Tuesday, December 4, 2018

Our Pagan Christmas by John Russell


Our Pagan Christmas by John Russell, Article in the Secular Chronicle, December 26 1875

From a thousand steeples the merry bells are pealing out the “glad tidings” that jovial Christmas has again come round, with its usual concomitants of good cheer, brotherly love, charity to the poor and needy, cessation of animosities, revival of friendships, and general overflowing of happiness. All Christendom is aglow with pleasurable anticipations, but we wonder how many of those who will again participate in the delights of this festive season really know what it all means, what Christmas commemorates, or why so cheery a festival
should be held at a time like mid-winter.

That prolific mother of error, the Church, claims Christmas as her own, and tell us that it is the anniversary of the birth of Christ. But, as I observed last week when “dealing with the Devil,”
many of the institutions which are generally supposed to be of Christian origin were in existence long before Christ, and originated, not even among the Jews, but with the more ancient and intelligent Pagan Gentiles; and so it is with this feast. 

Christmas is not a celebration of Christ's nativity, for nothing whatever is known of the date of that event. The early Church had no tradition respecting it, and the Bible itself is silent upon the subject. St. Luke, who boasted that he had “perfect understanding of all things from the very first,” only vouchsafes the vague information that when Jesus was baptised “he began to be
about thirty years of age.” The early Christian fathers evidently did not regard the birth of Christ as an event of such vast importance, as do the Christians of the present day, or they would not have allowed the date to pass into oblivion, nor have left history to record the fact, that, at least until the third century, they did not even commemorate the birthday of the founder of their faith. Of course, attempts have been made to give substantiality to Christ's birth, by apportioning it a fixed place in chronology, but the result is only confusion and uncertainty. Thus, St. Epiphanius, maintained that it happened on the 6th of November. Some supposed it to have taken place on the 6th of January. Others said it was on the 20th of May. While St. Clement, of Alexandria, affirms that it was on the 18th of November. Eventually, however, the Church considerately put an end to all this difference of opinion, by making it a dogma of Christianity that its founder was born on the 25th of December. This conclusion was based upon an exceedingly ingenious calculation too lengthy to give here in extenso, but which shows us that the four cardinal points of the year—the equinoxes and the solstices as they were then fixed —were marked by the conceptions and births of John the Baptist and Jesus, and that “the solstice when Jesus was born, is that at which the day begin to increase; while that on which the Baptist came into the world, was the period at which they begin to shorten.” Whatever may be said in favour of the other dates; it is certain that Christ was not born on the 25th of December, for St. Luke tells us that at the time “there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night.” But December is the very height of the rainy season, in Judaea, and as Shaw and others have long ago shown, at such a time, neither flocks or shepherds could have been out at night in the fields of Bethlehem. 

The early Christian fathers considerably modified their beliefs to fit in with the peculiar prejudices. Thus St. Augustine was instructed by Pope Gregory to accomodate the Christian teaching to the customs of the Saxons. All Pagan festivals too, which it was found impossible to eradicate, were baptised into the Church, and under new names, came to be regarded as Christian institutions. This kind of thing was done to so great an extent that Moshiem says:—“It is difficult to determine whether the heathen were most Christianized, or Christianity most Heathenized.” The festival which we now celebrate under the name of Christmas, stands among the Pagan institutions which were thus smuggled into the Church, and in all probability it would have been observed with quite as much enthusiasm in modern times, if Jesus Christ had never been born. 

The ancient Pagans supposed Nature contained two opposite powers—light and darkness—which were continually fighting against and resisting each other. As summer gave place to winter, and the days were observed gradually to get shorter and colder, they imagined that the power of darkness was prevailing against the power of light; but when the shortest day was past, they knew that the days would again grow longer and warmer, until glorious summer showered its blessings upon them; and the overflowing joyfulness of their hearts found expression in the festival of the Winter Solstice, which was held in honour of the re-birth and increasing power of the sun, and Christmas is the Christian name of this most ancient of all our festivals.

Everything in connection with Christmas, as observed in modern times, proves its Pagan origin. The mistletoe—"the kissing and wishing bush"— with which we decorate our houses at this season, was, from time immemorial, regarded as sacred by the Druids, who hung it up at mid-winter to induce the sylvan spirits to shelter in their houses until spring had renewed the foliage of the trees. It was also a custom of the Druids to light great fires on the hill-tops, and to burn “yule-logs” at the Winter Solstice, or yule-tide. The word yule is supposed to refer to the wheeling or turning of the sun in his orbit, and yule-tide is the turning point of the year.

At the Saturnalia, which were held at the same time of the year, it was the custom of the Romans to decorate their houses and churches with evergreens, and the practice was actually forbidden by some of the early Christian Councils, on account of its Pagan associations. The pantomime, and the ancient English custom of mummering and carol singing all originated in the observances of the Saturnalia, and are of a much greater antiquity than Christianity. From the same source, too, is derived the practice of giving Christmas boxes, for at the Winter Solstice the Romans made presents of sprigs of gilded evergreens, to which sometimes were attached more valuable gifts.

The old custom of serving up a boar's head at the Christmas dinner, had its origin in the legend of Adonis, (the favourite of Venus) who, according to the story, was killed by a boar. Proserpine, the goddess of the infernal regions, moved by the grief of Venus, restored him to life on condition that he should spend half the year with her, and the other half with Venus. This myth implies the alternation of summer and winter, and so at one of the great turning points of the year—the Winter Solstice—it was a custom of the Romans to sacrifice a boar.

The letters IHS, which are always conspicuous in the Christmas decorations of our Churches are Greek characters, and their proper reading YES is the name of Bacchus, or of the sun, of which Bacchus was one of the most distinguished personifications, and from this it will be obvious to all, why these letters are generally surrounded with rays of glory.

All these facts clearly prove that Christianity has nothing whatever to do with our mid-winter festival, but that ages before Christ was born, the same feast was observed by the Pagans. It is a purely human institution, for men have always had cravings for seasons of recreation, and the turning point of winter, when the shortest day is past, and the growing strength of the sun promises soon to beautify and tructify the earth again, seems to be a time eminently suited for rejoicing. For my own part I cannot imagine anything more inconsistent than rejoicing over the birth of Christ, who himself avowed that he came not to bring peace but a sword, and whose appearance on the earth was the advent of ages of the most profound darkness, grossest ignorance, and most abject superstition and misery. It is with pleasure that I look back to, in many respects, the more rational Paganism, and discover there the origin of our glorious Christmas festival, which in spite of the contaminating touch of Christianity, still remains as the best of all feasts, the time for healthy and cheerful social intercourse, of good will, renunciation of evil ways, and renewal of good resolutions.

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