Saturnalia - just a coincidence. I’ll put a post on Notes about why Christmas was 25th December at some point. Or I’ll link a video.
I think pagans fully understood the ‘light in the darkness’ motif and I suspect they brought some of their own traditions across into Christianity. By the time the Northern European pagans became Christians, Christmas was already established as 25th December.
There does appear to be a significant differences between the pagan and Christian winter festivals. Anglo-Saxon Christians don’t have the blood sacrifices, revelry or orgies, unlike their former pagan culture.
I agree - Pagan Anglo-Saxon Christmas is a weird way of framing it, but it kind of makes sense from our cultural standpoint.
Thanks for saying Christmas is not pagan! Honestly I really get tired of this old trope, repeated every year. There is loads of evidence for the Christian origins of Christmas. I don't like the idea of an Anglo Saxon Christmas either, other than the feasting!
The pagans' activities put me in the mind of an alternative ending to the movie Carrie. The one where she goes to the after party instead of burning everyone.
Norse paganism. Aztec religion. Sorry, but it's an unalloyed good to see the back of them.
I apologize, I did miss understand the specifics of your claim, but even then- Saturnalia? For any society tied to the seasons, the idea of the solstice being a mark of when the days being to grow longer again and winter is on its way out is an important concept and is thus celebrated. The idea of "out with the old, in with the new (year)". Thus the birth of the messiah, the coming of the light, has symbolically been placed at this pivotal point and is connected to all other holidays placed around this time in that manner.
And "Pagan Anglo-Saxon Christmas" is a weird way of just saying Yule or Geol or Jol. Of course "Christ's-Mass" was not a pagan holiday, because they'd be like, "who is this Christ fella?" and "what's a mass?"
Saturnalia - just a coincidence. I’ll put a post on Notes about why Christmas was 25th December at some point. Or I’ll link a video.
I think pagans fully understood the ‘light in the darkness’ motif and I suspect they brought some of their own traditions across into Christianity. By the time the Northern European pagans became Christians, Christmas was already established as 25th December.
There does appear to be a significant differences between the pagan and Christian winter festivals. Anglo-Saxon Christians don’t have the blood sacrifices, revelry or orgies, unlike their former pagan culture.
I agree - Pagan Anglo-Saxon Christmas is a weird way of framing it, but it kind of makes sense from our cultural standpoint.
Thanks for saying Christmas is not pagan! Honestly I really get tired of this old trope, repeated every year. There is loads of evidence for the Christian origins of Christmas. I don't like the idea of an Anglo Saxon Christmas either, other than the feasting!
The pagans' activities put me in the mind of an alternative ending to the movie Carrie. The one where she goes to the after party instead of burning everyone.
Norse paganism. Aztec religion. Sorry, but it's an unalloyed good to see the back of them.
Yule?
Yule is not Roman. The date of Christmas relates to the death of Christ on 25th March. It is nothing to do with religious practices in Germania.
I apologize, I did miss understand the specifics of your claim, but even then- Saturnalia? For any society tied to the seasons, the idea of the solstice being a mark of when the days being to grow longer again and winter is on its way out is an important concept and is thus celebrated. The idea of "out with the old, in with the new (year)". Thus the birth of the messiah, the coming of the light, has symbolically been placed at this pivotal point and is connected to all other holidays placed around this time in that manner.
And "Pagan Anglo-Saxon Christmas" is a weird way of just saying Yule or Geol or Jol. Of course "Christ's-Mass" was not a pagan holiday, because they'd be like, "who is this Christ fella?" and "what's a mass?"