Pagan Orgies to Human Sacrifice: The Bizarre Origins of Christmas Read more: http://

[sanarcho]

Christmas was not, as it turns out, miraculously handed down as a fully formed holiday, complete with wrapped gifts and blinking lights. Rather, it is a rich tapestry woven from countless inexplicable and pointless customs.

Why December 25th?

The Bible doesn't give a lot of clues as to what time of the year the birth of Jesus happened (i.e., "... they met many travelers along the way, for it was just three days before the final game of the NFL Season...") So, why December 25th? No one knows for sure.
One likely explanation is that early church leaders needed a holiday to distract Christians from the many pagan revelries occurring in late December. One of the revelries was The Saturnalia, a week-long festival celebrating the Romans' favorite agricultural god, Saturn. From December 17 until December 23, tomfoolery and pagan hijinks ensued, and by hijinks we mean gluttonous feasting, drunkenness, gambling and public nudity.

The Romans would also switch roles between masters and slaves for the occasion, so not only did the slaves get to pathetically lower their own sense of self-worth by participating in the charade of freedom, they also
got to wear a Pileus (roughly translated, "Freedom Hat").

Google Image Search result for "Freedom Hat"

Master: "Happy Saturnalia! Here's your freedom hat! We're equals!"
Slave: "Thank you, master!" (puts on hat and primps in the mirror)
Master: "Saturnalia is over! Give me back my hat! How dare you put a hat on your slave head! YOU SHALL TASTE THE WHIP TONIGHT, BOY.
One other pagan celebration that might have given Christmas its date was Natalis Solis Invincti, which roughly translates to "Birthday of the Invincible Sun God," giving it officially the most awesome holiday name ever.
By the 12th century, the Christian Church had incorporated a few of the less-sinful pagan traditions into the 12 days of Christmas. We only wish the public nudity could have been left in ... maybe on the 10th or 11th day. Along with the gambling. And the drinking. Then again, it appears everyday is Saturnalia in Vegas so maybe we'll just go there instead.
Santa

Our favorite morbidly obese, undiagnosed diabetic trespasser is actually a bastardization of the Dutch Sinterklaas, which was actually a bastardization of Saint Nikolas, the holier-than-thou Turkish bishop for whom the icon was named.
The actual saint was not, in fact, famous for making dispirited public appearances at shopping malls. Rather, he was known for throwing purses of gold into a man's home in the cover of night so that the man wouldn't have to sell his daughters into prostitution.

So, back then Christmas wasn't "get a new Xbox day." It was, "you don't have to become a filthy whore day." While it could be argued that this basically makes Nicholas the anti-pimp, we prefer to think of him as the Bible's answer to Travis Bickle.
Later, Martin Luther invented his own Christmas symbol, Kristkindl, as part of his rejection of all things Catholic. What he came up with is by far the gayest of all Christmas symbols, as Kristkindl is portrayed as a "blond, radiant veiled child figure with golden wings, wearing a flowing white robe and a sparkling jeweled crown, and carrying a small Christmas tree or wand."

This is why you sometimes hear Santa referred to as "Kris Kringle."
Not surprisingly, most of the world has rejected his weird-ass version and over the years we've cobbled together our own Santa Claus: part Saint Nikolas, part Sinterklaas and part Norse god Odin. By the 19th century American writers were describing Santa as wearing a red sash with a skin-tight red suit with white spotted fur at the fringes. He was basically all
those other figures with a little Freddie Mercury thrown in.

Writers at the time were still calling Santa an "elf," including Clement Clark Moore in his famous poem The Night Before Christmas. Perhaps the image of a dwarf-sized intruder seemed less threatening than a Chris Farley-sized version, but we're pretty sure we'd be more likely to piss our pants if an overly jolly costumed dwarf magically appeared and started hopping around our living room floor. The little person might just end up with a bullet in the head. Not that there's anything wrong with frolicking little people with a propensity for wearing elf garb, of course. Except that there totally is.


Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Some of you are disappointed that we explained Santa without mentioning that the modern image of him was invented for a Coca-Cola ad, as the Internet has probably told you. That's because it isn't true. Come on, guys. Not everything in the Western World is based on some crass marketing campaign.
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, however, is.
This signature character in Christmas folklore, with his own song and movies and a mountain of yearly merchandise, was slapped together by the Montgomery Ward marketing team for a coloring book they were giving out. Prior to inventing Rudolph, they used to just buy the books and hand them out each Christmas, but in 1939 they figured it'd be cheaper to have one of their guys draw one up in his spare time. It's not like toddlers are great at detecting quality in these things.

So copywriter Robert L. May wrote it up, and created what turned out to be a marketing bonanza ... of which he didn't get paid a penny. A few years later the company actually let May have the rights to Rudolph, which was either an act of amazing corporate generosity or else they just assumed the Rudolph fad was over. After that, May's brother-in-law wrote up the song that you've no doubt heard every Christmas since you were born. It became a huge hit and the Rudolph marketing empire was born, along with a permanent addition to the Santa legend.
That's right; Europe brought their real-life saints, Norse gods and rich cultural traditions to the table, and America slapped on a promotion from a department store. Who knows, maybe 300 years from now Santa's sleigh will be towed by Energizer Bunnies, long after society has forgotten what an "Energizer" is. And, maybe Santa will sport a cheap cardboard crown and a creepy frozen grin.

Making out under the mistletoe

First of all, we'd love to know who actually puts up mistletoe in the first place. Everybody knows about it, but does anybody actually do it? We only see it in sitcoms and the occasional Hall and Oates Christmas video, but we're 99 percent sure no one actually uses it in the 21st century.
Nevertheless, people who have enough sickening Christmas spirit to purchase the plant, then find a nail, then grab a chair, then remember they forgot to get the hammer, go retrieve the hammer from the freakin' garage, and then hang the mistletoe, might be less likely to do so if they knew the origins of the plant. The word "mistletoe" may be derived from the old German "mist," for dung, and "tang," for branch. That's right, the shit stick. As in, "let's go kiss under the shit stick, baby."
So how did people ever make the connection between the shit stick plant and romance? It goes back to the pagan belief that the white, sticky goo from the berries was the semen of the gods.

There was also a Norse tradition that if two warriors should meet under some mistletoe in the forest (it's a parasite that grows on tree branches) that they would lay down their arms and declare peace for the day. History does not indicate if this included sweaty, Norse man-kissing so we're forced to assume it did.
Both the Celts and the Druids used the plant as in ceremonial rituals, and as antidotes to poison, which was unfortunate, since mistletoe is, in fact, poisonous. But, it was the English who finally made mistletoe part of the holiday tradition. They used to cut a sprig of it from the previous year's holiday greens, then hang it in the house in some sort of voodoo attempt to ward off lightning and evil spirits.
Somehow all of that ridiculousness combined to create the "girl has to kiss you" tradition as it exists today (again, mostly on sitcoms). The invaluable American addition to the tradition is, of course, the drunken male placing the mistletoe over his crotch.

Again, give it another couple centuries and that'll be the standard.
Decorating a tree

Question: What customary Christmas holiday decoration bases its origins in ritualistic human sacrifice?
Answer: What, you can't read the heading? It's the Christmas tree, you lazy bastard.
Back in the pagan day, all inanimate objects were fair game for worship. Trees, rocks, mountains, funny shaped sticks that look like phalluses, whatever. So supposedly some of the Norsemen got it in their heads to worship a thunder god named Thor by ritualistically sacrificing humans and animals at the tree they designated "Thor's Oak."

Thor.

Little did they know that Thor was too busy fighting the Incredible Hulk to notice the messy sacrifices.

You know who did notice? Christian missionaries. They notice everything. So, one missionary of the Christian persuasion, Winfred (aka Saint Boniface), came upon an imminent sacrifice and sternly disapproved. He took an ax and chopped down Thor's freaking oak, which in itself should make him some sort of god by default. Of course, because of his boring ass monotheistic beliefs, instead of declaring himself the god of thunder, Winfred focussed on a tiny little fir tree that grew from the hacked trunk. And as all Cracked readers likely know, the fir trees' triangular shape represents the Trinity, and voila, a Christian tradition was born.

