Is Christmas a Pagan Festival | Paganism | What is Pagan #pagans
Channel: BIBLE DOCTRINE
Date: 2021-12-07

Is Christmas a Pagan Festival | Paganism | What is Pagan
Human as species love to take inspiration from cultures traditions and Christmas too
As Christianity was spreading in EU in early AD, They were facinated to pick the traditions and customs of this EU Northern region called Scandinavia nations
They Picked carolling, gift giving, feasting with loved ones, decoration tree, drinking, all these creeped to Christmas which were Pagan practises and Cultures

Pagan & What is Paganism and Who are Pagans
Term Pagan : Sweeping term Romans to Norse in Scandinavia, Scandinavian nations are Northern EU Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland, Greenland.
Having religious beliefs that do not belong to any of the main world religions
Ex Gospel plus Indian traditions...we know rituals ,similarly EU Rome and Norse

Winter Solstice celebration : 
Christians are inspired by traditions from Romans, Celtics (Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Brittan) Norse and Druids
Norse is Scandinavia mythology, the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion 
A druid member of the high-ranking class in ancient Celtic cultures. Druids were religious leaders as well as legal authorities, adjudicators, lorekeepers,
medical professionals and political advisor 

All this group together in northern hemisphere celebrate one big celebrstion during winter solstice, Shortest day & Longest night in winter ie 22Dec as winter solstice in the year.
Pagan holidays are more in Dec so they picked it for Christmas and thats how dated as 25 Dec for Christmas ...But Bible does not record any specific day ..Imp is Christ is born 

Winter solstice was a huge part of pagan life, as they are Primarily Agriculture, winter being the end of the year for harverst and the chance to enjoy with beloved ones
and rest from the toiling of the fields, and instead they devote themselves to worship their various gods and celeberating with those around them,
As winter in northern hemisphere is dark, cold and hungry period of time, the winter solstice is celebration time and enjoyment until the sun rolled around again.

Some Pagan traditions which Christmas took are arrived from 
1) gifts giving & Saturnalia: 
Not Just winter solstice but also saturnalia between 17 to 24 of Dec, a huge pagan festival for romans as christmas which is to worship the agriculture God Saturn
Romans practice as good luck for one another for the harvest, Romans shared only one gift with one other person, giving gifts for luck and prosperity become multimillion $ business

2) Santa's image & stocking 
Today what we see Santa claus in red fur with a big white beard was largely devloluped by coca cola in 1930's, But the idea of giving gifts originated from pagans
ST Nicholas around 4th century was a generous bishop who was known to give gifts to poor, children and prostitutes, he had big beard and long cloack much like santa today
he is called father of Christmas
Much before St Nicholas we have another beared old man called Odin, one-eyed, bearded old man wearing a hat and a cloak, who rode a flying eight-legged horse called Sleipnir,
who would ride on skies during the winter, kids would fill their booties with carrots and straw and leave them by the chimney for the Slepnir to feed on, and Odin would
fly by and reward the children with little gifts in the booties, much like Christmas stocking today
This diety was worshipped by early Germanic tribes 
Santa claus today is a mish mash of all the 3 charecters 

3) Carols : The songs what we sing today are christian, but the idea of going door to door singing to your neighbour comes from anothe pagan tradition called Wassailing.
Wassailing means good health, Every year, wassailers would roam through their villages in small groups, singing loudly with the aim of banishing evil spirits and wishing good health

No wassailing group was complete without the traditional drink on hand- made from Mulled ale (Whiskey, Lemon, Honey, Golden ale and cinnamon stick), curdled cream, roasted apple
eggs, spices and sugar, St Franncis took inspiration from these and started Christmas carrolling

4) Christmas Tree Decoration : Taken from Romans tradition, Besides feasting, drinking, and exchanging gifts during Saturnalia, Romans also hung small metal
ornaments on the trees outside their homes, each of metal represent a god either Saturn
Early Germanic tribes practiced similar tree decorating tradition, they with fruits and candles to honor the god Odin through out the winter Solstice 
Christians have taken this tradition from Romans and Germans on this tree decoration.


Romans 12::1-2
Romans 10::14-15
Mathew 24 : 18-20
Romans 8:5-17
My Channel 
https://www.youtube.com/bibledoctrine/sub_confirmation=1