What do pagans call Christmas?

Pagans celebrate Yule, a holiday that takes place during the Winter Solstice, usually just a few days before Christians celebrate Christmas. The two holidays have similarities since Christmas is rooted in both the Germanic Yule, as well as the Roman Saturnalia.

What is Christmas called in paganism?

Christmas owes its roots to the ancient Roman holiday of Saturnalia, which was a pagan festival which was celebrated from December 17-25 each year. This custom was altered and absorbed into Christmas, and this allowed early Christians to gradually erase these old pagan holidays.

What is Christmas called in Wicca?

Yule is the Pagan and Wiccan celebration of the winter solstice that is celebrated every December.

What was Christmas originally called?

Christmas, Christian festival celebrating the birth of Jesus. The English term Christmas (“mass on Christ's day”) is of fairly recent origin. The earlier term Yule may have derived from the Germanic jōl or the Anglo-Saxon geōl, which referred to the feast of the winter solstice.

What was Christmas called when it was a pagan holiday?

Saturnalia, held in mid-December, is an ancient Roman pagan festival honoring the agricultural god Saturn. Saturnalia celebrations are the source of many of the traditions we now associate with Christmas.

The Pagan Roots of Christmas

Is Dec 25 a pagan holiday?

Though December 25 is the day Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the date itself and several of the customs we've come to associate with Christmas actually evolved from pagan traditions celebrating the winter solstice.

Is Santa Claus pagan?

The modern Santa Claus is a direct descendent of England's Father Christmas, who was not originally a gift-giver. However, Father Christmas and his other European variations are modern incarnations of old pagan ideas about spirits who traveled the sky in midwinter, Hutton said.

How did Christmas start pagan?

The origins of Christmas stem from both the pagan and Roman cultures. The Romans actually celebrated two holidays in the month of December. The first was Saturnalia, which was a two-week festival honoring their god of agriculture Saturn. On December 25th, they celebrated the birth of Mithra, their sun god.

Is a Christmas tree pagan?

Christmas trees did begin as a pagan tradition as early as the fourth century C.E., according to ABC News. European pagans were largely responsible for dressing their homes with the branches of evergreen fir trees in order to bring color and light into their dull winters.

Is Yule and Saturnalia the same thing?

Saturnalia, Yule (at least the old Germanic version), and the other conquered holidays have long lost the importance they once had. They have been assimilated into Christmas, and most don't miss them.

Do pagans give gifts Yule?

The pagans may have given gifts at the Yule celebration as well. Christianity later took over much of Europe, and the Christians, like the Romans, learned that the best way to truly conquer was not to divide, but to incorporate.

What does Yule mean to pagans?

Yule is a pagan celebration of the winter solstice, which marks the longest night of the year and therefore the return of the sun.

Do you say Happy Yule or Merry Yule?

A lot of people who don't know this wish her “Merry Christmas,” but the 45-year-old mother of two doesn't mind. “When they say 'Merry Christmas' I say 'Merry Christmas,' ” she said. “Amongst sisters and brothers and mothers of my faith, we say 'Blessed Yule' or 'Happy Yule. ' ”

What is Saturnalia Christmas?

Saturnalia (detail) by Antoine Callet, 1783.It was a public holiday celebrated around December 25th in the family home. A time for feasting, goodwill, generosity to the poor, the exchange of gifts and the decoration of trees. But it wasn't Christmas. This was Saturnalia, the pagan Roman winter solstice festival.

Was Christmas stolen from the pagans?

In reality, the notion that Christmas is a festival stolen from pagans is quite as much a compound of confusions and inaccuracies as anything believed about the feast day by Christians themselves. There is no evidence — absolutely none — that the birth of Mithras was celebrated on 25 December.

Is Easter a pagan holiday?

Well, it turns out Easter actually began as a pagan festival celebrating spring in the Northern Hemisphere, long before the advent of Christianity. "Since pre-historic times, people have celebrated the equinoxes and the solstices as sacred times," University of Sydney Professor Carole Cusack said.

Is the Christmas tree a sin?

Christians can have Christmas trees if they don't make it or other parts of Christmas an idol over Jesus. The Bible never tells Christians if they should have Christmas trees or not, but the Bible does tell Christians to reject any idols in their lives and worship Him alone.

Are wreaths pagan?

Wreaths originally were made for use with pagan rituals in Europe, and were associated with the changing seasons and fertility. Christianity accepted the symbolism of the wreath based upon its Roman association with honour and moral virtue.

Where in the Bible does it say Jesus was born on December 25?

Dec. 25 is not the date mentioned in the Bible as the day of Jesus's birth; the Bible is actually silent on the day or the time of year when Mary was said to have given birth to him in Bethlehem. The earliest Christians did not celebrate his birth.

What was Jesus's real birthday?

The Virgin Mary, pregnant with the son of God, would hence have given birth to Jesus nine months later on the winter solstice. From Rome, the Christ's Nativity celebration spread to other Christian churches to the west and east, and soon most Christians were celebrating Christ's birth on December 25.

What holidays are actually pagan?

How do you say Merry Christmas in Old Norse?

If one would like to say “Merry Christmas” in Icelandic, here is how they say it: Gleðileg jól!

Are Yule and Christmas the same?

What is yule? Yule is a noun meaning “Christmas, or the Christmas season,” which is the Christian holiday to celebrate the birth of Jesus. However, yule can also refer to the celebration of the winter solstice that's observed in some Pagan traditions.

How do you greet a Yuletide?

How Yule become Christmas?

This feast was intended to correspond with the pagan holiday, the feast of Sol Invictus, which celebrated the winter solstice and the gradually lengthening days of increased sunlight. Over time, these feasts merged to become the holiday we now know as Christmas.