I honestly have so many serious thoughts and questions concerning Christmas and Saturnalia that I hardly know where to start:
Who seriously owns a month, a day, or an observance and what happens when these events overlap or philosophically conflict or challenge each other?
Do the ancient Greeks have control of everything related to belief in the fates and the Norse and Romans own everything related to Pagan mythology?
Is there a copyright on the Pagan names of days, months, or seasons and a law being broken every time imagery, metaphors, or the language of prefiguration is utilized? Should the Pagans also be disallowed to include language or logic borrowed from other discoveries, cultures, and traditions? That would be crazy, right? So, why accuse Christians of stealing?
The earliest ideas of democracy and separation of powers was communicated at Mt. Sinai by the ancient Hebrews. Should the Jews lay claim to those forms of democracy and constitutional Republicanism and limit their usage by others or in any other governmental forms? No, crazy, right?
If you're going to claim Athens or Rome were first, and that actually means something to you, then you obviously don't know your history or Scripture very well or care much about how traditions, customs, and discoveries play out in history.
Are we forbidden to incorporate Pagan imagery into fiction like that of C.S. Lewis or Marvel Comics? Surely the Roman or Norse Pagans and their mythical crop and rain gods, or ancestors, don't get a copyright on calendars, art, music, books, and movies. But you would think so when when they claim that Christians stole December 25th.
Does naming something or celebrating a historical person, birthday, or a mythical concept give you ownership of the moment that it's recognized? No.
No, that's all quite absurd. There is nothing inherent to the celebration of an event, which permits one to own the time (or way) of it being publically celebrated. Last time I checked, there was only one being who claimed to be endowed with that Almighty power and created days, weeks, months, encapsulated time, and all the things which were later named and categorized by Jews, Pagans, Christians, and others.
Yes, give Pagan's their due. Many are creative spiritual seekers. God loves them. Pray that they are drawn to the Light, the Son, and not the Sun that was created. They are brilliantly imaginative people and have a long and interesting history, but their roots are firmly planted in God's Earth, which showed up at least a day or two before they did.
My birthday is on July 11th, but I have no historical or legal claim to the day. I've been told that many other people were born on that day who also celebrate their birthdays, including Pagans. Now, there have certainly been times that I've celebrated my birthday early and times that I've celebrated it rather late. But I've never forgotten. The real day didn't so much matter to me as long as it was in honor of my birth and there was plenty of presents, cake, and ice cream involved. Other observations during the same month, regardless of their significance to me, usually carried on in their celebrations too. Even though some overlapped with my special day(s), it didn't concern are alarm me.
A 90-somthing year old friend of mine, who has since passed wanted to have fun celebrating his birthday on the 4th of July, even though he was born in the Fall. He chose it for various reasons: he generally loved being outside, the weather was usually great that time of year, and it was an exciting and wonderful way to cap his celebration; with fireworks lighting up the sky. Also, everyone who came used themes of American Independence to celebrate his day; red, white, and blue, fireworks, etc. and sang, "Yankee Doodle Birthday!" instead of "Happy Birthday!" Was he wrong, did he steal the 4th of July? No.
During that entire time, no one ever accused him of stealing "Independence Day." No one would have dared to demean this loving old man's choice. It was his way to honor America and all it meant to him: freedom of choice and the freedom, virtue, and faith that he held so dearly. He believed that it all underpinned the greatness of America and everything he stood for. It was a grand celebration with the very nation that supports and protects his own unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Rights, he believed had their deepest roots in Judeo-Christianity.
Pagans portend to be first or orginalist, but their ideas, values, and mythology lives on the barrowed capital of God's creation and Judeo-Christian values, traditions, and history every day. They most certainly barrowed their selective ideas of morality from the duties and responsibilities revealed in the ancient Hebrew text. They are a relavalistic moving target with no text, doctrines, or common beliefs. It's a make it up as you go Neo-Paganism with nothing objective to guide, direct, or shape the values they find in an impersonal universe or unconnected disunity of "divinity" of individuals. But that doesn't stop them from using moral, anthropomorphic "God" language to refer to the universe doing something in relations to mankind, Karma, or figuring out when you're good enough to become one with the universe--depending on which nutty idea you're willing to swallow. It's not a stupid idea, it's just not the best explanation of reality IMHO.
Just remember one thing: Impersonal universes can't do anything. Universes can't think. They can't know. They can't judge. Those are concepts barrowed from the Judeo-Christian worldview. It confuses those of us who have a Judeo-Christian worldview when you speak in ambiguous "spiritual" terms.
We should all be able to freely observe our own celebrations, in any peaceful way we choose, regardless of its interest or significance to anyone else. I am not jealous of the many other birthdays and observances that overlap my special day:
Cheer Up the Lonely Day
Marine Corps Creation Day,
National Clerihew Day,
World Population Day
American Artist Appreciation Month.
