REPOST: New Year? Why Now?
Current mood: focused
Category: Life
Why do we celebrate the New Year now? This event harkens back to our pagan Latin tradition. Originally, intensely agricultural, the Latin tribes did not track the winter days and a chieftain or priest, noting the height of the sun in the sky and the change in the air would declare a date in late winter as March 1. Commemorating the favor of the Gods with the onset of spring, the New Year would be declared 15 or 25 days later. The 2nd of the 7 Etruscan kings of Rome, Numa Pompilius, instituted a reform in 716 BCE adding the months of February and January. The Romans named the first of the new months for the God of all doors and portals, Janus. To commemorate the 1st day of this month as simultaneous to the 1st day of the year was a no-brainer. The Roman Senate always opened its annual session and elected its 2 consuls on this day.
This is in contrast to some cultures which start the year on their harvest festivals. September 1st is New Year's Day in Greece and the beginning of the religious year for the Greek Orthodox. Since this is the start of the autumn sowing season, Greek farmers take seeds to church to be blessed (much like French farmers do on February 3rd for the spring sowing). Russian Czar Peter the Great was determined to drag his country, kicking and screaming if need be to western cosmopolitan ways and changed the date to Jan. 1. In Greece, people also make first-of-the-year wreaths with fruits and herbs which symbolize abundance. From Rosh Hashana to Yom Kippur in the Jewish lunar calendar close to the autumnal equinox signifies days of atonement or renewal. Halloween or "Samhain" is the New Year honored traditionally by the Celts and also the first day of winter on their calendar.
Of course, the church in its motto of "if you can't beat them, co-opt them" conveniently declared the pagan New Year, the Feast of Circumcision in honor of the Jewish rite of passage for baby Jesus. This has recently been changed by the Catholic Church to the Solemnity of Mary Mother of God and the former has been changed to January 3. Go figure ! Read how Scots celebrate "Hogmanay".
Whatever tradition or date you observe, we wish you the best for a happy and prosperous New Year.
A skeptic debates an evangelical Christian on whether the contradictions between gospels Mark and Luke can be reconciled and "harmonized".
The videos do not elaborate on the very profound contradictions internal to both gospels -- the patriarchal and kingship genealogies at variance with accounts of virgin birth. The genealogies between the two gospels are completely different but for a few names. Gospel Matthew chronicles 28 generations since Abraham, while Luke identifies 41. Gospel Luke seems to attempt a reconciliation between the two descent narratives with a "hocus pocus" circumstance. Luke 1: 32He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: 33And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. 34And said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? 35And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. (It took the Church nearly 400 years to agree on the definition and characteristics of the "holy ghost" or "spirit".)
The Nativity "Cave" Tradition ~ not included in the canonical gospels but referenced in many essays of the early patristic apologists and other non-canonical gospels was a cave with a manger located on the outskirts or just outside of the village of Bethlehem. Note the contradictions both internally and with other written accounts. For examples: Justin Martyr - The Dialogue With Trypho, A Jew circa 150 (early) http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.viii.iv.lxxvii.html note the special pleading on behalf of the Bethlehem prophecy in Micah 4 and 5 http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.viii.iv.lxxviii.html
pseudapigrahic - The Protovangelion or Infancy Gospel of James circa 190-230 (late) one of the Books of the Apocrypha. Probably an embellishment of an earlier gospel account, "The Infancy Gospel of Mary" http://wesley.nnu.edu/biblical_studies/noncanon/gospels/gosjames.htm
Caves and stony places were important iconography at the time to many religions ~ especially Mithraism. The gospels "tip their hat" in the identity of Simon Petros or (Cephas, Aramaic in the Epistles) "Rocky" is conferred the keys to the kingdom of God, Matthew 16: 19. About 395, Saint Jerome writes the Cave of Bethlehem had been a shrine to Tammuz (Adonis).
This blog cannot do justice to all the loose ends and contradictions of the varying accounts of the Nativity of the alleged Jesus of Nazareth. Through the centuries, from the early apologists to the present day evangelicals, it would seem Christian advocates attempt to reconcile the irreconciliable. Why do they not give it up as eschatological literature with fanciful antecedents?
