Saturnalia, held in mid-December, is an ancient Roman pagan festival honoring the agricultural god Saturn. Because of when the holiday occurred—near the winter solstice—Saturnalia celebrations are the source of many of the traditions we now associate with Christmas, such as wreaths, candles, feasting and gift-giving. This is why True Christians banned it, it is a pagan celebration much like everything the Catholic Church has incorporated into modern Christianity.
The winter solstice was a big deal in ancient cultures - the "return of the sun" meant that days stopped getting shorter and started getting longer again. Most of the things we associate with Christmas are actually borrowed from ancient Yule celebrations - not the Roman festival.
The early church tried to stop the Yule celebrations, but eventually gave up, adapted them to Christianity, and sort of took over the winter solstice holiday as the birthday of Jesus. That is how we ended up with a mix of the Christian celebration merged together with the decorated tree, wreaths, holly, mistletoe, caroling, yule log (bonfire), gift giving, red, green, gold and white holiday colors, and so on - all "borrowed" from ancient Yule celebrations.
It’s paganism, I don’t care if it’s celebrating the sun, or Saturn, it’s got nothing to do with Jesus or his birth or his ministry or his death. It is pagan and it shouldn’t be practiced by Christians in my opinion. Think about it, how many times we see Hollywood endorsing Christian things? What is the one holiday Hollywood goes out of their way to make movies and shows about? Why is that? Do you think Hollywood would endorse Christmas if it was truly Christian? You know the answer.
Saturnalia, held in mid-December, is an ancient Roman pagan festival honoring the agricultural god Saturn. Because of when the holiday occurred—near the winter solstice—Saturnalia celebrations are the source of many of the traditions we now associate with Christmas, such as wreaths, candles, feasting and gift-giving. This is why True Christians banned it, it is a pagan celebration much like everything the Catholic Church has incorporated into modern Christianity.
The winter solstice was a big deal in ancient cultures - the "return of the sun" meant that days stopped getting shorter and started getting longer again. Most of the things we associate with Christmas are actually borrowed from ancient Yule celebrations - not the Roman festival.
The early church tried to stop the Yule celebrations, but eventually gave up, adapted them to Christianity, and sort of took over the winter solstice holiday as the birthday of Jesus. That is how we ended up with a mix of the Christian celebration merged together with the decorated tree, wreaths, holly, mistletoe, caroling, yule log (bonfire), gift giving, red, green, gold and white holiday colors, and so on - all "borrowed" from ancient Yule celebrations.
Do you have a reference that the early church tried to stop the pagan midwinter festival but failed? Thanks in advance.
It’s paganism, I don’t care if it’s celebrating the sun, or Saturn, it’s got nothing to do with Jesus or his birth or his ministry or his death. It is pagan and it shouldn’t be practiced by Christians in my opinion. Think about it, how many times we see Hollywood endorsing Christian things? What is the one holiday Hollywood goes out of their way to make movies and shows about? Why is that? Do you think Hollywood would endorse Christmas if it was truly Christian? You know the answer.