syrinx

For several years I have been compiling mix CDs to send to friends and relatives during the winter solstice holiday season, and have been gradually moving away from tunes related to the celebration of Christmas and Hanukah to tunes with no particular religious association. Last year I went overboard and made four CDs, one which was primarily instrumental and non-religious, one which had piano and guitar instrumentals with no discrimination against the words that might go along with the music, one that was full of "pop culture" songs such as the cast of Bonanza or R2-D2, C3PO, and other characters from Star Wars, singing Christmas songs. The 4th CD was "I Don't Believe In Christmas" and featured a number of punk and other tunes that reject the modern observance of the holiday (for example, "Father Christmas" by the Kinks). The CD ended with non-religious but good tidings to all songs like "The Parting Glass", "May You Never", and "Auld Lang Syne".

Since I knew that many of the tradiitions of the current winter holiday celebrations pre-dated the Christian religion, I thought I would do a little internet research on the pagan roots of this celebration that generally occurs around the winter solstice.

Where to start but with a Christian oriented site on the origins of christmas?

The date of December 25th probably originated with the ancient "birthday" of the son-god, Mithra, a pagan deity whose religious influence became widespread in the Roman Empire during the first few centuries A.D. Mithra was related to the Semitic sun-god, Shamash, and his worship spread throughout Asia to Europe where he was called Deus Sol Invictus Mithras.

Rome converted this pagan legacy to a celebration of the god, Saturn, and the rebirth of the sun god during the winter solstice period. The winter holiday became known as Saturnalia and began the week prior to December 25th. The festival was characterized by gift-giving, feasting, singing and downright debauchery, as the priests of Saturn carried wreaths of evergreen boughs in procession throughout the Roman temples.
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[it was not until] 336 AD that Emperor Constantine officially converted this pagan tradition into the "Christian" holiday of Christmas.

tags: wiccan pagan christmas yule solstice mithra saturnalia wassail celtic oak king holly shamash sol invictus