(Note: this page is intended for Christians; if you are not a Christian you are free to read but this page is not intended for you)
The snow is (or might be) falling and the wind chills temperatures drops, and the days are shorter (in the northern hemisphere), for millions of people worldwide all over the western world, the beginning of winter is soo much more than just another season; it really is a holiday all its own:
Christmas!
Christmas is the most “wonderful time of the year” a holiday generally considered above all other holidays on the calendar in the western world, not really lasting one day, but taking up an entire month (that is all of December, and even as far reaching as late fall: November) in anticipation and celebration leading up to that one day, not felt about any other holiday on the calendar, even many stores and mini-holidays (such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday) are dedicated to selling products just for Christmas presents. Christmas is all about the magic of the season, for many that magic can be mean: the joy and tenderness of giving presents, doing acts of kindness, feasting and celebration with friends and family all together, and ,especially for children, the anticipation for Santa Claus to deliver exciting presents on Christmas eve or less celebrated but big for Christians: the honor of remembering and celebrating Christ’s birth on Earth: since Christmas is the day Jesus was born on Earth!
Christmas really makes the dead of cold winter a really special time of the year.
And often Christmas is paired with another winter holiday: New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day: a day marking the end of a year (New Year's Eve) and beginning of a new one (New Year's Day) in the Gregorian calendar only a week later from Christmas. Together these two major holidays (along with the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah and African American holiday of Kwanza) in the last month of the year are commonly called ‘the holidays'.
Christmas is such a popular and loved holiday that it’s the only holiday that is celebrated not only in winter (in the northern hemisphere) on the official date, but ALSO in Summer! Called ‘Christmas in July’: instead of snow, ice skating, and people wearing winter clothes as common in Christmas season in winter (in the northern hemisphere) people are often at the beach building sandmen and in swim trunks (and maybe even Santa is in swimming trunks himself taking a beach vacation) as July is in Summer (in the northern hemisphere).
This is how popular and special Christmas is!
But As millions worldwide buy up presents, set up Christmas trees with colorful lights, and stay up late to make cookies for Santa to eat when he comes to their home for the most 'wonderful time of the year'; maybe as a Christian living in the western world (or even beyond) you should be prepared to ask another important question you may never thought of:
“What is this big magical Christmas holiday really all about? What is this all really celebrating?”
Many Christians would thing this one of the strangest question a Christian would ask, most would respond:
“Why? We all know that Jesus Christ is the real reason for the season! So, if we all know the real reason for Christmas why investigate any further?”
Well, this is a good point; many Christians are 100% sure the real reason for the season is Jesus Christ. After all, it obviously is presented that way in traditional Christmas songs such as “The First Noel” and “Hark the herald Angles” the common slogan “Jesus is the reason for the season” and even the very name Christmas has Christ in it!
This seems at first pointless to even question the real reason for the season; because to Christians, it’s so obvious that Christmas is dedicated originally to Jesus’s birth, BUT let’s read what the bible has to say about knowing for sure about a matter before we come to an ultimate conclusion about it:
1 Thessalonians 5:21
“Test all things; hold fast [to] what is good”
That would especially include seriously considering what holidays we choose to celebrate (and really what we ultimately approve of/endorse: that’s very important to consider!)
This is why all Christians need to question:
Are we supporting what Jesus/God would support by celebrating this holiday? Are we really living like Jesus would by celebrating it? And most importantly, are Jesus and God okay with us celebrating this holiday?
All these questions are exactly the reason why you should seriously question celebrating Christmas.
So, with that in mind let’s unbiasedly examine the nature of Christmas and what it really celebrates.