REPOST: "Confessions" about Christmas
Current mood: breezy
Category: Religion and Philosophy
Even Christians sheepishly offer excuses about the ostensible religious observance on December 25. They hint at the real reason for the season. First, we have an assessment on the entry in the Catholic Encyclopedia by Acharya S.
The article on "Christmas" in the Catholic Encyclopedia contains some very interesting admissions.
Firstly, it is accepted that "Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the Church." Further, "there is no month in the year to which respectable authorities have not assigned Christ's birth." Church father Epiphanius (3rd-4th cent.) "quotes an extraordinary semi-Gnostic ceremony at Alexandria in which, on the night of 5-6 January, a cross-stamped Kore gave birth to the Eternal." "...at the end of the fourth century, Epiphanius asserts...that Christ was born on 6 January." The 6th of January is "the birth feast thirteen days after the winter solstice."
As it turns out, January 6th was celebrated in Egypt as the "birth of Osiris-Aion," the soli-lunar god. It would appear that 1/6 has lunar significance. Indeed, the Catholic Encyclopedia continues:
"...during the consulship of (Augustus) Caesar and Paulus Our Lord Jesus Christ was born on the eighth before the calends of January (25 December), a Friday, the fourteenth day of the moon." An interesting choice of words "during the consulship...Christ was born." In other words, when Christ was born - and, in my opinion, WHETHER Christ was born - is entirely dependent on the whims of the authority of the day. CE objects to the Friday birthday by stating "tradition is constant in placing Christ's birth on Wednesday." Wednesday, the day of Odin, who was hung on a tree and pierced in the side - fancy that!
When it comes down to giving the REASON for the 12/25 birthday of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Catholic Encyclopedia waves its magic wand and simply declares, "It seems impossible, on analogy of the relation of Passover and Pentecost to Easter and Whitsuntide, to connect the Nativity of the feast of Tabernacles, as did, e.g., Lightfoot..., arguing from Old Testament prophecy... As undesirable is it to connect 25 December with the Eastern (December) feast of the Dedication (Jos. Ant. Jud., XII, vii, 6)."
True, it would be highly undesirable for the status quo to give any inkling of astrotheology within Judaism!
Not so with Christianity, apparently, as the Catholic Encyclopedia seemingly reluctantly admits:
"The well-known solar feast...of Natalis Invicti, celebrated on 25 December, has a strong claim on the responsibility for our December date."
Well, golly! There it is! Gee, d'ya think? And here I was quite sure that I had just completely made up the whole thing - at least, that's what the utter ignoramus Christian apologists continually insinuate.
In addressing the association of Christ with a solar holiday, CE further remarks:
"It would be impossible here even to outline the history of solar symbolism and language as applied to God, the Messiah, and Christ in Jewish or Christian canoncial, patristic, or devotional works. Hymns and Christmas offices abound in instances..."
Look closely at that paragraph. Is there any wonder why numerous scholars over the centuries have dared to ponder aloud that Christ is a personification of the sun god? And here was also see that the Messiah, as in Jewish literature, was also depicted in solar terms - and upon this earlier solar character Christ is predicated. (Christians, of course, would call it "fulfillment of prophecy," whereas I would say it's the following of a blueprint clearly laid out in the Old Testament.)
We now proceed to the meat of the argument. Says CE:
"The earliest rapprochement of the births of Christ and the sun is in Cypr., 'De pasch. Comp.', xix..." This passage reads as follows:
"O, how wonderfully acted Providence that on that day on which that Sun was born...Christ should be born."
Remember this sentence from this bishop and saint Cyprian (3rd cent.) next time someone wants to argue that Christ's 12/25 birthday has nothing to do with the winter solstice and the birth of the SUN. It is obvious from this sentence that in early Christians were well aware that December 25th was being celebrated as the birth of the sun. But, we know that fact from the celebration of 12/25 as the birth of Mithra, so the point is moot.
CE continues its exploration of the solar origins of Christ's birth by quoting church father Chrysostom (4th cent.):
"But Our Lord, too, is born in the month of December...the eighth before the calends of January [25 December]... But they call it the 'Birthday of the Unconquered.' Who indeed is so unconquered as Our Lord...? Or, if they say that it is the birthday of the Sun, He is the Sun of Justice.'"
