The Real Reasons for the Season

So I'm seeing a lot of signs saying some version of "Jesus is the Reason for the Season", which is most certainly true for those who place the signs.  Interestingly enough, however, though the choice of the date near the Winter Solstice is not considered by any Biblical scholars as the actual birth date of  Jesus.    The eventual choice of December 25, made perhaps as early as 273, reflects a convergence of Origen's (of Alexandria, an early Christian writer)  concern about pagan gods and the church's identification of God's son with the actual celestial sun.  December 25 already hosted two other related festivals: natalis solis invicti (the Roman "birth of the unconquered sun"), and the birthday of Mithras, the Iranian "Sun of Righteousness" whose worship was popular with Roman soldiers. The winter solstice, another celebration of the sun, fell just a few days earlier.

          The  earliest attempt  (and still the only reasoned one)  to pin down Jesus' birth was made by Clement of Alexandria  who gives a date using the Egyptian calendar that converts to May 14, 6 BC in the Gregorian calendar. This is consistent with background material described in Luke. Examples include the fact that shepherds would have been in the wilderness of Judah, not in the fields surrounding Bethlehem, since this was the season when the wheat and barley were growing. After that harvest in April/May the sheep are put into these fields to eat the stubble and fertilize for the next growing season. Even the Associates for Biblical Research affirm that in all their efforts, the is nothing found in the Bible which supports any linkage to December 25.   Seeing that pagans were already exalting deities with some parallels to the true deity, church leaders decided to commandeer the date and introduce a new festival to supplant the old ones which were popular among many pagan peoples.

          So, let's see what they looked like:  

          "Yule" is the name for 'infant' or 'little child.' In the ancient Middle East, the 25th of December was known as Yule day or the birth of the promised child day. This was the day of the birth of the incarnate God, who appeared as a baby child to redeem a world bound in darkness. It was an essential belief of their religious system, that their God,  was the chief god in a polytheistic system. The "promised child"  was also worshipped as the god incarnate, or promised baby son of God, who was to be the Savior of the world. Sound familiar? It should, since it parallels and significantly predates  Christian belief about Jahweh  and Jesus. It actually stems  from centuries earlier. "Yule" is Chaldean, in origin, the baby whose coming was celebrated was Tammuz, son of Baal (The God of the Sun, the principal God of  Babylon) . The Christ-mass tree and the Yule log used today were first used to celebrate the birth of  Tammuz, in what became an annual religious festival in ancient pagan Babylon. Interestingly enough, the Babylonians' paganism  (in many interpretations, including the Torah) was fostered by Nimrod, Noah's great grandson.

          Another  description of  Yule practices is interesting as well:

          It was ancient custom that when sacrifice was to be made, all farmers were to come to the  temple and bring along with them the food they needed while the feast lasted. The narrative continues that toasts were to be drunk. The first toast was to be drunk to God  "for victory and power to the king", the second   "for good harvests and for peace", and thirdly a beaker was to be drunk to the king himself. In addition, toasts were drunk to the memory of departed kinsfolk. These were called "minni [memorial toast]".  Yule feast still had a function in the cult of the dead and in the veneration of the ancestors, a function which the mid-winter sacrifice certainly held for the West European Stone and Bronze Ages." The traditions of the Yule log, Yule goat, Yule boar  (described in several Icelandic Sagas) are still reflected in the Christmas ham, Yule singing, and others stemming  from Yule customs, and customs which indicate the significance of the feast in pre-Christian times. These custom, like the Babylonian Yule, are pre-Christian that is post - Jesus, but before Christianity reached their practitioners, the early proto-Germanic  tribes. The "God was Odin, the toast for harvest  and peace were drunk to Njoror and Freyr.  

          In Germanic Neopagan sects, Yule is celebrated with gatherings that often involve a meal and gift giving. Further attempts at reconstruction of surviving accounts of historical celebrations are often made, a hallmark being variations of the traditional. Groups such as the Asatru Folk Assembly in the US recognize the celebration as lasting 12 days, beginning on the date of the winter solstice.

          In the Heathen tradition of Urglaawe, the Yuletide begins at sundown on December 20 and ends at sundown on January 1.  Broken down and translated, "der Urglaawe" literally means "the original faith" in the Pennsylvania German (Deitsch) language. The  focus is on the pre-Christian religious and cultural undertones that still flow through the Pennsylvania German culture. Note: The term Pennsylvania Dutch derives  from the ignorance of English speakers who confused "Ich Bin Deutsche" as meaning " I am Dutch" Although the Pennsylvania Germans did not exist as a distinct ethnic group during the pre-Christian era, their ancestors brought with them many Heathen practices that continued to flourish here after the German "diaspora" into the Americas. Urglaawe worshippers'  purpose is to weave the cultural experiences of the Pennsylvania Germans into the Heathen tapestry. Practices such as Braucherei and Hexerei as well as folklore and folk medicine lend more insight regarding  the way their  ancestors practiced the original faith. 

