Many of my friends tend to think of Christmas as a Christian holiday. I know I tend to think that and it causes me a bit of a problem in that I get a little bent out of shape when someone assumes it’s fine to wish a “Merry Christmas” in mixed religious company.
Yasuhiko Genku Kimura had this to say in one of his recent posts and it serves as a good reminder that the celebration we have at this time of year isn’t just a Christian holiday at all.
“Now, the festivity on December 25th is believed to be a Christian festival founded on the nativity of Jesus the Christ. Yet, the significance of Christmas is far more universal, transcending a particular religious tradition called Christianity.
On the same day, the Babylonians celebrated the birth of Tammuz; the Persians the birth of Mithra; the Phrygians the birth of Attis; the Egyptians the birth of Osiris; and the Greeks the birth of Adonis. Also during this period in December the Romans held their drunken Saturnalia in honor of Bacchus, the god of wine (or de-vine).
In fact, the Christian date of Christmas was set to conform to these pagan festivals only in the fourth century when in 337 AD Pope Julian I decreed it. To this day the Eastern Orthodox Church does not comply with this date as the birthday of the Christ. All in all throughout history there have been 136 different dates on which the various Christian sects have celebrated the birth of the Christ.
Therefore, it is evident that the festivity on this date of December 25th is not Christian but pagan and more ancient and common in origin. The question is what universal significance this date has so that the ancients should make it the time of celebrating their gods and saviors.
In the Northern Hemisphere, the 21st day of December marks the winter solstice, the day when the Sun reaches its furthest point south. This is the shortest and darkest night of the year. According to the ancient cosmology, it is at this time that the Sun’s physical forces upon the Earth are at their minimum, while the Earth’s psychic or astral forces are most powerful. And the maximum of this psychic period is reached about three or four days after December 21st, that is, 24th or 25th, just before the influence of the returning Sun is felt.
At midnight, at the cusp between the 24th and 25th of December, when the Sun is directly under the Earth, and when the zodiacal sign of Virgo, the virgin, appears on the horizon, the Christ (the Divine Consciousness) is born of a Virgin. This birth signals the dawning of an immaculate new year and symbolizes light’s triumph over darkness. Thus at midnight, the Divine Consciousness, the “Savior,” immaculately conceived in Spirit, is born of a Virgin from the darkest of the dark.”
It’s good to be reminded, every once in awhile, that our view isn’t the only view of how things “are.” I appreciate Yasuhiko posting this reminder that we are really more alike than different. It helps me to be a little less sensitive to the “Merry Christmas” craziness around me!
Still, having said that, I wish you and all your loved ones a happy solstice season and a happy and healthy new year.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/news/2000/dec08.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas