin because one knows, is extremely inconsistent.
Christmas is truly a holiday: a religious festival. By honoring the evil 'god', 'Saturn', DIS-honor is given to the ETERNAL, the Creator of Heaven and Earth.
'Saturn', more than any other false 'god', had attributes most similar to satan. Christmas is his religious festival. Participation in Christmas celebrations gives honor to this evil, satanic deity.
The words of a loving Father to backsliding Israel resound with force for Christians today:
(Jeremiah 3:20-22) (KJV) 20Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith the ETERNAL. 21A voice was heard upon the high places, weeping and supplications of the children of Israel: for they have perverted their way, and they have forgotten the ETERNAL their SOVEREIGN. 22Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come unto thee; for thou art the ETERNAL our SOVEREIGN.
Participation in pagan traditions dishonors the ETERNAL. You need to return to your loving Redeemer:
(Deuteronomy 11:16) (NIV) Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other 'gods' and bow down to them.
(1 Samuel 12:21) (NIV) Do not turn away after useless idols. They can do you no good, nor can they rescue you, because they are useless.
(Isaiah 41:29) (NIV) See, they are all false! Their deeds amount to nothing; their images are but wind and confusion.
(Habakkuk 2:18) (NIV) Of what value is an idol carved by a craftsman? Or an image that teaches lies? For the one who makes it trusts in his own creation; he makes idols that cannot speak.
Won't you turn away from the false doctrines of the church in Rome, and her proselytising daughters, and stop chasing the dead idol on a stick carved by a craftsman?
Footnotes:
[1] [a]All scriptural links point to the Bible Gateway, A Searchable Online Bible In Over 100 Versions And 50 Languages, located at "BibleGateway.Com", a vast biblical resource containing all the major texts and reference materials useful for in-depth bible studies. Most scriptual quotations are from the (KJV) of the Bible, however versions noted in (parentheses) should also be consulted. [b]All Strong's scriptural references point to the Blue Letter Bible Lexicon, located at "BlueLetterBible.Org", another vast biblical resource which has over 4,000,000 links available, pointing to more than 165,000 pages of concordances, lexicons, dictionaries, commentaries, images, and several Bible versions.