An thrilling purpose from www.ucg.org on the origin of Christmas. This follows this post on the attraction of signs and miracles. For a free magazine subscription or to get this book for free bang HERE! or cry 1-888-886-8632!
The roots of modern customs
Numerous of the other bits and pieces of Christmas are adroitly carryovers from ancient merriment.
"Santa Claus" is an American ignominy of the Dutch form "San Nicolaas," a figure brought to America by the prompt Dutch colonists (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th style, Vol. 19, p. 649, "Nicholas, St."). This name, in turn, stems from St. Nicholas, bishop of the city of Myra in southern Asia Juvenile, a Catholic saint fortunate by the Greeks and the Latins on Dec. 6.
How, we could ask, did a bishop from the penalize Mediterranean seaside of Wilt come to be coupled with a red-suited man who lives at the north land and rides in a sleigh pulled by carried by the wind reindeer?
Sophisticated what we specific beforehand cultured about the ancient pre-Christian origin of Christmas, we shouldn't be shocked to learn that Santa Claus is emptiness but a figure second hand from ancient beliefs allied in with pagan midwinter festivals.
The bits and pieces coupled with Santa Claus-his fur-trimmed clothing, sleigh and reindeer-reveal his origin from the snobbish climates of the far North. Some sources crumb him to the ancient Northern European gods Woden and Thor, from which the days of the week Wednesday (Woden's day) and Thursday (Thor's day) get their designations (Earl and Alice Count, 4000 Living of Christmas, 1997, pp. 56-64). Others crumb him even unlikely back in time to the Roman god Saturn (fortunate at the winter Saturnalia anniversary) and the Greek god Silenus (Walsh, pp. 70-71).
Suchlike about other rude customs and symbols coupled with Christmas? Anywhere did they originate? "On the Roman New Blind date (January 1), houses were decked out with greenery and lights, and gifts were exact to children and the damaging. To these observances were superfluous the German and Celtic Yule resources... Stores and good fellowship, the Yule log and Yule cakes, greenery and fir foliage, gifts and good wishes all commemorated story aspects of this festive suggestion. Fires and lights, symbols of amiability and eternal life, specific forever been coupled with the winter anniversary, what's more pagan and Christian" (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th style, Micropaedia, Vol. 2, p. 903, "Christmas").
"In midwinter, the idea of new beginning and resonance was awfully burial chamber. In the snows of winter, the evergreen was a symbol of the life that would return in the sound, so evergreens were second hand for piece of land... Light was burial chamber in dispelling the swelling gloom of the solstice, so a Yule log was lighted with the historical object of the very last year's log... As plentiful customs lost their sanctimonious reasons for guise, they voted for happening the realm of superstition, becoming good luck traditions and at the end of the day adroitly customs worsening indictment. By this means the mistletoe was no longer worshiped but became at the end of the day an apology for practically ungodly happenings" (Del Re, p. 18).
"Christmas gifts themselves summon up us of the presents that were exchanged in Rome inside the Saturnalia. In Rome, it could be superfluous, the presents frequently took the form of wax tapers and dolls-the latter guise in their turn a relic of the material sacrifices taking into consideration accessible to Saturn. It is a perplexing anxiety that in our Christmas presents we are preserving under substitute form one of the utmost savage customs of our barbarian ancestors!" (Walsh, p. 67).
As soon as we see these customs perpetuated today in Christmas maintenance, we can specific no repentance of this holiday's origin. Christmas is a discrete planning of pagan forms of worship overlaid with a covering of Christianity.
SATURN. SATAN. SANTA.
II. HOW DID CHRISTMAS Acquire TO BE High-status ON DECEMBER 25?
A. Roman pagans in the early hours introduced the holiday of Saturnalia, a week crave existence of liberty distinguished amid December 17-25. Over and done with this existence, Roman bench were stopped, and Roman law dictated that no one can be punished for naughty stamp or injuring refinement right through the weeklong celebration. The public holiday began for instance Roman firm chose "an disagreement of the Roman refinement" to stalemate the "Noble of Misrule." All Roman community decide on a intent whom they bounce to indulge in food and other physical pleasures here and there in the week. At the festival's hypothesis, December 25th, Roman firm supposed they were destroying the forces of shadow by intensely murdering this inoffensive man or woman.
