by Carolyn Batt

One of my favorite annual traditions growing up in Western New York was going to the Festival of Lights which used to take place in Niagara Falls. Now, Erie County has revived that tradition with the Fairgrounds Festival of Lights in Hamburg, a 20 minute drive south of Buffalo.

Taking place at the fairgrounds that thousands of flock to in August for the Erie County Fair, this festival is a combination of sights, sounds and experiences. There are plenty of indoor, outdoor and in-car activities.

You begin by entering a lighted winter wonderland pathway in your car. This one-mile stretch features unique light displays—everything from Santa on a surfboard to a canopy of lights over your car. At the end, you can park and enter the “North Pole” with Santa’s shops, a midway for children, lightshows, and reindeer sleigh rides.

While most of the activities are geared for children, there were a lot of young couples and adults there as well.

The Festival of Lights is open nightly through January 2nd (with the exception of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day), from 5:30-9:30pm.

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MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I’m not ashamed to say” Merry Christmas”… because, let’s face it… “Happy Holidays” sounds pretty empty.  I think we should celebrate the vivid colors of all of our differences instead of being so afraid of offending that we mash everything up into a bland paste.

And, hey… if you celebrate something else…  Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivus… or anything else I may have left out… I wish you a very happy (fill in your holiday here)!

St Lucia celebrated National day on December 13 with its traditional Festival of Lights. As the name suggests, the focus is on cultural presentations using the light imagery. This year’s theme was “Illuminating our achievements—Our Vision.” A large crowd filled Derek Walcott Square in Castries to hear the Cecilian Rays sing. Other performers included the Culture Flames, AVAD Dance group, Helen Folk Dancers (pictured above), Llewellyn Gill, Hubert “Breeze” Fevriere and Mamai La Caye, Ziggy, Blaze, Platinum George and Lightening Stars Dance Troupe. The performances were followed by a spectacular light display and the much anticipated lantern parade.

The festival honors the island’s namesake. Saint Lucy, also known as Saint Lucia, (283-304), a wealthy young Christian martyr who is venerated as a saint by Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, and Orthodox Christians. Her feast day in the West is 13 December, by the unreformed Julian calendar the longest night of the year; with a name derived from lux, lucis “light,” she is the Patron Saint of the blind.

For a fuller report, plus photographs, go to http://stluciastar.com/content/archives/9490

Through January 3, 2010, Tanglewood’s rolling countryside will be transformed into a winter wonderland of giant snowflakes and whimsical scenes! Entering our 18th season, Tanglewood’s Festival of Lights continues to be one of the largest and most spectacular light shows in the entire southeast. From storybook scenes to Holiday themes, over one hundred displays and over a million lights fill Tanglewood Park with the entire splendor and joy of the Holiday season.

View Festival of Lights Times and Rates

Directions:
Tanglewood Park is located just ten minutes west of Winston-Salem on I-40 in Clemmons, N.C.

From Winston-Salem:
Take I-40 West to Exit 182 and follow the signs

From the West:
Take I-40 East to Exit 180 and follow the signs

For Photos CLICK HERE!

Stay Connected!

  

We’ve all seen the bins by the doors of our local grocery stores where you can toss in some items for the food bank, but this year  those bins are not as full and food banks everywhere are needing help.

 So many people are feeling the pinch this year,  having been either laid off, downsized, or let go permanently. Resources are  dwindling, my friends, and on this last weekend of shopping before Christmas hits us, I encourage anyone who can do so to donate whatever you can to your LOCAL FOOD BANK. Essentials are needed yes, but also think to what would make a Christmas dinner for people who can’t afford all the fixings. If you would really like to make a difference, you can sponsor a family through many charitable organizations, or even do what my kids and I have done in the past- simply locate a family in need on your own,( really not hard to do, we used to hear who was having a rough time through my kids schools and through neighbourhood contacts)  and become a  secret santa. Nothing like leaving a big box of goodies anonymously on the doorstep of someone who really needs it to make their Christmas.

As well,  most shelters are more than happy to take donations of warm socks and clean winter clothing such as boots, mittens, toques and jackets. I would also like to mention my own personal donation target – women’s shelters and transition homes. Women often leave a bad situation with nothing, and can use items like toiletries, formula, bottles, diapers, etc. If you call your local women’s organization, they can usually tell you exactly what is most needed at this time of the year. Always nice to slip in that little something special too,just to make someone feel cared for.