Once again, the early admission that 12/25 is the Birth of the Unconquered Sun, Sol Invictus - hence, "Christmas" was once called "Natalis Invicti."
CE further recounts that "already" Tertullian (2nd-3rd) was compelled to "assert that Sol was not the Christians' God..." And Augustine "denounces the heretical identification of Christ with Sol." And so, much of which solar association is collected in "The Christ Conspiracy" and "Suns of God."
In a statement that sounds much like "too much protesting," CE says:
"The origin of Christmas should not be sought in the Saturnalia (1-23 December) nor even in the midnight holy birth at Eleusis....or even with the Alexandrian ceremony quoted above; nor yet in the rites analogous to the midwinter cult at Delphi of the cradled Dionysus, with his revocation from the sea to a new birth..."
Why, pray tell, should these festivities not be sought as the origin of Christmas? Especially since Dionysus, for example, is clearly an aspect of the God Sun?
In typical fashion, CE's conclusion regarding this "oddity" of placing Jesus's birth on the day of the SUN's birth, tries to find some squirming room, saying:
"The present writer is inclined to think that, be the origin of the feast in East or West, and though the abundance of analogous midwinter festivals may indefinitely have helped the choice of the December date, the same instinct which set Natalis Invicti at the winter solstice will have suffice, apart from deliberate adaptation or curious calculation, to set the Christian feast there too."
If you can read between the lines of this sophistic gobbledygook - so typical of obfuscating religionists who just can't admit to either themselves or others that something is wrong with this picture - what CE is saying is that the two festivals just HAPPENED to occur on the same day, derived from "instinct!" Yet, what is this instinct? In the first place, the case of the sun's birth, the instinct is to acknowledge truthfully that the days will now start to become longer. In the second case, the instinct is to deceitfully usurp this holiday.
Next, I reference an article in Christianity Today, a periodical of generally Protestant interest.
Why December 25?
For the church's first three centuries, Christmas wasn't in December—or on the calendar at all.
Elesha Coffman
It's very tough for us North Americans to imagine Mary and Joseph trudging to Bethlehem in anything but, as Christina Rosetti memorably described it, "the bleak mid-winter," surrounded by "snow on snow on snow." To us, Christmas and December are inseparable. But for the first three centuries of Christianity, Christmas wasn't in December—or on the calendar anywhere.
If observed at all, the celebration of Christ's birth was usually lumped in with Epiphany (January 6), one of the church's earliest established feasts. Some church leaders even opposed the idea of a birth celebration. Origen (c.185-c.254) preached that it would be wrong to honor Christ in the same way Pharaoh and Herod were honored. Birthdays were for pagan gods.
Not all of Origen's contemporaries agreed that Christ's birthday shouldn't be celebrated, and some began to speculate on the date (actual records were apparently long lost). Clement of Alexandria (c.150-c.215) favored May 20 but noted that others had argued for April 18, April 19, and May 28. Hippolytus (c.170-c.236) championed January 2. November 17, November 20, and March 25 all had backers as well. A Latin treatise written around 243 pegged March 21, because that was believed to be the date on which God created the sun. Polycarp (c.69-c.155) had followed the same line of reasoning to conclude that Christ's birth and baptism most likely occurred on Wednesday, because the sun was created on the fourth day.
The eventual choice of December 25, made perhaps as early as 273, reflects a convergence of Origen's concern about pagan gods and the church's identification of God's son with the celestial sun. December 25 already hosted two other related festivals: natalis solis invicti (the Roman "birth of the unconquered sun"), and the birthday of Mithras, the Iranian "Sun of Righteousness" whose worship was popular with Roman soldiers. The winter solstice, another celebration of the sun, fell just a few days earlier. Seeing that pagans were already exalting deities with some parallels to the true deity, church leaders decided to commandeer the date and introduce a new festival.