However the tree did not, according to legend, spring out of the ground with little blinking lights and tin foil on it's branches. The thing with decorating the tree goes as far back as the 16th century, when people in Germany used to decorate their trees with apples, a tradition we can only assume stemmed from some crooked tree salesman who ran out of apple trees one year and wouldn't admit it. Other decorations included nuts and cheeses which again appears to be the same salesman testing the gullibility of his clients.
A guy brought the tradition to America in the 1800s, and when we say "a guy" we literally know who it was: a German immigrant named August Imgard. He was the first to stick little candy canes on it, and to put a star at the top. Whatever German strand of mental imbalance caused him to do that, this guy's spur-of-the-moment decoration idea now utterly pervades the imagery of the holiday. He was just a very bored German dude that needed a place to hang his candy canes.
We can go on and on about how different Christmas would be without him, but of course his contribution pales in comparison to St. Boniface. Without him, when little Timmy runs down the stairs this Christmas the only present he would find would be the gift of human sacrifice.
Merry Christmas!

Read more: http://www.cracked.com/article_15719...#ixzz2EkYvNst2

[D.projectile]

Check it...


cre·tin (krtn)
n.
1. A person afflicted with cretinism.


2. Slang An idiot.
[French crétin, from French dialectal, deformed and mentally retarded person found in certain Alpine valleys, from Vulgar Latin *christinus, CHRISTIAN, human being, poor fellow, from Latin Chrstinus, Christian; see Christian.]
cretin·oid (-oid) adj.
cretin·ous (-s) adj.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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cretin [ˈkrɛtɪn]
n
1. (Medicine / Pathology) a person afflicted with cretinism: a mentally retarded dwarf with wide-set eyes, a broad flat nose, and protruding tongue
2. a person considered to be extremely stupid
[from French crétin, from Swiss French crestin, from Latin Chrīstiānus Christian, alluding to the humanity of such people, despite their handicaps]
cretinoid adj
cretinous adj

[sanarcho]

interesting that D

i just wanted to add, that i dont agree with crackeds version of pagan

Paganism is too wide a term, we need to be able to seperate the individule faiths. The Britons before the Romans celebrated Winter Solstice without human sacrifice...not ALL old religions were about death and destruction. Paganism is about nature, life and universal balance...I don't like it being lumped in with human evil.

[D.projectile]

thats true. alot of people would probly call me one (some so called muslims)..and their definitions r off

[TSA]

wole whether you like it you not you're a christian. I say so because trying to act like your not isn't getting you anywhere when you make suck wreckless posts. If you wreent a chrisitian, were is the harm or evil in a festival having 'pagan' origins? Why is it discrediting to have 'pagan' roots?

[sanarcho]

?? TSA im not even white, not a god believer/worshipper.. how am i christian???


i dont celebrate anything to do with christmas or any other festival that christians have stolen and incorporated as their own


i dont celebrate ANY RELIGIOUS RITUAL, i understand the real meanings behind the rituals, which i refuse to give my energies too.

lol at wreckless post.. the links and sources are all provided in the cracked.com article.. do le research before your ego makes you post wrecklessy trying to defend christianity, or trying to understand the differences in paganism

try to understand my second post, on paganism. paganism is is about nature, life and universal balance



original pagan is dope, pagan to worship pedophile gods is EVIL

please try and understand my 2nd post.


do le knowledge

[hashashin]

Originally Posted by sole controller

i dont celebrate anything to do with christmas or any other festival that christians have stolen and incorporated as their own


i dont celebrate ANY RELIGIOUS RITUAL, i understand the real meanings behind the rituals, which i refuse to give my energies too.

[sanarcho]

there are plenty of other days you can celebrate in the year, days that mean something to you personally.

[hashashin]

lol, personally I don't give a fuck either way about it myself! I don't think there's anything wrong with people celebrating and having a nice time with their family at christmas though. Gives people something to look forward to through the year... doesn't really matter what the reason behind it is. Intresting read though!

