The Winter Festival

Chapter Twenty
The Winter Festival

From Babylon, Mystery Religion
Reverend Ralph Woodrow, 1965

CHRISTMAS – DECEMBER 25 – is the day designated on our calendars as the day of Christ's birth. But is this really the day upon which Christ was born? Are today's customs at this season of the year of Christian origin? Or is Christmas another result of a mixture between paganism and Christianity?

A look at the word "Christmas" indicates that it is a mixture. Though it includes the name of Christ, it also mentions the "mass." Now the mass – with its rituals, elaborate ceremony, pagan prayers for the dead, transubstantiation rites, the Mass, is connected with the name of Christ in the word "Christ-mas", we immediately see an attempt to merge two conflicting systems together! Actually, to attach the name of Christ with the word "Mass", a pagan and heathenistic ritual, is but to pollute the Holy name of our God! And God says:

"As for you, O house of Israel, thus saith the Lord GOD; Go ye, serve ye every one his idols, and hereafter also, if ye will not hearken unto me: but pollute ye my holy name no more with your gifts, and with your idols." Ezekiel 20:39

The word "Christmas" is not found anywhere in the scriptures of course, and – as we shall see – December 25 is definietely not the date on which Christ was born. It is evident that our Saviour was not born during the middle of winter, for at the time of his birth, the shepherds were living out in the fields with their flocks. As the scripture says:

"And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night." Luke 2:8

As is well known, the shepherds in Palestine do not "abide in the fields" during the winter season. The shepherds always bring their flocks in from the mountain slopes and fields not later than the fifteenth of October!

It is quite evident that Christ was not actually born in the middle of the winter season. But, on the other hand, do the scriptures tell us what season of the year he was born? Yes, the scriptures indicate that he was born in the FALL of the year. For example, our Lord's public ministry lasted three and a half years. (Daniel 9:27, etc.) His ministry came to an end at the time of the passover (John18:39), which was in the spring of the year. And so three and a half years before this would mark the beginning of his ministry in the FALL of the year. Now when Jesus began his ministry, he was about thirty years of age (Luke 3:23). This was the recognized for a priest before he could become an official minister under the Old Testament (Numbers 4:3). Therefore, since Christ began his ministry at the age of about 30 – and since this was in the fall season of the year – then thirty years before this would mark his birth as being in the early FALL, no December 25.

While the scriptures do not tell the exact date of the birth of Jesus, there is a way to figure the approximate time of the birth of John the Baptist; and since John was born six months before Jesus, by comparing the two, we can again determine at least the season in which Christ was born:

John's father, Zacharias, was a priest in the temple at Jerusalem. During those times, each priest had a definite period of the year in which to serve in the temple. There were 24 such time divisions or "courses" when each priest would serve during the year. The names of these courses are given in I Chronicles 24:7-19. According to Josephus, each of these courses lasted for one week, the first course began serving in the first month, Nisan, in the very early spring (I Chronicles 27:1-2). Each priest in order would serve his course. After six months, this order of courses would be repeated, so that each priest served a week – twice a year. Then three weeks out of the year, all the priest served together – during the periods of the Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles.

With these facts for our foundation, let us notice what course it was that Zacharias served: "There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, OF THE COURSE OF ABIA" – or in Hebrew, Abijah – "And it came to pass, that while he executed the priest's office before God in the order of his course...there appeared unto him an angel." The angel revealed that to he and his wife Elizabeth – though they were advanced in years – a son would be born. (Luke 1:5-13) But what time of the year was it that Zacharias served the course of Abijah? According to I Chronicles 24:10, the course of Abijah was the EIGHTH in order. This would have been Iyar 27 to Sivan 5; that is, June 1 to 8. Following his week of service in the temple, Zacharias was obligated to remain another week, for the following week was Pentecost. But as soon as this ministry was accomplished, he returned to his home in the hill country which was approximately 30 miles south of Jerusalem, and his wife conceived. (Luke 1:23-24) This was about the middle of June. By adding nine months then, we arrive at the approximate date of John's birth. According to this, John was born in the early spring of the year.

Now since Jesus was six months younger than John (Luke 1:26,36), we simply add these six months to the time of John's birth in the early spring and come to Mid-September as the approximate time of the birth of Christ. Again, the evidence indicates that our Lord was born in the FALL of the year, not December 25.

