CHRISTIANIZE

CHRISTIANIZE 

What All We Have We Christianized That Is Ungodly? 

Christianize: To Take Over Or Adapt In The Name Of Christianity.

Jeremiah 10:1-4 

Hear Ye The Word Which The Lord Speaketh Unto You, O House Of Israel: Thus Saith The Lord, Learn Not The Way Of The Heathen, And Be Not Dismayed At The Signs Of Heaven; For The Heathen Are Dismayed At Them.

For The Customs Of The People Are Vain: For One Cutteth A Tree Out Of The Forest, The Work Of The Hands Of The Workman, With The Axe. They Deck It With Silver And With Gold; They Fasten It With Nails And With Hammers, That It Move Not.

HERE ARE SOME OF THE THINGS WE HAVE CHRISTIANIZED. 

According To Historians, Mardi Gras Dates Back Thousands Of Years To Boisterous Pagan Celebrations Of Spring And Fertility In Rome. When Christianity Arrived During The Medieval Years, Religious Leaders Decided To Incorporate The Popular Local Traditions Of These Pagan Celebrations (Think Parades And Lots Of Eating And Drinking) Into Traditions And Became A Prelude To Lent — The 40 Days Of Fasting And Sacrifice Between Ash Wednesday And Easter Sunday. The French Later Dubbed The Tuesday Before Ash Wednesday "Mardi Gras," Which Translates To "Fat Tuesday."

Mardi Gras' Origins Can Be Traced Back To Types Of Ancient Pagan Festivals And Medieval European Traditions Of Saturnalia And Lupercalia.

So The Sum Of Mardi Gras Is Eating And Drinking Yourself Into A Coma And Then Go Into Lent And To Give It Up? But After Lent, You Can Go Back To Normal, So In Reality, You Haven't Given Up Anything. So, Everything Is Supposed To Be In The Name Of Christianity, But In Truth, Nothing Is.

Look At Easter 

All The Fun Things About Easter Are Pagan. Bunnies Are A Leftover From The Pagan Festival Of Eostre, A Great Northern Goddess Whose Symbol Was A Rabbit Or Hare. Exchange Of Eggs Is An Ancient Custom, Celebrated By Many Cultures.

What About Christmas? 

The Origins Of Christmas Can Be Traced Back To The Ancient Roman And Norse Civilizations. In Fact, 25th December Was Not Even Jesus’ Date Of Birth. The Early Christians Appropriated What Was Originally A Pagan Holiday Because It Was Convenient. Before That, The People Of Ancient Europe Had Celebrations Of The Pagan God Saturn Or Even Odin At The End Of December To Mark The Shortest Day Of The Year. Indeed, Many Of The Christmas Traditions We Have Today Come From These Ancient Festivals. Examples Of This Include Kissing Under The Mistletoe And Decorating Trees. 

The Origins Of Christmas Are Complex And Intertwined With Various Cultural And Religious Traditions, Including Some Pagan Elements. While Christmas Is Primarily Celebrated As A Christian Holiday Commemorating The Birth Of Jesus Christ, It Coincides With The Winter Solstice And Incorporates Elements From Pre-christian Traditions.

Who Were The Pagans?

Who Were The Pagans Exactly? ‘paganism’ Was Originally A Word Used By The Early Christians To Refer To The Polytheistic Romans. What It Essentially Means Is ‘non-christian.’ Their Multiple Gods Were Classed Within The Single Category Of ‘pagan Gods’.

In The First Few Centuries Of Christianity, The Christians Wanted To Spread Their Religion Around Europe. But They Were Also Quite Fascinated By The Religions That Already Existed. They Knew That It Would Be Difficult For Ordinary People To Completely Divorce Themselves From Everything They Had Always Known. This Included The Celebrations For The Winter Solstice. They Had To Give The People Something That Was Familiar And Known. Given That Jesus Was Born Around The Same Time, It Was Easy Enough To Incorporate Existing Traditions Into The Celebration Of The Birth Of Jesus.

The Romans Had Another Festival Around The Same Time – Dies Natalis Solis Invicti (Birth Of The Invincible Sun). This Was Dedicated To The Iranian Sun God, Mithra. In Pre-zoroastrian Iran, Mithra Was The God Of The Sun, Justice, And War. He Was Heavily Associated With The Roman Sun God Sol. Emperor Aurelian Declared That 25th December Was The Birthday Of The ‘unconquerable Sun’ And It Was A Festival Mostly Celebrated By Upper-class Male Romans. In Fact, Mithraism Was A Special And Select Cult. It Is Interesting That Christians Decided To Celebrate The Birth Of Jesus On This Very Day. What Is Also Interesting Is That One Of The Epithets Of Jesus Is The ‘sun Of Justice.’

Another Important Pagan Holiday During The Winter Solstice Was The Birthday Of The Greek God Dionysus. The Greek God Of Wine Was Celebrated With Wild Revelry, Feasts, Drunkenness, And Merrymaking Over 12 Days. His Birthday Was Supposed To Be On 25th December. The Festival Was Called Bacchanalia And Was One Marked By Wildness And Excess. In Finland, The Sun Goddess Beiwe Was Celebrated During This Time. She Was Said To Ride On A Sleigh Made Of Reindeer Bones And Pulled By A White Reindeer. Perhaps She Was A Precursor To Santa Claus?

