It is not known by the average Christian Filipino that many practices and teachings of Christianity originated from paganism.
Take Christmas, for example. In the Christian teaching, Christmas Day is celebrated on Dec. 25, marked as the birth of Jesus Christ who is considered to be God.
But no one really knew his exact date of birth, which is rather strange for such an important world personage and savior. It was celebrated in different months in the early history of the Catholic Church. So how was Dec. 25 chosen to be his birth date?
It was, in fact, completely arbitrary.
In 350 AD, Dec. 25 was declared by Pope Julius I as the official date of Christ’s birth to replace a very popular pagan festival called Saturnalia, which was celebrated in honor of the pagan god Saturn.
It was a weeklong merriment. The Saturnalia festival began Dec. 17 and ended Dec. 25. There were reports that the merriment included the execution of state enemies to appease the gods.
In 529 AD, Emperor Justinian declared Christmas a civic holiday.
I find it really curious that no Catholic theologian or historian had any idea when exactly Jesus, the most important person in their religion, was born.
There is no record of anybody who witnessed him when he was alive. Almost all that we know about Jesus came from Gospel writers who most likely never even met him. The earliest gospel attributed to Mark is believed to have been written about 65 years after Jesus’ death at the hands of the Jews.
No other historian at that time, such as Josephus or Tacitus, ever mentioned anyone meeting him. They wrote only about a religions group called Christians who claimed their founder to be a certain Christos. Everything these ancient historians said about Jesus came from his followers, not from eyewitnesses.
In contrast, Prince Siddhartha, who became the Buddha, who lived 500 years before the birth of Christ, had very detailed biography written by those who were with him and therefore knew him. These were from eyewitnesses’ points of view.
How come we have no such information of the details of Jesus’ birth and growing up?
Christian apologists and defenders of the faith have waged a strong and acrimonious campaign to prove the authenticity of the four gospels.
Yet one question that has never been satisfactorily answered is: How come none of these canonical or Church-approved gospels ever mentioned the exact birth date of Jesus Christ? Even the exact place where he was born has not been universally accepted.
When I went to Israel years ago, I found out that there are two rival sites, both claiming to be the true birth place of Jesus.
Because nobody could tell exactly when Jesus was born, it was easy for the early Church Fathers to choose the date. And they chose the end of the pagan Saturnalia festival, Dec. 25.
That was how Dec. 25 became a festival celebrated in honor of the Christian god Jesus.
The next Healing Yourself through Visualization seminar is on Dec. 28, 9 a.m.-12 nn, at Rm. 308 Prince Plaza 1, Legaspi St., Greenbelt, Makati City. Call tel. nos. 8107245 or 0908-3537885. E-mail jaimetlicauco@yahoo.com