Last Sunday we bundled up the whole family and for the first time ever, walked through the Van Dusen gardens Festival of Lights.  With a dusting of snow already on the ground, and sparkly flakes falling from the sky,it was a magical evening for all of us, young and older alike. Not to mention, quite affordable compared with some family event admissions- For $26.00, a family admission covers the parents and all your kids up to and including 18. Can’t beat that, so if you are looking for something to do one evening, check it out before it is over. You can buy some real hot apple cider,nibble some freshly popped kettle corn and listen to the live performers as you wind your way around and through the forests…. This is fantastic for a date too, and make sure you make use of  the mistletoe that has been hung here and there in strategic locations – I did!  Credit to my lovely daughter for all of these photos! ( click and let load for a full view)

 This is how my son sees himself:      

This is the reality a week before Christmas.

12/16 & 12/17: So in honor of Hannukah and to celebrate the beauty of lights amidst these dark wintry days, I’ve added my Fire series.  I shot this series in Oct 2006, while viewing a brilliant fire art installation in Platt Fields park, Manchester, UK.

Additionally, if you are interested in purchasing any of the images you find on my site, please contact me to learn about pricing and shipping options for archival prints.  I’ve just added a profile on Etsy and will be selling my work there in 2010!

We’re back. Sorry we were gone so long. More soon, but let’s get this out of the way: Did you miss us?

My girlfriend and I took her 6 year old to Zoolights the other night… I’d been reading lots about it and people really seem to love this holiday light display and show. It consistently gets ranked in local editors’ picks for holiday to-do’s and gets 4 stars on Yelp. As someone who’s never even been to the Oakland Zoo (and I hear it’s quite lovely for the small zoo that it is), I was pretty excited to see this show too. And for the most part, I’d say it didn’t disappoint… just check out these lights!

From an artistic standpoint, these animal representations are pretty darned impressive. And the kids love ‘em! If you have young children, or the maturity of a kindergartner yourself, you should definitely check this out.

Though not free, it’s for a good cause as all proceeds go towards The Oakland Zoo, a non-profit organization that depends on your support. A regional treasure for over 80 years, the Oakland Zoo’s mission is to inspire respect for and stewardship of the natural world while providing a quality visitor experience. The Zoo is open daily 10:00am – 4:00pm. And the Zoolights holiday shows run evenings through January 4th…

5:30pm – 9:00pm (Monday – Thursday)
5:30pm – 9:30pm (Friday – Sunday)

*Note that Zoo animal residents will be nestled all snug in their beds, with visions of fresh fish and steak, dancing in their heads.

And just in case you were worried, you don’t have to feel guilty about indulging in the electric spectacle, because PG&E has collaborated with the Oakland Zoo to make the lighting display extremely energy efficient through the use of LEDs (which use about 1/10th of the electricity of regular xmas lights).

Shown below is the Holiday Light Show Safari that’s set up in the zoo’s meadow. It’s a light show sychronized to a musical/theatrical soundtrack, and if I were to be totally honest (which I am), I would have to say that this was somewhat disappointing, at least for grown-ups. The lights were great, but the medley soundtrack was an awful disjointed mismash of stuff that might appeal to the sensibilities of a 2 year old, but frankly, was just plain bad. It could have been way cooler. Sorry.

Pretty blue tree.

You still with me? I hope so, ’cause we’re just getting to the really cool stuff. Below is the entrance to Candyland, which is where the carnival rides are: merry-go-round-where-you-can-ride-a-tiger, airplane spinny rides, little racecars, and of course, the launching point for the mini-steam train, the Snowball Express.

This is the view of the bay from our train ride… and yes, you have to pay extra for this. But aren’t you used to the whoosh of cash flowing through your hands these days? And remember, it’s for a good cause. This, truly, was my favorite part of the night. Do ride the train, but do dress warm!

The ultimate experience was travelling through the tunnel of light… it totally reminded me of that scene in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory…the psychedelic boat trip…

“there’s no earthly way of knowing
which direction we are going
there’s no knowing where we’re rowing
or which way the river’s flowing…”

Watch it here. It’s AWESOME.

