"There were a variety of Roman festivals around December that many point to as early predecessors of the Christmas feast.
The festival honoring the god of agriculture (Saturn) was celebrated on December 17 during the Republic Era and transformed over the years from a day of merry-making to a full week or more of decadent revelry during the late Empire Era.
Most cultures in the Mediterranean had festivals celebrating the winter solstice (which on the Julian calendar being used at the time fell on December 25), and the Romans were no exception. In A.D. 274 the Feast of Sol Invictus (Invincible Sun) was established to mark the shortest day of the year. A week later the Romans would celebrate the first new moon of the new year.
Little is known about how (or whether) these festivals impacted the earliest celebration of the birth of Jesus. During his life, celebration of one's birthday was indeed more of a pagan practice than a religious one (cf. Mark 6:21-29). There is no record of the apostles or the early church leaders doing anything significant to mark the day of Jesus' birth.
In fact, the earliest record of December 25 as a church festival was after the last great persecution (the document dates to AD 354, but refers to a Roman practice in AD 336).
The first recorded observation of this alleged link was in 1687 by Increase Mather, a Puritan preacher (and father ofCotton).
For one and a half millennia, the religious significance of this festival was minimal at best. From the 5th to the 16th centuries, the Roman Catholic Church celebrated the "Feast of Fools," which mimicked the practices of Saturnalia, but no one ever tried to associate this with Christmas. In the early 7th century, the pope ordered that churches be decorated for the feast. The tradition of Christmas trees may have developed subsequent to this. In the colonial times, celebration of Christmas was actually banned. However, the state of Alabama declared Christmas a legal holiday in 1836, and its popularity has spread ever since.
On the other hand, it appears that most of the traditions and practices of the various pagan festivals around the winter solstice have run their course. While the vestiges of human sacrifices may be found in the baking of gingerbread men, or perhaps the remnants of orgies found in the expectation of a kiss under the mistletoe, it would be hard to argue that our modern celebrations rival the debauchery of Mardi Gras (which ironically stems from a religious holiday.)" Theopedia
"Roman pagans first introduced the holiday of Saturnalia, a week long period of lawlessness celebrated between December 17-25. During this period, Roman courts were closed, and Roman law dictated that no one could be punished for damaging property or injuring people during the weeklong celebration. The festival began when Roman authorities chose “an enemy of the Roman people” to represent the “Lord of Misrule.” Each Roman community selected a victim whom they forced to indulge in food and other physical pleasures throughout the week. At the festival’s conclusion, December 25th, Roman authorities believed they were destroying the forces of darkness by brutally murdering this innocent man or woman.
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| The CHRISTIAN Christmas |
Most cultures in the Mediterranean had festivals celebrating the winter solstice (which on the Julian calendar being used at the time fell on December 25), and the Romans were no exception. In A.D. 274 the Feast of Sol Invictus (Invincible Sun) was established to mark the shortest day of the year. A week later the Romans would celebrate the first new moon of the new year.
Little is known about how (or whether) these festivals impacted the earliest celebration of the birth of Jesus. During his life, celebration of one's birthday was indeed more of a pagan practice than a religious one (cf. Mark 6:21-29). There is no record of the apostles or the early church leaders doing anything significant to mark the day of Jesus' birth.
In fact, the earliest record of December 25 as a church festival was after the last great persecution (the document dates to AD 354, but refers to a Roman practice in AD 336).
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| The Worlds "Christmas" |
For one and a half millennia, the religious significance of this festival was minimal at best. From the 5th to the 16th centuries, the Roman Catholic Church celebrated the "Feast of Fools," which mimicked the practices of Saturnalia, but no one ever tried to associate this with Christmas. In the early 7th century, the pope ordered that churches be decorated for the feast. The tradition of Christmas trees may have developed subsequent to this. In the colonial times, celebration of Christmas was actually banned. However, the state of Alabama declared Christmas a legal holiday in 1836, and its popularity has spread ever since.
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| Todays "Xmas" |
"Roman pagans first introduced the holiday of Saturnalia, a week long period of lawlessness celebrated between December 17-25. During this period, Roman courts were closed, and Roman law dictated that no one could be punished for damaging property or injuring people during the weeklong celebration. The festival began when Roman authorities chose “an enemy of the Roman people” to represent the “Lord of Misrule.” Each Roman community selected a victim whom they forced to indulge in food and other physical pleasures throughout the week. At the festival’s conclusion, December 25th, Roman authorities believed they were destroying the forces of darkness by brutally murdering this innocent man or woman.
B.
The ancient Greek writer poet and historian Lucian (in his
dialogue entitled Saturnalia) describes the festival’s observance in his
time. In addition to human sacrifice, he mentions these customs: widespread
intoxication; going from house to house while singing naked; rape and other
sexual license; and consuming human-shaped biscuits (still produced in some
English and most German bakeries during the Christmas season).
C.
In the 4th century AD, Christianity imported the
Saturnalia festival hoping to take the pagan masses in with it. Christian
leaders succeeded in converting to Christianity large numbers of pagans by
promising them that they could continue to celebrate the Saturnalia as
Christians.
D. The problem was that there was nothing intrinsically Christian about
Saturnalia. To remedy this, these Christian leaders named Saturnalia’s
concluding day, December 25th, to be Jesus’ birthday.
E.
Christians had little success, however, refining the
practices of Saturnalia. As Stephen Nissenbaum, professor history at the
University of Massachussetts, Amherst, writes, “In return for ensuring massive
observance of the anniversary of the Savior’s birth by assigning it to this
resonant date, the Church for its part tacitly agreed to allow the holiday to be
celebrated more or less the way it had always been.” The earliest Christmas
holidays were celebrated by drinking, sexual indulgence, singing naked in the
streets (a precursor of modern caroling), etc.
F.
The Reverend Increase Mather of Boston observed in
1687 that “the early Christians who first observed the Nativity on December 25
did not do so thinking that Christ was born in that Month, but because the
Heathens’ Saturnalia was at that time kept in Rome, and they were willing to
have those Pagan Holidays metamorphosed into Christian ones.”
Because of its known pagan origin, Christmas was banned by the Puritans and its
observance was illegal in Massachusetts between 1659 and 1681.
However, Christmas was and still is celebrated by most Christians.
G. Some of the most depraved customs of the Saturnalia carnival were
intentionally revived by the Catholic Church in 1466 when Pope Paul II, for the
amusement of his Roman citizens, forced Jews to race naked through the streets
of the city. An eyewitness account reports, “Before they were to run, the Jews
were richly fed, so as to make the race more difficult for them and at the same
time more amusing for spectators. They ran… amid Rome’s taunting shrieks
and peals of laughter, while the Holy Father stood upon a richly ornamented
balcony and laughed heartily.”
H.
As part of the Saturnalia carnival throughout the
18th and 19th centuries AD, rabbis of the ghetto in
Rome were forced to wear clownish outfits and march through the city
streets to the jeers of the crowd, pelted by a variety of missiles. When the
Jewish community of Rome sent a petition in1836 to Pope Gregory XVI begging him
to stop the annual Saturnalia abuse of the Jewish community, he responded, “It
is not opportune to make any innovation.” On
December 25, 1881, Christian leaders whipped the Polish masses into Antisemitic
frenzies that led to riots across the country. In Warsaw 12 Jews were brutally
murdered, huge numbers maimed, and many Jewish women were raped. Two million
rubles worth of property was destroyed." SimpleToRemember
Most Chrstians celebrate Christmas today for this - And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes,
and laid him in a manger; Luke 2:7
Most of the World celebrates Christmas/Xmas for this- "Me,Me,Me-what did I get this year?"