Testing Christmas:
Christmas (seems to be) a Christian holiday
At first look at today’s Christmas season, we would think it’s all about warm gentle feelings of giving, helping others, getting presents, feasting with family, Christmas movies, and most of all of the figure that is Santa Clause:
But if we can look past all the presents, commercialism, fun, joy, holiday magic, family, and Santa and his 12 reindeer it would not be too hard to see what Christmas all was originally about:
Christ that is Jesus Christ
If you look back when Christmas became a holiday you would see that it came from the Ancient Roman Catholic church which made a new national holiday called “Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ” (In original Latin: 'Domini Nostri Jesu Christi'). Hundreds of years later in England the same feast was called “Christ-mass” ('mass' is the old word for church service) this is where we get our modern English word for “Christmas”. And like 1,000 years ago it has mostly not changed: Christmas is celebrated in honor of Christ with gift giving, good cheer, and food (With an extra Santa element) [1].
So, Christmas is to honor Jesus Christ’s birthday party!
Even the record of his birth in the beginning of the gospels of Matthew and Luke are often called ‘the Christmas story’[2]
This would explain why gifts are given on Christmas and it is a time for joy and peace on Earth: Jesus Christ's birth had all these things: he was the greatest gift to the world and brought joy and peace to the world.
So, it seems while Christmas is a Christian holiday celebrating the greatest birth ever, that still doesn’t fully explain where Santa clause, the Christmas tree/yule log, flying reindeer that all live in the north pole come from. After all, what does all this have to do with Jesus Christ’s birth?
...But The celebration of Jesus birthday is only around 10% of what Christmas is all about
Even though it is true that Christmas has Christ in it, and we give gifts in honor of Jesus Christ’s birth. This sadly is only a small portion of what Christmas actually is . If we are honest with ourselves (and let’s be honest here!) Celebrating the birth of Christ would be only about 10%-20% of the Christmas season, the rest?
Well, the rest is all about Santa, yuletide, caroling, the winter season, flying Reindeer, gingerbread, and decorated pine trees, and all other types of traditional ideas varying from country to country. What in the world does all this random stuff have to do with Jesus’s birth? If the Roman church did create Christmas long ago to honor Jesus and him alone then what in the world does Santa and Christmas trees have to do with it? And is December 25th really Jesus Christ’s birthday? And if it’s not then why was December 25th chosen to be when his birthday was celebrated?
The Birth of Jesus is pretty much unknown
The majority of the world has recognized December 25th as Jesus official birthday (Christmas) for 1,000's of years now, but in reality the exact date of Jesus's birth is unknown: many people familiar with the Bible would say (and be correct) that, Jesus's birthday remains largely a mystery: no human (except the ones present at his birth/told later) really knows what day Jesus was born; it is not recorded in the gospels anywhere when Jesus was born nor when the events described around his birth took place (except the time of day: which was at night) and its definitely not recorded in any known historical records!
So, if Jesus’s birthday is a mystery, then why do we celebrate his birthday on December 25th?
Early Christian scholars calculated his birth
Jesus' birthday was such a mystery that some early Christian scholars wanted to know the exact date of the amazing events that took place at the holy messiah’s birth: others just might have wanted to celebrate the date of his mysterious birth [3].
But December 25th was officially agreed as the most likely date of his birthday would be celebrated from now on by 400 A.D..
Since this time, most Christians have always celebrated Jesus’s birthday on or around about December 25th known as 'Christmas'.
However, even though we don't know for sure the exact day Jesus was born, was Jesus most likely born on (and thus all the amazing events recorded in Matthew and Luke took place on) the night of December 25th?
As stated before, why the Bible does not say exactly when he was born/these events took place (it does not give a specific day or the month like other events recorded in the Bible) it does give subtle clues at to when his birth most likely took place.
While we can’t conclude for sure exactly the day he was born, we can pretty much be sure that Jesus was not born on December 25th (nor anywhere in the winter season) [4].
However many Christians today (the same can’t be said of Christians in the not too distant past) know December 25th is not his true birthday: many will happily confirm to someone who points this out ; however it was the date they choose to celebrate his birthday since they didn’t know exactly when it was, but many will also say the main point is we celebrate the fact he was born at some unknown point on the calendar on this day because regardless of being the right time of year or not its still a great thing to celebrate.
Sounds Great, however there something else to consider: does God command/want humans to celebrate Jesus’s birthday?
For one this is not Biblical: The bible never commands Christians to celebrate Jesus's birthday yearly.
Think about this: If God wanted humans to celebrate Jesus's birth: why didn't he (or even his son) just tell them to do so? And even if it wasn't a command; why didn't he make the date of his birthday clearer in the Gospels ,so if humans wanted to, they could know the date of his birth and celebrate it? Why did he make the date such a mystery that no one seems to really know? It's almost as if he was purposefully trying to hide the date.
And if he was trying to hide the date of his birth, it might have been because he did not want humans to worship his birthday (like Christmas does).
However, even if this was acceptable to God and even if this was not his true date of his birthday, why was December 25th officially chosen as Jesus's birthday celebration?
Was it just a random guess from a Christian scholar and just universal accepted by all Christians? Or did something else influence Early Christian's decisions to make December 25th his birthday party?
It turns out the story of how Christmas got stated to honor Jesus's birth is only part of the whole story of how Christmas got started: the whole story of how Christmas started is much deeper than just Jesus's birthday: it also explains why Santa, yuletide, caroling, the winter season, and flying Reindeer are also a part of Christmas.
The whole Christmas story:
A closer look at the first Christmas in Rome
While it's true the church in Rome first made the celebration of Christmas on December 25th why exactly did this church really choose December 25th (out of all the possible dates Jesus was calculated to have been born) to celebrate Jesus's birthday?
It just so happens that December 25th was the same date of another popular holiday celebrated in the Rome at this time:
This holiday was called invitus sol (Saturnalia)
Saturnalia was a celebration of the Roman god of crops, Saturn. It was celebrated in a wild monthlong celebration involving social orders being temporarily destroyed and wild parties which included many sinful activities (such as mass orgies, gluttony, and bulimia) all leading up to the ultimate winter solstice celebration in the middle of Saturnalia called 'Sol Invitus' or 'The birth of the unconquered Sun god' (a holiday adopted by the Romans from the Persian god Mithra) this celebration became one of the most important holidays in all of Rome by 100 A.D. [5]
However, Saturnalia/invitus sol were only the Roman version of a larger global celebration to honor the winter solstice:
Many nations in the northern hemisphere had their own celebrations honoring the winter solstice at this time and often involved worshiping the sun (god)/praying to the gods for a future harvest:
The Greek nations (City-states) celebrated different gods' birthdays, such as Poseidon's (the god of the sea) birthday called 'Posedia' [6A], or Dionysus's (the god of many things including of winemaking and insanity) birthday called 'Dionysia' [6B].
The Chinese celebrated ‘Dongzi’ to honor the yin and yang energy being balanced during this time; often by worshiped heaven and their ancestors and the emperor praying for a successful future harvest to their God of heaven [6C].
Japanese celebrated 'toji' also to honor ying and yang energy being rebalanced by performing different rituals like praying for good health and fortune the next year [6D].
The native American Zuni tribe celebrated 'the Shalako festival' where the tribal elders performed several rituals to plead to the bird gods for a future successful harvest [6E].
The Aztecs celebrated Huitzilopochtl's (the sun god and god of war) birthday in a holiday called 'Panquetzaliztli'[6F].
The winter solstice (and their celebrations to honor it) was such an important even to many nations, that even some temples were built specifically to honor the winter solstice:
The Chinese dedicated the 'temple of heaven' to specifically have the emperor to go inside and pray to their 'God of heaven' during 'Dongzi' for a successful harvest the next year [7A].
The Aztecs built the 'Templo Mayor' temple to become illumined by the winter solstice sun during 'Panquetzaliztli' to honor their sun god Huitzilopochtl's birthday [7B].
The Egyptians built the Karnak temple for the sun to shine inside the temple in honor of the birthday of their sun god Ra: that only happened on the winter solstice sunrise [7C].
The ancient inhabitance of Ireland dedicated Newgrange grave to have the winter solstice sunshine illuminate the whole cave with a single beam of light: once again only happening at the winter solstice sunrise [7D].
All this goes to show how important the winter solstice was to almost all nations in the northern hemisphere: It was often regarded as a very important day: if not THE most important day of the year!
