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CHAPTER 5 Corrupting the Christian Faith
Did the Christian church come under the influence of the pagans and gradually give admittance to adopt a custom and tradition what we now call Christmas? It is here that we will further our investigation to see the intertwining of pagan worship with Christian worship. t is held by some scholars that the birth of Christ as “Light of the World” was made analogous to the rebirth of the sun in order to make Christianity more meaningful to pagan converts. Many early Christians decried the gaiety and festive spirit introduced into the Christmas celebration as a pagan survival, particularly of the Roman Saturnalia. They considered the birth of Christ a solemn occasion. But almost from the first, Christians have generally regarded Christmas as both a holy day and a holiday. For Christ’s birth brought a new spirit of joy into the world, and from the first recounting of the story of the Nativity, man has fashioned endless variations-not only in words, but in art, song, dance, and drama-and has even created special symbolic holiday foods. Customs of all lands have been added through the centuries, making Christmas today the greatest folk festival in the world. Encyclopedia Americana 1994, book #6, P. 666 During the 4th century the celebration of Christ’s birth on December 25 was gradually adopted by most Eastern churches. In Jerusalem, opposition to Christmas lasted longer, but it was subsequently accepted. Encyclopedia Britannica, P. 283 Although the Gospels describe Jesus’ birth in detail, they never mention the date, so historians do not know on what date he was born. The Roman Catholic Church chose December 25 as the day for the Feast of the Nativity in order to give Christian meaning to existing pagan rituals. For example, the Church replaced festivities honoring the birth of Mithra, the god of light, with festivities to commemorate the birth of Jesus, whom the Bible calls the light of the world. The Catholic Church hoped to draw pagans into its religion by allowing them to continue their revelry while simultaneously honoring the birthday of Jesus. The Eastern Orthodox Church took a slightly different course. By the end of the 4th century the Eastern Church in Constantinople had also begun to acknowledge December 25 as Jesus’ birthday, but it emphasized the celebration of Christ’s baptism on January 6 as the more important holiday. Microsoft Encyclopedia Encarta 2000 Some of the English even tried to serve Christ and the older gods together, like the Roman Emperor, Alexander Severus, whose chapel contained Orqheus side by side with Abraham and Christ. “Roedwald of East Anglia resolved to serve Christ and the older gods together, and a pagan and a Christian alter fronted one another in the same royal temple.” Christmas and its Associations, P.29 And as all down the age’s pagan elements have mingled in the festivities of Christmas, so in the Catacombs they are not absent. Christmas and its Associations, P.19 This tendency [to blend paganism with Christianity] on the part of Christians to meet Paganism half-way was very early developed; and we find Tertullian, even in his day, about the year 230, bitterly lamenting the inconsistency of the disciples of Christ in this respect, and contrasting it with the strict fidelity of the Pagans to their own superstition. “By us,” says he, “who are stranger to Sabbaths, and new moons, and festivals, once acceptable to God, the Saturnalia, the feasts of January, the Brumalia, and Matronalia, are now frequented; gifts are carried to and fro, new year’s day presents are made with din, and sports and banquets are celebrated with uproar; oh, how much more faithful are the heathen to their religion, who take special care to adopt no solemnity from the Christians.” Upright men strove to stem the tide, but in spite of all their efforts, the apostasy went on, till the Church, with the exception of a small remnant, was submerged under Pagan superstition. That Christmas was originally a Pagan festival, is beyond all doubt. The time of the year, and the ceremonies with which it is still celebrated, prove its origin. In Egypt, the son of Isis, the Egyptian title for the queen of heaven, was born at this very time, “about the time of the winter solstice.” The very name by which Christmas is popularly known among ourselves - Yule-day – proves at once its Pagan and Babylonian origin. The Two Babylons, by Alexander Hislop, P. 93 Over the next 1000 years, the observance of Christmas followed the expansion of Christianity into the rest of Europe and into Egypt. Along the way, Christian beliefs combined with existing pagan feasts and winter rituals to create many long-standing traditions of Christmas celebrations. Microsoft Encyclopedia Encarta 2000 In Palestine, however, the birth of Christ was celebrated on January 6 until the middle of the 7th century, when December 25 was permanently accepted. New Catholic Encyclopedia, book #3, P. 656 Christian preachers of the West and the Nearer East protested against the unseemly frivolity with which Christ’s birthday was celebrated, while Christians of Mesopotamia accused their Western brethren of idolatry and sun-worship for adopting as Christian this pagan festival. Yet the festival rapidly gained acceptance and became at last so firmly established that even the Protestant revolution of the sixteenth century was not able to dislodge it and Evangelical Christians even of the more radical types, who reject or ignore nearly all of the ecclesiastical festivals, have never been able to wholly ignore it. The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Vol. 3, P.48 And under different names, such as Woden (another form of Odin), Thor, Thunder, Saturn, &c., The pagans held their festivals of rejoicing at the winter solstice; and so many of the ancient customs connected with these festivals were modified and made subservient to Christianity. Christmas and its Associations, P.28-29 The Puritans rejected Christmas because of its pagan origin, and this affected the beginnings of American Christianity. Scotland, traditionally the country least enthusiastic about Christmas except for Armenia, which never accepted it, has lowered its resistance to it somewhat in recent decades. New 20th Century Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, P. 182 With the toleration of Christianity under Constantine, both December 25 and January 6 became Christianized feasts (Christmas and Epiphany, respectively). It is known that Christmas was celebrated in Rome before A.D.336. New 20th Century Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, P. 181 As papal Rome preserved many relics of heathen Rome, so, in like manner, Pope Gregory, in sending Augustine over to convert the Anglo-Saxons, directed him to accommodate the ceremonies of the Christian worship as much as possible to those of the heathen, that the people might not be much startled at the change; and, in particular, he advised him to allow converts to kill and eat at the Christmas festival a great number of oxen to the glory of God, as they had formerly done to the honor of the devil. The clergy, therefore, endeavored to connect the remnants of Pagan idolatry with Christianity, and also allowed some of the practices of our British ancestors to mingle in the festivities of Christmastide. Christmas and its Associations, P. 28 It was the practice at the time of Emperor Constantine (312-37) to syncretize pagan and Christian beliefs. As Christ was the sol verus, ‘the true sun’, it was appropriate that his birth should be commemorated on that day. Dictionary of Christian Lore and Legend, JCJ Metford, P. 67 Unable to completely destroy this custom, the Church eventually set about reinterpreting these seasonal symbols. Christian legends developed over time, explaining the connection between these evergreens and the Christmas season. Laurel, for example represented the triumph of Jesus Christ. Holly became a symbol of the Virgin Mary’s love for God. Its spiky leaves and blood red berries also served to remind Christians that Jesus would end his days wearing a crown of thorns. Encyclopedia of Christmas, by Gulevich, P. 264 As Christianity gained momentum in Scandinavia, some Christian rulers attempted to mesh pagan and Christian observances. The tenth-century Norwegian king, Haakon the Good, ordered that Yule celebrations should be held around the time of Christmas. Encyclopedia of Christmas, by Gulevich, P. 643 As time went on, however, Christianity adopted the holly and ivy of pagan winter celebrations, bending their significance to Christians ends. Encyclopedia of Christmas, by Gulevich, P. 294 The documents of the Middle Ages are fat with decrees against the abuses of Christmas merriment and the accompanying desecration of its religious purposes, with wailings that the Church Fathers are too strict, with indications that people at large are doing just what they have always done and paying little attention to the debates of the moralists. Sometimes things were so bad that the Church found it necessary to associate ritualism with the Devil himself, making Satan, as it were, the presiding “saint” and labeling the “Saturnalia” involved a communion of witches, Black Mass. The Book of Christmas Folklore, by Tristram P. Coffin, P. 7 It was the policy of the early Church to transform pagan festivals wherever possible instead of trying to abolish, and by giving ancient practices a Christian significance, to purify and preserve for the new faith whatever was innocent and deeply loved in the world. Christmas and its Customs, by Christina Hole, P. 9
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