Which reminds me: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, this Friday night 8pm (doors at 7), at the aptly named Paramount Theatre in Oakland. Part of their wonderful classic movie series… pay five bucks to see a great work of art, in a great work of art, with pre-film entertainment to boot. This is one of the best deals in town. I love the Paramount. More on it during Art Deco Days…

Christmas is on the way! Christmas lights shine brightly at night and cheerful holiday music can be heard on any radio station. Everyone young and old is getting ready for the holidays and BuyTheCase.net is right there with them. BuyTheCase.net has been busy getting ready for the holidays with our gigantic holiday sale! We also celebrated the season by sponsoring the Marshfield Festival of Lights. Our company has reached out this year by continuing our Food Bank Outreach Project.  In more news, we just launched our first official contest on our website! It’s the busiest time of the year and BuyTheCase.net is here to help, with our convenient doorstep delivery and our best prices of the season!

Holiday Sale

December has featured some of our best sales ever! This week, we have an entire aisle full of Holiday products on sale, such as Stove Top stuffing and Heinz turkey gravy. Looking for a great gift idea?  Dunkin Donut’s and Starbuck’s brands are also on sale. After all, who doesn’t love the delicious smell of fresh coffee brewing in the morning? Our yummy Holiday Bake off aisle has specials on delicious cake mixes, frosting, brownies, and other goodies!  Lookout for more money-saving deals coming soon!

Festival of Lights

BuyTheCase.net started our holiday season off right by sponsoring the Marshfield Festival of Lights! The Festival of Lights is a Marshfield Chamber of Commerce event. The event was held on Sunday, December 4^th from 2-4:30pm. Families from all over came to celebrate with us! There was live music, carolers, face painting, games and of course Santa himself!  You can view pictures from the event on the Marshfield Chamber of Commerce Website.

Food Bank Outreach Project

Our Food Bank Outreach Project is still running strong! We begin our food bank outreach project on our Facebook page on Oct. 1, 2009.  We asked our fans to nominate their local food banks to receive a three case donation from BuytheCase.net. There are now over 60 nominated food banks! So far, we have donated 24 cases of food and are continuing to do so until the end of 2009. There have been two winning food banks for the month of December: The Groveland Food Shelf in Minnesota submitted by Stacy Young and Open Pantry’s Emergency Food bank in Massachusetts, submitted by Lori Ann Eveleth and Linda Jones. Thank you for your submissions! There are only two weeks left until this project ends. This means only 2 more food banks will be chosen. If you would like to nominate a food bank to receive a donation from us, click here.

Why Buy a Case Contest

BuytheCase.net is proud to announce we have just launched our first official contest! The Why Buy a Case Contest began on Dec. 7, 2009 and will end on Jan. 1, 2010. The grand prize is a $500 shopping spree at BuyTheCase.net! You can find the contest on our Facebook page under contests or on our homepage. To enter is easy, just answer this simple question. Why do you shop at BuyTheCase.net? Do you just the love convenient doorstep delivery or do did you find a product you haven’t seen in years on our website? We know that every customer has a story, and we would love to hear yours! The contest is still ongoing, so enter today for your chance to win a $500 shopping spree!

December has brought amazing deals, cheerful events, and even a new contest! All in all, our company has been very nice this year! We hope Santa comes our way on Christmas! BuyTheCase.net wishes all of our customers a wonderful Christmas holiday and a happy New Year! We look forward to offering you even more great deals next year!

Please note: our offices will be closed on Christmas day and New Years day.

Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the Light of the World:  he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. (John 8:12)

Posted:  12.16.09

]]> http://30daysout.wordpress.com/2009/12/16/christmas-song-of-the-day-the-chanukkah-song-by-adam-sandler/ Wed, 16 Dec 2009 06:31:00 +0000 30daysout http://30daysout.wordpress.com/2009/12/16/christmas-song-of-the-day-the-chanukkah-song-by-adam-sandler/

Since we are in the middle of Chanukkah, what better way to celebrate the Festival of Lights than with Adam Sandler’s cup of Chanukkah cheer.

Adam Sandler’s Official Website

Now is the time for celebrations from around the world! December 11th, sundown marked the first day of Hanukkah for many. Celebrating the “Festival of Lights”.

Lighting the Menorah each night for eight days symbolizes great blessings and celebration. Many of our Promontory families celebrate the tradition of Hanukkah sharing their wonderful food with the children at the kids cabin!

