Dark Origins of Christmas and Easter
Jesus was born in September. Human sacrifice was prevalent.
In today’s world, as far as I can tell, child sacrifice is not common. It’s a dark topic, it’s sad to think about, but humans have a history that is quite dark. Even the last couple of years some of that darkness has been brought to mind as powerful groups of people have pushed ideas and systems whether intentionally or unintentionally that have harmed tens of millions with all of the consequences still uncertain. But let’s go back further in time and look at when Christianity was formed and the time before that, around the time when Constantine converted to a new faith and those in power were working to eliminate pagan rituals and create a new foundation of love that would bring people together. Constantine was a believer that what was considered a “cult” when he first discovered it - christianity - was the way in which he could bring different leaders and groups of people together since the belief system was founded on loving one another and commandments of doing good. The strongest belief system at this time was paganism and while it was considered a structure that had many virtues to it, and extreme ways of holding each other accountable in smaller tribal systems, it still carried with it much divide and aggression across large groups of people.
Also, this is not an article that is promoting any religion or belief system or even putting any group of people down, the purpose of this article is simply to inform and educate and bring ideas to surface as history may not repeat itself but it often times “rhymes” as I once heard. And if we do not know where things originated from or the intent behind them, it’s easy for us to lose purpose and intention which then creates ambiguity and chaos. I personally prefer order at this phase of life. Right next to me sits a coffee mug from Shady Lion that says “Virtutis Praemium,” “Virtues Reward.”
There are many other articles online that talk about the origins and Easter and Christmas, so I will link a few at the end for anybody who would like a deeper dive, as I will do my best to compact information into this article in a way that it can be read and understood conceptually so it’s a short read, and maybe expand on it in later articles if it makes sense.
Let’s start with a question. When was Jesus born? Currently we practice Christmas which is considered Jesus’ birthday on December 25th, however using the Bible alone to calculate the best estimate I have seen with scriptural evidence points to jesus being born in September, as he was said to be around 6 months younger than John the Baptist. Again, I will post some links at the bottom as well for deeper dives if you desire.
Let’s have another question. What were celebrations or holidays that took place before Christianity became popular with the Roman empire and it’s people? Answer: many! But we will focus on Saturnalia. Saturnalia took place December 17 but was later expanded into a week or so, December 17-25, and was an annual festival and celebration which began with a sacrifice at the temple of Saturn and then the “festivities” began. Festivities included gambling and allowing slaves to sit at the table and partake in the week, so overall it was supposed to a time of “freedom” from strict disciplines and to allow people to “enjoy” themselves. I put that in quotes because of my own personal thoughts on what too much pleasure causes in humans, maybe another article another day.
How about another question. Were there any traditions pre-christianity around the time of Easter? Answer: yes. Germans in Europe had Eostre, the goddess of the spring season and ancient Mesopotamians and other groups of that era has Ishtar a goddess of fertility and renewal. The Germans used the rabbit as a symbol of fertility, and Egyptians and ancient folks are known for using the egg as a symbol of birth and fertility as well, with the Egyptians even regularly referring to the sun as an egg which would rise and give birth to the new day each day.
Now that I have just scattered some ideas, questions, and facts around, here’s another question. Is it possible that some of our modern holidays and traditions are not what we think they are? I have to say the answer is yes, that many things we have been told or believed as kids like Santa Claus coming down our chimney each year just simply aren’t founded in truth, and have been warped, altered, and in some ways even manipulated to make us feel good because we know people love doing that.
So what does it all mean? Well you may have clicked on this article, because like me you have seen things floating around on the internet or a friend sent you a video claiming that Christmas was originally a day of child Sacrifice to the Sun God Horus and Easter which is 9 months before Christmas was a celebration designed to make a lot of people for the December sacrifices, but I am not convinced of this yet because I found a lot of conflicting details.
With time being short for me today, I feel like I am leaving a lot of information being unchecked or untold but this is definitely something I desire to pursue more of, and I would love to hear your comments and thoughts on what has been laid out so far. Do you have some sources you trust or have you done any research in scripture and history or even pre-history books on this topic? I know I started off strong with ideas of child sacrifice, and that is a topic I can also imagine delving into more because it is hard to even think about but anybody who has read the bible in almost any version of it or any other scripture or writings of long ago may remember the name Molech who people did worship and sadly sacrifice children to. There is much to do in this life and visiting these places in the timeline of this era in humanity is something I imagine staying curious about so if there are ever topics you believe would be fascinating to add please write me or let me know in the comments as some of you have already, thank you.
The truth is there is so much we don’t know, and it seems to me there is also so much we pretend to know and the introduction of the internet has both helped and harmed with us discovering and discussing the reality of things although I am truly grateful to be living in an era where we can discuss ideas and what’s real and what isn’t.
https://isiopolis.com/2011/12/25/isis-osiris-horus-and-the-holy-day-of-december-25th/
https://www.accuteach.com/the-shocking-pagan-origins-of-christmas-christmas-before-it-was-christmas/
https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2014-01-23-ancient-carthaginians-really-did-sacrifice-their-children
https://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Topical.show/RTD/cgg/ID/22908/Birth-Horus-sun-god.htm
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/303866542.pdf
https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/dinner_party/place_settings/ishtar
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/anthropology-in-practice/beyond-ishtar-the-tradition-of-eggs-at-easter/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%92ostre