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Christmas
The Druids in ancient France and Britain staged a 12-day festival at the time of the winter solstice. They believed it was the high point of an annual battle between an ice giant, representing death, and the sun god, representing life. They built large bonfires to cheer on and assist their champion, the sun. The Druids and other pagan leaders knew, as we do today, that the days always get longer as the calendar progresses through winter toward spring regardless of their seasonal rituals—but still they persisted in them (L.W. Cowie and John Selwyn Gummer, The Christian Calendar, 1974, p. 22). Unfortunately, so does much of Christianity today.
What is today thought to be a celebration of the birth of Christ began as the pagan midwinter festival. One unbiblical tradition of this holiday is the use of greenery. Decorating with green plants in late December through the beginning of January was one of the ways Druids "honored and encouraged" the sun god at the time of the winter solstice. Families commonly cut down an evergreen tree to bring into their home, where they decorated and displayed it in a prominent place. In the Middle Ages, this ritual of paganism persisted and was eventually adapted and given a Christian label, as Roman Catholic missionaries worked to convince people to worship the Son of God rather than the sun god. In due course, German immigrants brought the practice of decorating evergreen trees to America, where it has flourished. As you may have already guessed, the "Twelve Days of Christmas" of the famous carol owe their origin to the pagan festival too (ibid.). (For more on the pagan origins of this holiday, see "Is Christmas Phony?".)
Easter
Easter
Even Easter, which many assume was instituted to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, is steeped in connections to paganism. The name "Easter" ultimately derives from the name of an ancient Chaldean goddess Astarte, who was known as the "Queen of Heaven." Her Babylonian name was "Ishtar." Since most languages pronounce "I" as ee, it\'s not hard to see how eesh-tar and its linguistic variants could eventually become Easter (see Vine\'s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, 1985, New Testament Section, p. 192, "Easter").
As the goddess of love and fertility, Ishtar\'s symbols were—you guessed it—eggs and rabbits! Rabbits can bear several litters of young each year and thus were highly fertile animals familiar to these ancient people. Worshipping Ishtar during an annual spring festival was intended to ask her blessing of fertility on the crops being planted at that time of year. Decorating eggs as a means of worship seems harmless until you consider that the people also practiced ritual sex acts, often with temple prostitutes, to honor the goddess (Nelson\'s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary, p. 509, "Gods, Pagan"). That doesn\'t sound very Christian, yet most Christians continue to associate eggs and bunnies with what they think is the most solemn holiday of the year. |
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