Western Christians first celebrated Christmas on December 25 in 336, after Emperor Constantine had declared Christianity the empire's favored religion. Eastern churches, however, held on to January 6 as the date for Christ's birth and his baptism. Most easterners eventually adopted December 25, celebrating Christ's birth on the earlier date and his baptism on the latter, but the Armenian church celebrates his birth on January 6. Incidentally, the Western church does celebrate Epiphany on January 6, but as the arrival date of the Magi rather than as the date of Christ's baptism.
Another wrinkle was added in the sixteenth century when Pope Gregory devised a new calendar, which was unevenly adopted. The Eastern Orthodox and some Protestants retained the Julian calendar, which meant they celebrated Christmas 13 days later than their Gregorian counterparts. Most—but not all—of the Christian world now agrees on the Gregorian calendar and the December 25 date.
The pagan origins of the Christmas date, as well as pagan origins for many Christmas customs (gift-giving and merrymaking from Roman Saturnalia; greenery, lights, and charity from the Roman New Year; Yule logs and various foods from Teutonic feasts), have always fueled arguments against the holiday. "It's just paganism wrapped with a Christian bow," naysayers argue. But while kowtowing to worldliness must always be a concern for Christians, the church has generally viewed efforts to reshape culture—including holidays—positively. As a theologian asserted in 320, "We hold this day holy, not like the pagans because of the birth of the sun, but because of him who made it." EDITORIAL COMMENT: Despite any assetions from anonymous theologians of antiquity, the selection of 12/25 has decidedly naturalistic overtones. There is not one shred of definitive evidence for any birth date for Jesus of Nazareth. The natural symbolism was apparent to some of the early patristic apologists of the 4th century CE. Siprian called Jesus Christ "sol verus," or "the true sun." Ambrose spoke of Jesus as "Sol novus noster," or "our unique sun."
An early Christian hymn reads thus: Verusque Sol, illabere, Micans nitore perpeti, Jubarque Sancti Spiritus Infunde nostris sensibus!(467) That is to say: O Thou, REAL Sun, infill us,Shining with perpetual light! Splendor of the holy (Cosmic) Spirit Pervade our minds!
This is an early hymn to the Christ-Sun, used as late as the seventh century of the Christian Era and was probably in use for centuries.
REPOST: The REASON for the SEASON
Current mood: naughty
History: THE REASON FOR THE SEASON !!!
The low integrity denizens of mass media who, with cunning deliberation, attempt to foment hysteria among the population about a festivity as benign as Christmas are even wrong about their historical premises. Does the observance of December 25 originate with the birth of Jesus of Nazareth? It is the goal of 12/25 Truth to disabuse this popular supposition. The population should be informed that the true detailed facts on this matter are integral to the foundations of western culture, in large part prior to the origins of Christianity itself. Look for more blog entries on this topic.
************************************************************ We start with a short essay by Acharya S, author of 3 books (available on Amazon.com).
The Christmas HOAX - Jesus is NOT the "Reason for the Season" by Acharya S
The December 25th birthday of the sun god is a common motif globally, dating back at least 12,000 years as reflected in winter solstices artfully recorded in caves. "Nearly all nations," says Doane, commemorated the birth of the god Sol to the "Queen of Heaven" and "Celestial Virgin." The winter solstice was celebrated in countless places, including China and Persia, the latter regarding the solar Lord and Savior Mithra's birth. In Rome, a great festival called "Saturnalia" was celebrated from December 1st to the 23rd. The winter solstice festival in Egypt included the babe in a manger brought out of the sanctuary.
Regarding the date of the "Christmas Feast," the Catholic Encyclopedia ("Christmas") remarks:
"The well-known solar feast...of Natalis Invicti, celebrated on 25 December, has a strong claim on the responsibility for our December date...."
Ancient Greeks celebrated the birthday of Hercules and Dionysus on this date, as the ancient authority Macrobius (c. 400 AD/CE) maintained. Even the Greek father god, Zeus, was supposedly born at the winter solstice. The "Christmas" festival was celebrated at Athens and was called "the Lenaea," during which time, apparently, "the death and rebirth of the harvest infant Dionysus were similarly dramatized..."
The Greco-Syrian sun god Adonis - the "Adonai" of the Bible - was also born on December 25th, a festival "spoken of by Tertullian, Jerome, and other Fathers of the Church, 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."
