The American and European version of Christmas is based on pagan rituals and festivals from as much as 4,000 years before the birth of Jesus. Santa Claus, Christmas Day, the Twelve Days of Christmas, Christmas trees, gift giving (especially to children), Christmas mass, etc. are ALL based on pagan rituals and festivals. They are all based on “sun god” pagan rituals that Rome and other European cultures practiced well before “Christianity” was around. I’ll break them down so you can read them by section, rather than try to disseminate from the whole text.

If you’ve seen “Zeitgeist – The Movie” you might be aware of some of this, but not all. I love Christmas and encourage everyone to enjoy the season for the closeness of family and friends. Christmas is not about the commercialism that our culture has overwhelmingly embraced.


Christmas Day

Christmas was declared to be held on December 25 by the Roman Catholic Church in 1038. There was no celebration of the birth of Jesus prior to that time. The church had been taken over by emperor Constantine in the fourth century. Constantine held the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D., where the church was reorganized and the teachings and accepted gospels were determined. Christmas day was supposed to be a celebration of the birth of Jesus in the form of a “Christ mass.” In actuality, December 25th was considered the birth of the Persian sun god Mithras. Rather than fight the celebration of the birth of Mithras by the masses, the church changed December 25th to the celebration of the birth of Jesus. Historically, if there were an incarnate Jesus, his birth would not have been on this day if the biblical stories of his birth are held as true. Shepherds would not have been out in the fields with their flocks in the beginning of winter. Jerusalem is on approximately the same latitude as the southern U.S. It snows in the hilly region of Jerusalem. Biblical historians that I have read put the birth of Jesus sometime in the late summer/early fall. The early Gnostic Christians held Jesus as only a spiritual form. The Council of Nicea changed that to a human form as well as the “son of God” versus the “sun god” of the pagan religions practiced at the time. So why was December 25th the significant winter date to celebrate in these ancient religions? Let me explain.

The sun was the most important heavenly body to primitive and ancient cultures. It warmed the earth and was necessary for the successful growing of crops. In a word, survival. So the sun was worshiped as a god, but not just any god. The sun god was the primary god to be worshiped. There are numerous documented religions based on sun god worship from around the world. The winter solstice happens on December 22nd in the northern hemisphere. On that day the sun is at its lowest point in the sky and stays there for three days. Then on December 25th it rises one degree. It signals that the days will start getting longer and that spring will return after the 13 week winter period that has just begun. The “sun dies for three days and rises again” is a common theme throughout many pagan religions that were around for at least 3,500 years before Christianity. The theme of crucifixion also comes from this astronomic event. The sun is in the middle of the constellation Crux or the “southern cross” on December 22nd. This is the “crucified, died and was buried” part of the Jesus story.

There are also three dominant stars from the constellation known as Orion’s Belt that are referred to “the three kings” in several cultures. The winter solstice was celebrated by cultures throughout Europe. It was a time to celebrate the end of the harvest and hopefully the abundance from the growing season. Winter meant reduced work and activity as well as a dangerous time in the northern climes. Winter was dangerous because of the possibility of not having stored enough food to last through the winter. Grain was the only food source that could be stored over extended periods. Most other food sources were perishable. The winter could also be harsh, and in some climates, harsh enough during a bad year to kill humans who were unprepared. Winter diseases without medicine or medical care were also very dangerous. Dying from pneumonia was not unusual up until the last sixty years of humanity. Families and tribes would live in closed off dwellings to keep the cold out and the warmth in. The hygiene practiced at the time was very unhealthy and the average life span was around 40. Disease was easily spread in these living conditions.

So with all that in the background the Christmas story was developed to correlate to the pagan interpretation of the “sun/son was crucified, died and was buried, then rose again on the third day” as the celebration. Early Christians celebrated Jesus’ resurrection, not his birth. It was held that it was his resurrection that gave us salvation, not his birth. But since the winter festival celebrated the birth or rebirth of the sun, Christmas evolved into the celebration of the birth of Jesus. Easter was “invented” to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, replacing a pagan spring festival. The Christmas story also embellished a visitation of “three wise men” to correlate with the “three kings” of Orion’s Belt, which are particularly prominent in that period. It was easier to get existing pagans to go along with the “new religion” of Christianity by folding in a lot of what they were familiar with a slightly different face on it. The winter festival became Christmas along with the celebratory nature of the festival.

Twelve Days of Christmas

The northern cultures of Europe called the celebration of the winter solstice “Yule.” Today we hear about Yuletide greetings, Yule logs and the Yuletide season. The men of these ancient religions would go out and find the largest log or tree trunk they could bring home for the winter solstice or Yule festival. These logs were burned, and they were supposed to be large enough that they burned for twelve days. This was the foundation of the twelve days of Christmas after Christianity was introduced.

The Romans also had various winter solstice festivals that lasted varying time periods (from twelve days to a month) over the centuries. One of the earlier winter festivals was Festival of Wild Women in which a human sacrifice (sometimes substituted with a bull) kicked off the festivities, with a symbolic rebirth of the god, Dionysus. Sound familiar to the death and resurrection story of Christianity? It should as it was part of the amalgam of pagan traditions that became Christmas. The rebirth of Dionysus was eventually replaced with wine miracles, where priests would take water or juice and seal it in a room. By the next day the liquid would have turned into wine. The miracle was attributed to Dionysus. Jesus’ water to wine miracle of the New Testament was nothing new. The later winter festival honoring Bacchus, the god of wine, lasted about a month and ended on December 25. The twelve-day festivals of the winter solstice were typically binges of drinking, eating, violence and sex - in a word, debauchery. This is significant later when Protestantism came about, and was looked down upon as excessive and wasteful.

The winter solstice festivals of Europe had several trends in place to synchronize the abundance of celebratory goods near the winter solstice. The autumn harvest had been completed, and there was time for wheat to be ground into bread. The winter grazing pastures would not support a full herd of cattle, goats and other domestic animals raised in farming. Excess animals were slaughtered for the survival of a smaller herd. Meat spoiled quickly after slaughter, so there were ample supplies of meat that could be used for a feast. Unused, the meat would go to waste. The grape harvest was completed and wine was made in abundance. “Eat, drink and be merry” had to do with excessive supplies of food and drink coming together at the same time. Coincidentally, the reversal of shorter days to longer days was celebrated. What a party, eh?

The celebration of Christmas was outlawed in Great Britain and the New England of America in the early 17th century and the ban persisted in parts of America into the 18th century. The celebration of Christmas was considered vulgar and excessive with the rise of the Protestantism of Oliver Cromwell. This stemmed from the excesses of the twelve-day’s of Christmas that had morphed from the twelve-day winter solstice festivals from earlier European pagan religions. Settlers from Great Britain brought this same distaste for the celebration of Christmas to the American colonies. Puritan ministers fought against the celebration of Christmas in the U.S. as more settlers from other parts of Europe that celebrated the day during the 17th and 18th centuries. There were fines for such modern day traditions as singing Christmas carols, nativity scenes, eating certain foods like mince pies, etc. Christmas was not an official holiday in New England until 1856. Charles Dickens was ahead of time or Ebeneezer Scrooge gains some credibility in this context.

Santa Claus

The earliest predecessor of Santa Claus comes from the northern Europeans who worshiped the Norse gods. Odin was the chief god of this religion and predates Christianity by several thousand years. It was believed that Odin rode across the sky during the winter months on an eight-legged horse, Steipnir, dispensing gifts and punishments to the deserving worshipers. His son, Thor, fought the gods of ice and snow throughout the winter with his chief weapon lightening. Thor rode through the skies in a chariot drawn by his trusty goats, Gnasher and Cracker.

This pagan belief evolved into Saint Nicholas before eventually becoming Santa Claus. St. Nicholas in Dutch is Sinter Klass, which morphed into Santa Claus in American culture. Santa is known as “Father Christmas” in the U.K., “Papa Noel” in France and “le fils poutain avec le barbe blanche” (the son of a b**** with the white beard) to the mainly Cajun French black kids who lived on our farm back in the 1960’s.

The Santa Claus of today rides in a sleigh drawn by eight reindeer giving out gifts to children around the world on Christmas Eve. Part of the story of Santa Claus is that “he knows who’s been naughty or nice.” Like Odin, Santa would dispense presents or punishments to children so deserving. Bad children were supposed to receive a lump of coal, sticks or something considered a punishment, while good children would be rewarded with presents. Santa’s eight reindeer came out of Odin’s eight-legged horse, and his sleigh from Thor’s chariot. Santa’s reindeer were named just as Odin’s horse and Thor’s two goats. Earlier versions of St. Nicholas and/or Kris Kringle had them traveling the countryside with a goat. St. Nicholas’ “old world” pictures portrayed him as a bishop with a white beard and red robes, which morphed into the Santa Claus we know today. St. Nicholas is a patron saint of the Catholic Church to many different occupations, but his main patronage is to children. His feast day is December 6, the day of his death. Legend has him return on the eve of his feast day. This evolved into Santa Claus dispensing presents on Christmas Eve. St. Nicholas was also supposed to travel with a small ugly devil named Krampus who would mete out the punishments of the bad children. In some areas Krampus was portrayed as wearing a goat’s head. St. Nicholas was real, but legend and his personal history have become entwined as to almost become indistinguishable. (See Santa riding a goat in picture above.)

Christmas trees

Christmas trees and their decorations have traditions going back to the Yule festival and the Roman winter solstice festival. Evergreens were brought indoors and decorated with apples as a reminder of the coming of spring and summer in Scandinavia. The apples were later replaced with Christmas ornaments. Romans decorated their halls with laurel and placed candles in live trees for their winter solstice festival. The laurel was eventually replaced with garlands, and the candles with electric lights.

Mistletoe comes from the ancient Druid custom of kissing under what was considered a divine plant symbolizing love and peace. Kissing beneath the mistletoe is another pagan rooted, yet very Christian Christmas tradition.

Gift giving

Gift giving and the exchange of gifts is as ancient as the festivals celebrating the winter solstice. Ancient Romans exchanged gifts around December 25 as good luck symbols. This is in addition to the Norse traditions of Odin’s gift and punishment giving throughout the winter, which evolved into St. Nicholas and Kris Kringle presents for children. St. Nicholas in reality was born to wealthy Greek parents near the southern coast of modern day Turkey. Nicholas was raised as a devout Christian, but his parents died of the plague when he was quite young. Nicholas was known to use his inheritance to assist the poor, the sick and those in need. Nicholas became a young bishop of the Christian church and was subsequently persecuted and jailed by the Romans. Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity in the early 300’s, and Nicholas was released. He subsequently attended the Council of Nicea in 325, which reorganized and formalized the Roman Catholic Church. Nicholas died on December 6, 343 and this date has been used as his feast day.

One of the stories about St. Nicholas was that he anonymously gave bags of gold to a poor nobleman to be used as dowries for his three daughters. Without a dowry, the daughters would have been sold into slavery, as brides’ families were expected to give a dowry to their prospective groom’s family. The bags of gold, according to legend, were thrown through an open window on three separate occasions. The bags of gold are said to have landed near stockings and/or shoes left near the hearth fire to dry. Hanging stockings over the fireplace mantle became another long practiced Christmas tradition in hopes of receiving a gift.

Christmas mass

As has already been mentioned, December 25th was celebrated as the birthday of the Persian sun god, Mithras. The early Christian church was having a hard time enforcing the abandonment of this pagan ritual so it replaced it with a “mass for Christ” or a “Christ mass” in 1038. This did not stop the pagan tradition of the winter solstice festival. We now celebrate Christmas day with large meals, get togethers with friends and family, parties and gift giving, all having pagan roots.

So enjoy this Christmas. It will warm the hearts of the pagan gods who were once honored by these traditions. Merry Christmas.

Source: http://www.conspiracycafe.net/forum/index....9&st=0&

I found it here lottie also.


http://www.conspiracycafe.net/forum/index....9&st=0&

Thankyou chaoszerg, that's appreciated. .

Note to op- Edited post and put in source. * If you quote text from another web site then please properly credit the source. Not doing so constitutes plagiarism, always include a source link with quoted material. Members are asked to copy only as much as is necessary when quoting copyrighted material from other web sites, do not copy and paste entire articles or web pages.

It's actually up on like 20 websites. Which one is the source? I see nothing in the forums rules about quoting a story that has been cirulating the web for a long time. You can't copyright something that is everywhere. I didn't find this on the website you listed either. I will have to try and find where I found it. I am upset that you changed my post, but in the future I will try to pretend that wherever I read something is the "source" of the information, even if it isn't realy the source.

I guess a fake copyright is better than nothing? I am confused..hehe

Actually that's why I looked and the best source I could find was this one since the person on that site is claiming to have wrote it even if it might true or not.


Its better to have any source than no source lol so that way your post can stay up because it is very interesting.

No .. shut up .. christmas is about christ (hence the part of his name in the CHRISTmas) ... pfft .. thats all the proof you need.

Sorry yeah, I was beign way sarcastic.

Pretty much every christrian cult/sect uses old earth religions traditions in some way

Easter, Christmas, Halloween etc

You know what? I think Jesus (assuming there was a Jesus who was as the Christian Bible portrayed him) would be fine with anyone celebrating the winter holiday with love, peace, generosity, and consideration of others.

I doubt he'd be too happy about people trampling each other in shopping malls to get the last video game console. And I bet he wouldn't be happy about small-minded people saying "But it's about CHRIST!" "No, but you stole the date from Mithra!" Nanner nanner wahhh!

History is great. Everyone should learn all the truth they can. But I don't see any reason why people of WHATEVER belief system can't just be nice to one another occasionally.... even if it is just for one week in December.

So true. Christmas is my favourite time of the year - and I'm an athiest! the reason I love it is because it's the one time of year when my family comes together from all over. There's just so much fun and laughter. Regardless of whether or not Jesus existed, the message rings true to me. He said, "love one another as I have loved you." To me, Christmas is simply a loving, family occassion. I don't think there's any reason to be angry about that. I don't even care for gifts, and when asked what I want for Christmas I say nothing. The article is interesting though, in showing the roots of Christmas tradition. Nice history lesson