[rakimkoolgrapwutang]

i hate how people try to make out saturnalia to be some disgusting festival with homosexuality and human sacrifice. saturnalia didnt have anymore homosexuality than any other roman festival and homosexuality wasnt an intregal part of it. saturnalia was the greatest merriest jolliest festival/holiday/celebration ever created with everyone just having a lot of fun.

[SL33]

Eastern orthodox churches don't celebrate Christmas on Dec 25th. They do it on Jan 7th.


Besides that, they have totally different customs than Roman catolics and others.

[SL33]

Originally Posted by TSA

Why is it discrediting to have 'pagan' roots?

exactly.

[sanarcho]

Originally Posted by hashashin

lol, personally I don't give a fuck either way about it myself! I don't think there's anything wrong with people celebrating and having a nice time with their family at christmas though. Gives people something to look forward to through the year... doesn't really matter what the reason behind it is. Intresting read though!

Energy flows where attention goes.

Originally Posted by rakimkoolgrapwutang

i hate how people try to make out saturnalia to be some disgusting festival with homosexuality and human sacrifice. saturnalia didnt have anymore homosexuality than any other roman festival and homosexuality wasnt an intregal part of it. saturnalia was the greatest merriest jolliest festival/holiday/celebration ever created with everyone just having a lot of fun.

not much i can add to this, if you find being homosexual merry and joyful, i have nothing to add on. im aware that nearly all roman/greek rituals where homosexual in nature.

do you think beating your wives and fucking children is fun? thats a part of saturnalia...

Originally Posted by SL33

Eastern orthodox churches don't celebrate Christmas on Dec 25th. They do it on Jan 7th.


Besides that, they have totally different customs than Roman catolics and others.

nothing wrong with celebrating my day of physical manifestation on the 7th of jan

Originally Posted by SL33

exactly.

i never said pagan was wrong or evil! or its discrediting to be pagan


what i said was

paganism is is about nature, life and universal balance

thats love. not hate or discredit.

[rakimkoolgrapwutang]

Originally Posted by sole controller

not much i can add to this, if you find being homosexual merry and joyful, i have nothing to add on. im aware that nearly all roman/greek rituals where homosexual in nature.

do you think beating your wives and fucking children is fun? thats a part of saturnalia...

why do u think that people beat their wives and fucked children on saturnalia. theres no evidence for that.

saturnalia wasnt a homosexual festival. romans probably had homosexual sex on saturnalia at the same rate as any other day. thats basicly like trying to say because people have sex on christmas (and people will probably be more liable to have sex on a special occassion) that christmas is some kind of pornographic holiday.

i seriously want to question where people get these false notions of saturnalia from.

[sanarcho]

cos that info is not in circulation any more

While this was said in an episode of “Boondocks”, there is a ring of truth to it. The Worldwide Church of God, prior to its public dismantling, issued a series of pamphlets on a host of Biblical subjects. Among them was “The Plain Truth About Christmas”, which details fully the root of nearly all Christmas traditions, including Saturnalia’s link to the holiday. Sadly, these pamphlets are out of print and hard to find


http://rapgenius.com/Ras-kass-nature-of-the-threat-lyrics#note-161663


Cause Imhotep, the real real father of medicine
Was worshiped in Greece and Rome in the form of a Black African
The word Africa comes from the Greek "Aphrike"
Meaning "without cold"; the word philosophy means "love of knowledge"
Stole from first man, Greek power expands
The first Greek fraternities band
The word gymnasium is Greek for "naked"
This was the place where adolescent boys were educated, and molested
This was accepted because Greek culture was homosexual
For example, Sappho trained girls on the island of Lesbos
Hence, the word lesbian
December 25th, the birth of Saturn
A homosexual god, now check the historical pattern
December 25th, now thought the birth of Christ
Was Saturnalia, when men got drunk
Fucked each other then beat their wife
Fact is, it was still practiced, 'til they called it Christmas
So put a gerbil on your Christmas list
The Hellenistic Era, Alexander the Great
Conquers all the way to India leavin' four successor states
By the Fifth century B.C., R.O.M.E
Succeeds to be the conqueror of Egypt and Greece
But had the threat of the Black Phoenicians in Sicily
The Punic Wars began 264 B.C