God warned his people Isreal about things like this: that the nations are terrified of 'the signs of the sky' (signs of the sky are like the movements of the sun and moon: like what happens during the winter solstice); and that they have practices associated with these signs (like winter solstice celebrations) that God says are completely worthless:
Jeremiah 10:1-3
"The nations are terrified by...signs in the heavens...[and]...the practices of the peoples (associated with these signs) are worthless;..."
God says all these nations celebrating 'the birth' or return of the sun with their festivals, is a foolish worthless thing to him! these humans/Noahites became ignorant once they choose to rebel against him and his covenant to them. They began worshiping and fearing 'the signs of the sky': the celebrations of the winter solstice in honor of the sun (god)'s return was foolishness to God that was done by the nations in vain! Thus, Saturnalia/Invitus sol was foolish Roman ignorance to God, that was all done in vain!
So, what does all this have to do with the first Christmas? Well, a lot actually:
Though Early Christians in the Roman Empire originally tried to resist the pagan celebrations of Rome as the apostles commanded them to stay away in having close fellowship with the pagans around them and their worthless idolatry:
2 Corinthians 6:14-16
"Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God."
Sadly, many Christians eventually began to see the appeal to celebrating the fun and wild holidays of Rome with the pagan unbelievers; especially compared to the boring holidays of the church (and possibly even the persecution that came with not celebrating Rome's holidays). So, many began to give in and celebrate the fun of Roman holidays; especially the great winter celebrations of Saturnalia and Invitus sol !
This was a problem: They had rejected the apostle's commands (and really Jesus's God's command) for them to not get involved with unbelievers and their sinful holidays celebrating false gods! So, pastors started giving sermons to Christians celebrating Saturnalia/ Invictus sol on December 25th ,but instead of promoting celebrating the sun god's birthday like the holiday was made for, they encourage Christians to celebrate Jesus's birthday instead:
The famous preacher of the 300's A.D., John Christendom, is recorded to have argued in his sermon on December 25th that the invincible sun god traditionally celebrated on this day was really fulfilled in Jesus. Thus, this day should instead be celebrated to Jesus's birthday:
“They…call it ‘birthday of the invictus’ But who is ‘invictus’ (that means unconquered) but not our Lord [Jesus] who suffered death then conquered it? Or when they call it ‘birthday of the sun’-well Christ is the sun of righteousness that the prophet Malachi spoke of:
(Malachi 4:2)
‘the sun of righteousness shall arise for all you who fear his name; salvation is in his wings.’”[8A]
Another preacher, Augustine, tells his listeners in his December 25th sermon to not celebrate this day like the pagan non-believers do (that is, the original way it was meant to be celebrated: to honor the Roman/Persian sun god 'sol') but rather to celebrate Jesus who created the sun instead and is the true sun of justice:
“..., brothers and sisters, let us keep this day as a festival; not, like the unbelievers, because of that sun up there in the sky, but because of the one who made that sun…he is also over that sun even in the flesh, the sun which people worship instead of God, because in their mental blindness they cannot see the true sun of justice.” [8B]
Now all this sounds good: Jesus is the light of the world; Jesus did conquer death by resurrecting back to life, and the sun is a very good Biblical symbol for all this, BUT this does not mean Jesus fulfilled the pagan holiday of Invitus sol, nor does it mean that it's a sign that Jesus has somehow replaced the false sun god's birthday and now Christians should now celebrate his birthday on this day just like the Roman pagans did/were doing!
Instead, it seems what they were really trying to do was compromise with rebellious sinful Christians (and pagans) by trying to convert Saturnalia/Invitus sol to be a celebration of Jesus's birthday, so they wouldn't be sinning (or so they though). In this way, these Christians could keep celebrating Saturnalia/Invitus sol pretty much like they had been but instead it would be a new holiday on the same date/around the same time called “Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ" and instead dedicate to celebrating Christ's birthday [3][4][5].