B. The ancient Greek origin author and historian Lucian (in his vernacular entitled "Saturnalia") describes the festival's observance in his time. In reap to secular price, he mentions these customs: familiar intoxication; leave-taking from file to file when before a live audience naked; rape and other sexual license; and intense human-shaped biscuits (no noise created in some English and peak German bakeries right through the Christmas mature).C. In the 4th century CE, Christianity imported the Saturnalia public holiday on tenterhooks to surmount the pagan plenty in with it. Christian leaders succeeded in converting to Christianity vast turf out of pagans by promising them that they can delay to venerate the Saturnalia as Christians.D. The box was that communicate was zilch naturally Christian about Saturnalia. To actual this, these Christian leaders named Saturnalia's concluding day, December 25th, to be Jesus' centenary.E. Christians had little revolution, although, decontamination the practices of Saturnalia. As Stephen Nissenbaum, instructor history at the Intellectual of Massachussetts, Amherst, writes, "In return for ensuring enormous observance of the celebration of the Savior's birth by removal it to this sonorous make contact, the Place of worship for its part tacitly customary to allow the holiday to be distinguished higher or less the way it had endlessly been." The main Christmas holidays were distinguished by intake, sexual indulgence, before a live audience nude in the streets (a ancestor of modern caroling), etc.F. The Monk Offer Mather of Boston observed in 1687 that "the at the wrong time Christians who in the early hours observed the Nativity on December 25 did not do so planning that Christ was inherent in that Month, but the same as the Heathens' Saturnalia was at that time kept in Rome, and they were comfortable to support live in Pagan Holidays metamorphosed indoors Christian ones." Having the status of of its important pagan origin, Christmas was given away by the Puritans and its observance was not right in Massachusetts amid 1659 and 1681. But, Christmas was and no noise is distinguished by peak Christians.G. Quite a lot of of the peak unpleasant civilization of the Saturnalia moderately good were intentionally revitalized by the Catholic Place of worship in 1466 for instance Pope Paul II, for the glee of his Roman group, bounce Jews to hustle nude downhill the streets of the metropolitan. An viewer bill news broadcast, "Previous they were to run, the Jews were opulently fed, so as to make the hustle higher impenetrable for them and at the incredibly time higher deep for addressees. They ran... in the middle of Rome's cutting shrieks and peals of merriment, when the Sacred Lead stood upon a opulently decked out overhang and laughed readily."H. As part of the Saturnalia moderately good here and there in the 18th and 19th centuries CE, rabbis of the ghetto in Rome were bounce to wear clownish outfits and movement downhill the metropolitan streets to the jeers of the mass, pelted by a elegance of weaponry. With the Jewish community of Rome sent a request in1836 to Pope Gregory XVI pleading him to punctuation mark the annual Saturnalia abuse of the Jewish community, he responded, "It is not cheery to make any creativity." On December 25, 1881, Christian leaders whipped the Improve plenty indoors Antisemitic frenzies that led to riots across the country. In Warsaw 12 Jews were intensely murdered, enormous turf out maimed, and plentiful Jewish women were raped. Two million rubles import of stamp was damaged.
III. THE Origin OF CHRISTMAS Civilization
A. THE Bring about OF CHRISTMAS TREE
Significance as at the wrong time Christians recruited Roman pagans by associating Christmas with the Saturnalia, so too worshippers of the Asheira cult and its offshoots were recruited by the Place of worship sanctioning "Christmas Foliage". Pagans had crave worshipped plants in the forest, or brought them indoors their homes and decorated them, and this observance was adopted and dyed with a Christian finale by the Place of worship.
B. THE Bring about OF MISTLETOE
Norse mythology recounts how the god Balder was killed using a mistletoe scurry by his rival god Hoder when discord for the female Nanna. Druid rituals use mistletoe to contaminant their secular sacrificial intent. The Christian multinational of "kissing under the mistletoe" is a latter synthesis of the sexual sureness of Saturnalia with the Druidic sacrificial cult.C. THE Bring about OF CHRISTMAS PRESENTS
In pre-Christian Rome, the emperors abut their peak abhorrent group to bring humanity and gifts right through the Saturnalia (in December) and Kalends (in January). Afterward, this ritual expanded to cuddle gift-giving linking the broad citizens. The Catholic Place of worship gave this multinational a Christian savor by re-rooting it in the assumed gift-giving of Saint Nicholas (see underneath).[10]D. THE Bring about OF SANTA CLAUSa. Nicholas was inherent in Parara, Droop in 270 CE and latter became Bishop of Myra. He died in 345 CE on December 6th. He was in words of one syllable named a saint in the 19th century.b. Nicholas was linking the peak greater bishops who convened the Board of Nicaea in 325 CE and formed the New Testament. The publication they created portrayed Jews as "the children of the devil"[11] who sentenced Jesus to death.c. In 1087, a group of sailors who idolized Nicholas moved his bones from Droop to a protect in Bari, Italy. Existing Nicholas supplanted a female boon-giving deity called The Grandmother, or Pasqua Epiphania, who hand-me-down to swarm the subordinate stockings with her gifts. The Grandmother was ousted from her memorial at Bari, which became the concern of the Nicholas cult. Members of this group gave each other gifts right through a series they conducted annually on the celebration of Nicholas' death, December 6.d. The Nicholas cult imbue north until it was adopted by German and Celtic pagans. These groups worshipped a pantheon led by Woden -their plain god and the edge of Thor, Balder, and Tiw. Woden had a crave, white body hair and rode a mount downhill the appearance one nightfall each Autumn. With Nicholas merged with Woden, he barn his Mediterranean disc, grew a body hair, mounted a on high mount, rescheduled his leak for December, and donned heavy winter clothing.e. In a bid for pagan adherents in Northern Europe, the Catholic Place of worship adopted the Nicholas cult and qualified that he did (and they have to) release gifts on December 25th considerably of December 6th.f. In 1809, the instigator Washington Irving (peak charm his "The Description of Unfocused Lair" and "Rip Van Winkle") wrote a satire of Dutch culture entitled "Knickerbocker Register". The satire refers unlike grow old to the white bearded, flying-horse riding Saint Nicholas using his Dutch name, Santa Claus.g. Dr. Peaceable Moore, a instructor at The population School, read "Knickerbocker Register", and in 1822 he published a poem based on the diagram Santa Claus: "Twas the night in the past Christmas, for instance all downhill the file, not a creature was poignant, not even a mouse. The stockings were hung by the outlet with supervision, in the lavish that Saint Nicholas soon would be communicate..." Moore innovated by portraying a Santa with eight reindeer who descended downhill chimneys.h. The Bavarian illustrator Thomas Nast almost entire the modern picture of Santa Claus. From 1862 downhill 1886, based on Moore's poem, Nast drew higher than 2,200 animatronics images of Santa for "Harper's Paper". Previous Nast, Saint Nicholas had been pictured as everything from a stern looking bishop to a gnome-like plan in a frock. Nast also gave Santa a home at the North Placement, his workshop packed with elves, and his list of the good and bad children of the world. All Santa was forlorn was his red outfit.i. In 1931, the Coca Cola Agency slender the Swedish flyer actress Haddon Sundblom to get a coke-drinking Santa. Sundblom modeled his Santa on his friend Lou Prentice, chosen for his carbonated, determined plane. The set insisted that Santa's fur-trimmed realize be obtrusive, Coca Cola red. And Santa was inherent - a fantasy of Christian champion, pagan god, and flyer idol.
IV. THE CHRISTMAS Challenge
. Christmas has endlessly been a holiday distinguished casually. For millennia, pagans, Christians, and even Jews support been swept away in the season's festivities, and very few refinement ever booth to stick the celebration's intrinsic meaning, history, or birth.
. Christmas celebrates the birth of the Christian god who came to resuscitate mankind from the "curse of the Torah." It is a 24-hour statement that Judaism is no longer real.. Christmas is a lie. Existing is no Christian church with a tradition that Jesus was really inherent on December 25th.. December 25 is a day on which Jews support been shown up, grief-stricken, and murdered.. Patronize of the peak in vogue Christmas civilization - plus Christmas plants, mistletoe, Christmas presents, and Santa Claus - are modern incarnations of the peak unpleasant pagan rituals ever expert on earth.
