Bible Myths and their Parallels in other Religions Part 103

_Osiris_, son of the "_Holy Virgin_," as they called Ceres, or Neith, his mother, was born on the 25th of December.[364:6]

This was also the time celebrated by the ancient _Greeks_ as being the birthday of _Hercules_. The author of "_The Religion of the Ancient Greeks_" says:

"The night of the _Winter Solstice_, which the Greeks named the triple night, was that which they thought gave birth to _Hercules_."[364:7]

He further says:

"It has become an epoch of singular importance in the eyes of the Christian, who has destined it to celebrate the birth of the Saviour, the _true_ Sun of Justice, who alone came to dissipate the darkness of ignorance."[364:8]

_Bacchus_, also, was born at early dawn on the 25th of December. Mr.

Higgins says of him:

"The birth-place of Bacchus, called Sabizius or Sabaoth, was claimed by several places in Greece; but on Mount Zelmissus, in Thrace, his wors.h.i.+p seems to have been chiefly celebrated.

He was born of a virgin on the 25th of December, and was always called the SAVIOUR. In his Mysteries, he was shown to the people, as an infant is by the Christians at this day, on Christmas-day morning, in Rome."[364:9]

The birthday of _Adonis_ was celebrated on the 25th of December. This celebration is spoken of by Tertullian, Jerome, and other Fathers of the Church,[365:1] who inform us that the ceremonies took place in a cave, and that the cave in which they celebrated his mysteries in Bethlehem, was that in which Christ Jesus was born.

This was also a great holy day in ancient Rome. The Rev. Mr. Gross says:

"In _Rome_, before the time of Christ, a festival was observed on the 25th of December, under the name of '_Natalis Solis Invicti_' (Birthday of Sol the Invincible). It was a day of universal rejoicings, ill.u.s.trated by illuminations and public games."[365:2] "All public business was suspended, declarations of war and criminal executions were postponed, _friends made presents to one another_, and the slaves were indulged with great liberties."[365:3]

A few weeks before the winter solstice, the Calabrian shepherds came into Rome to play on the pipes. Ovid alludes to this when he says:

"Ante Deum matrem cornu tibicen adunco c.u.m canit, exiguae quis stipis aera neget."

--(Epist. i. l. ii.)

_i. e._, "When to the mighty mother pipes the swain, Grudge not a trifle for his pious strain."

This practice is kept up to the present day.

The ancient _Germans_, for centuries before "the _true_ Sun of Justice"

was ever heard of, celebrated annually, at the time of the _Winter solstice_, what they called their Yule-feast. At this feast agreements were renewed, the G.o.ds were consulted as to the future, sacrifices were made to them, and the time was spent in jovial hospitality. Many features of this festival, such as burning the yule-log on Christmas-eve, still survive among us.[365:4]

_Yule_ was the old name for Christmas. In French it is called _Noel_, which is the Hebrew or Chaldee word _Nule_.[365:5]

The greatest festival of the year celebrated among the ancient _Scandinavians_, was at the _Winter solstice_. They called the night upon which it was observed, the "_Mother-night_." This feast was named _Jul_--hence is derived the word _Yule_--and was celebrated in honor of _Freyr_ (son of the Supreme G.o.d Odin, and the G.o.ddess Frigga), who was born on that day. Feasting, nocturnal a.s.semblies, and all the demonstrations of a most dissolute joy, were then authorized by the general usage. At this festival the princ.i.p.al guests _received presents_--generally horses, swords, battle-axes, and gold rings--at their departure.[365:6]

The festival of the 25th of December was celebrated by the ancient _Druids_, in Great Britain and Ireland, with great fires lighted on the tops of hills.[366:1]

G.o.dfrey Higgins says:

"Stuckley observes that the wors.h.i.+p of Mithra was spread all over Gaul and Britain. The Druids kept this night as a great festival, and called the day following it Nolagh or Noel, or the day of regeneration, and celebrated it with great fires on the tops of their mountains, which they repeated on the day of the Epiphany or twelfth night. The Mithraic monuments, which are common in Britain, have been attributed to the Romans, but this festival proves that the Mithraic wors.h.i.+p was there prior to their arrival."[366:2]

This was also a time of rejoicing in Ancient Mexico. Acosta says:

"In the first month, which in Peru they call Rayme, and answering to our _December_, they made a solemn feast called _Capacrayme_ (the Winter Solstice), wherein they made many sacrifices and ceremonies, which continued many days."[366:3]

The evergreens, and particularly the mistletoe, which are used all over the Christian world at Christmas time, betray its heathen origin.

