the birth of a New Year.
The Saturnalia was a Roman festival held on December 17 to 23 in honour of the god Saturn. It was characterised by the exchanging of gifts among the cult members. This practice was to later find its way into the modern culture of exchanging gifts quite popular during the Christmas festivities.
Closely related to the nativity of Christ was the feast of Epiphany (Greek for manifestation) celebrated in the East since the 3rd century on January 6 to mark the lord’s baptism. This feast exists to-date. One of its main features was the blessing of the baptismal water.
In the West, the feast of Epiphany was introduced in the 4th century and quickly became associated with the manifestation of Christ to the gentiles in the person of the Magi – The first gentiles to receive Christ who, according to Origen (185-254), a biblical critic, theologian and spiritual writer, numbered 3. From this emerged the popular tale of ‘The Three Wise Men’.
December, 25 is thus not the actual birthday of the Messiah. This date was chosen tactfully to supersede ancient pagan festivals that were in existence then.
A noble act it might have been, but it is interesting to note that most of the present day Christmas practices have their origin in these very festivals Christmas purposed to replace.
The Holly, used currently as a decor and the Yule log used to honour god Thor by burning it to wade off evil spirits, were central items in the Norse festivals of the sons of the fjord or the Norsemen otherwise known as the Vikings.
To the ancient order of priests found among the Celts of Gaul and the British Isles – the Druids, the leaf