Discover!
Snow brings magic to the air and to the ground here at Promontory. A variety of animal tracks can be seen around property. After the big snow storm, children at the kids cabin spotted bunny tracks and bird tracks!

Celebrate!
Santa arrives Saturday, December 19th at 11:00 a.m.

Join us at the kids cabin with your Christmas wishes. The ice skating rink and tubing hill will be available to families to enjoy that day too.

Plan!
Utah’s Ballet West presents The Nutcracker. Saturday, December 26th 2:00 p.m We have tickets available for the Family Matinee which includes a Sugar Plum party on stage afterward.

Contact Kathy at the kids cabin for discounted tickets. 435-333-4000 ext. 4

Share!
Your family tradition….

For the majority of westerners,  religious persecution is a strange and foreign concept.   Most of us view political and religious fanaticism such as pogroms or the Auto de fé as a distant memory of a dark and uncultured era now long gone.  Of course, there are always a few regrettable exceptions to this.  But to me, incidents like Neo Nazis marching on Pennsylvania Avenue just further highlight the beauty of the first amendment. If you feel strongly about something, get a permit, pack your soap box and have a go at it. By all means.

This week as I was surfing on-line, I stumbled upon this news clip.  Apparently, the Jewish community in Moldova had setup a Menorah to celebrate Hanukkah (after having been given a permit to do so).  This didn’t go down well with Moldova’s eparchy of the Russian Orthodox church.  So under the charismatic leadership of Father Anatoly Chirbik (and another hammer wielding priest), the local community staged a get-together and in a very orderly manner, proceeded to crash the celebration.  It’s all on tape: the honor guard, the banners with the miraculous icons, the sprinkling of holy water, the burning of incense, and even a live accompaniment by a chorus of Gregorian chanters.

When I first watched the clip, I thought that it was just another Borat promotional, but after listening to Father Chirbik’s speech (excerpt below), I realized that it was actually the real thing.

“We are an Orthodox country. Stephen the Great and Holy defended our country from all kinds of Jews, and now they come and put their menorah here. This is anarchy.” 

My initial confusion was understandable as Borat’s explanation of the origin of his brother’s madness were not dissimilar in substance and style from the one made by Father Chirbik:

Bilo [Borat’s brother] had "a demon", so we chiseled a hole the size of kestrel egg in his head and put a dry fish inside to eat the demon. This worked for a while, but then "the demon” took his revenge and made Bilo retarded.

Even more perplexing than the speech, were the participants.  The expressions on their faces ranged from gratefulness for having been chosen to join the wrecking crew to religious piety and patriotic zeal.  By all accounts, this was a family event; complete with well dressed moms, dads, grandparents and young kids in tow. It was by no means your stereotypical lynch mob wielding torches and pitch forks.

But looks can be deceiving. Just because someone was born in the 20th century and dresses appropriately doesn’t automatically elevate him to the rank of a modern human being.  Theodor Adorno once stated: “’[The] Enlightenment has always aimed at liberating men from fear...” Alas, it seems that large segments of the world’s population are still firmly planted in the midst of the savage Byzantine era, and if the Moldova incident is any indication, they are not in a great rush to get out of there soon.

The Age of Enlightenment and the political reforms that it spawned (like the Bill of Rights)  have repeatedly demonstrated that church and state do not mix well and are best enjoyed separately.  For US immigrants the likes of Irving Berlin, who experienced religious prosecution first hand, the freedom of religion has always been a sign of a divine blessing. 

“God bless America”

© Copyright 2009 Jacob Apelbaum All Rights Reserved

We had a holiday office potluck the other day and I thought i’d introduce my friends and colleagues to the Jewish holiday of Chanukah and latkes. Now, just a quick tutorial, Chanukah translates into “The Festival of Lights”  and a latke is a potato pancake that is fried in oil.  I’ve watched my parents make them, but hadn’t actually made them myself, so why not give it a try, right?

Latke and applesauce

So as is normally the case, you tend to get better with practice. After letting the grated potatoes drain for a while and then mixing it all together, I still found them pretty wet and not ideal for frying. I decided to make my patties a little smaller and really squeezed the liquid out and then they really started turning out well and the kitchen was soon smelling oh so good of fried goodness! And for the record, they were a big hit at the potluck!

Normally they are accompanied with sour cream or applesauce, so I decided to give the homemade applesauce a try. No real recipe, just threw some stuff together. I left the skin of the apple on, I was going for the rustic style, but next time, I might add some more sugar to get it a little sweeter.