Still further proof of this conclusion may be seen from the fact that at the time of Jesus was born, Joseph and Mary had gone to Bethlehem to be taxed (Luke 2:1-5). There are no records of this period whatsoever that would indicate that the middle of the winter was the time of taxing. On the other hand, there is evidence that taxes were paid in the fall season of the year. This was the logical time for the taxes to be paid since this was that the end of their harvest. There is also evidence that when Joseph and Mary made this trip, it was the time of a great feast at Jerusalem. This is the most logical reason why Mary went went with Joseph – to attend the feast, as they also did on later occasions (See Luke 2:41) – for there was no law that required a woman's presence at a taxing.

We know that the time they went to pay taxes was also the time of one of the great feasts at Jerusalem because of the enormous crowd – so enormous in fact, "there was no room in the inn" at Bethlehem (Luke 2:7). Jerusalem was normally a city of only 120,000 inhabitants, but – according to Josephus – during the feasts, sometimes as many as two million Jews would gather there. With such vast throngs of people coming to the feast, not only would Jerusalem be filled, but the surrounding towns also, including Bethlehem, which was only five miles to the south. Mere taxation would not cause a crowd this big to be in Bethlehem, for each person returned to his own city to be taxed. And so, taking all of these things into consideration, it seems evident that Joseph and Mary made the journey, not only to pay their taxes, but also to attend a great feast at Jerusalem. This was at the end of the harvest season that they were taxed and this was also the time of the Feast of Tabernacles. All of this – as well as the evidence already given would mark the birth of Christ in the fall – not December 25!

Since Christ was not born on December 25, then how did this particular day come to be a part of the church calendar? History has the answer. Instead of this day being the time of our Saviour's birth, it was the very day and season on which the pagans for centuries had celebrated the birth of the Sun-god! A study into this shows how far apostate church leaders went in their effort to merge Christianity and paganism into one apostate religion – even to placing the birth of Christ on a date to harmonize with the pagan birthday celebration of the sun-god! It was in the Fifth Century that the Roman Catholic Church commanded that the birth of Christ be observed forever on December 25 – the day of the old Roman feast of the birth of Sol – one of the names of the sun-god!

In pagan days, this birth of the sun-god was especially popular among that branch of the "Mysteries" known as Mithraism. Concerning this we read:

"The largest pagan religious cult which fostered the celebration of December 25 as a holiday though out the Roman and Greek works was the pagan sun worship – Mithraism...This winter festival was called 'the Nativity' – the 'nativity of the SUN'."

And not only was Mithra, the sun-god of Mithraism, said to be born at this time of the year, but Osiris, Horus, Hercules, Bacchus, Adonis, Jupiter, Tammuz, and other sun-gods were also supposedly born at what is today called the "Christmas" season – the winter solstice!

Says a noted writer:

"The winter solstice (was) the time at which all the sun-gods from Osiris to Jupiter and Mithra had celebrated their (birthdays), the celebration being adorned with the pine tree of Adonis, the Holy of Saturn, and the mistletoe...tapers represented the kindling of the newborn sun-god's fire..."

Now the fact that the various sun-gods that were worshipped in different countries were all believed to have been born at the same season (in the old fables), would seem to indicate that they were but different forms (under different names) of the original son of the sun-god, Tammuz, of Babylon, the land from which sun-worship originally spread.

In Babylon, the birthday of Tammuz was celebrated at the time of the winter solstice with great feasts, revelry, and drunkenness – the same way many celebrate it today! The ancient celebration spread and became so much an established custom that "in pagan Rome and Greece, in the days of Teutonic barbarians, in the remote times of ancient Egyptian civilization, in the infancy of the race East and West and North and South, the period of the winter solstice was ever a period of rejoicing and festivity."

When this mid-winter festival came to Rome, it was known as the Saturnalia – Saturn being but another name of Nimrod or Tammuz as the "hidden god." This feast was the most vile, immoral feast that ever disgraced pagan Rome. It was a season license, drunkeness, and debauchery when all restraints of law were laid aside. And it was from this very feast at Rome that the merry-making of this season passed into the Roman Catholic Church and on down to our present civilization! "It is a matter of common knowledge", says one writer, "that much of our association with the Christmas season – the holidays, the giving of presents and the general feeling of geniality – is but the inheritance from the Roman winter festival of the Saturnalia...survivals of paganism."

