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The
Winter Solstice Celebration
preceded Christmas by many millennia.
According to historians,
Jesus is NOT the "reason for the season."
Winter Solstice, December 21, has been celebrated for thousands
of years in all parts of the world and is celebrated even to this
day.
Did early Christian leaders revise Jesus' birth date in order to compete
with the established festival calendar of contemporary religious cultures? Kindly check out this link. "Was Jesus Really
Born On December 25th?"
The
December 25th celebration of the sun god (Son of God?) is common worldwide,
dating back at least 12,000 years, as reflected in the Winter Solstice
scenes recorded in caves. Around the world, beginning
thousands of years ago, people have celebrated the birth of the god,
"Sol" (Sun), and the "Queen of the Heavens," or the
"Celestial Virgin." The Winter Solstice has a history of
celebration in many places, from China to the Americas.
Ancient Greeks celebrated the birthday of Hercules and Dionysus on
the date of December 25th. A "Christmas" festival was celebrated
at Athens and was called "the Lenaea," during which time,
apparently, "the death and rebirth of the harvest infant Dionysus
were similarly dramatized." This Lenaea festival is depicted
in an Aurignacian cave painting in Spain (34,000-23,000 Before Present),
with a "young Dionysus with huge genitals," standing naked
in the middle of "nine dancing women." The Romans celebrated
their famed festival of "Saturnalia" at this same time.
The Greco-Syrian sun god, Adonis, was also born on December 25th, a
festival "spoken of by Tertullian, Jerome, and other Fathers
of the Church, who inform us that the ceremonies took place in a cave,
and that the cave in which they celebrated his mysteries in Bethlehem,
was that in which Jesus was born." Very interesting!
Dies Solis ...
Sun of God
And
then there is this.
The
biblical figure Nehemiah is reputed to have lived during the fifth
century (430 BCE), and the 25th of the month of Kislev (November-December)
is indeed the time of the celebration called Hannukah-Chanukah. As
2 Maccabees recounts, during this earlier sacrifice by Nehemiah, the
Persians to whom he had sent for the sacred fire, had only given him,
a "thick liquid" (oil?). After the liquid was sprinkled
on the wood, the sun - previously hidden by clouds - beamed brightly,
causing a great fire to blaze up, "so that all marveled."
At this point, the priests offered fervent prayers to the Lord God.
From the account in the biblical book of Ezekiel concerning the Temple
priests holding secret rites - sacrilegious in Ezekiel's opinion -
we know that there is an esoteric tradition within Judaism that is
not made known to the masses. Some suggest that this esoteric tradition
included the knowledge of Jehovah-Yahweh as a sun god - as asserted
and demonstrated by numerous authorities and researchers - and that,
as a sun god, he too was typically considered as born on the Winter
Solstice. It would appear, therefore, that this "festival of
Lights" and "feast of the dedication" was a Winter
Solstice celebration based on the solar aspect either of the old Israelite
gods or Elohim, as they are repeatedly termed in the Old Testament,
or of the Jewish tribal god Yahweh.
In addition, Native Americans for millennia have celebrated the Winter
Solstice,
as a cardinal point, the New Year and, presumably, the birth of the
sun god. In the Native American Solstice celebration - a "great religious
festival" - there is "rejoicing everywhere." As in
the West, the Indians "decorate their houses with garlands, and
make presents to friends and relatives," a "custom of very
great antiquity." One way the Brahman priests of Orissa have
celebrated the Solstice is by carrying images of "the youthful
Krishna to the houses of their disciples and their patrons, to whom
they present some of the red powder and tar of roses, and receive
presents of money and cloth in return." Thus, in India the Winter
Solstice has been as much a major holiday as it was anywhere, which
is to be expected in a land permeated with sun-god worship for millennia.
