| Religious Literacy Christmas
by William Edelen
We are buried this time of year in mythology, legend and folklore. It is good to get it all in perspective by rediscovering a few historical facts. I have lost count of the thousands of times that we have been told that Christmas celebrates the origin of Christianity . . . which, of course, is false. Christmas was around for aeons before Jesus was born. The winter solstice (December 22-25) has been celebrated for thousands of years. Solstice comes from two ancient words, sol the name of a sun god, and stice, meaning still, or the day that the sun stands still, the shortest day of the year. Since all cultures have been so dependent upon the seasons, the four major festivals were the summer and winter solstice and the two equinoxes. Equi, meaning equal, and nox, meaning nights, or equal nights, which always occur midway between the winter and summer solstice, when days and nights are equal in length. These are the four corners of the celestial year; but with the return of the sun to once again warm the earth and bring forth a resurrection of new life for another year, the winter solstice became the greatest of all the festivals. This ancient festival in Rome was known as the Saturnalia. The emperor Aurelian established an official holiday called Sol Invictus, meaning unconquered sun in honor of the sun god, Sol. This was held on December 24 and 25th and established December 25 as the official solstice. All of the other religions that worshipped sun gods also took December 25 as their fixed date for the festivals. One of the major ones was in honor of the Egyptian divine mother, Isis. Early Christians used to worship in front of statues of Isis suckling her divine child, Horus, nursing in a stable the babe that she had miraculously conceived. In 350, Pope Julius I decreed that the birth of Jesus would be celebrated on the same day as all of the other sun gods, on December 25th. Some of the other major gods who celebrated their birthdays on December 25 were Marduk, Osiris, Horus, Isis, Mithra, Saturn, Sol, Apollo, Serapis and Huitzilopochtli. One for the more interesting myths, quite obviously related to the Christian myth, is that of Mithra. Mithra went to heaven until he returned a savior for all of mankind. A star fell from the sky when Mithra was born; shepherds witnessed the birth, and Zoroastrian priests, called Magi, followed the star to worship him. They brought golden crowns to their newborn King of Kings. His birth was celebrated on December 25. It was called the Mithrakana. Now, in the days ahead when someone tells you that "we just have to get back to the true meaning of Christmas," remember that the true meaning of Christmas is a celebration of nature, the sun and of a return of that same sun to warm the earth for a resurrection of new growth. This has been the major festival in the life of human beings for at least 6,000 years, and quite possibly the last 15 to 20,000 years. Christmas started at the formation of our solar system . . . when our little planet . . . the third one out from a minor star named Sol . . . spins on an axis that is tilted at a slight angle to its orbital plane around the sun. I like knowing where our celebrations fit into the large picture of our human family. It relates me to "time past and time future ... where past and future are gathered ... pointing to one end ... which is always present." ...-Eliot. The sun is the reason for the season.
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