Latke and applesauce

Recipe and Directions

Latkes

• 6 potatoes
• 1 small onion, grated
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1/4 teaspoon
• 1/4 cup of flour
• 1 tablespoon of oil
• 2 teaspoon of baking powder
• oil for frying (you don’t need a lot of oil, just enough to cover the frying pan, you don’t need to submerge the latke in oil)

Grate potatoes and drain well. Blend in remaining ingredients. Drop from a spoon into hot oil and brown on both sides, turning only once. Makes about 2 dozen. Taken from Second Helpings, Please!

***After speaking with my sister, she suggested actually squeezing the grated potatoes by hand before letting them drain. I did that when I made them again and it was an incredible difference!  They fried up much better without as much liquid!

Homemade Applesauce

• 6 apples
• Enough water to cover the bottom of the saucepan
• Sugar
• Honey

Bring the water and apples to a boil and turn it down to simmer for 15 minutes, until it becomes fork tender. I then threw it on a sheet pan, sprinkled some more sugar and baked it for another 15 minutes or so. I then took a potoato masher and mixed it all up.

Happy Hanukkah to my Jewish friends.  

For my non-Jewish friends who may not be too familiar with the Festival of Lights holiday, once again, Wikipedia is our best source for information:

Hanukkah (Hebrew: חֲנֻכָּה‎, Tiberian: Ḥănukāh, nowadays usually spelled חנוכה pronounced [ˈχanuka] in Modern Hebrew, also romanized as Chanukah), also known as the Festival of Lights, is an eight-day Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt of the 2nd century BCE. Hanukkah is observed for eight nights, starting on the 25th day of Kislev according to the Hebrew calendar, which may occur as early as late November to as late as late December in the Gregorian calendar.

The festival is observed by the kindling of the lights of a special candelabrum, the nine-branched Menorah or Hanukiah, one additional light on each night of the holiday, progressing to eight on the final night. An extra light called a shamash (Hebrew: “guard” or “servant”) is also lit each night for the purpose of lighting the others, and is given a distinct location, usually above or below the rest. The “shamash” symbolically supplies light that may be used for some secular purpose.

” A candle is a small thing,but one candle can light another-and see how it’s own light increases as a candle gives it’s flame to the other.

You are such a light.

Light is the power to dispell darkness. You have this power, to move back the darkness in yourself, and in others. To do so with the birth of light created when one mind illuminates another, when one heart kindles another, when one person strengthens another. And its flame enlarges within you as you pass it on.

Throughout history, children of darkness have tried to smother this passage of light from person to person. Throughout history, dictators large and small have tried to darken, diminish, and separate people by force. But always in the end they fail. For always, somewhere in the world, the light remains. Ready to burn its brightest where it is dark. A light that began when God created the world.

And every free people has remained free by resisting those who would extinguish in people the light of freedom, of love, of truth.

To do our daily part to increase this light, we must remember that a candle alone is a small thing, a person alone is a small thing, a nation alone is a small thing. Remembering this we must recognize something much more than our indispensibility to others- we must also remember their indispensibility to us. We cannot hope, either as individuals or nations, to reach our highest capabilities until we help those around us reach theirs.

To be strong, the strong must serve.

These lights we now kindle. These words accompany the lighting of Hanukkah candles in the home and in the heart. To commemorate the eternal bridge of light which reaches from creation itself to the radiant spirit of free people. In this spirit is celebrated the festival of Hanukkah, the festival of light. Wherein the candle that gives its light to the others is called the servant candle.

You too are strongest when you serve. “

appy Hanukkah to all of my lovely Jewish readers! I hope the Festival of Lights is especially illuminating this year, and that your holiday is filled with loveliness. To celebrate, I’m offering 20% off of my 8 Nights of Hanukkah Journal, available in my Etsy shop HERE:

The journal is conveniently sized to 4″x6″ and features 8 numbered dividers to represent the 8 glorious nights of Hanukkah. Between the dividers, I’ve stashed a wonderful little mix of cards, vintage papers, usable holiday gift tags, envelopes, activity pages, and stickers, all with a Hanukkah theme (whether explicit or implicit)! You’ll find lots of blues, Stars of David, menorahs, even little history pages and activities for children pertaining to the origin of Hanukkah. It’s a sweet little compilation, and it would make a great, unique gift for a loved one. And now it’s ON SALE! Oh, and did I mention the free shipping? FREE SHIPPING!!! For more images and to order, click over to my shop HERE.

Additionally, I am offering FREE SHIPPING ON ALL “HOLIDAYS” ITEMS IN MY SHOP! Lots of cute, hand-stamped and hand-sewn gift tags and also my Christmas journal will be shipped for free if you place your order prior to Wednesday, December 16th. (My shop will be closed from 12/16 – 1/02 for the holidays)

Some of my gift tag selections:

My Christmas journal:

For more info and images on all of my HOLIDAYS items, head on over to my shop HERE!
HAPPY HOLIDAYS, EVERYONE!!!

(*Initial “H” from HERE)

Consecutive Days Riding: 63                               Consecutive Days Blogging: 64

Today’s Mileage: 7                                             Total Trip Mileage: 552

The red line marks our progress!

Holidays and Holy Days on December 12:

Hanukkah – Jewish Festival of Lights. It commemorates the Maccabean recapture and      rededication of the Jerusalem Temple in 165-164 b.c.e. Special readings and praise songs focus on liberty and freedom. The eight candle Menorah is lighted

_________________________________________________

A Blazing Menorah.

As I climb on the bike this morning I would like to wish everyone a Happy Hanukkah! Today marks the first of eight days in this sacred Jewish Festival of Lights. We will for the next several days be following the coast north towards the Tampa/Saint Petersburg area.  As cold winter weather sweeps over much of the nation, the idea of riding along sunny warm beaches is a comforting thought.

I’ve been thinking about Hanukkah celebrations and my discussion yesterday concerning whether to take a buffet or a single entrée approach to defining individual spiritual beliefs.  Years ago, in my youth, this was not a question one wrestled with! If my memory serves me correctly, I believe it was actually a sin to visit a worship service of another denomination.  Visits to Native American ceremonies (Pow Wows) were seen as a “quaint and strange” other world, that apparently posed no threat to your monotheistic beliefs. The message was that comingling with other faiths whose churches dotted the community streets, could only lead to conflict and negative results.  Apparently these results included a contamination of the true message or an undermining of one’s foundation beliefs.  In some ways this approach made life easier. You didn’t have to consider different beliefs.  You just followed the prescribed path.  However, as I got older and travelled more, I wanted to make more sense of the diversity of cultures and spiritual beliefs I was encountering. I found it necessary to explore, encounter and sample these beliefs.

Dreides with letters that proclaim: "A great miracle happened there."

 I understand now the old saying: “How do you keep them down on the farm, after they’ve seen Paris?” In my case it would read: “How do you keep them believing in the farm, after they’ve experienced Bangkok?”

I found that while sampling other belief systems often points to many surface differences, to continue with the buffet analogy, these would be the use of different colors, textures and spices. There is a strong similarity between the emotions experienced and shared among the diners of these feasts. It is my experience, that whether one is attending a Jewish Hanukkah celebration, a Christian Christmas service, or a Wiccan Solstice gathering, the passions, the deep commitment, the sense of love and connectedness between family, friends, and the divine is more similar than different! The venues are decorated differently and the feast buffet offers some unique dishes, however the emotions are all uplifting and lead to a connectedness with others.

I know the story of Hanukkah, of the rededication of the temple in Jerusalem, of the miracle of “one day’s worth” of oil lasting eight days. I understand the meaning of the menorah, like I understand the meaning of the Advent wreath in a Christian service, but understanding the meaning does not bring me closer to the celebrants.  It is the sharing of the emotions and the symbolism of the light that bring me closer to these strangers. Light that attests to our coming together with others in community…. Light that attests to an offering of thanks and gratitude…  Light that attests to the guidance and meaning we find in our beliefs.

Bring a community together!

As I mentioned yesterday, taking a “buffet approach” to spiritual beliefs carries some dangers, not the least of which is a superficiality that may substitute for deep rooted beliefs. However, I believe that one of the strengths of sampling the buffet is that you may come to realize that regardless of the culture of the dish, the spices enliven the  tongue, brings a smile to the face and points to a connect that we all share: a need for nourishment.

The information on holy days and sacred holidays comes from www.interfaithcalendar.org.

