Xmas, Mahavrata etc (was Holi); also spam.

[l.m.fosse at easteur-orient.uio.no]

Vidyanath K. Rao wrote:

>If the Chrismas Party atmosphere is assigned to Saturnalia etc, why is that
>every Christmas brings half a dozen or more theories about the Star of
>Bethlehem, without any mention of the obvious theory, given the coincidence
>of date with the Feast of Mithras, proximity to Day of the Invinsible Sun etc.?

The star of Bethlehem was connected with the birth of Christ as a kind of
omen. It supposedly led the three wise men to the cave where Christ was
born. There has been an extensive discussion of what may have constituted
the star of Bethlehem on the part of astronomers, (they have a slightly
different agenda than historians of religion), but no definite answer has
been given - there seem to be several possible candidates, none of which
fits the facts altogether. I think it is questionable to try squaring such
information with mythological data. People may have had a memory of some
remarkable astronomical phenomenon and found it natural to combine it with
the birth of Christ - as an alleged son of God, there should be omens
connected with his birth. However, I personally find it quite natural that
the date of the feast mentioned above should coincide with the date for
Christmas. We are talking about the time of the year when the sun turns
(winter solstice), a time which is, of course, of great ritual importance
in a number of ancient religions. Ancient Christianity fits into a
religious pattern which had already been established. We are not dealing
with a complete break with the ancient pagan religion, but rather with a
development where new religious ideas - or old ideas in new packaging -
were grafted upon an already established pattern.

As for the Saturnalia, they began on the 17. of december and went on for a
week. Christ was supposedly born on the 24. of December. (Of course we have
no historically reliable date for Christ's birth). As you see, Christmas
almost overlaps with the Saturnalia, and when the Saturnalia were forbidden
in late antiquity, Christmas became the time of the year when people would
do what they used to do during the more ancient Saturnalia. This means that
the behaviour pattern of people during Christmas may have been quite like
the patterns found in connection with the more ancient Saturnalia. In the
Nordic countries, Christmas was the time for gluttonous eating and
drinking. Obviously, the behaviour patterns were very much the same as they
had been during the mid-winter "blot" (sacrifice) in pagan times.

To sum up: The Christian feast of Christmas has been superimposed on more
ancient pagan feasts. The ideas related to Christmas (the birth of the
saviour of the world), are, however, different from the ideas related to
the pagan feasts. The behaviour patterns during the feast seem, however, to
have been pretty much the same.


Best regards,

Lars Martin Fosse



Lars Martin Fosse
Research Fellow
Department of East European
and Oriental Studies
P. O. Box 1030, Blindern
N-0315 OSLO Norway

Tel: +47 22 85 68 48
Fax: +47 22 85 41 40

E-mail: l.m.fosse at easteur-orient.uio.no