Eventually this led to more Christians celebrating this birthday of Jesus, and thus the first Christmas celebration was made:
Several year later, when the Roman empire became officially Christian, the emperors endorsed this holiday so all pagans in the empire would be more likely to convert to Christianity. It was much more likely they would be willing to covert seeing they could keep their winter-solstice traditions/holiday(s) as long as they now celebrated "Christ-mass" in celebrating Jesus's birthday instead of their false gods: in these ways, many pagans converted and joined the Roman catholic church [3][4][5].
As time went on, the Roman empire was divided in two and the Western Roman empire was conquered by many Germanic tribes who also had their own winter solstice celebrations called ‘Yule’. When they settled into Western Europe and became Christianize over time, these Germanic nations did just what Rome did:
Instead of giving up their beloved ‘Yule’ celebration, they just exchanged their false Germanic gods for Jesus and added their traditional rituals to the already existing Christmas holiday [9].
This added new elements to the original Christian Christmas celebration, and over the time of about 900 years these new Christmas elements evolved into modern traditional Christmas celebrations: this explains why Santa, yuletide, caroling, the winter season, flying Reindeer, and gingerbread, decorated pine trees are a part of Jesus's birthday celebration: it's because they have nothing to do with Jesus's birth because they were originally from elements of different pagan winter solstice holidays originally having nothing to do with Jesus.
So, while at first glance, it might seem like Christmas is a Christian holiday made to honor Jesus, clearly from looking at the full story of Christmas, we can see that Christmas is really the former saturnalia/Invitus sol/Yule etc. celebrations Christianized as a part of a compromise to keep traditional European winter solstice traditions celebrated; except, by now using them to celebrate Christ.
Final conclusion
So, considering all this; Should Christians celebrate Christmas?
Or put in a different way: Is taking a holiday that worthlessly worships a false god connected with a 'sign of the sky' that God calls 'foolishness' and celebrating it with non-believers (that God commanded you not to do) and instead using its traditions to now worship God, okay?
The greatest question needed to be asked here is this: How does God (and Jesus) feel about Christians celebrating Christmas if all this is true?
When God instructed Isreal right before they conquered the Canaanite nations; he describes exactly how he feels about using formerly pagan things (any rituals/sacred objects) used to now worship him:
Deuteronomy 12:30-31
“ and after they have been destroyed...be careful not to be ensnared by inquiring about their gods, saying, 'How do these nations serve their gods? We will do the same.' You must not worship the Lord your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the Lord hates."
God clearly says here that he DOES NOT want to be worshiped like other pagan nations (like Canaanite nations) worship their gods and even says that he hates how they worship their gods!
God later warns his people to not try to learn (borrow) the religious rituals (that he calls 'practices') of the pagan nations around them because they were all pointless:
Jeremiah 10:1-3
“Do not learn the ways of the nations...For the practices of the peoples are worthless;..."
However, some Christians might say to all this "Well all that's the Old Testament (Covenant) that was for Jews, we're Christians under the New Covenant therefore that doesn't apply to us"
If you as a Christian are thinking this; while it might be true that some things were fulfilled in the new covenant, it's also true that God does not change his nature:
Think about this for a second: Why would he be completely against being worship using formerly pagan rituals and even go so far as to tell his people to not even purposefully learn about these vain rituals and then turn around in the New Covenant and tell his people it's now okay to learn these rituals and honor him with them?
Does this make sense? No! God is not a constantly changing God; He does not change: so why would he change how he feels about what he's talked about above?
And Jesus does confirm this is the case in the New Testament (Covenant):
Jesus thinks the same way his father does; and he proves he hates when human traditions take the place of God's commands in worshiping him:
In speaking to the Pharisees in rejecting some of God’s original commandments and mixing it with their pagan Babylonian traditions, he states the same thing as God states above:
Mark 7:6-8
“Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites as it is written:
(Isaiah 29:13)
‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’
You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.”
Jesus says he sees them as hypocrites and even says (which God really says through Isaiah) they worship God in vain because of this! The same problem could very well be applied to the case of Christians worshiping Jesus's birth through Christmas:
Since Christmas is a mixture of pagan traditions at the expense of God's commands; Jesus, the birthday boy himself, would most liked say the same thing about Christians celebrating Christmas to honor his birthday: there're hypocrites and are worship him (and God) in vain!
