Glory to Mithras! The origins of Christmas

Did you know that Christmas is more pagan than Christian? Oh yes!

There's a History of Christmas special on the History Channel and it's full of interesting information. Some things I knew, some I did not. Here's some tidbits in case anyone is as interested in the origins of things as I am.

December 25th was originally a celebration of the birth of the Roman god Mithras, who was, coincidentally enough, born to a virgin. His followers ate sacred meals of bread and wine, and were baptized in water. Sounds kind of familiar.

The Roman Catholic Church, in one of its many bids to unify the Roman Empire as well as establish one Roman religion, adopted December 25th as the birthday (or at least the celebration of the birth) of Jesus Christ.

Traditional decorations included evergreen boughs, which were decorated with apples to represent the story of Adam and Eve. Today we hang round ornaments on our trees instead. Mistletoe was meant to represent Christ's crown of thorns; the leaves his crown, the berries his blood.

Followers of Christianity would attend Christ's Mass on December 25th. Some where down the line Christ's Mass became Christmas.

Let me tell you, those pagans knew how to fuckin' party. Their December 25th was filled with food, booze, sex and parties. Even in the medieval days, Christmas was pretty much the old-world Mardi Gras.

When the Puritans overthrew the English monarchy in the 1600s, they outlawed the celebration of Christmas because they thought the practice was rather sinful and just plain bad. Boo! Eventually the monarchy was reinstated and the Puritans learned a valuable lesson.

Don't fuck with Christmas.

Another interesting side-note: there was a tradition where celebrators would visit the well-to-do of England during their festivities, most wearing costumes of some sort, and demand lavish treatment; the best food, alcohol, etc. If the particular rich-person refused, the rabble would either verbally threaten the individual or perform a prank. Sound familiar?

Trick or treat!

This dude wants to have a word with you...

Man, fuck Peanuts. And that Linus? Pussy!

You realize he only carries that blanket around so he can hide his piece right? Why do you think it's called his security blanket.

Because he's a retard who never wears a different shirt except when the animator is criticised.

Yup, knew most of that all ready. Although, in all honesty, the simularities between Mithras and CHrist aren't all that unique; MOST Greek heroes/gods were given one form or another of a virgin birth. It was standard mythic practice in the region. Most of the other symbols could be found in the ancient Mystery cults as well.

Not terribly suprising, you find that sort of stuff all over the world; its really interesting actually. I love comparitive religions and mythology

There are a lot of familiarities between the Egyptian religions and Christianity as well. There are themes of betrayal, resurrection, and rebirth there as well. I was surprised that so many ancient religions followed the birth-sacrifice-rebirth-salvation script.

Its usually refered to as the "Dying God" myth. Usually you have a god/hero who is born to a human mother by a god, or who's mother was made pregnant by a force of nature (Finnish Vainamoinen, Dyonysis, way to many to count). This god then grows up and is sacrificed or killed; almost always on a tree of some sort (Odin, Dionysis again) and then returns to life with a boon to give mankind and secret knowledge. There is usually some element of incest involved, but nothing always and several more 'points'. It was a pretty central part of the Fertlity rites of many of the ancient planet religions; a ritual sacrifice which mimiced the way in which life comes from death in planter religions. Of course, especially in some of the oldest cultures, the ritual sacrifice was also combined with either real or ritual cannibalism as well (hence the high point of the Catholic and Orthodox mass when the perissoners imbibe the literal body and blood of Christ).

Its really interesting You should check out some books by Joseph Campbell; his "Masks of God" series of very good, although a bit dense to get through at times.