American History Essay Contest.
Bereaved Parents Awareness Month.
Cord Blood Awareness Month.
Family Fun Month.
Family Meal Month.
Family Reunion Month.
National Anti-Boredom Month.
It's your prerogative to mark celebrations or observations in the way you choose. And I will too. If there is ever, God forbid, a day celebrating abortions and I want to celebrate Easter on that day to counter and redeem the evil zeitgeist of the time, then I will. You can accuse me of stealing the day--all day--but I don't care.
That's actually what the early Church did with Pagan holidays. They wanted to counter and redeem them because they believed the mythological holidays were ultimately against God's purposes. They wanted to offer alternatives to the Christians and desire to fill the Great Commission and tell everyone about the Light of the World, the true Son of God, and not some pagan festival honoring the agricultural god Saturn, even though the date for Saturnalia was generally 17-23 December. You don't have to believe that the goal of early Christians was to redeem the false mythological teachings and literally shed Light during the darkest days of the season, but they did, and I do.
In similar fashion we should respect the ownership of written forms of communication. Nearly 5500 years ago the people of Mesopotamia came up with the first form of writing, followed by Egypt and China. Has their copyright expired? It was their idea after all.
It's also claimed that the Babylonians came up with the seven day week cycle because of the seven planets that they could see with the human eye. But most reference books treat this very superficially. How could such a system ever have originated? Well, the Hebrews, which the Babylonians enslaved, were already worshiping a God who claimed to have made the world in six days and rested on the seventh.
So, perhaps you're on the side of pagan mythology and believe the Romans and Greeks are to be acknowledged as innovating these measurements. Okay, let's say I give that to you. Regardless of who first invented the names of a day, month, year or even a holiday, it's still more important to recognize who created the actual universe in the first place. It wasn't ancient Rome, Saturn, or a pagan festival honoring agriculture that created anything. Does the sun shine on the crops and help them crow? Yes, after they've been planted, watered, and harvested in the Earth and by the people God created.
As a Christian I have no qualms with using the ancient pagan names for days of the week, months, and planets. We could never claim that they got everything wrong. They were certainly creative. But now their creative mythological stories merely secular naming conventions or metaphor used to communicate ideas.
I, myself, came to the conclusion that just as pagans can be converted and sanctified to God's service, so too can pagan holidays and even some of the traditions associated with them (those that aren't inherently immoral or idolatrous).
The Romans alone celebrate more than 150 festivals that stretched out for most of the year. So, between them and the Greeks and other random tribes, it would have been be hard not to pick an unused day to celebrate. Choosing to redeem a day dedicated to worshipping a mythological sun god with the true Son of God and truly the Light of the world, doesn't seems to be stealing to me. If anything it's pointing the way from a mythical prefiguration to the good news. The fact that December 25th was the date of a pagan festival doesn't prove that Christmas is pagan. No, it proves that Christmas was established as a rival celebration to the pagan festival. What Christians did was to say, "Rather than celebrated in immorality the birth of Mithra, a false god who was never really born and cannot save you, let us celebrate in joyful righteousness the birth of Jesus, the true God incarnate who is the Savior of the world."
Sometimes it is urged that to take a pagan festival and try to “Christianize” it is folly. However, God Himself did exactly that in the Old Testament. Historical evidence shows conclusively that some of the feasts given to Israel by God through Moses were originally pagan agricultural festivals, which were filled with idolatrous imagery and practices. What God did, in effect, was to establish feasts which would replace the pagan festivals without adopting any of the idolatry or immorality associated with them. It would appear, then, that in principle there is nothing wrong with doing so in the case of Christmas. The critical issue is: What significance do we currently attach to previously pagan practices (1 Cor 8:4-7; 10:25-31).
Saturnalia was an ancient Roman festival and holiday in honor of the god Saturn, held on 17 December of the Julian calendar and later expanded with festivities through to 23 December, so it doesn't conflict with 25 December. If anything the Midwinter solstice celebrated 25 December is in conflict. It was a date that became prominent in the third century when Aurelian consecrated his temple to Sol Invictus ("Unconquered Sun"). Sol Invictus was the official sun god of the later Roman Empire and a patron of soldiers. On 25 December 274 AD the Roman emperor Aurelian made it an official religion alongside the traditional Roman cults.
Saturnalia is of course December 17-23. The Christian view is that the day or festival time was/is being redeemed by the worshippers of the only true God, and through the years we just so happened to keep good parts of the celebration. Not everything Pagans do is awful and sinful.
To say that Christians stole something related to a Pagan tradition or custom would be a kin to saying we all stole the idea of shaking hands from initiate worshippers of Mithras (Syndexioi), who first used and identified and united with each other in a handshake. Who can lay claim to such a thing. It gets silly. I'm not a worshipper of Mithras, but I'm more than happy to shake your hand, even if you believe in false gods.
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