Discussion Group Report

"Was Jesus Christ man or myth?" asks Charles Bradlaugh in his essay, "Who was Jesus Christ?" "Born of a virgin and of divine parentage? So too were many mythic Sun-gods and so was Krishna, a Hindu god, whose story, similar in many respects with that of Jesus, was current long before the Christian era."

A booklet, Our Pagan Christmas, by R. J. Condon, very readable for the general reader, elucidates these questions. "It is doubtful if those Christians who annually bemoan the festive season as pagan realize the extent to which they are right," says Condon. In celebrating Christmas, we continue a practice of our remote ancestors that began many centuries before the coming of Christianity.

Romans of various creeds celebrated Saturnalia from the 17th to the 24th of December. At that time slaves changed places with their masters, and all kinds of license was permitted. Then on December 25th there was a great feast, the Brumalia, when parties were given and presents exchanged. This day was called The Birthday of the Unconquered Sun, when the sun, three days after reaching its lowest point on its annual course, began to rise higher in the sky indicating the coming end of winter, when animal and plant life, necessary for life, would flourish anew. The sun-god Mithra had many followers in Rome. At midnight at the beginning of December 25th, the Mithraic temples were lit up with priests in white robes at the altars, and boys burning incense, much as we see in Roman Catholic churches at midnight on Christmas Eve at the present time. Mithra's worshippers believed that he had come from heaven to be born as a man in order to redeem men from their sins and that he had been born of a virgin on December 25th. Shepherds were the first to learn of his birth, just as shepherds are said, according to "Luke," to have been the first told of Jesus' birth. Then would come a meal representing the Last Supper when Mithra ate with his disciples before ascending to heaven. The German Yule and the Jewish Hanukah were also winter solstice festivals. The Egyptians believed that their god, Horus, was born of a virgin as the savior of mankind and was cradled in a manger. Egyptian statues from centuries before Jesus was born showing the infant god Horus with his virgin mother Isis standing alongside were remarkably similar to later statues of baby Jesus and the Virgin Mary.

Until the fourth century, the Christians stood aloof, protesting that the birth of Christ could not have been fixed on so notorious a day as that of so many pagan sun-gods, but once they garnered enough power to silence their rivals, they brazenly announced that henceforth the birth of the Sun of Righteousness would be celebrated on the day of the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun.

The Nativity story itself was borrowed from paganism. The story of The Annunciation, the Conception, the Birth, and the Adoration of Jesus as told by Luke's gospel were all depicted about 1700 BCE on the wall of the Holy of Holies in the Temple of Amen at Luxor, built by Pharaoh Amenhotep III. And, oh yes, The Three Kings or Wise Men from the east were known to the Egyptians ages before they are supposed to have followed a star to Bethlehem. On a clear evening in midwinter, looking eastward we see the most striking of all the constellations in the sky, the three stars in Orion's belt pointing to the east from where they came, as if announcing a marvel. Then the marvel comes. Sirius, the most brilliant in all the heavens, rises in the east in line with those three stars. To the Egyptians, it was the most important of all the stars; they regulated their calendars by its rising. At one period in Egypt, it reached its highest point at midnight on December 24. Astronomically speaking, the Three Kings had "seen his star in the East."

The legends of the stable at Bethlehem, the crib, and the manger, and the star of Bethlehem all have their origins in Greek, Egyptian, Buddhist, Hindu, Persian, and Roman mythology. The prototype of King Herod's massacre of innocent children can be found in Exodus 1:15-22; the writings of the Jewish historian, Josephus; the legends of Krishna and Jason; and the story of Abraham and King Nimrod. The "dangerous child" is the infant sun-god, who is destined to destroy the evil tyrant, Winter. The name Christ may be traced to the Chaldean Chris, a name of the sun. Races as far apart as the Mexicans, the Chinese, the Etruscans, the Teutons, and the Scandinavians all knew the virgin-mother goddess. There can be little doubt that the Virgin Mary has been modeled directly upon the Egyptian goddess Isis, for the two are virtually indistinguishable. Both were gentle mothers who could intercede with the all-powerful creator and stern judge more effectively than their sons, and they have been styled Intercessor. Titles shared by both are Our Lady, Queen of Heaven, Star of the Sea, Savior of Souls, and Immaculate Virgin.

Also pagan are such time-honored customs as the pantomime of the Christmas mumming play, the Christmas tree, mistletoe and holly, the boar's head Christmas dish, the Christmas goose, mince pies, and Christmas pudding--the fun Christmas customs. The pagans, in their appreciation of and respect for nature and her cycles and the joyous, "human" aspect of life, seem to have discovered something worthwhile that has lasted through the ages.