Christmas and Paganism – Persuasive Paper
Shannon Lecronier
One word that many Christians take delight in is “truth”. Quite often in fact, the appreciation of having attained “the truth” is taken to the next level, to where the word is actually capitalized, to show that their beliefs are not a truth, but the truth. It is a glorious thing indeed when a person, let alone an entire group of people are able to stand on their convictions with certainty. Another statement that many of the Christian faith stand behind is that their faith and religion, as a result of being Truth, isn’t full of man-made traditions, only that of the Lord. Perhaps that is one cross that the majority of Christians should choose to not carry. Truly, the Bible is Truth; however, the walk of those reading the Bible is far from being without man-made traditions that contradict the scriptures. One of the greatest examples of Christianity accepting man-made traditions and integrating pagan ideologies is in the celebration of Christmas. A great number of Christians who celebrate Christmas are unaware of the falsehood of the holiday. There is no biblical base for the celebration. However, there are numerous pagan bases for the festivities, all of which came to form the traditions of today. The history of Christmas and numerous other Christian holidays are in fact man-made, and beyond that, in direct contradiction with the Bible.
In an attempt to establish more meaning into the December holiday, many have cried out, “Let us put Christ back into Christmas! Let’s focus on the true meaning for the holiday!” The influx of growing consumerism each year, and a focus of material items is the greatest driving force behind this outcry. If indeed it was a wanting for more truth, a quick history lesson via the internet or book source would quickly silence those harping upon others that the real meaning must be reestablished; for the real meaning is the worship of other gods! None of which are the Christian God.
To begin, if the holiday were indeed to celebrate the birth date of the Messiah, it already has established its own problems. Theologians do not all agree on the exact month of the birth of Yeshua, however, they do concur that it was not any winter month. Why then is His birth celebrated on December 25th every year? To find the answer, we must go 17 centuries into the past, to ancient Rome.
In Roman Paganism, a most beloved holiday was the celebration of Saturnalia, a time of worship for the god of agriculture. It was a week long celebration of lawlessness that began on the 17th of December and continued until the 25th (Kelemen). To add to the festivities of the week, a man or woman deemed “The Lord of Misrule” was chosen, preferably a lowly, poor person, and for the week he was to be overindulged in the pleasures of the body. After living in fleshly ecstasy for the week, the person was violently murdered. Aside from the Lord of Misrule, the general (pagan) populace was also taking part in the folly, and the follies of another holiday. Also being celebrated along with Saturnalia was the birth of Mithra, the sun god, and this birthday was one of the most revered of all holidays for many Romans. The birthday of Mithra is unsurprisingly December 25th (History.com). With both of these pagan holidays running side by side, all of Rome was spinning out of control in sin.
To properly celebrate the late December festivals, Lawrence Kelemen states that human sacrifice took place, sexual crimes ran especially high (probably due to the highly intoxicated state of the population), citizens sang door to door naked, and human shaped biscuits in remembrance and celebration of human sacrifice were consumed. Why did Christianity knowingly choose to incorporate the worship of these other gods into their own worship?
Pope Julius I who reigned 337-352 A.D. proposed that Yeshua’s birth was on December 25th, and it is thought to be a move by the Catholic Church in order to bring in other believers. In fact, in 4th century A.D., according to Kelemen, the Christian church accepted the worship of Saturnalia, and incorporated the practices into their own religion, in order to bring in the pagans who held tight to their own festivals. The impact was tremendous in bringing in new numbers to the fold.
However, as time passed, the Christians began to cherish the festivities of the season, and neither could take away the pagan holiday from the pagan converts or from themselves due to the new yearly excitement. The Catholic Church knowingly accepted a holiday of another god, and its customs. While the word “Christmas” was tacked onto Dec. 25th, the pagan tradition of celebration carried on, with the Christians actually taking part in the orgies and drunkenness. The Pope was not exempt from the sinful exhibition. An account of Pope Paul II in 1466 tells of him choosing not a man as the Lord of Misrule, but a race, the Jews. Apparently “His Holiness” chose to celebrate the birth of the Messiah by having Jews gorge themselves with rich food, and run naked through the streets for all to ridicule, while he sat on his thrown laughing at the Jews’ struggles to make it through the streets (Kelemen).
