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Tis the season 🎅

PART 1 - The idea that Christmas is pagan actually comes from die-hard Protestant fundamentalists in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. In those centuries, many Protestants regarded holidays like Christmas and Easter as “popery” and therefore sought to discredit them by linking them with ancient paganism. The idea that Christmas might be pagan was advanced as early as 1648 in the work Certain Queries Touching the Rise and Observation of Christmas, written by the Puritan Joseph Heming. Later fundamentalist writers really took the idea and ran with it. For a serious researcher, perhaps the most difficult aspect of researching various origins, traditions, and assumed ‘truths’ about holidays, is sifting through all the data and separating what is historical fact from the myth, legend, and, even, religious propaganda by some denominations of what is historical fiction. It’s not an easy task. Indeed, what makes this even more difficult, is that so many of these ‘’facts”, suppositions, and assumptions are so ill-researched and have been repeated for so long, that they have essentially become accepted as truth. One can find these asserted ‘facts’ in everything ranging from various educational websites to entries in dictionaries and encyclopedias, and even in (some) scholarly articles which, I think, only makes researching the actual origins quite difficult. People are just repeating what they’ve been told and assume to be true without question. What we find after close examination and scrutiny however, is that the accepted origins and traditions of holidays come from the latter (historical fiction), rather than the former (historical fact). Let’s tackle the date first. Many are keen to assert that the December 25th date was chosen because it is so close to the Winter Solstice, a date known to have various pagan celebrations. The date of December 25th for the birth of Jesus has nothing to do with anything pagan, it is a straightforward deduction from Scripture, analyzed in conjunction with historical knowledge about those who worked in the temple. To briefly summarize: The priestly course of Abias (the course of Saint Zacharias) was undoubtedly serving during the second week of the Jewish month of Tishri-the very week of the Day of Atonement on the tenth day of Tishri. In our calendar, the Day of Atonement would land anywhere from September 22 to October 8. Zacharias and Elizabeth conceived John the Baptist immediately after Zacharias served his course. This entails that Saint John the Baptist would have been conceived somewhere around the end of September, placing John’s birth at the end of June, confirming the early church’s celebration of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist on June 24. The rest of the dating is rather simple. We read that just after the Virgin Mary conceived Christ, she went to visit her cousin Elizabeth who was six months pregnant with John the Baptist. This means that John the Baptist was six months older than Jesus. If you add six months to June 24 you get December 24-25 as the birthday of Jesus. Then, if you subtract nine months from December 25 you get that the Annunciation was March 25. So, as can be seen, the date was derived from considerations having nothing whatsoever to do with Roman festivals or any other December-related cultural or non-Christian religious activities. Granted, modern scholarship has demonstrated that the birth of Jesus actually occurred more likely in either the Spring, at some point in early April, or in the fall, at some point in late September, but for people living almost 2,000 years ago however, they used what data they had, and, the point is, none of it came from pre-Christian or pagan sources. Saturnalia - First, the Winter Solstice had no festive significance to ancient Romans. There were no celebrations planned for the date and they disagreed on when it was. The Julian Calendar does say 12/25, but Pliny the Elder says 12/26 (nat. his. 18.59.221), and Columella says 12/23 (De Re Rustica 9.14.12). Saturnalia was a Roman festival of Saturn and was never on December 25th. Macrobius says Saturnalia began 14 days before January, which comes out to December 17th, using Roman Calendrical dates. He says it lasted for 3 days, but according to the Fasti inscriptions, it lasted to around the 23rd during the days of the Republic. In short, the official dates for how long Saturnalia was supposed to last varied depending on which time period a person happened to live in, and which emperor happened to be in power at the time. Nonetheless, throughout the entire period of the Roman Republic (lasted c. 509 - c. 27 BCE) and the Principate (lasted c. 27 BCE - c. 284 CE), by the time December 25th rolled around, Saturnalia was definitely already over. Throughout this entire period of Roman history, there is not a single mention of anyone ever celebrating Saturnalia on December 25th or even thinking that other people celebrated it on December 25th. The celebration itself may originally have been a farming festival; the evidence is unclear. It was associated with an overturning of various regulations and social norms: free citizens often wore a freedman’s hat, the pilleus, and played gambling games that were normally illegal; slaves would dine alongside their masters, or even act the part of master. People would exchange gifts of candles and clay figurines. There’s absolutely no link to Christmas. The date? No, they’re not on the same date. . . . By the time December 25th rolled around, Saturnalia was long over. I won’t get into it here, but the date does not come from the Roman celebration Sol Invictus either. Indeed, Sol Invictus may have been moved by the Roams to December 25th to counter Christians observing Christmas/the birth of Jesus. Historical similarity does not equate to historical sameness. The modern custom of gift-giving at Christmas does not tie back to pagan Saturnalia. It dates back to the 16th century. That is when Luther introduced the ‘Christkind’ in an attempt to discourage veneration of St Nicholas, who was associated with gift-giving on his feast day of 6 December. In late mediaeval Germany gift-giving had also been associated with the feast of the Holy Innocents, on 28 December. It’s possible that Christmas charity from aristocrats to the poor goes back a bit further. But there’s certainly no evidence to suggest continuity all the way back to when Saturnalia was still being celebrated.

