Call Me Lucifer

Lucifer - latin: lux, lucis = light; fero, ferre = to bear or carry.

I wish you enlightenment this holiday season, and thus I shall play lucifer to the darkness of your mind. This time it is to help you to "know your ritual roots." Namely, Christmas. Christmas has for centuries now been a time to celebrate the birth of the Savior. But in recent years it was found that a possible mathematical error may have placed the day of Christmas (dec. 25, 0001) off by not only the day, but also the month and even the year. Now do not get me wrong, before I go off on a tirade remember that I am just sying this to inform, and not to endorse neo-paganism, satanism, or even the cult of the FSM.

So why do we celebrate on a misconceived day? Possibly the simplest answer is because it is convenient, or was at the time. History shows that when one religion or culture rises up against another, the stronger does one of two things, either absorbing and incorporating the lesser (roman mythology absorbed many greek myths which still causes confusion today. Ever heard of Hercules, or was it Heracles), or replacing it. When it comes to religions that are incompatible (compatable religions would generally be of the same type, such as two polytheistic religions that clash. id est, roman/greek, celtic/scandinavian, buddhism/tibetan buddhism and vedic hinduism/zoroastrianism in which each pare melds gods, lineages, belief structures, and heroes and originally were quite separate and different.), such as when Christianity dominated the majority of western europe, it chose to replace the existing traditions as to make the transition easier on the indigenous peoples (people hate it when you take holidays away from them... but if you change the name and keep the day they are less likely to revolt).

Originally the holiday celebrated in late december which was widely known to southern europe was Saturnalia, as one of the many roman legacy to europe (hey, when you own practically everything, your beliefs get spread around quite a bit). Which was probably the most likely candidate as a replaced holiday. However additionally this time of year is host to Samhain, an irish/celtic solstice celebration.

If you have any more questions about these holidays, or their origins... look them up yourself. Oh, and consider yourself enlightened and illuminated.

... see, the field of my college study does have practical applications... I can write blogs... (...cry...sniffle, sniffle)