![]() ![]() If owners failed to comply, their visitors would most likely terrorize them with mischief. The poor would go to the houses of the rich and demand their best food and drink. Each year, a beggar would be crowned the “lord of misrule” and eager celebrants played the part of his subjects. On Christmas, believers attended church, then celebrated wildly in a drunken, carnival-like atmosphere similar to today’s Mardi Gras. By the middle Ages, Christianity had for the most part, replaced the pagan roman religion. By holding Christmas at the same time as traditional winter solstice festivals, church leaders increased the chances that Christmas would be popularly embraced, but gave up the ability to dictate how it was celebrated. (Solstice songs were transformed into early versions of the Christmas carols we sing today). The date was chosen as a way of superseding the winter solstice with a Christian celebration. The first Christmas feast held on December 25 was in Rome in 336 A.D., after Christianity had become the Empire's official religion. Celebration of birthdays was not a common practice in Israel, if it were so, the birthday of prophets, kings and patriarchs would be recorded in the bible and remembered. The account of Jesus’ birth is recorded in the gospel of Matthew and Luke and they were written around 100A.D after Jesus' birth and don't mention the actual day of his birth. Early Christians didn't celebrate Jesus’ birth day. The birth of Jesus didn't connect to pagan rituals in Jesus' lifetime, or even soon after he died. After solstice, the darkest night of the year, the renewal of light and the coming of the new year was celebrated in the later Roman Empire at the Dies Natalis of Sol Invictus, the “Birthday of the Unconquerable Sun ( Tammuz),” on December 25. This pagan festival was also later wrapped up into Christmas: The Yule log, decorated tree, and wassailing can all be traced back to this Teutonic celebration. There are many pagan holiday traditions connected to Christmas, including mistletoe, which symbolized fertility and new life during the Yuletide.Īnother winter-solstice festival, Yule, was observed by Germanic people who connected to Odin, king of the Norse gods. Saturnalia was a lawless, drunken time in Rome where literally anything was okay - this was the original Purge, in which laws were suspended for a brief stretch of time. December 25 was the winter solstice on the Roman calendar, the shortest day of the year. People exchanged gifts, sang songs (carols) and decorated their homes with evergreen trees. Saturn was the Roman god of agriculture, liberation and time and parties!, It was a time of feasting, role reversals, free speech, gift-giving and revelry (gender-bending sex, drinking, telling people off, trading gifts and doing whatever you want). In ancient Rome, the pagan people celebrated Saturnalia festival in respect of the Roman god Saturn on 25th-December: Hundreds of years before the birth of Christ.
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