Tertullian, a Father of the Church, who flourished about A. D. 200, writing to his brethren, affirms it to be "_rank idolatry_" to deck their doors "_with garlands or flowers, on festival days, according to the custom of the heathen_."[366:4]

This shows that the heathen in those days, did as the Christians do now.

What have evergreens, and garlands, and Christmas trees, to do with Christianity? Simply _nothing_. It is the old Yule-feast which was held by all the northern nations, from time immemorial, handed down to, and observed at the present day. In the greenery with which Christians deck their houses and temples of wors.h.i.+p, and in the Christmas-trees laden with gifts, we unquestionably see a relic of the symbols by which our heathen forefathers signified their faith in the powers of the returning sun to clothe the earth again with green, and hang new fruit on the trees. Foliage, such as the laurel, myrtle, ivy, or oak, and in general, _all evergreens_, were _Dionysiac plants_, that is, symbols of the generative power, signifying perpetuity of youth and vigor.[366:5]

Among the causes, then, that co-operated in fixing this period--December 25th--as the birthday of Christ Jesus, was, as we have seen, that almost every ancient nation of the earth held a festival on this day in commemoration of the birth of _their_ virgin-born G.o.d.

On this account the Christians _adopted it_ as the time of the birth of _their_ G.o.d. Mr. Gibbon, speaking of this in his "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," says:

"The Roman Christians, ignorant of the real date of his (Christ's) birth, fixed the solemn festival to the 25th of December, the _Brumalia_, or Winter Solstice, when the Pagans annually celebrated the birth of _Sol_."[367:1]

And Mr. King, in his "Gnostics and their Remains," says:

"The ancient festival held on the 25th of December in honor of the 'Birthday of the Invincible One,' and celebrated by the 'great games' at the circus, was afterwards transferred to the commemoration of the birth of Christ, the precise day of which many of the Fathers confess was then unknown."[367:2]

St. Chrysostom, who flourished about A. D. 390, referring to this Pagan festival, says:

"_On this day, also, the birth of Christ was lately fixed at Rome_, in order that whilst the heathen were busy with their _profane_ ceremonies, the Christians might perform their _holy rites_ undisturbed."[367:3]

Add to this the fact that St. Gregory, a Christian Father of the third century, was instrumental in, and commended by other Fathers for, changing _Pagan festivals_ into Christian _holidays_, for the purpose, as they said, of drawing the heathen to the religion of Christ.[367:4]

As Dr. Hooykaas remarks, the church was always anxious to meet the heathen _half way_, by allowing them to retain the feasts they were accustomed to, only giving them a _Christian dress_, or attaching a new or Christian signification to them.[367:5]

In doing these, and many other such things, which we shall speak of in our chapter on "_Paganism in Christianity_," the Christian Fathers, instead of drawing the heathen to their religion, drew themselves into Paganism.

FOOTNOTES:

[359:1] See Bible for Learners vol. iii. p. 66; Chambers's Encyclo., art. "_Christmas_."

[359:2] Eccl. Hist., vol. i. p. 53. Quoted in Taylor's Diegesis, p. 104.

[359:3] See Chapter XL., this work.

[359:4] Hebrew and Christian Records, vol. ii. p. 189.

[360:1] Hebrew and Christian Records, p. 194.

[360:2] Life of Christ, vol. i. p. 556.

[360:3] Barnes' Notes, vol. ii. p. 402.

[360:4] Ibid. p. 25.

[360:5] Farrar's Life of Christ, App., pp. 673, 4.

[361:1] Bible Chronology, pp. 73, 74.

[361:2] Hist. de Juif.