!!!!! Merry Saturnalia !!!!!

[NoodleyAppendage]

--- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturnalia ---

Beginning on December 15th, the Romans held this seven-day celebration in honor of Saturn, god of agriculture. The winter solstice often fell around December 25 on the Julian calendar—following these seven days of feasting, revelry, and merrymaking. To commemorate the lengthening of days marked by this solstice, many Romans also enacted rituals that glorified Mithra, the god of light from ancient Persia. But Mithra was of older origins yet than the Romans, who had integrated him into their mythos.

Mithra was a figure spoken of in the Zend-Avesta, or sacred Zoroastrian scriptures. In it, he was known as the chief spirit, the ruler of the world. Many modern scholars trace some of Christianity’s origins back to Zoroastrianism, and for good reason. There are indeed many similarities between the two. It would seem that this is the same land that the patriarch Abraham lived in, as did Daniel, and many other Biblical figures. While differing from the God of the Hebrews, there is little doubt that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob did not influence and enter into the Babylonian cosmology. In fact, from the land of Zoroastrianism came the three Magi, or wise men—named Balthasar, Melchior, and Caspar (Gaspar) according to a mosaic from around 500 A.D. from a church in Ravenna, Italy—who came to visit the Christ child.

In time, after the 6th and 7th century Assyrian conquests, Mithra became known as the god of the sun. The Greeks identified him with Helios, proliferating the Cult of Mithra, and the Romans simultaneously adapted Mithra into their pantheon as they incorporated the Grecian Empire into their culture.

The Roman Catholic Church also had the habit of absorbing pagan traditions into Christendom, soon converting this holiday commemorating the birth of the sun god into Christ Mass, a ceremony honoring the birth of the Son of God, whose actual date of birth is uncertain. Despite this, according to the documentary “Christmas Unwrapped” hosted by Harry Smith on The History Channel, Christmastime celebrations before the 1800s among the commoners in England still featured much of the pagan revelry, at times little more than wild, licentious carousals. “Christmas Unwrapped” went on to describe how a peasant would be afforded his fifteen minutes of fame by being crowned the “lord of misrule” by his fellows, and they would go around as a miniature mob to the lords of the manors demanding to be let in and provided with treats, else they would threaten to cause harm, much like the origin of Halloween’s trick or treating. This drunken, post-pagan revelry, identified with Saturnalia and the Feast of Fools where master and slave traded places for a day, apparently had much to do with why Olivar Cromwell, devout Puritan and Lord Protector of England, outlawed the Christmas Holiday in the 17th century, forcing it underground for a time: until about 1656 in Canterbury.

--- http://www.mrrena.com/2001/Christmas.shtml ---

...but, but...it's about the Baby Jesus isn't it? NOT.

[Taverner]

1. May fertility and good harvests come to all

Time to wake up the Sun....

http://www.e-sheep.com/Saturnalia/

[NoodleyAppendage]

2. The reason for the season.

"It has been suggested that Christians in the 4th Century assigned December 25th as Christ's birthday (and hence Christmas) because pagans already observed this day as a holiday. In this way the problem of eliminating an already popular holiday would be sidestepped, thus making the Christianizing of the population easier. It is almost certain that the actual birthday of Christ was not in midwinter, since the gospels speak of shepherds tending their flocks, not something done in the cold in central Judea."

--- http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/15205/saturnalia_the_reason_we_celebrate.html?page=2 ---

[havocmom]

3. Things get lost in translation and editing. Sun God became Son of God

The people out in the far lands took a lot of convincing that they heard it incorrectly the first time ;) Too often, it took a sword to convince them.

From hearing tales of a British pal's younger days, the partying was still hearty on those northern isles in the 1970s. And watching us here, I get the feeling that somewhere in the collective unconscious there is a hunger for the joy of company and merry making at the turn of the season back to waxing light, but still with months of dark cold ahead to slog through. Seems so many cultures in Northern Hemisphere have some reason to celebrate at this time.

The stories justifying the party change with the political climate. The basis for the party seems well ingrained in the human psyche, doesn't it?

Christ's birth in Dec? Not only a problem jiving with shepherds tending flocks in fields, but with paying taxes. Why would the authorities grant so much time between harvest (the one time of year most people had anything) and tax day? Never bought that one, even as a kid.

It's like the Queen's birthday - celebrate at a convenient time... but, celebrate.

Me, I drink to the trees, the fields, the animals whose lives sustain mine. I pray for those who bring the food to my table and for those who haven't enough, that we may attain the grace to assure they are fed.

And I toast to DU, where there is always reason to celebrate generous souls who search for truth.

Merry Merry

[knitter4democracy]

4. And a happy holiday to you, too.

:)

Let all who celebrate anything at this time of year come together in love and peace to celebrate in joy and brotherhood.

[Warpy]

5. Happy Yule to you, too

and it's pronounced YOU-lee.

It's the fire festival, the mark of the turn from darkness to light. The solstice was thought to involve the sun standing still in the sky for twelve days, so the Yule log had to be big enough to burn that long to provide light during the darkest part of the year. (they must've chopped down the biggest tree they could find and burned it green!)

[NoodleyAppendage]

6. Fascinating. I often wondered about the derivation of "yule log" n/t

J

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

7. Merry Christmas!!!!

[NoodleyAppendage]

9. Merry Xmas to you.

A fan of the Queensreich, I see...

J

[Hissyspit]

8. Happy Yule! Joyous Harvest. Share in the soltice warmth of the Flying

Spaghetti Monster.

Serve immediately with garlic bread. Do not expose to sunlight.