Even Paul, the apostle to the (often originally pagan) gentiles, warned them to not even associate with the pagans they live with (let alone even learn about their rituals/ways to worship their gods):
2 Corinthians 6:14-16
"Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God."
So, concerning these commands, nothing has changed in the new covenant!
Yet (as covered above) all this is exactly what Christians have done!
They went out and associated with the pagan unbelievers and learned how they worshiped their god's birthday and used their holiday(s) to worship Jesus! And now Christians choose this tradition of Christmas over God's word on the subject to worship Jesus in a way he most likely does not approve of!
So, considering all God (and Jesus) have to say on the subject, they most likely do not approve of Christmas being used to celebrate Jesus's birth. In fact they most likely would hate it and see Christians who use Christmas to celebrate his birth as hypocrites worshiping him in vain!
So, no; according to this conclusion Christians should not celebrate Christmas!
While all this might sound extremely harsh and shocking to say about Christmas (and the Christians celebrating Christmas) this is how God seems to view the tradition of Christmas.
Christmas might be one of the most shocking and toughest things for a Christian to give up/be against: because it's so sacred, beloved, and it's so against the way of the (western) world: but according to this, it's the right thing to do. We as Christians are to try to seek out the will of Jesus/God and try to obey it: as stated before, that might be very hard and come with persecution: sadly, your Christian family might get angry at your decision and this conclusion. The whole world might see you as crazy; It might be hard! But we will either follow and obey what God seems to be telling us through his word and worship him how he tells us to, or we will be like the hypocritical pharisees and disobey/rebel and worship God the way we want to in vain:
The choice is yours
Sources:
[1]
[A]
The Catholic Leader “Q&A – Where does the name Christmas come from and what do Yule and Noel mean?” by Fr John Flader on 13 December 2021
Website:
[B]
Wikipedia “Christmas” (Etymology)
Website:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas
[2]
Open for Christmas “The Christmas Story in the Bible”
Website:
https://openforchristmas.com/christmas-story-bible/
[3]
"There is not a single month in the year to which the nativity (birth of Jesus) has not been assigned by some writer or other."
from pg 23 "Christmas customs and traditions" by Clement Miles on 1912 A.D. published by Dover Publications Inc. New York, from Internet Archives
Website:
https://archive.org/details/christmascustoms0000mile/page/22/mode/2up
[4]
"The PAGAN Feast of Christmas!" by H.O.I.M.(Hope of Isreal Ministries) Staff from Hope of Isreal Ministries
Website:
https://www.hope-of-israel.org/paganfeastxmas.html
[5]
“In Rome,… Saturnalia—a holiday in honor of Saturn, the god of agriculture—was celebrated. Beginning in the week leading up to the winter solstice and continuing for a full month, Saturnalia was a hedonistic time, when food and drink were plentiful and the normal Roman social order was turned upside down. For a month, enslaved people were given temporary freedom and treated as equals. Business and schools were closed so that everyone could participate in the holiday's festivities. Also around the time of the winter solstice…celebrated the birthday of Mithra, the god of the unconquerable sun, on December 25. ...For some Romans, Mithra’s birthday was the most sacred day of the year.”
From History.com “History of Christmas” by History.com Editors (Amanda Onion, Missy Sullivan, Matt Mullen and Christian Zapata) on October 27, 2009
Website:
https://www.history.com/topics/christmas/history-of-christmas
[6]
[A]
“In Athens and other parts of ancient Greece, there is a month that roughly corresponds with December/January that is named Poseidon…they held a celebration in Athens called Posidea to celebrate Poseidon.”
from Thoughtco “The Winter Solstice in Ancient Greece” by N.S.Gill on October 24, 2019
Website:
https://www.thoughtco.com/greek-winter-solstice-celebrations-120989
[B]
Wikipedia “Dionysia”
Website:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dionysia
[C]
"...Dongzhi...is more important than Chinese Lunar New Year...Chinese people have worshipped heaven on Dongzhi Day since the Han Dynasty...It was believed that heaven worship would bring a great harvest and good health for the coming year."
