NationStates Jolt Archive

I wanted to make a thread for the discussion of the orgins of Christmas. Feel free to add links or thoughts on this subject. It was not until I grew to be an adult did I learn some of the Christmas time traditions can basically be all linked to the different winter solstice events throughout Europe. I also didn't know that Christmas as in its former life is much much older than Christiananity. Now I don't want this to be a bashing thread on Christians please. Just a civil discussion on the orgins of this holiday. Now I want to start off by a few things I know of Christmas.

The evergreen tree indoors is of nordic winter solstice tradition. As is the burning of the Yule log which lasted approx 12 days. The twelve days of Christmas rings a bell?

The date of Christmas is actually a roman holiday of the birth of the pagan god Mithra. Which the birth story sounds very familiar as to the story of Christ himself. Christ actually was probably born in the spring as I have seen suggested.

The story of Santa Clause is an offshoot of a Nordic god that flown through the nights of the Yule. He brought fortune or misfortune for the coming year. Hence gifts or lumps of coal.;)

Christmas wasn't adopted by the Church of Rome until the 4th century. Christians only celebrated the resurrection before the swallowing of the pagan holiday.

Christmas was banned in England from what I heard. Do not know the term of this or when it started.

Please feel free to amend my interpetations and add your own.

I unwrapped Christmas and got a lousy sweater.

all the roman catholic celibratory days are held near/on pagan celibratory days. the two most significant ones, christmas and easter, were designed to replace the winter solstice and spring equinox respectivly. there are others, but i cant remeber them right now, but i do remember one. i cant remember the christian celebration that is supposed to happen at the time, but the only one they havent assimilated and taken over is halloween, although commercialism has done a good enough job of that.

there are the four big ones based on the seasons(winter/summer solstice, spring/autumn equinox), and there are four permenant ones (May 1st (may day), August 1st, October 31st (halloween) and Feburary 1st). as i said, i cant remember the names, but if someone can, please write them down, and their christian counterparts too.

Christmas was banned in England from what I heard. Do not know the term of this or when it started.


True:

Cliky (http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/PieHistory/MincemeatPie.htm)


1657 - Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658), the self-proclaimed Lord Protector of England from 1649 until 1658, detested Christmas as a pagan holiday (one not sanctioned by the Bible, that promoted gluttony and drunkenness). Oliver Cromwell's Puritan Council abolished Christmas on December 22, 1657. In London, soldiers were ordered to go round the streets and take, by force if necessary, food being cooked for a Christmas celebration. The smell of a goose being cooked could bring trouble. Cromwell considered pies as a guilty, forbidden pleasure. The traditional mincemeat pie was banned. King Charles II (1630-1685) restored Christmas when he ascended the throne in 1660.

This is probably why the UK is so reluctant to return to being a republic, but instead prefers Monarchy v1.2

Interesting maybe thats where the term "your goose is cooked" came from.