Today we look at the history of Christmas and the origin of this holiday. from what I read that the idea of Christmas goes well before the coming and birth of Jesus. from what I read it dates back 4,000 years ago to the Mesopotamians. Many of what we do today started from traditions from the Mesopotamians. The holiday started as the new year's celebration for the Mesopotamians. when winter came it was said that the Main god of the Mesopotamians name marduk would battle a monster named chaos. to help the God who went to battle chaos they held a new year celebration named zagmuk. the king was to submit to marduk and go back with him to battle and die at the end of the year but they would send someone else in the king's place as a mock king and let him die. The mock king was made royal with clothes and such, but it was all taken away once the new year's celebration was taken away.
A celebration of similar nature by the Persians and the Babylonians was called sacaea. The celebration included the slaves trading places with maters and the master having to do as the slaves commanded.
People who lived in early Europe believed in many evil things and such. They feared that the sun would not come back during the winter solstice. So, they created celebrations and did rituals to welcome the sun back. there was a festival that was called yuletide and it was celebrated during the winter months in Scandinavia. the celebration happened after the person who went out and told the people the first light had come. the celebration with a great feast was centered around a fire burning called the yule log.
The Romans had a holiday that celebrated the god saturn. The festival was celebrated in the middle of December and was called saturnalia. they would have great festivals and such with the giving of good luck gifts called strenae meaning lucky fruit.
The Greeks of that time just like the others had a festival like that of zagmuk/sacae festival which it is said that it was to assist their god kronos in battle with zeus and his titans.
As we know Christmas many of the things, we observe on Christmas come from these festivals and celebrations. Have a blessed day!!!
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