Nor is the winter solstice celebration a purely "Pagan" concept, as the Jews also observed it in reference to the birth of their god, Yahweh. The "Feast of Illumination," "Feast of Lights" or "feast of the Dedication," occurred in winter (John 10:22-23; Josephus's Antiquities XII, 7.7)¹ and represented the "ancient Hebrew Winter Solstice Feast." The reference in the gospel of John states:
"It was the feast of the Dedication at Jerusalem; it was winter..." (RSV)
The passage in Josephus's Antiquities (XII, 7.7) refers to the eight-day festival celebrated by the Jewish hero Judas Maccabeus (190 BCE-160 BCE), the "festival of the restoration off the sacrifices of the temple." This 8-day festival is called by Josephus simply "Lights," as in the "festival of Lights." Known as "Hannukah," this "feast of Lights" represents a "restoration" of the ancient temple sacrifices.
Regarding this Hannukah feast, in "The White Goddess" (469), Robert Graves says:
"The rabbinical account is that this eight-day festival which begins on the twenty-fifth day of the month Kislev, was instituted by Judas Maccabeus and that it celebrates a miracle: at the Maccabean consecration of the Temple a small cruse of sacred oil was found, hidden by a former High Priest, which lasted for eight days. By this legend the authors of the Talmud hoped to conceal the antiquity of the feast, which was originally Jehovah's birthday as the Sun-god and had been celebrated at least as early as the time of Nehemiah (Maccabees, I, 18)."...
In addition, Indians for millennia have celebrated the winter solstice, as a cardinal point, the new year and, presumably, the birth of the sun god. In the Indian solstice celebration--a "great religious festival"--there is "rejoicing everywhere." As in the West, the Indians "decorate their houses with garlands, and make presents to friends and relatives," a "custom of very great antiquity." One way the Brahman priests of Orissa have celebrated the solstice is by carrying images of "the youthful Krishna to the houses of their disciples and their patrons, to whom they present some of the red powder and tar of roses, and receive presents of money and cloth in return." Thus, in India the winter solstice has been as much a major holiday as it was anywhere, which is to be expected in a land permeated with sun worship for millennia....
Concerning the winter solstice festival in Ireland, the author of "Christian Mythology Unveiled" relates:
"The Baal-fire feast, or meeting, was a great festival in Ireland, on the 25th of December, and midsummer eve. Baal, or Bel, was a name of the sun all over the east."
It is important to note that the "December 25th" birthdate only applies to the age and hemisphere in which the winter solstice falls on December 21-24. In other ages, the solstice month is different, changing with the precession of the equinoxes every 2150 years.
The December 25th birthdate is that of the sun, not a "real person," revealing its unoriginality within Christianity and the true nature of the Christian godman. "Christmas" was not incorporated into Christianity until 354 AD/CE. In reality, there is no evidence, no primary sources which show that "Jesus is the reason for the season."
Happy Solstice!
Acharya S http://www.truthbeknown.com The Reason for the Season video: http://www.youtube.com/v/FRcCEZflIP4&rel=1&border=0
************************************************************ Next, I re-post a bulletin by MySpace member, Christianity. The holiday season is upon us once again. I know this because of the music in the grocery store and the seasonal trimmings, plus it's too dang cold outside. This is the biggest religious holiday of the year for Christians, and so of course, whether you are Christian or not, we all get subjected to it. But I did some research a few months ago and what I discovered was astounding. . .
It seems that just before Jesus there was another god known as Mithras (or Mithra). Mithras, oddly enough, has the same birthdate as Jesus, but some 600 years earlier! Not only that, but he was also born of a virgin, with a few shepherds present. Mithras, a traveling teacher and master, had 12 disciples as he performed miracles. Just like Jesus, Mithras was buried in a tomb, died, and after three days was resurrected and rose again! (It must be the way gods did things back then.)
Known as "the way," "the Truth," "the Light," "the Redeemer," "the Messiah," "the Savior," "the word," "the Son of God," and "the Good Shepherd," Mithras was sometimes pictured carrying a lamb on his shoulders. Sunday was sacred to the followers of Mithras and called it "the Lord's Day".