PART 2 - Let’s turn to Yule. Yule, for the ancient Germanic people, typically referred to the Winter Solstice and celebrations were held around that time. Yule was subsequently placed on 25 December by King Haakon the Good in the 10th century AD to coincide with Christmas. This goes back to the early historian Snorri Sturluson, and his book "Heimskringla: History of the Kings of Norway." Snorri says before this, “Yule was celebrated on a midwinter night (the Winter Solstice), and for a duration of three nights". He gives no specific dates, but St. Bede in “The reckoning of Time,” opined the Northmen calculated their seasons according to the cycles of the moon, so the date of Yule probably changed every year to align with the Winter Solstice. Pliny the elder also says the Gallic tribes calculated their months according to the moon. Last, according to the Chronicler, Theitmar, the Danes sacrificed to pagan gods in January after the 6th. So, Yule kind of gets moved around. One thing associated with pagan Yule is of course the Yule Log. Yule Logs however do not go back to paganism, despite the name. Yule is also an English word to mean "mid-winter period." The first mention of yule logs is in Robert Herrick’s, "Hesperides” a poetry collection, and he calls it a Christmas log. It wasn't called a yule log until Aubrey's work “In the West-Riding of Yorkshire on Christmas Eve” which dates to 1686. So, the Yule Log is really a more recent concept and has zero connections back to some pagan antecedent. Most people have heard the story about how the ancient Germanic people brought evergreen trees into their houses around Winter Solstice (Germanic ‘Yule’) and typically hung them upside down from rafters. It leaves us with images of a Viking long house bedecked with several trees hanging from the rafters while those gathered inside made merry with fire, feasting and mead. Except that never happened. There is not one thing from any of the eddas or sagas or any writings, that offer a shred of historical evidence to support the idea that pagan Germanic peoples brought evergreen trees into their homes at Yule. The origins of Christmas trees are rooted in present-day Germany and date to the 16th century. The first mention of Christmas trees is in an Alsace ordinance in 1561. Almost no early Germanic pagans thought pine trees were sacred, let alone associated with Christmas. Germanic tribes believed the oak was sacred, not the evergreen tree. The Christmas tree morphed over from so-called paradise trees. There were many allegorical-type plays done in the Middle Ages at various markets. One such play was called the Paradise Play, performed to celebrate the feast day of Adam and Eve, which fell on Christmas Eve. In the dead of winter, not a lot of trees are available, so the “tree of knowledge” was represented by an evergreen fir with apples tied to its branches. There is documentation of trees decorated with wool thread, straw, apples, nuts and pretzels. After the play, the treats would be eaten. The practice likely gave way to having trees in the house at Christmas. In 1419 for example, a guild in Freiburg put up a tree decorated with apples, flour-paste wafers, tinsel and gingerbread. The Christmas tree is not historically attested any earlier than this time period. Again, historical similarity does not equate to historical sameness. Many people associate mistletoe, ivy and holly with the ancient Celts as all three plants were held as sacred in Druidism. Thus, they opine, their inclusion in Christmas is pagan and this is proffered as just one more reason not to celebrate Christmas due to its pagan origins. Again, historical similarity does not equate to historical sameness. The first mention of mistletoe in connection with Christmas goes back to only the 1600’s. The tradition of kissing under the mistletoe comes even later, the end of the 1700’s. Again, no continual ties to an ancient pagan past. Odin and Santa It is often claimed that Óðinn/Odin was believed by the Norse to bring presents for children at Jól/Yule, but no one seems to be able to cite a single source of historical evidence to support this claim. The reason being is that there is none. Óðinn is primarily associated with Jól through his epithet Jólnir, which means “the Yuler” or “the One Who Yules.” This epithet is attested in the very old skaldic poem Háleygjatal, composed in the late tenth century CE by the skaldic poet Eyvindr Skáldaspillir. There are over eighty different names for Óðinn attested in the surviving Old Norse sources and Jólnir is merely one of these many names. Additionally, although the epithet Jólnir certainly indicates that Óðinn was associated with the holiday of Jól in some way, it does not explain the nature of this association. It certainly does not even remotely suggest in any way that any Norse person during the Middle Ages ever thought that Óðinn might have brought people presents at Jól. Many Old Norse sources, including the Saga of Hákon the Good, written by the Icelandic antiquarian Snorri Sturluson (lived 1179 - 1241), suggest that Jól was a time when people drank toasts to various deities. Many historians speculate that Óðinn may have simply been the main deity to whom people drank toasts at Jól and that this may be the reason for his association with the holiday. This bit of misinformation about Odin seems to have originated as a backformation based on the pre-existing assumption that Santa Claus has been influenced by Óðinn. Since Santa Claus is said to bring presents to children at Christmas today and people already assumed Santa has been influenced by Óðinn, they seem to have concluded that Óðinn must have brought presents in midwinter as well, despite there being zero historical evidence attesting this. The name “Santa” is simply a corruption of the Dutch “Sinter” (Saint) - nothing more, nothing less. “Clause” a corruption of the Dutch “Klaas” - a common nickname for Nicholas. Dutch Sinter Klaas, was brought to the US by the Dutch who settled in what they called New Holland (i.e. New York) and was subsequently Anglicized to “Santa Claus”. St. Nicholas was, of course, real person. He was a bishop in Myra, in what is now Turkey. His feast day is celebrated on 6 December. It is on that date that children in Europe would receive treats and gifts. His association was later moved to 25 December to help make Christmas a family holiday. Newspapers promoted it and encouraged to give gifts on Christmas instead of St. Nicholas Day or New Years like it traditionally was. Sinterklaas was rebranded from a bishop to look like a traditional dutchman from around the 1800’s. Then, of course, commercialism got to him and he’s morphed into the character he is today. As a quick aside, another name one frequently hears is “Father Christmas”. He, surprisingly, pre-dates the modern Santa Claus, but he is not some pagan deity. Instead, he was a Medieval personification of Christmas. Richard Smart of Plymtree is the first to write about him, referring to him as Sir Christmas. It seems his main task is to announce the birth of Christ. Figures like the Alpine Krampus and Frau Perchta are Christian in origin. They were/are used to illustrate the Christian idea of good and evil / God and Satan. Figures like this played on the minds of Medieval people who were considerably more concerned with the disposition of their souls than people today.