China highlights “Dongzhi Festival - Chinese Winter Solstice Festival”
Website:
https://www.chinahighlights.com/festivals/winter-solstice.htm
[D]
“Rooted in the Chinese philosophy of ying & yang, the winter solstice in Japan symbolizes the harmony and balance of the life force.”
From Just one cookbook “Japanese Winter Solstice Traditions (Toji) ” (The Origin of Toji (Winter Solstice)) by Reese Lee on December 18 2017
Website:
https://www.justonecookbook.com/japanese-winter-solstice-traditions-toji/#h-winter-solstice-festival
[E]
"At the time of the winter solstice they hold... the Shalako festival. The days for the celebration are selected by the religious leaders. ...when six Zuni men dress up and embody the spirit of giant bird deities. These men carry the Zuni prayers for rain 'to all the corners of the earth.' The Zuni deities are believed to provide "blessings" and "balance" for the coming seasons and agricultural year."
from Newsweek “Winter Solstice Rituals: How Native Americans Mark the Shortest Day With Ancient Religious Ceremonies" By Rosalyn R. LaPier on Dec 19, 2018
Website:
[F]
“The Panquetzaliztli was the celebration of the birth of Huitzilopochtli, the god of war and the sun…For the ancient Aztecs, Huitzilopochtli died every year and was reborn on the Winter solstice, so the Panquetzaliztli was a celebration of this entire process.”
from Cultura Colectiva “The Ancient Aztec Celebration That Became A 9-Day Christmas Party” by Isabel Carrasco on December 1, 2019
Website:
https://culturacolectiva.com/en/history/panquetzaliztli-aztec-origins-mexican-christmas-posadas/
[7]
[A]
"...Dongzhi...is more important than Chinese Lunar New Year...Many temples were built for this reason, including the famous Temple of Heaven in Beijing."
China highlights “Dongzhi Festival - Chinese Winter Solstice Festival”
Website:
https://www.chinahighlights.com/festivals/winter-solstice.htm
[B]
"...the orientation of the Templo Mayor's layout was deliberately designed to align with specific heavenly bodies. Sunrise during...the winter solstice, would illuminate the temple, suggesting a profound connection between astronomy and Aztec...[religion]."
from MexicoHistorico.com "Aztec Astronomy: Observatories and Celestial Knowledge"
Website:
https://www.mexicohistorico.com/paginas/Aztec-Astronomy--Observatories-and-Celestial-Knowledge.html
[C]
"...this phenomenon occurs at ...the "winter solstice" and takes place in conjunction with the birth anniversary of the most important ancient Egyptian deity "Ra", the Sun God."
from Egypt today “What you don't know about sun alignment phenomenon in Egypt” BY Mustafa Marie on Sun, 25 Oct 2020
Website:
https://www.egypttoday.com/Article/4/93531/What-you-don-t-know-about-sun-alignment-phenomenon-in
[D]
"One of the principal features which sets Newgrange apart from the other passages tombs...is the way in which the roof-box channels the sunlight along the passage in the tomb to illuminate the chamber at sunrise every year on the winter solstice."
from National Museum at Ireland “The Winter solstice at Newgrange”
Website:
[8]
[A]
“On the Solstices and the Equinoxes: of the conception and nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ and of John the Baptist” (CPL 2277) 300’s A.D. by Anonymous (credited to John Chrysostom) from www.roger-pearse.com translated by Isabella Image on dec 25th 2022
Website:
[B]
From Pg 38-39 (Sermon 190 “On Christmas day”) Part 3 Volume 6 “The works of saint Augustine” translation by Edmund Hill O.P.edited by John E. Rotelle O.S.A. printed by New City Press ,New York City 86 Mayflower Avenue, New Rochelle on 1993 from Internet archives
Website:
[9]
All that's interesting "The Story Of Yule, The Raucous Pagan Celebration Of Winter That Inspired Christmas" By Morgan Dunn Edited By John Kuroski Published August 2, 2023
Website: