December 21, 2007

Fighting against a Christless Christmas

By Paul Shlichta
In the fourth century A.D., the Catholic church made a big mistake. Acceding to the popular tradition that Jesus Christ had been born on December 25 and wishing to keep Christians from participating in the infamous orgies of the year-end pagan festival of Saturnalia, the Church established December 25 as the feast of the birth of Christ. Thus, for seventeen centuries, Christmas and Saturnalia have competed for the attention of the public. By now, I think we must admit that Saturnalia has won and that Christmas has been thoroughly de-Christianized.During its long and varied history, Christmas has seldom been entirely free of Saturnalian contamination. As its celebration rose to prominence in the Middle Ages, the nativity scene was flanked with older pagan symbols, such as decorated trees and Yule logs, and religious adoration was admixed with feasting and revelry. After the Reformation, many Protestant sects viewed Christmas with suspicion as "popish" and/or pagan; its...(Read Full Article)