Meanwhile the rest of us prepare for the Solstice tomorrow.Everything you need to know: Winter solstice 2012 and winter solstice. There is Yule and there is A Shamanic Celebration. For Paul Winter fans:S O L S T I C E. And then we have Saturnalia Read on below for the real meaning of this time.
The REAL Holiday!
Just how Christian is Christmas? Not as much as you think. In fact, not much at all.
(Author unknown)
CHRISTMAS: A Christian festival, named after Christ's mass, celebrating the birth of Jesus. Any fool knows that. Slightly more savvy people are aware that Christ wasn't born in 1 AD and know Christmas is actually a cleaned up version of old rituals. But that's not the half of it. In fact, Christmas is utterly Pagan.
For a start, there is no evidence that Christ was born at Christmas. Shepherds would not have had their flocks out in the fields in midwinter, even in Palestine. Nor would the Romans have ordered a census in the winter, the most difficult time of the year for travel.
As for the 12 days of Christmas, that's traditionally the time it took for the three wise men to arrive at the stable in Bethlehem. The fact is that the Roman celebrations around the winter solstice (December 21st), starting with the feast of Saturnalia and ending with the Sol Invictus festival, also lasted 12 days. All over the world, the solstice is connected with rebirth, so it made sense for the early Christians to tag on their own ersatz birth-celebration to one that was already around. In just about every corner of the world in nearly every group of people have a baby "saviour" in their history with the exact same situation, born near the winter solstice, born of a virgin, etc. I have a list somewhere. I'll add it when I find it. It's actually very amusing.
Since we're on this topic, I have more to add. The Bible depicts the account of three wise men from the east who followed a star to Bethlehem bearing gift for the baby Jesus. The truth is that the Bible contains none of these details. They have all been added over the years from sources outside the Bible. Matthew 2:1 tells us, "Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the King, behold, there were wise men from the east to Jerusalem..." That's it. It doesn't say how many wise men, does not mention their names or provide any details of how they got there.(camels?)These men may have made their journey from the east on foot for all we know.
It's generally assumed that the wise men(magi)were three in number because Matthew 2:11 mentions three gifts, gold, frankincense and myrrh. The number of the wise men is not specified in the Bible. There is no Biblical source to depict these men as kings. They were most likely learned men, perhaps astrologers. That's why they were headed toward that star when they ran into the baby Jesus who had just been born in Bethlehem.
The wise men were invited "into the house", not a stable. Why? Because in those days people kept their animals in the house to stay warm. There simply were no stables in those days. As for the manger, they didn't have those either for many centuries. Poor baby Jesus was probably just laying on a pile of hay.
Now anyone watching the materialistic orgy that we carry out each year need not be surprised. Names change but human behavior remains rather consistent! So hail Saturnalia and happy Yule. Let's enjoy another rebirth of the sun.