Re: Off Topic: Happy Holidays


<roger_pearse@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1135422295.635598.152030@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Lookingglass wrote:
>> <roger_pearse@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>> news:1135373946.900381.83250@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> > bessiejunejoadNOSPAM@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
>> >> Well since Christmas really started from a pagan celebration of the
>> >> return of the light and the sun god Mithra ...
>> >
>> > You might want to know that there is little or no evidence that Mithras
>> > (sp) had any defined birthday in ancient mythology at all, hearsay
>> > online notwithstanding.
>>
>> ...but it was celebrated at this time of the year.
>
> Actually there is little or no evidence in the historical record of
> this either. The whole story is a myth.
>
> All the best,
>
> Roger Pearse


I did a "google".......... here is a quote from one source.


"After his birth he challenged other forces when the world was young. His
battle with the Sun resulted in the formation of a friendship and Mithras
was bestowed with rays/crown of the Sun. Christians adopted this date as
Christ's birthday in the Fourth century of the common era, according to Sir
J.G. Frazer in his work The Golden Bough: "the festival of Christmas, which
the church seems to have borrowed directly from its heathen rival. In the
Julian Calendar, the 25th of December was reckoned as the winter solstice,
and was regarded as the nativity of the Sun, because the day begins to
lengthen and the power of the Sun increases from that turning point of the
year. ... Mithras was regularly identified by his worshippers with the
Sun... The [Christian] Gospels say nothing of the day of Christ's birth, and
accordingly the early church did not celebrate it."

The New Catholic Encyclopaedia records: "The birth of Christ was assigned
the date of the winter solstice (December 25 in the Julian calendar, January
6 in the Egyptian), because on this day, as the Sun began its return to
northern skies, the pagan devotees of Mithras celebrated the Dies Natalis
Solis Invicti (Birthday of the Invincible Sun). On December 25, 274, [Roman
Emperor] Aurelian had proclaimed the Sun God the principal patron of the
Empire and dedicated a temple to Him in the Campus Martius. Christmas
originated at a time when the cult of the Sun was particularly strong at
Rome." (Vol. III, p.656, 1967 ed.)."



I myself have not researched the subject of MITHRAS... what little I have
read does support the fact that very little is known about this secret
cult... but information can be deduced from the surviving archeological
artifacts.

Interesting to note that the birth of Jesus is also faulty in it's factual
basis... was he born in Winter or Spring... which Bethlehem was he born in?
Why is he known as Jesus of Nazareth if he was born in Bethlehem. Other
facts are in question too. However, there are many similarities in their
existence... virgin birth...



....another quote...

"Roman Mithras was perhaps the greatest rival to early Christianity for many
reasons. As well as being a popular pagan religion practised by the Roman
Army, Mithraism had many similarities to Christianity. Mithras was born of a
virgin, remained celibate, his worship involving baptism, the partaking of
bread marked with a cross and wine as sacrificial blood, held Sundays sacred
and Mithras was born on 25th of December. Mithraist called themselves
'brother' and were led by a priest called 'father' (Pater). The symbol of
the father were a staff, a hooked sword, a ring and hat.

These similarities frightened the early Christian leaders - that almost 500
years before arrival of Christ all of the Christian mysteries were already
known. To combat this, Christian writers said that the Devil knew of the
coming of Christ in advance and had imitated them before they existed in
order to denigrate them. As Christianity gained strength and became the
formal religion of the Roman Empire, the 'Cult of Mithras' was one of the
first pagan cults to come under attack in the fifth century; Temples of
Mithras, like most other pagan Temples, were destroyed and Churches build on
them."



....manna for thought...



dave............. HAPPY HOLIDAYS......all of them... ;*)

www.Shemakhan.com


.

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