          Braucherei's name  comes from the book Pow-wows, or, The Long Lost Friend, written by John George Hohman and first published in German as Der Lange Verborgene Freund in 1820. Despite the use of  of  "pow-wow", taken from an Algonquian Native American word for a gathering of medicine men, the collection is actually a very traditional collection of European magic spells, recipes, and folk remedies. These formulas/spells  mix prayers, magic words, and simple rituals to cure simple domestic ailments and rural troubles. Curiously enough, they blend Christian and pagan terms and prayers. Hexerei might best be described as "White Witches" in today's parlance. Their tools included hex signs (seen on some Amish  barns today)  spells, and protective "charms." Many Germans who came to America as Hessian mercenaries in the Revolution (such as my several greats grandfather) carried papers with safety hexes written on them as protection. 

          The Yuletide includes several observances that are part of the Urglaawe faith or the wider Deitsch culture. Belsnickeling, which is the original Deitsch tricks-or-treats, takes place on December 21 or 22.  There are many parallels between Belskickel and Santa/St. Nicholas. Visitations from men dressed as Belsnickel, who is the Urglaawe equivalent to interaction with men and seeker aspects of the god Wudan, may occur throughout the Yuletide.  The linking of St. Nicholas to Santa is, without question, an attempt to distance Christian Christmas tradition   from the pagan  Belskickel. The Berchtaslaaf, or the Progression of the goddess Berchta, is celebrated on December 31 and includes Berchta's commanded meal of herring and gruel (double yuck!). The Yuletide ends on January 1 with the Feast of Frey. This traditional feast includes pork and sauerkraut, both of which are held as sacred to Frey ("Please pass the sacred sauerkraut?"). In our  family tradition (Pa. Deutsch on both sides) this is a traditional New Years' Dinner!

          The Sigillaria on December 23 was a Roman day of gift-giving.  This is almost certainly the origin of the "present" idea, linked by the Church to St. Nicholas to displace  Belskickel.  Because gifts of value would mark social status contrary to the spirit of the season, these were often the pottery or wax figurines called sigillaria made specially for the day, candles, or "gag gifts", of which Augustus was particularly fond.  Children received toys as gifts.  In his many poems about the Saturnalia, Martial names both expensive and quite cheap gifts, including writing tablets, dice,  moneyboxes, toothpicks,  a hunting knife, an axe, various lamps,  perfumes, pipes,  a sausage, a parrot, tables, cups,  items of clothing, statues, masks, books, and pets. Gifts might be as costly as a slave or exotic animal,  but Martial suggests that token gifts of low intrinsic value inversely measure the high quality of a friendship.  Patrons or "bosses" might pass along a gratuity to their poorer clients or dependents to help them buy gifts. Some emperors were noted for their devoted observance of the Sigillaria. In a practice that might be compared to modern greeting cards, verses sometimes accompanied the gifts. Martial has a collection of poems written as if to be attached to gifts. Catullus received a book of bad poems by "the worst poet of all time" as a joke from a friend. 

          So, why spend all this time on this topic?  First of all, I have that kind of time, second of all, I'm sick of people bitching about other persons celebrating (or not) whatever version of this holiday they choose to follow.  While I generally agree that it's inappropriate to force  Jewish child to play baby Jesus in a Nativity scene, (a joke, Jesus was Jewish, and his name was almost certainly Yeshua)  I am fine with the Christian owner of a store piping in Christmas carols, or Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel, or whatever they wish.  We all need to lighten up, tolerance wise,  about whichever festival we're celebrating, since there are aspects of Ancient Sumerian history, Christianity and Paganism in essentially all of them and the one sure thing is that the timing of  Christmas was selected to coincide with them.  By the same token, I can see the logic behind not spending tax dollars provided by all citizens, regardless of tradition, to commemorate one specific group's  religious celebration. Consider the uproar if tax dollars were used to fund celebrations of Diwali, Eid al-Adha, Nagar Kirtan, Visakah Puja (Hindu, Muslim, Sihk and Buddhist if you're keeping track).

          There are many reasons for this season, including the physical fact that after the Winter Solstice, we begin to see the sun longer; so lighten up, be happy for your friends and neighbors who celebrate for whatever reason  and. as The Buddha, Confucius, Mithras , Jesus, and so many others have said over the ages,  love each other. And I do believe that's all I have to sway about that (today).