Tertullian mentions that the practice of exchanging gifts at this season was part of the pagan Roman Saturnalia. When this mid-winter festival was adopted in the Roman church, this custom was also adopted. As usual, however, apostate leaders tried to find some point of similarity between the pagan and Christian religion – to make the merger seem less obvious. In this case, reference was made to the fact that the wise men when they came to see the Christ-child presented to him gifts. Some suppose that this is where the custom of exchanging gifts at Christmas time came. But not so. The wise men did not exchange gifts among themselves. They presented their gifts to JESUS who was born king of the Jews. (It was an Eastern custom to present gifts when coming into the presence of a King.) But these gifts were not birthday gifts. When the wise men arrived, it was some time after the day on which was born. By this time, he was no longer in a stable, but in a HOUSE. (Matthew 2:9-11) Obviously, the gifts of the wise men were not Christmas gifts.

Space here will not allow us to enlarge on the use of the round wreath, kissing under the mistletoe, the use of the Yule log, the wassail bowl, holly, red berries, Santa Claus, the undue commercialism of the season, etc., but all of these things are equally unscriptural and clearly identify our customs of today with the customs of the Saturnalia of pagan Rome.

And finally, in connection with the customs of the "Christmas" season, we will mention the Christmas tree. An old Babylonish fable went like this:

Semiramis, the mother of Tammuz, claimed that overnight an evergreen tree sprang up from a dead tree stump. The dead stump supposedly symbolized her dead husband Nimrod; the new evergreen tree was the symbol that Nimrod had come to life again in the person of Tammuz!

This idea spread and developed so that the various nations all have their legends about sacred trees! Among the Druids, the oak was sacred; among the Egyptians, it was the palm; and in Rome, it was the fir, which was decorated with red berries during Saturnalia! Among the Scandinavians, the fir tree was sacred to their god Odin. "The Scandinavian god Woden or Odin was believe to bestow special gifts at Yuletide to those who honored him by approaching his sacred FIR TREE." And even as other rites of the Yuletide season were absorbed in "Christianity", so also is the wide-spread use of the tree at this season a carry over of an ancient practice! "The Christmas tree...recapitulates the idea of tree worship...gilded nuts and balls symbolizing the sun...all of the festivities of the (pagan) winter solstice have been absorbed into Christmas day...the use of holly and mistletoe to the Druidic ceremonies; the Christmas tree to the honors paid to Odin's sacred fir..."

In at least ten Biblical references, the "green" tree is associated with idolatry and false worship. Now of course all trees are green at one time or another; apparently then, the references to the "green" tree refer to a tree that is especially noted for being green – the evergreen or tree of that family!

Taking all of this into consideration, it is interesting to notice the reading of Jeremiah 10:1-5 and compare it with today's custom of decorating a tree at the Christmas season:

"The customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe."

"They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not."

No of course the people in the days of Jeremiah, as the context goes on to show, were actually making an idol out of the tree. We do not mean to infer that people who today place Christmas trees in their homes and churches are WORSHIPPING the tree. What we are saying is that today's use of the tree is plainly a carry over from paganism – in a much modified form or course. But whatever the difference may be between the ancient use of the tree as compared with present day customs, no one can deny that these things of which we have been speaking are customs of men. And God says:

"The customs of the people are vain" – worthless, empty – they add no power to true worship.

Christmas was adopted into the Roman church during the fifth century. In the sixth century, missionaries were sent through the northern part of Europe to gather pagans into the Roman fold. They found that the 24th of June was a very popular day among these people. In order to induce them into the "church", as was the usual custom after the falling away, apostate church leaders would allow them to continue celebrating their pagan holiday, only they would attempt to associate it with some Christian event. But what event could they associate with June 24th? They had already adopted a day to commemorate the birth of Christ – December 25th. And this error led to another error. They noticed that June 24th was approximately six months before December 25, and since John the Baptist was born six months before Jesus, why not set June 24 as the day to celebrate John's birthday? And this is what they did. To this day, June 24 is known on the papal calendar as St. John's Day or the Nativity of St. John! But obviously, such an idea is built upon a false foundation, for John was not born on June 24; and mixing his name with this day was but a cover up, so the old pagan holiday could be continued – now within the "church."

