Whose Christmas is it anyway?...

Apparently, the season of good cheer did not start out as exclusively a Christian festival. According to Pagans, the early Christian church hijacked December 25 to celebrate the birth of Jesus because they saw that everyone was already having a good time and decided to take advantage of it. Historical debate has been raging for a long time over the exact date of the birth of Jesus Christ, with estimates ranging from sometime in September to much later in February.



But the most important date in the festive season for Pagans is the winter solstice which always takes place around December 21. Called Yule, it is one of the traditional Celtic fire festivals and marks the return of the light after the longest night of the year. The Pagan Federation, an umbrella group for Pagan organisations, describes Paganism as a spiritual nature-venerating belief system rooted in the ancient nature religions of the world.


news.bbc.co.uk... as/_new_year/pagan_christmas/37276.stmThe term of Pagan covers Wiccans, better known as witches, followers of the Northern Tradition who base their beliefs on Norse and old northern European beliefs, and also Druidism. Christians and the more secular Christmas revellers may be relieved to learn that Pagans in Britain do not tend to cavort around holly bushes stark naked, or "skyclad", to celebrate their version of Christmas.

...

There was not only the the yale festavle thing also the festivil of satanyalea which was on the 25th and selabrated the roman god satarn.

Interesting link.

I think a few people may have already mentioned this already though.

Originally posted by Elfwood
There was not only the the yale festavle thing also the festivil of satanyalea which was on the 25th and selabrated the roman god satarn.

I think it's the same thing with Oestre (Easter). I'm pretty sure it was a pagan holiday with something to do with fertility. Rabbits and eggs being representative of the celebration. The Christians must have decided to hijack another pagan holiday for the crucifixion. Interesting how both customs got morphed into Christ and the Easter Rabbit!

Originally posted by hellbunny

Originally posted by Elfwood
There was not only the the yale festavle thing also the festivil of satanyalea which was on the 25th and selabrated the roman god satarn.

I think it's the same thing with Oestre (Easter). I'm pretty sure it was a pagan holiday with something to do with fertility. Rabbits and eggs being representative of the celebration. The Christians must have decided to hijack another pagan holiday for the crucifixion. Interesting how both customs got morphed into Christ and the Easter Rabbit!

Did anyone ever think that it sounds similar just because that is the English way of saying Easter? The reason they moved it was so it would be easier to convert the pagans

Now a days we have the Neo Paganism that combines the Polytheistics & Duotheistics.I respect the Drudism beliefs in nature and honor,modern paganism includes the Wiccans practices too ..It's an extreemly interesting belief ,i enjoy reading about other beliefs i think it's necessary these days to understand a little of all the different beliefs to fully becom a real world wide community..I know some people who practice wicca although I never taken part.I guess the one time back in colledge has been enough..
We had tried summoning a spirit,I did'nt really believe it at the time but the rest were intusiastic of some sort of a result..We did it in the library using a wigi board it did move and I did feel somewhat cold and afraid I was 11 at the time.Cutting a long story short,after some ten min.the whole library was thrown all over the place,including some racks.There was no way we could clean it up befor a brother came around.He did and we were grounded for what seemed like a life time...that was the last time I touched a wigi board or anyother item that's used in any wicca or any magical practices,...
I restrict myself to books & sites...

As for Oestre,I know that in Dutch Oesters Geloof means Eastern Beliefs,but i tried looking it up in language dic,encyclo,bibles dic,i ended up with errors..I will make a task of it though,anything that manages to frie an online encyclopedia just gets me off..