“IO Saturnalia!”. This would have been the seasonal greeting heard all over Europe and the Roman Empire.
For seventeen days from the 17th December the party season was celebrated with decorations, wreathes, banquets and present giving and
“IO Saturnalia!”. This would have been the seasonal greeting heard all over Europe and the Roman Empire.
For seventeen days from the 17th December the party season was celebrated with decorations, wreathes, banquets and present giving and good will to all men. It sounds awfully familiar!…
Saturnalia originated as a farmers festival and commemorated the dedication of the Temple of Saturn, God of Agriculture.
- 19th December – The Opalia – festival day of Saturn’s consort Ops
- 21st December – Yalda- Birthday of Mithras – celebrated with dried fruits and nuts
- 23rd December – The Sigillaria- Present giving
- 25th December – Birth of the “invincible” Sun God, Sol
It would indeed be interesting to note that if an ancient Roman were to drop in over our festive season, he would feel right at home. In fact many pagans would feel the same,for our Christmas Trees, Mistletoe and carol singing would all be familiar.
SO WHO’S BIRTHDAY?
So who’s birthday is the whole of the “christian world” celebrating? They call it “the birth of christ”, but what christ are we talking about? The word “christ” is merely the translation of the Greek word “christos” literally “anointed one”.
So lets take a closer look and see if we can solve this puzzle of why the world celebrates the birth of a “christ” on a day not mentioned in their fictional biblical texts.
In the History of Rome by Michael Grant :-
Yet there was also another pagan belief during this same epoch, that competed with christ for the control of the western world. this was the cult of the Sun, which was revered by millions of the inhabitants of the Roman Empire, and its religion for a time even became the state worship…
In Rome, the divinity of the Sun came very early on; and then, centuries afterwards, in the superb dome of Hadrian’s Pantheon, the central opening, surrounded by star like rosettes, represented the solar orb… Before long, the Emperor Aurelian established a massive temple of the Unconquerable Sun as the central and focal point of the entire religious system of the state. The birthday of the god was to be on December 25th and this transformed into Christmas Day for the new christian cult
We can read more about this profound “plot” to turn paganism into christianity in a book by historian Jake Finegan, Myth & Mystery: An Introduction to the Pagan Religions of the Biblical World:-
…but the worship of the sun-god continued widely throughout the Empire, and under Aurelian ( 270-275 AD) the cult was restored to its former high estate. In the year 274 AD Aurelian declared the god.. now called Deus Sol Invictus the official deity of the Roman Empire; he built a splendid temple of the sun in Rome and et the suns birthday celebration as 25th December. In the time of Constantine the cult of Deus Sol Invictus was still at its height and the portrait of the sun god was on the coins of Constantine.. likewise it must have been in this time and with the intent to transform the significance of an existing sacred date to that of the birth date of Jesus, which had previously been celebrated in the east on 6th January. The christmas date first appears compiled in 336 AD and published in a Roman calendar, edited by Filocalus for the year 354 AD
So are we beginning to get the picture? A date taken by the new christian cult ( it may be worth mentioning in passing that the word “Christmas” also incorporates the pagan origins of “Mass” – the ‘alter’ used in Catholic Mass is the alter of sacrifice originally used in pagan rituals). Christmas surprisingly not celebrated in the first four centuries of the young religion points us to the fact that in truth Christianity is pagan at its core.
INFLUENCE OF CONSTANTINE
There is no doubt Christianity developed within the Roman Empire. Constantine was originally a devout follower of Mithraism and you can read more about him in a previous post.
Paganism was not defeated by christianity, paganism evolved into the practices you see today. Only the names have changed and in some cases not even that… Eostre 😉
H G Wells in his “Outline of History” discusses the transformation of the Jewish texts
The observance of the sabbath again transferred to the Mithraic Sun-day is an important feature of many christian cults.
THE CATHOLIC PAGAN TRADITIONS
The Catholic church makes tradition above or equal to scripture, but in actual fact many of its traditions actually stem from pagan sun worship. Its teachings, beliefs and practices come from Mithraism.
Roman Catholic doctrines such as baptism, teachings on death and immortality, celibate priests, prayers to the dead and to relics, repetitive prayers with the use of beads, doctrines on forgiveness of sin, teachings on hell, the mass and Sunday worship are all doctrines derived from Ancient Babylon, not the Bible. Infact any Jew will tell you all of the above are abhorrent and against their gods law.
like the successive strata of the earth covering one another, so layer after layer of forgeries and fabrications are piled up in the church
In fact many of Rome’s documents used to validate its authority and origin have been established as false. It created what we see today over time:-
In 1854 the papacy declared 