Patronize who are eagerly preparing for their Christmas merriment would goodwill not knowing about the holiday's real importance. If they do know the history, they frequently item that their celebration has zilch to do with the holiday's atrocious history and meaning. "We are newly having fun."Print that amid 1933-45, the Nazi decree distinguished Adolf Hitler's centenary - April 20 - as a holiday. Print that they named the day, "Hitlerday," and observed the day with feasting, drunkenness, gift-giving, and unlike pagan practices. Print that on that day, Jews were historically give out to unwarranted tortures and abuse, and that this continued for centuries.Now, assumption that your great-great-great-grandchildren were about to venerate Hitlerday. April 20th here. They had crave previous about Auschwitz and Bergen Belsen. They had never heard of gas chambers or death marches. They had purchased animated and caviar, and were about to begin the original, for instance someone reminded them of the day's real history and their relations nuisance. Print that they former objected, "We aren't celebrating the Holocaust; we're newly having a little Hitlerday original." If you can travel disturbing in time and take the weight off your feet them; if you can say a few words to them, what would you put it to somebody them to do on Hitlerday?On December 25, 1941, Julius Streicher, one of the peak awful of Hitler's assistants, distinguished Christmas by penning the important post in his rabidly Antisemitic announcement, "Der Stuermer":If one really wishes to put an end to the continued prospering of this curse from nirvana that is the Jewish blood, communicate is in words of one syllable one way to do it: to slaughter this refinement, this Satan's son, solid rock and class.It was an appropriate fear for the day. This Christmas, how motion we celebrate?AUTHOR: LAWRENCE KELEMENEXTRACTED FROM WWW.DAVIDICKE.COM
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For a good, strong man's name associated with Yuletide, you could always go with the name of the awesome Norse god Odin.
Odin (pronounced "OH-deen") is one powerful dude who's folklore is incredibly lengthy and complex. He ruled over Asgard, one of the nine worlds and the capital city of the Norse deities. He is the god of magic, prophecy, poetry, hunting, wisdom, war, death, and victory. Worship of Odin dates all the way back to Proto-Germanic times. Odin has lots of cool toys and pets, a eight-legged horse named Sleipnir, a spear named Gungir, two ravens, a magical gold ring called Draupnir, and a pair of wolves named Geri and Freki. He's also a shape shifter, and can travel the world in disguise. He is the subject of many ancient poems and stories, and gives the mead of inspiration (made by dwarves) to worthy poets. Odin is also associated with trickery and deception, using his cunning to swindle the blood of Kvasir from the dwarves.
So what, precisely, does any of this have to do with the holiday season? What if I told you that Odin is Santa Claus?
"But that's Saint Nicholas!"
Well, yes. They're both Santa Claus.
The Christian Saint Nicholas was a Greek Bishop living in Myra (part of modern-day Turkey). He had a reputation for giving gifts to those who had nothing. He especially loved children, and is the patron saint of children among other things. In the most famous story, Saint Nicholas gives money to a poor man in order to save the man's daughters from a life of prostitution. My aunt married and had children with a Dutch man, and when I go to their house on Christmas they have pictures of their Santa Claus, who still looks like a bishop.
Christianization of Scandinavia was slow, where they celebrated the pagan winter solstice holiday of Yule. In countries like Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium, Yule involved Odin. After all, Odin lead a hunting party through the sky during the solstice. Children would leave boots filled with carrots, straw, or sugar near the chimney for Odin's horse Sleipnir. When they woke up the next day, they found that Odin returned their kindness by leaving gifts in the shoes.
The combination of Saint Nicholas and Odin was easy. They both had long, white beards, and they're both known for giving gifts. And so the tradition survived despite Christianization. Today there is some variation of the old boot tradition in many cultures. Mexican children leave their shoes outside their door or by the window on The Day of the Kings. Americans leave stockings by the chimney instead of boots.
Odin still remains important to Neo-Pagans. He is particularly important to the Asatru movement in Iceland and the Asatru Folk Assembly in the United States. The Asatru strive to emulate the religious practices of the Norse before Christianization, relying on historical texts and ancient poems to do so.
Some Neo-Pagans believe that children shouldn't be named after gods, but that hasn't stopped some people. As a given name, Odin is enjoying some mild popularity. The name first appeared in the top 1000 baby names in 2008. So far, it peaked in 2009 at #981.
So if you're looking for a strong, masculine name with a tons of history for a boy born during the Yule season, consider Odin. As the song from Emerald Rose says, "Santa Claus is Pagan, Too!"
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odin
http://www.nacnet.org/assunta/nacimnto.htm
http://paganwiccan.about.com/od/pagantraditions/p/Asatru.htm
http://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/
Image Credit:
found on http://ffffound.com/
