Brumalia–Pre-Julian Latin Sources: Chronological Presentation One of the modern claims against Christmas is that Christians took the ancient Roman holiday known as Brumalia and baptized it for their own use. The claim is that Brumalia was celebrated in ancient Rome … Continue reading
How does a Christian deal with claims like this? The tactic used in this meme is intimidation. There is no way most readers could research all these claims. The implication is that the maker of the meme must have done … Continue reading
By now most Americans have probably heard of the Iranian/Persian New Year festival called Nowruz, or No Ruz. One of the more recent claims against Easter is that this Christian Holy Day is merely a hijacked version of the Persian … Continue reading
Candlemas is February 2nd, forty days after the birth of Christ it is the Festival of the Purification of Mary. The Gospel Lesson for this festival is Luke 2:22-40. Perhaps this particular festival does not loom as large in significance … Continue reading
One of the many points falsely claimed in Christ Myth Theory about the supposed dependence of Christ upon the legends of Egypt is the claim that Horus was born of a virgin. The claim is utterly false. Egyptian mythology is … Continue reading
Did Christianity Steal the Date of Pagan Winter Solstice Celebrations? The Roman celebration discussed in this article is the multi-day festival of Saturnalia. The Mis-Use of Roman Sources: Saturnalia In these articles we have seen the texts from the early … Continue reading
Do the Nativity sets Christians use actually have their origins in the pagan Roman festival called Sigillaria? Sigillaria Macrobius in Saturnalia 1.11.46-50 discusses the Sigillaria–a festival that involves the purchase and giving of little human figures and candles. The fact … Continue reading
Did Christianity Steal the Date of Pagan Winter Solstice Celebrations? Juvenalia is one of those Roman festivals that is claimed as a winter solstice celebration that was borrowed or baptized by Christians for Christmas. But was it even a winter … Continue reading
This particular claim toward pagan sources for Christianity and Christian Holy Days goes under various names: Jesus Myth Theory, Jesus Mythicism, Mythicism, Copy-cat Theory, and probably other terms. The basic claim is that Christ is a fake: an unoriginal copy-cat … Continue reading
On All Hallows’ Eve 1517 a monk named Martin Luther posted a list of points for discussion and debate at the University of Wittenberg campus church. The campus church is named All Saints’ Church. The regular bulletin board for such … Continue reading
All Saints’ Eve, All Saints’ Day: Origins and Samhain-ization Today it seems that everyone knows that Halloween is originally a Celtic pagan holy day named Samhain [pronounced: Sow-in] which the Christian Church supplanted for the sake of forcing pagans to … Continue reading
This is the third article on the Nativity of St. John. This article will deal with the Neo-Pagan practice of claiming Celtic origins, “Blame it on the Celts,” or “Claim it’s from the Celts.” We’ll also look at documented German … Continue reading
The Claims about Pagan Origins for St. John’s Nativity This is the second of three articles on the Nativity of St. John and its relationship with the Pagan Midsummer. In the previous article we looked at the documentation about the … Continue reading
This is the first part of three on the Nativity of St. John the Baptist/Midsummer Day June 24th is celebrated as St. John’s Day, also called the Nativity of St. John the Baptist. This festival is part of the cycle … Continue reading
The evening of April 30th through May 1st is a significant date in the modern neo-Pagan and Wiccan calendar. It is called: Beltane, Witches’-eve, Witches’ Sabbath, May eve’, May Day, and Walpurgisnacht (and variants). Today the main significance that is … Continue reading
A brief note on the misuse of Bodleian Library Manuscript Bodl. 264 Folio 21 This image is now being used to demonstrate pagan origins of the Easter Bunny: An example from California State University-San Marcos The drawing is from Prudence Jones … Continue reading
This is a reposting of a pair of articles published last year on the origins of Easter and some Easter traditions. The sources are given so that the reader can better be able to debunk the popular “historical” nonsense about … Continue reading
This is a reposting of a pair of articles published last year on the origins of Easter and some Easter traditions. The sources are given so that the reader can better be able to debunk the popular “historical” nonsense about … Continue reading
Image via Wikipedia Falat Julian Ash Wednesday, watercolor, 78 x 113 cm (detail) So, what are the supposed pagan origins of Ash Wednesday and Lent? There are two aspects of Ash Wednesday and Lent that need to be emphasized. First … Continue reading
Image via Wikipedia Falat Julian Ash Wednesday, watercolor, 78 x 113 cm (detail) So, what are the supposed pagan origins of Ash Wednesday and Lent? There are two aspects of Ash Wednesday and Lent that need to be emphasized. First … Continue reading
Candlemas is February 2nd, forty days after the birth of Christ it is the Festival of the Purification of Mary. The Gospel Lesson for this festival is Luke 2:22-40. Perhaps this particular festival does not loom as large in significance … Continue reading
We are reposting this from Dec 4, 2012: Did Christianity Steal the Date of Sol Invictus? The claim is that Sol Invictus “Invincible Sun” is a more ancient pagan holiday in Rome celebrated on December 25th. The claim assumes … Continue reading
We are reposting this from Dec 3rd, 2012: Of the major Christian Holy Days, Christmas, Easter and Pentecost are the high points in the Historic Church Year. On these Holy Days we celebrate God the Father’s gift of His … Continue reading
Resources on the History of Halloween Part 1. Origins of All Saint’s Day and the Origins of Samhain This article is an effort to gather together resources on the origin and historical development of Halloween. The intent is to supplement … Continue reading
Responding to some of the comments that came in when we last published this post in Oct of 2012, we are attempting to come up with an updated version of this post. We thought it important though to catch those … Continue reading