Have you ever thought of recutting this video using your own voice? The subject is great.

I really enjoyed the layered sounds in the background. The church bells, jingle bells, and the music show how much thought and effort into these videos. Outstanding job!!❤

Thank you very much for this video!

You have grown this channel well... outstanding job.

I can't wait for The Batman 2. After watching the 8th and final episode of The Penguin, I hope Batman completely breaks him.

Need a warm man's voice.🤔

This was great. I liked how you added an echo when speaking for The Veil, that was cool. The background music was perfect for Gotham City, simple and somewhat creepy. Nice work!❤

Yes , the tone its crucial... Thank you! :)

Will definitely give this a listen to later. Big Batman fan. It’s cool to see you branching out. You know it’s gonna be interesting in a decade when Batman is in the public domain.

Really great video. You’re really pushing new content quickly and with very high quality.

She was cleopatra V11

Great video not gonna lie

Who generates the graphics for these programmes?

Always loved Ireland’s landscape

12:51 extremely enchanting 😮

Another great video. Thanks.

I know nothing about Chinese mythology. I’ll have to listen to this tonight

Beings formed from fallen ones coruption

The voice makes the stories so much better! Like the beginning of a fantasy film.

.I am amused at the ignorance of the secular mind. It will not abmit to the possibility of the supernatural , therefore cannot. , willnot see the possibilities of the preternatural , that witchcraft and its power might be true , Demonic possession curses , spells and such might in fact not be just myth and make-believe. That ghost and such are real , then GOD must be , and the body and. Blood of Christ on the altar is just what is said. That means the body and bood on the black altar must be as real and the black arts are real and evil.

Cinocepholae. We have the world's history at our fingertips, these things were never a mystery until now. How embarrassing 😂

Wow! Your best video yet. I’m still so happy to hear your voice again. I’m glad my support helps out.

Your animations were great to start, but with each new video they become exponentially better! Keep up the great work.

Oh, looking forward to this!!

For those interested, werewolves were originally both shifting and non shifting beings. Their story began over 12,000 years ago and spread to the Europe and the Americas after the aforementioned date via survival based migration.

in Portugal we have the Peeira also known as the wolf fairy, they are described as beautiful woman that can control any wolf or any wolf like creature, she can also heal herself and others from any wound or illness, some of them can be evil and seduce man to give to her wolfs and others are good and protect their forests

China is proven to have been a far younger civilization than their history has led us to believe' Japan as well! The Anunnaki were said to have last interacted with humanity around 350k years in our past. China wasn't even a thought 50k years ago let alone the aforementioned age. That said, the land has defiantly undergone massive changes since that time with portions of its land being submerged by and reemerging from the oceans of the pacific several times over the last 100k years but the question is when did the current Chinese decide to call this land home? Their own history (now being released says they found there land with many of its structures already intact as if a civilization had abandoned it. There were very tall and certainly not Oriental by any stretch. The Japanese had similar stories and they too have acknowledged this truth with the last 15 years!

This was truly a great video and educational. Thank you so very much. 🐺

This is a good video. The creepy little girl voice used with the subject matter is borderline nightmare fuel.

you wanna know something about torture, the innocent will admit just to make you stop and the guilty will name others, just to bring enemies down

Ive experienced 3 dogmen with yellow eyes in my backyard🙏

This was absolutely amazing to listen to That voice is sooooo wonderful Loved it so much!

Jean Grenier...

Things are about to get prettyyy sp00ky

Thankyou-so-much-baby.happy-halloween&happy-christmas.😊