Saturnalia symbols6/24/2023 ![]() What is the solstice? It’s the day that the sun starts coming back, the days start getting longer. ![]() “Primarily because, in ancient Rome, there was a feast called Saturnalia that celebrated the solstice. In the interview, Davis is asked why Christmas is on December 25th. Misconception #1: Saturnalia was celebrated on December 25th in honor of the winter solstice. I am not doing this to shame him or make fun of him, but rather so that I will have a real, specific person to quote in order to avoid giving people the impression that I am attacking a strawman. In the interview, Davis tells an elaborate yarn about how all the most beloved Christmas traditions we know today come directly from ancient “paganism.” He declares “Christmas is really about bringing out your inner pagan.” The things Davis says in the article are exactly typical of the kinds of things you usually hear from people around this time of year, so I am going to use him as an example in this article. In any case, whatever his credentials may be, Davis clearly has not thoroughly researched the subject of ancient pre-Christian religions at all in any sense, because almost everything he says in the interview is wrong and rooted more deeply in popular modern stereotypes about what ancient “pagans” were supposedly like than in actual ancient sources. Davis, a non-academic writer who, at least according to his Wikipedia page, has no college degree. ![]() The video interview featured in the article is with Kenneth C. For instance, here is an article with a video interview published by “CBS This Morning” on 25 December 2018 titled “The Unexpected Pagan Origins of Popular Christmas Traditions.” In fact, virtually all of the Christmas traditions that you usually hear people going around claiming are “pagan” are actually traditions that only arose within the past two hundred years or so, within a Christian cultural context.Ī review of the misconception about Christmas being “pagan”Įvery year around Christmas time, news organizations always publish new articles claiming that modern Christmas traditions are of ancient “pagan” origin and every year these articles are always filled with all sorts of false information. Well, I’m here to tell you that, although there was a time when Christmas did indeed incorporate some pre-Christian traditions, virtually none of the traditions associated with Christmas in the United States today are actually of ancient pre-Christian origin. Most of my readers are probably already familiar with the sorts of claims I am referring to it is popularly believed that Christmas is really an ancient “pagan” holiday that was hijacked by early Christians and that modern, twenty-first-century, secular American Christmas traditions are actually of ancient “pagan” origin. The Christmas season is upon us and, if there’s one thing I know I’m going to get for Christmas, it’s spurious claims about modern Christmas traditions supposedly having ancient “pagan” origins.
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