The winter solstice was celebrated universally since this occurrence from the beginning of rational human time is a seasonal event–scientific proof all nations accept as fact. Later the early Pauline religion chose December 25 for the birth of Jesus of Nazareth.
Ecclesiastics used this period since the world already celebrated the winter solstice for endless centuries. Tradition made the transition from science to fiction easy, since people didn't know when the great prince of peace was born.
Dear Ones,
When one biased persuasion attaches a well established date to own a universal celebration, it is sheer chicanery–just as Easter was said to be the mythological time that prophet Jesus rose from the dead. (By the way, if he never died, why does this prophet have to arise again on Earth?)
Easter was the name of a mythological goddess of spring no longer worshiped. The name of Jesus was substituted for the cosmic season of revitalization–the equinox around March 21 when day and night are equal worldwide.
When these deceptions happened, the proselytized world in general no longer celebrated the winter solstice or the spring equinox. During eons of time during the Christian Inquisition and its torturous tribunal, the entire Roman Empire was threatened with death if its masses didn't obey church militant dogmas and these rituals.
"Holy" Halloween, a ghoulish celebration, commenced with church burning alive women thought to be witches in Europe. (church not permitted to shed blood) Pilgrims (from South Hampton, England escaped on the Mayflower from religious persecution) brought the beastly ritual to the United States during the Salem witches trials, the memory still carried on in the tradition of spirited goblins, witches and devils.
The same group of pilgrims, in Puritanical zeal, cut off ears or hanged Quakers has they persecuted them for their religious freedom–why these English Protestants fled from the Anglican Church to traveled over rough seas to the Americas.
A Boston preacher in his sermon said, "I would carry fire in one hand and faggots in the other to burn all the Quakers in the world." And people wonder why church and state must have an iron wall between them!
Religious fervor of any nation is what fuels present bloodshed today, with Tea Party members shouting "Burn the Quran! at their meetings. I and a friend who wanted to see what these meetings were all ab out witnessed the bigotry at Bushy Run Battlefield arena in western Pennsylvania–as radical hatred and bloodshed and billions of dollars.
Thanksgiving started in the United States when religious families came together at harvest time and prayed that their deity would be good to them in the new world. Today people still thank their god for the bounty of food on their tables. Original early paintings depict First Americans sitting with the the Pilgrims and enjoying the repast.
How distorted past remembrance can be! No traditionalist American Indian would celebrate a time when their lands were being stolen from them as they were also scalped. I did research for a paper presented to Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. The title was "Scalping is a Hair-Raising Experience. Who Started Scalping?"–one source said it commenced with Europeans who lived near the Black Sea.
At that time I was astonished to learn Columbus and his seaworthy men scalped indigenous people and bashed their babies against trees to get the colonists to give up their gold for the attackers to take back with them for Spanish royalty. This inhumane brutality later was copied and used in revenge by First Americans. They grieved in anguish for family members killed and tortured by invaders and their lust for precious metals. Still to this day those who retained their Amerindian languages and culture do not take part in Thanksgiving celebrations.
Bill Maher also suggests no gifts for the holidays. People could exchange old New Testament gift giving of the Magi (magicians and astrologers) for great celebrations with families gathered in love and joy instead of continuing the same stress and chaos during the holiday season.
How ironic that a satanic Inquisitional religion metamorphosed like a butterfly from a caterpillar to booming manufacture of candy, the food industry including pumpkin, cranberries, greeting cards, party items and other merchandise–gifts which began as soothsayers saw a comet in the sky. For many, holidays mean profit more than a prophet born when King Herod was killing two year old boys and younger. They represent winter month rise in sales and the economy of the merrchants.
So here's to Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas with apple cider, egg not and "figgie" pudding–as long as people drop these archaic dark beginnings. Enjoy family and friend reunions in happiness instead of the burden of sinister mythology. The history of religion is nothing to celebrate or distort to make it look good. No wonder it has taken on a more enlightening atmosphere of congeniality and conviviality.
So what's wrong with Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and good cheer?
Mame,
historian and writer of Fission, Fusion, Fission, So Circles the Eagle and 50 other published books based on history helenesmith1.blogspot.com