Mithraism hit Rome in the first century BC as the Mithraic cult fled Persia. Here it flourished as the Sun God Natalis Solis Invicti. The leader of this religion ruled from what is now Vatican hill, which is a place previously sacred to Mithras. This male leader was called Papa (which is how we get the word "Pope"). Books in honor of Mithras were called "Helio Biblia," which translates to us as either "Sun Book" or "Holy Bible."
But wait! . . . Merry Krishna too!
Before Mithras there was Krishna in India, circa 1200 BC. Krishna was born of the Virgin Mother Devaki after being visited by spirits to announce the impending birth of an immaculately conceived child who is God's Sun and the "son of God." His birth was attended by wise men, as well as shepherds. Krishna was presented at birth with frankincense, myrrh, and gold. Krishna worked miracles, restored sight, cast out devils, and raised the dead.
Many hundreds of years before both Mithras AND Jesus, Krishna was baptized in the River Ganges, crucified between two thieves, died, buried, and resurrected in three days and worshipped as the "savior of men." He proclaimed himself the "Resurrection" and the "way to the Father."
He was said to be without sin, of royal descent, and raised by a human father that was . . . a carpenter. He preached of a great and final day of judgment and used parables to teach the people about charity and love. In death he stood transfigured in front of his disciples. Krishna was called the "Shepherd God", "Lord of lords", "the Redeemer," and the "Universal Word." He was considered, "Alpha and Omega" as well as being omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent.
He was prophesized to return to battle evil forces in a second coming. His disciples bestowed on him a word that means "pure essence." That word is "Jezeus."
But, oh no! That's not all! Check it out: HAPPY HORUS everybody!
Thousands of years before Krishna, Mithras, and Jesus is the sun god Horus.
Horus goes back to Egypt circa 3000 BC. Horus was born of the virgin Isis-Meri on December 25 in a cave/manger with his birth being announced by a star in the East and attended by three wise men. In the catacombs at Rome are pictures of the baby Horus being held by the virgin mother Isis. Horus taught in the temple when he was a child. He was baptized when he was 30 years old by "Anup the Baptizer." Horus performed miracles and raised a man named El-Azar-us, from the dead. Not only did Horus walk on water, he was also crucified, buried in a tomb, and then resurrected.
Horus was known as "the Way," "the Fisher," "the Truth," "the Light," "God's Anointed Son," "the Son of Man," "the Good Shepherd," "the Lamb of God," and "the Word." He was also was called "the KRST," or "Anointed One." There was a trinity with Horus: Atum the Father and Ra the Holy Spirit. Add Horus and we have the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In the later years of Horus he had 12 disciples known as Har-Khuttie. Horus had an enemy (originally this was also the dark side of Horus, or his other face). This evil enemy was "Set" or "Sata." Horus struggles with Sata for 40 days in the wilderness. Some claim that this myth represents the triumph of light over dark. This triumph is most noted on December 25.
In fact, lots of Gods share this birthday!
The Greek god Attis, born of the Virgin Nana, (or sometimes Cybelem) on December 25 and was reborn and rose from the dead on the third day. Attis was both the Father and the Divine Son. His crucifixion and subsequent resurrection were celebrated annually, with ritual communions of bread and wine. The wine represented the God's blood; the bread became the body of the savior.
Adonis born on December 25 was son of the virgin Myrha. Hermes born on December 25 was the son of the virgin Maia, as well as a member of a holy trinity Hermes Tris-Megistus. The god Dionysus, born on December 25, turned water into wine. Bacchus, born on December 25, was crucified in 200 BCE. Prometheus, born on December 25, descended from heaven as God incarnate as man, to save mankind, and was crucified, suffered, and rose from the dead.,
Nimrod was represented in a dual role of God the Father and Ninus, the son of Semiramis, and her olive branch was symbolic of this offspring produced through a 'virgin birth'. Ninus was also known as Tammuz who was said to have been crucified with a lamb at his feet and placed in a cave. When a rock was rolled away from tile cave's entrance three days later, his body had disappeared. Nimrod was symbolized by a fish and the origins of the Popes nutre shaped like a fish head. Nimrod was the son of Cush. Nimrod was a Mason. The Tower of Babel was one of the most ancient traditions of Masonry.