In ancient times, this day was set aside for Baal worship. In Britain, before the entrance of Christianity there, the 24th of June was celebrated by the Druids with blazing FIRES in honor of Baal (the sun-god, Nimrod in deified form). The writing s of such noted historians as Herodotus, Wilkinson, Layard, and others tell of these ceremonial fires in different countries. When June 24th was adopted into the "church" and renamed as St. John's day, so also were the sacred fires adopted and renamed as "St. John's Fires"! I have seen the people running and leaping through the St. John's fires in Ireland...", says one writer of the past century, "proud of passing through unsinged...thinking themselves in a special manner blest by the ceremony." In reading of such rites, we are reminded of similar practices into which the backslidden children of Israel fell when they would "pass through the fire to Molech" (Jeremiah 32:35; Ezekiel 20:31). Obviously, none of these practices had any connection with John the Baptist.

Besides the fire ceremony that was observed on June 24th, this day was also known among those heathen tribes as the festival of water. And had not John the Baptist been especially known as the one that baptized with WATER? And so this slight similarity helped disguise the continuation of the pagan day, now renamed!

But the real significance that connected this day with water was that it was sacred to OANNES, the ancient fish-god! Stemming from another ancient Babylonian fable, as we mentioned earlier, Nimrod was supposed to have reappeared in the "Mysteries" after he was slain as OANNES. In an article on Nimrod, Fausett says: "Oannes the fish-god, BABYLON'S CIVILIZER, rose out of the red sea," etc. And so we see how Nimrod, water, and the fish-god Oannes weree all connected. Now in the Latin language adopted by the Roman Catholic church, John was called JOANNES. Notice how similar JOANNES is to OANNES! And so by putting emphasis on certain points of similarity between paganism and Christianity, another pagan day was smoothly and cunningly adopted into the papal calendar, disguised with the name of John the Baptist!

We have already noticed in an earlier chapter how the worship of the ancient Mother-Goddess was mixed into Christianity. The pagans had for centuries prayed to and worshipped the Great Mother of heathenism. In order to bring these pagans into the fallen church, the ancient worship and rites that had been used to sorship the pagan Mother were continued – only they were told to use the name of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, instead of the old name of Diana, Isis, Astarte, Artemis, etc. And even as other ideas that have been associated with the pagan Mother Goddess were merged into the "church" in attempt to make Christianity and paganism appear to be one and the same, so also, August 15, the day of the ancient festival of Isis or Artemis, was simply renamed as the day of the "Assumption of the Virgin Mary" and right on up to present times, this very day is still highly honored.

As one writer speaking of this feast day of the Assumption of the Virgin says: "It is celebrated on August 15th; but that was the date of the great festival of Diana...with whom Isis was identified, and one can see, thus, how Mary had gradually take the place of the goddess." It is evident that the fallen church cared little about truthfulness as to when events actually happened. They appointed celebrations on the very days that were popular among the pagans.

Another day, supposed in honor of Mary is called the Purification of the Virgin Mary or "Candlemass day", which is celebrated on February 2. On this day, Catholic priest pronounce blessings on candles which are then distributed to the people at mass. And on this day all of the candles to be used during the year in the Catholic rituals are blessed.

But how did the special observance of February come to be set aside as Candlemas day or the day of the Purification of the Virgin? This, like other days we have mentioned, was instituted in the "church" to replace a pagan day. And not only did the fallen church adopt this day, but also its customs! You see, in the early days of Rome, this festival was observed by the carrying of torches and candles in honor of Februa, from whose name our February is named! The Greeks held the feast in honor of the Goddess Ceres, the Mother of Proserpina, who on this very day was said to have sought her daughter in the lower world with torches! Among the Egyptians, this day was also observed in honor of the goddess Neith on the very same day that is known today as "Candlemas Day" in the Roman Catholic church! So the observance of Candlemas at this time of the year, its association with the Mother Goddess, and the use of candles are all beliefs that were unmistakably adopted from paganism.

These days and times we have mentioned – as well as numerous others which space will not permit us to explain here – were all adopted into the calendar of the Romish church from paganism. We wonder if the apostle Paul were to raised up to preach to this generation, if he would not say to the professing church today, as he did the Galatians long ago:

"Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain." Galatians 4:10-11

To what days did Paul have reference? the context shows that the Galatians had been converted from the pagan worship of the "gods" (verse 8), and so it is evident that when some of them went back to their former worship (verse 9), the days and times they were observing were those days and times that were set aside to honor these pagan gods! And yet, it was these very days that the fallen church merged into her worship – changing them slightly, disguising them with Christian sounding names – and their observance has continued to this day!

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