The Birthday of The Gods

It was the early Roman Catholic church that declared Jesus to be born on 25 December in order to compete financially with the numerous other celebrations that took place on 25 December to celebrate the Gods of other religions. Many modern Christmas customs have been directly influenced by such festivals, including gift-giving and merrymaking from the Roman Saturnalia, greenery, lights, and charity from the Roman New Year, and Yule logs and various foods from Germanic feasts. The Egyptian deity Horus, son to goddess Isis, was celebrated at the winter solstice. Horus was often depicted being fed by his mother, which also influenced the symbolism of the Virgin Mary with baby Christ; all occuring contemporaneously or historically. Many popular customs associated with Christmas developed independently of the commemoration of Jesus' birth, with certain elements having origins in pre-Christian festivals that were celebrated around the winter solstice by pagan populations who were later converted to Christianity. These elements, including the Yule log from Yule and gift giving from Saturnalia, became syncretized into Christmas over the centuries. The prevailing atmosphere of Christmas has also continually evolved, since the holiday's inception, ranging from a sometimes raucous, drunken, carnival-like state in the Middle Ages, to a tamer family-oriented and children-centered theme introduced in a 19th-century transformation. Additionally, the celebration of Christmas was banned on more than one occasion within certain Protestant groups, such as the Puritans, due to concerns that it was too pagan or unbiblical. Jehovah's Witnesses also reject the celebration of Christmas. Prior to and through the early Christian centuries, winter festivals-especially those centered on the winter solstice-were the most popular of the year in many European pagan cultures. Reasons included the fact that the winter solstice indicated that the days would now begin getting longer, less agricultural work needed to be done during the winter, as well as an expectation of better weather as spring approached. The purpose of this series of books on religion, mythology and theology is designed to emphasize our common humanity and spirituality and eliminate the divisiveness that exists within the organized religions. This book is designed to be a state of the art, academic reference work and provides an overview of the topic and gives the reader a structured knowledge of the topic at the most affordable price possible. The accuracy and knowledge is of an international viewpoint. The edited articles represent the inputs of many knowledgeable individuals and the most current knowledge on the topic, based on the date of publication.