{"content":[{"text":"\"SAINT\" PATRICK\" converted Ireland to Catholicism and immortalized the shamrock by using it to \n demonstrate the superstition of the triple unity of the \"Trinity\". \n \"EASTER\" is named from a pagan Saxon goddess of spring. Many ancient heathen nations revered the egg \n as the symbol of the beginning of life: it is from Teuton mythology that rabbit-laid eggs appear among Easter \n superstitutions. Dressing up in new clothes for Easter goes back to Constantine’s time. The Encyclopedia \n Britannica says-- \n \"The name Easter is a survival from the old Teutonic mythology. It is derived from Eostre or Ostara, \n theAnglo-Saxon goddess of spring... There is no indication of the observance of the Easter festival in the \n New Testament,or in the writings of the apostolic Fathers. The sanctity of special times was an idea \n absent from the minds of the first Christians.\" \n HALLOWEEN: Of this, the Encyclopedia Britannica says-- \n \"Hallowe'en long antedates Christianity. History shows that the main celebrations of Hallowe'en were \n purely Druidical [ancient Britain]. The Druids believed in the calling together of certain wicked souls \n on Hallowe'en by Saman, lord of death. Upon the Druidic ceremonies were grafted some of the \n characteristics of the Roman festival in honor of Pomona [pagan Italian goddess of fruits and gardens] \n held about November 1st, in which nuts and apples, representing the winter store of fruits, played an \n important part.\" \n And this became the Roman Catholic \"All Hallows\", or \"Festival of All Saints,\" and was so passed on to a \n besotted world. The Encyclopedia Americana says-- \n \"Hallowe'en is associated in the popular imagination with the prevalence of supernatural influences, \n and is clearly a RELIC OF PAGAN TIMES.\" \n CHRIST-MASS, too, we find is fundamentally of \"religious\" origin (if superstitious paganism can be called \n \"religion\"), but it is FAR from exclusively, or even principally, \"Christian.\" Most of its innumerable customs, \n traditions, and superstitions are of pagan origin. But the mystery-working of the Catholic Church has greatly \n complicated them by the addithón of priests and madonnas and holy waters, and signs of the cross. \n We must recognize the whole corrupt Babylonian system as a total unit, all equally part of the same \n Apostacy. The better we perceive, the less we will desire to have any part in heathen customs. When, by study, \n we come to perceive fully, we shall be shocked and revolted at the idea of having anything to do with it. We \n shall find it repulsive. We shall want to get as far away from it as we possibly can. Anyone who GROWS in the \n Truth must inevitably come to this conviction. The tragedy is that many never grow. \n We find, above all things, that \"Christ-Mass\" has come to us in its present form as basically and \n primarily a Roman Catholic institution. To this great system of iniquity it owes its consolidation, \n establishment, permanence and popularity. \n THE TIME OF THE YEAR \n For the period of the year in which it is held, it is indebted to pagan sources. This time of the year--following \n the harvest, and centering about the winter solstice (shortest day of the year), when the days again begin to \n lengthen--has almost universally been a period of festivity and religious significance in the northern \n hemisphere ages before the spread of Christianity. \n Regarding the date, most commentators agree that from many points of view, no date could be more unlikely \n to be that of Christ's birth. There is no month in the year in which respectable ecclesiastical authorities have not \n confidently placed the birth of Jesus. The date is undeniably pagan: even Catholic authorities admit that. The \n Encyclopedia Britannica (1949, article \"Christmas\") says-- \n \"CHRISTMAS (the 'Mass of Christ') ... Clement of Alexandria (about 200 AD) mentions several \n speculations on the date of Christ's birth, and condemns them as superstitious... The exact day and year \n of Christ's birth have never been satisfactorily settled. When the Fathers of the Church in AD 340 \n decided upon a date to celebrate the event, they wisely (!) chose the day of the Winter Solstice, which \n was firmly fixed in the minds of the people, and which was their MOST IMPORTANT FESTIVAL.\" \n The Encyclopedia Americana (1946, article \"Christmas\") says the same--","bbox":{"left":0.029616,"top":0.01915,"width":0.881995,"height":0.874589}}],"images_bbox":[{"left":0.019608,"top":0.016414,"width":0.000408,"height":0.000316}],"images_bbox_not_text_overlap":[{"left":0.019608,"top":0.016414,"width":0.000408,"height":0.000316}]}