The original Christmas festival originated in the Babylon founded by Nimrod, the grandsom of Ham, the son of Noah. Nimrod originated the Babylonish system of organised competition, man-ruled governments and empires based upon the competitive and profit-making economic system. Nimrod who built the original tower of Babel, the first city of Babylon, Nineveh (the capital of Assyria) and many other commercial and pagan-religious centres.
Nimrod married his own mother, Semiramis. Legend has it, after his untimely death, she claimed that a full-grown evergreen tree sprang overnight from a dead tree stump, which symbolised the springing forth unto new life of the dead Nimrod. On each anniversary of his birth, she claimed, Nimrod would visit the evergreen tree and leave gifts upon it. 25 December was the birthday of Nimrod. It is from this myth, created by a woman living in an incestual relationship, that we get the original Christmas tree.
How could this be?!? Why are all these mythological ancient predecessors to Jesus Christ born on December 25th? The answer, my friends, is found in the Son . . . er, I mean, the SUN.
It ‘s BAAACK !!! ~~ The War on “Christmas” / the War over Mythmas
Current mood: cantankerous
Category: News and Politics
Just when we thought it was safe to turn on our distraction boxes, the people who hate liberties expressed by hippies and almost all other freethinkers are back with fresh opportunities to hysterically trumpet contrived culture wars. We hoped the whole inane publicity stunt would be avoided this year. Even Bill O'Reilly seemed to relent to identifying seasonal events as "holidays" .Read more here about his annual "pinheaded" victim hood. Of course there are always willfully ignorant fools who are too intellectually stunted to be embarrassed by their misinformation. The AFA is back in its usual campaign to intimidate retail clerks on how to greet their customers. Or, how about the international financial crisis was caused by secularization and the disinclination to greet each other with, "Merry Christmas"? Some spread their fallacies with a softer, gentler tone and some politicians are in need of checking out our MySpace page before they stick their feet into their mouths any further.
But trouble has been brewing in the state capitol of Washington, Olympia. In 2006, a Jewish group sponsored a Capitol menorah, the candelabrum that marks Hanukkah. That prompted local real estate agent Ron Wesselius to propose a Capitol nativity scene depicting the birth of Christ. The request was turned down, with state lawyers saying they didn't have enough time to wade through issues of government religious endorsement. Wesselius sued; his Nativity scene was installed in 2007 and again this year. No menorah is on display this year. Also this year, Madison, WI based Freedom from Religion Foundation secured a permit to post an "atheist sign".
Aside from the sign being stolen, retrieved, and reinstated early this month, the reactions have been predictable.
We would have advised Gov. Gregoire to have never settled the law suit, but seek a judgment from the courts that disallows the state to post any religious displays on grounds of separation of church and state. Stick to the secular neutral 20 foot "holiday tree" of the last several years and leave it that. The ruling allowing her "discretion" in the allowance of displays, she could have denied all permits based on state church conflict concerns. This is essentially what has happened since Dec. 12, anyway.
The next one speaks for itself.
In this video, it is Mr. Donahue who reveals his ignorance (and with a tone of smug dogmatic arrogance). There is no empirical evidence that human ethics anywhere are derived from Christianity or "Judeo-Christian" tradition. In fact, quite the contrary.
Back to the sign controversy in the Washington capitol. Did the FFRF cross the line of "appropriateness" with a rhetorical attack on the character of religion? Is the presence of religion and especially Christianity in the American social discourse so oppressive or otherwise offensive that groups like FFRF should avail every opportunity to be critical? We want to know what our MySpace friends think(?)
REPOST: "Happy Halloween" or "Happy New Year"?
Current mood: pugnacious
Why could kids in costume on Halloween night greet their hosts of their door-to-door-travails with "Happy New Year" instead of "trick-or-treat?" ? Let us consider a holiday that long pre-dates Christianity. The night of October 31st combined with November 1 constitutes a quarter day. Another example of a quarter day would be Ground Hog Day. Another, would be Beltane/May Day. There are four quarter days. They fall precisely between a back-to-back solstice and equinox. Halloween falls directly between the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice.