The Slavic People Too Had Their Own Winter Solstice Festivals. Karachun Is A Pagan Holiday That Is Celebrated In Honor Of The Black God Chernoborg. Very Similar To Samhain And Halloween, This Was The Day When All Slavic Gods Associated With Darkness And Decay Were Most Potent. However, The White God Or The Sun God Is Resurrected The Next Day And Triumphs Again. Ancient Slavs Lit Fires In Cemeteries And Crossroads On This Day To Keep Their Loved Ones Warm. Feasts Were Organized To Honor The Dead And Feed Them. These Practices Have Merged With Modern Christmas Traditions.

What Does The Christmas Tree Symbolize?

A Huge Part Of A Modern Christmas Is Decorating Christmas Trees. Modern Christmas Trees Probably Originated In Germany, During The Renaissance. The Lighting Of Candles On Evergreen Trees In Order To Celebrate Christmas Is Sometimes Traced Back To The Protestant Reformer Martin Luther. However, The Christmas Tree Has Much More Ancient Predecessors.

The Romans Used To Hang Small Metal Ornaments On Trees Outside Their Home During Saturnalia. Each Ornament Had Some Kind Of Association With A God Or Even The Family’s Patron Saint. The Roman Poet Catallus, In His Poem Marriage Of Peleus And Thetis, Spoke Of The Gods Decorating The Home Of Peleus With Evergreen Trees Like Laurel And Cypress. Evergreen Trees And Wreaths And Garlands Made Of Them Were Significant To The Egyptians, Hebrews, And Chinese. They Represented Eternal Life.

For The Early Germanic Tribes, Decorating Trees With Fruits And Candles In Honor Of Odin Was A Common Practice. Trees Were Very Important In Norse Mythology Because Of Yggdrasil. The Vikings And Saxons Worshiped Trees. Early Germanic Folktales About Saint Boniface And Donar’s Oak Talk Of How An Evergreen Tree Grew In The Place Of The Felled Oak. The Triangular Shape Was Supposed To Be Reminiscent Of The Trinity And An Indication To Look Toward Heaven. Thus, We Can Conclude That The Christmas Tradition Of Setting Up A Tree Is Rooted In Ancient Pagan Beliefs.

The Significance Of Holly And Mistletoe. 

Holly And Mistletoe Were Both Sacred Plants For The Pagans. Kissing Under The Mistletoe And Decorating Homes With Holly Were Originally Pagan Traditions. Now, They Have Become Such An Intrinsic Part Of Christmas That It Would Be Difficult To Imagine The Holiday Without Them.

During Saturnalia, The Romans Would Exchange Wreaths Made Of Holly For Good Luck. Holly Was A Holy Plant That Was Associated With Saturn, The God Of Agriculture. The Early Christians Were Lucky That The Festival Of Saturnalia Almost Coincided With Jesus’ Birth. Since They Were Often Heavily Persecuted, Saturnalia Gave Them A Cover To Celebrate Their Own Festival Without Being Discovered. Thus, They Began To Take On This Pagan Custom And Decorated Their Homes With Holly To Make It Look Like They Were Celebrating Christmas. This Made It Easier For Them To Recognize Each Other In The Midst Of Other Communities. They Continued The Practice Even After Paganism Disappeared From Europe.

Kissing Under Mistletoe, One Of The Most Popular Christmas Traditions Also Has Pagan Roots. The Ancient Norse, Celts And Their Druids Were All Obsessed With Mistletoe To A Certain Extent. Also, The Plant Was Considered Sacred To Saturn And The Ancient Romans Would Perform Fertility Rituals Under It. In Other Words, They Had Sex Under Mistletoe Plants For The Sake Of A Bountiful Harvest. 

However, The Origins Of A Santa-like Figure Are Much Older. Odin, The Much-loved King Of The Norse Gods, Was A Bearded Old Man Who Was Believed To Leave Gifts For Children. He Is Usually Depicted As An Old Man With A Long White Beard. He Also Had An Eight-legged Horse Called Sleipnir. Odin Would Ride Sleipnir Across The Sky Just As Santa Does With His Reindeer. Young Children Would Fill Their Booties With Straw And Carrots During The Winter And Leave Them By The Door For Sleipnir To Feed On. They Would Be Rewarded With Little Gifts In Their Booties. This Was The True Beginning Of Santa Claus And The Stockings That We Leave Out On Christmas Eve.

When Was Christmas First Celebrated?

The First Celebrations Of Christmas Started In The 4th Century Ce After An Official Date Was Declared. Believers Attended Church, Exchanged Christmas Gifts, And Celebrated In A Rather Drunken, Carnival-like Atmosphere. It Was Certainly Not A Sedate Or Dignified Kind Of Festival And People Of All Social Classes Came Together To Celebrate.

It Was Only In The 17th Century, With The Wave Of Puritan Religious Reforms, That This Kind Of Christmas Celebration Changed. In England, Oliver Cromwell And His Government Canceled Christmas In 1645 To Remove Decadence. The Festival Was Reinstated By Charles Ii When He Took The Throne But The Puritans Always Looked Down On The Holiday. This Was Especially True Of The Orthodox Pilgrims Who Emigrated To The United States In The Early 17th Century. Only In The 19th Century Did The Americans Begin To Embrace Christmas, And It Did Not Become A Federal Holiday In America Until 1870.

I Know This Is Just Words To Some People, But I Had To Share. 

BEFORE WE CELEBRATE, WE NEED TO THINK ABOUT WHAT AND WHY WE DO. 

Colossians 2:8

Beware Lest Any Man Spoil You Through Philosophy And Vain Deceit, After The Tradition Of Men, After The Rudiments Of The World, And Not After Christ.

Donna K Purifoy 

2/14/2024