What is the REAL holiday that is celebrated at Christmas time....?

Question

...I don't mean the adopted Christian version...the REAL Pagan holiday?

What goes on, and how can one celebrate?

Answer 1

Winter Solstice/ Yule, It is a celebration to the sun god. I imagine it is much like the Christian celebration because most of the Christian celebration has been taken from the pagans. Gift giving, over-indulging.

BTW.... why R U nekkid in your photo?

EDIT: read about it here....http://www.circlesanctuary.org/pholidays/SolsticePlanningGuide.html

Answer 2

The 'real' holiday? Last time I checked, so long as it's celebrated as a holiday, it is a real holiday.
You could be talking about several things: Yule, Winter Solcetice, Saturnalia, Christmas (commercial), Christmas (religious), etc.
Then you could be talking about several different time periods. The Xmas today isn't what it was a century ago, neither are any of the others.
Then you could be talking about several different locations. Christmastime holidays in America, in Germany, in Russia, etc etc etc.
Several holidays intertwined came to form what Christmas is today in this place. Even when you say 'pagan' there are several pagan traditions, numerous ones long gone without a trace.
Your question is nearly impossible to answer. If you wanted to know something more specific, like how a modern Brittish or American Wiccan celebrates Yule, or how a green witch celebrates the winter solcetice, or how Saturnalia would be celebrated way back when, than please ask for that specifically.

Answer 3

Honestly there is no "real" holiday during this time as many have claimed it for their own.

The Romans used to celebrate Saturnalia during this time and it involved lots of feasting, partying and role reversal in which the household slaves became the masters. Boughs were hung by the doors, businesses were closed and people gave gifts to each other. People lit candles, sang songs and even had decorated trees. In other words, it's pretty similar to what's going on today.

The Druids celebrated the solstice which fell a few days before Xmas.

There's also Mithras who was celebrated during this time.

But finally the Xians declared that Dec 25th was the birth of Jeebus and as people didn't want to give up their pagan holiday the two ideas were combined. So the people got their drunken debauchery and the Xians co-opted the holiday.

Answer 4

The followers of Baal and the worshipers of the sun observe the winter soltice at Christmas time. The early church of Rome (Catholic Church) was doing their best to make their church the everything church, and slowly brought in pagan ritiuals and traditions substituting Christian names for each. Ever notice that Easter is never on the same Sunday twice in a row? It celebrates the spring equinox. If it were a true celebration of Christ's resurection it would be on the Sunday after the passover week every year.

Answer 5

There are many, many holidays, Christian (besides Christmas), Jewish, Pagan, and Secular. All having roots that intermingle and not necessarily all were Pagan first (the Pagans borrowed some from the other groups and were not established until later as a counter reaction to Judaism and Christianity) , so to which date in this long season do you refer?

Answer 6

Historically pagans celebrated the winter solstice, which occurs around December 21 or 22 in the northern hemisphere. You can celebrate it any way you want. Christmas is a real holiday though. Just because you don't want to celebrate it doesn't mean it loses its holiday status.

Answer 7

Sigh.... As a pagan i'm somewhat ill of questions like this. each new bobbing up subculture adopts some practices, customs, traditions and such from pre-latest cultures. Neo-pagans do an identical, so what's the vast deal? As a pagan, i do no longer have fun the beginning of or resurrection of Jesus (that are the excuses Christmas and Easter have been regularly occurring). So what if Jesus replaced into no longer born on Dec twenty 5th and that replaced into purely the day chosen for all to have fun. Sheesh, we had a occasion for my neighbor's new child on Saturday, yet his somewhat birthday replaced into interior the middle of the week earlier - ought to we no longer have celebrated on Saturday while all of us replaced into available to hold mutually by way of fact he replaced into no longer easily born on 6/25? So what if Christians integrated some previous seasonal customs into their celebrations of Jesus. Decorations and such are greater so secular now besides. The non secular meaning of them relies upon on the guy applying them. this is completely comfortable with me if a Christian has a Christmas tree and that i've got a yuletide tree on an identical time of twelve months. Pagans do no longer own unique rights to the month of December for goodness sake. there is room for each physique right here - and no ought to bicker over such issues that are so petty now pondering they got here approximately see you later earlier you or I have been even born. I nonetheless have fun yuletide and Ostara for what they advise to me - have been doing so my total person existence - so it variety of feels Christianity did no longer thieve my holy days inspite of each little thing.

Answer 8

"December 25 popularized
In Rome December 25 was made popular by Pope Liberius in 354 and became the rule in the West in 435 when the first "Christ mass" was officiated by Pope Sixtus III. This coincided with the date of a celebration by the Romans to their primary god, the Sun, and to Mithras, a popular Persian sun god supposedly born on the same day. The Roman Catholic writer Mario Righetti candidly admits that, "to facilitate the acceptance of the faith by the pagan masses, the Church of Rome found it convenient to institute the 25th of December as the feast of the birth of Christ to divert them from the pagan feast, celebrated on the same day in honor of the 'Invincible Sun' Mithras, the conqueror of darkness" (Manual of Liturgical History, 1955, Vol. 2, p. 67).

Protestant historian Henry Chadwick sums up the controversy: "Moreover, early in the fourth century there begins in the West (where first and by whom is not known) the celebration of December 25th, the birthday of the Sun-god at the winter solstice, as the date for the nativity of Christ. How easy it was for Christianity and solar religion to become entangled at the popular level is strikingly illustrated by a mid-fifth century sermon of Pope Leo the Great, rebuking his over-cautious flock for paying reverence to the Sun on the steps of St. Peter's before turning their back on it to worship inside the westward-facing basilica" (The Early Church, Penguin Books, London, 1967, p. 126).

The Encyclopedia Americana makes this clear: "In the fifth century, the Western Church ordered it [Christ's birth] to be observed forever on the day of the old Roman feast of the birth of Sol [the sun god], as no certain knowledge of the day of Christ's birth existed" (1944 edition, "Christmas").

THe proper way to celebrate is to have a party for the Sun God, I suppose. Clearly, the adoption of the 25th was a calculated step, as opposed to being a move that came from either fact or devine inspriation.

Answer 9

The winter solstice on Dec. 21st...also known as Yule...traditionally, it comes from a time when a sacrifice was made to bring the sun back to the world. Blood for the sun. This is why it falls on the shortest day of the year - the sun starts coming back bit by bit on the next day.

Answer 10

Yule, Winter Solstice.