Halloween and the following day was the Roman festival of Pomona. Long before, it was supervised by the Druids as the harvest festival of the Celts. Samhain (pronounced "Sah ween") was designated at the New Year on their calendar and also the end of summer/beginning of winter. (Spring and fall were concepts not formally recognized in their calendar.) On October 31st, the cooking fires in the homes would be extinguished. The Druids, the Celtic priests, would meet in the hilltop in the dark oak forest (oak trees were considered sacred). The Druids would light new fires and offer sacrifices of crops and animals. The Druids believed the ghosts of the dead were able to mingle with the living, because at Samhain the souls of those who had died during the year traveled into the otherworld. As they danced around the fires, the season of the sun passed and the season of darkness would begin. When the morning arrived the Druids would give an ember from their fires to each family who would then take them home to start new cooking fires. These fires would keep the homes warm and free from evil spirits. Many people would parade in costumes made from the skins and heads of their animals. At the present time in Ireland, many bands of musicians-in-costume parade through the homes of many villages on November 1.
In 601 A.D. Pope Gregory the First issued a now famous edict to his missionaries concerning the native beliefs and customs of the peoples he hoped to convert. Rather than try to obliterate native peoples' customs and beliefs, the pope instructed his missionaries to use them: if a group of people worshiped a tree, rather than cut it down, he advised them to consecrate it to Christ and allow its continued worship. In the year 835 AD the Roman Catholic Church would make November 1st a church holiday to honor all the saints. This day was called All Saint's Day, or Hallowmas, or All Hallows. Subsequently, All Hallows Eve became Hallow Evening, which became Hallowe'en.
Allison Gross ~ O Allison Gross, that lives in yon tower the ugliest witch in the North Country... She's turned me into an ugly worm and gard me toddle around a tree... But as it fell out last Hallow even When the seely [fairy] court was riding by, the Queen lighted down on a gowany bank Not far from the tree where I wont to lie... She's change me again to my own proper shape And I no more toddle about the tree.
Halloween 2008
Sarah Palin's 'lipstick on a pig' costumes a Halloween sell out http://www.newstrackindia.com/newsdetails/
23254 ANI US Mon, 06 Oct 2008: New York, Oct 3 (ANI): Sarah Palin has become such a huge name that costume stores are getting deluged with requests for Halloween masks of the Republican vice presidential nominee. However, owners of costume stores say that they are facing a problem in fulfilling the customer's demand, because of Plain'relatively late announcement as a vice-presidential candidate. "The Sarah Palin is going to be huge," the New York Daily News quoted James Gleason, 26, a manager at Halloween Adventures downtown, as saying. Gleason, who say that five to 10 customers a day ask for her costume, has put in a rush order for rubber Palin masks from Rubie's Costume Co. in Queens, but he's still waiting for them. And since there is no real Palin mask for the Halloween display, the store decided to try to cash in on Barack Obama's 'lipstick on a pig' comment on the campaign trail last month. The store took it's standard pig mask, put bright lipstick on it, slapped on an 8.99 dollars price tag and hung it next to masks of Obama and John McCain in the store's Fourth Ave. display window. Buycostumes.com is selling paper Palin masks for 99 cents and Ricky's NYC in Tribeca is offering Palin-like glasses with an 'Amy Winehouse' wig. Ricky's also offers a "Miss Alaska" costume, complete with a beauty queen sash and Sarah Barracuda's signature glasses, on its Web site for 22.99 dollars, but it hasn't yet arrived in New York stores. Costume department manager Tiffany Poucher said Ricky's has been getting several requests a day for a Palin costume. "They also want hunting rifles for her," she said. (ANI)
The pomegranate has been a potent symbol for time immemorial in religions and mythologies globally. It plays an important part in Jewish culture; in fact, the pomegranate was the only fruit allowed within the Holy of Holies, and its image was sewn into the ceremonial robe of the High Priest as he made his yearly entrance on the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, prior to the joyous feasting of Succoth, the fall harvest. On the other side of the world, it is pictured in th
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