From the first Christmas celebration, the birth of Christ has never been a crucial part of the holiday. From the beginning, the holiday was to celebrate and delight in sinful, pagan pleasures. Many of these same traditions from more than 17 centuries ago are still carried on by today’s Christians and the majority of the American populace. Wassailing is a common activity, which is an offspring of the early pagans singing naked door to door. Mistletoe is hung above door frames to resemble possible romance; mistletoe was used by the Druids to poison their human sacrifices, and later the idea of kissing under the mistletoe was born of the Druids and Pagans sexual license of Saturnalia (Kelemen). There are no holy roots in Christmas. It is a child of the worshipping of other gods. One must ask, why is Christmas still celebrated? Why do pastors across the country, men educated in the study of scripture and history, celebrate it?
Christmas is still celebrated today for many reasons. One reason is that so few have set out to become educated on what the holiday actually is. There are, as stated earlier, so many who want to put Christ back into Christmas; unfortunately, Christ never was a part of Christmas. Those who are educated and have chosen to continue to celebrate the idolatrous holiday have chosen to do so for numerous reasons; they may fear an upheaval within their church if they condemn the festival, and they stand behind the fact that Christmas is not celebrated as it was in the days of old, with the sexual sins and sacrifices. However, neither of these arguments is sufficient.
First, fear is never an adequate excuse for an action. This resembles the allegory of “The Cave” by Plato. Those who become educated about the history of Christmas have two options, as did the dweller of the cave: to return to the cave and tell others what the actual truth is, or to keep it for himself. However, in Plato’s version, the man who chose to go back to the cave and teach the others was killed by those he attempts to free with higher knowledge, because they were afraid of reality. For a pastor or anyone in the religious context with a following who rely heavily upon man-made traditions such as Christmas, the leader may indeed receive a backlash of anger from their congregation. Surely, one does not want to intentionally breed division into their following.
Secondly, for the educated who reply that they have integrated real meaning into Christmas and that there are no sins taking place in their yearly festivities, they are mistaken. For those same people are forgetting that within the verses of Luke 6:43-44, it is spoken that bad roots cannot produce good fruit. The roots of Christmas are evil, pagan, and sinful, therefore, the fruit cannot be holy. In Deuteronomy 12:29-31 the Bible commands Yahweh’s people when entering into another people’s land to not watch how they serve their pagan gods and decide to do the same, and that the worship the pagans are doing for their gods is an abomination that Yahweh hates; the incorporation of Saturnalia into Christianity and labeling it “Christmas” equates an abomination to the Lord.
The “real” reason for the season is the god of agriculture. It is sin, lust, greed, human sacrifices, and gluttony. There is no heralded Truth in December 25th, only deception. In America, many have stood up in the past five years and have cried out in outrage, refusing to become politically correct and have to say “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas”. Why? Numerous people do not support acknowledging the belief of others, taking the opinion that only the walk of Christians, and therefore, the celebration of Christmas, is the only Godly holiday in December. Unfortunately, there is no Biblical truth in Christmas, and perhaps is the December king of pagan holidays.
As a predominantly Christian nation, the United States and individual churches need to research their practices and with that gained knowledge, act accordingly. Too many are uneducated in the history of the church. Perhaps by becoming better educated as a people, we may understand our roles as Christians, and that partaking and marketing pagan holidays is not one of them.
Works Cited
Kelemen, Lawrence. “The Origin of Christmas; The Real Story of Christmas.” Simple to Remember; Judaism Online. 21 Feb. 2008 <http://www.simpletoremember.com//_TheRealStory.htm>.
Melchert, Norman. The Great Conversation. 1991. 4th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
New International Version. 1973. Ed. International Bible Society. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996.
“The Real Story of Christmas.” History.com. 21 Feb. 2008 <http://www.history.com/.do?content_type=Minisite_Generic&content_type_id=1253&display_order=1&sub_display_order=2&mini_id=1290>.
Spielvogel, Jackson J. Western Civilization Sixth Edition. Ed. Margaret McAndrew Beasley and Paul Massicotte. 6th ed. N.p.: Clark Baxter, 2006.