To all that celebrate this Jewish Festival of Lights, I wish you all a Happy Hanukkah full of love, family (if that makes you happy), latkes, gelt and candle-light!

(and I love that the spell-checker wants to change the word “latkes” to “lattes”).

More of the Fete: more parties, more lights and more inadvertent cursing in front of monks. [7:41]

photo by: JParadisi 2009

     While I understand reading about hospitalized people can feel sad, to stop there is missing the point. I believe nurses write stories about encounters with their patients because of the universal truths of humanity they relate. Whether poignant or humorous, the stories shine a light on the characteristics that connect us all as part of the human race.       

      This is the season of lights.       

     Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, walked the hallways of an army hospital during the Crimean war, shining the light of her lamp on wounded soldiers while making her rounds. To her patients, she was known as The Lady with the Lamp.       

     Nurses, at our best, bring light to patients, by listening to their stories while delivering expert care. Treatment, especially cancer treatment, can feel like a season of darkness one must travel through to find the light at the end. Some patients will never leave the dark season of a chronic illness, and for them, nurses are there to hold the small lamps of hope needed to guide them along their journey.       

     This is the season of lights. During the darkest time of year, our society strings lights from our homes and businesses. We string lights around the trees outdoors, and those we bring into our homes. We light the Menorah during the Festival of Lights. We light our way through the season of darkness, and remind ourselves that nature’s light will return.       

     Nurses tell the stories that guide us through long shifts with fearful patients. The stories bring us back for the next shift and the next, until a string of these stories lights our careers, and our lives, until each of one of us finds our unique purpose in the darkness.       

     This is the season of lights.        

Meaning of the word Christmas.

The word Christmas originated as a compound meaning ‘Christ’s Mass’. It is derived from the Middle English Christemasse and Old English Cristes mæsse, a phrase first recorded in 1038. “Cristes” is from Greek Christos and “mæsse” is from Latin missa (the holy mass).

Mass- 1909 Catholic dictionary

The Eucharist as a sacrifice is called the Mass, most probably from the dismissal (missa) of the catechumens before the celebration. The Mass is a true proper sacrifice, namely, “the external offering up of a sensible gift, which is destroyed or transformed by an authorized minister in recognition of God’s supreme dominion.”

Hence, Christmas literally means the ‘death/sacrifice of Christ.’  Why does Christmas celebrate the supposed birth of Christ but yet literally means the death of Christ?  Because this holiday traces back to sun worship where the sun would ‘die’ at the winter solstice and be ‘resurrected’ on the 25th as it began to rise again.

The Winter Solstice is the day when the Sun is the lowest in the southern sky. During the short winter days the Sun does not rise exactly in the east, but instead rises just south of east and it sets south of west. Each day after the winter solstice, which occurs on December 21st, the Sun’s path becomes a little higher in the southern sky after having remained motionless in the sky for 3 days. The Sun also begins to rise closer to the east and set closer to the west until we reach the day when it rises exactly east and sets exactly west. This day is called the equinox. In fact this is what the word ’solstice’ means, ’sun standing still.’   Solstice derives from Latin sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still).

So when we speak of the Winter Solstice it is rather easy knowing this that as the Sun sank deeper into the southern horizon on a daily basis and with less light every day to the point that the path of the Sun had moved further down the sky to where it had remained motionless for 3 days at the Winter Solstice then the ancients considered that the sun had actually died. In fact, the great orb, would remain standing still for three days neither moving north or south. Then, it was noticed, that on the third day, the sun would begin moving northward again.

Sun Worshipclick here

“Each day in the week, the planet to which the
day was sacred was invoked in a fixed spot in the crypt;
and Sunday, over which the Sun presided, was especially
holy . .
“The rites which they [the Mithraists] practised offered
numerous analogies . . They also held Sunday sacred,
and celebrated the birth of the Sun [god] on the
25th of December.”—Franz Cumont, the Mysteries of
Mithra, Trans. by T.J. McCormack, 167, 191.

Here we see a picture of the Messiah dying and rising again after 3 days.  This is why so many pagan religions have dying and rising Messiah figures.  The adversary knows that the Almighty gives shadow pictures of His great plan in His creation and the adversary seeks to pervert this picture to lead mankind astray.click here.  The sun, moon and stars are specifically used to teach of His glory.

Psa 19:1  To the chief musician. A Psalm of David. The heavens are recounting* the glory of God, and the expanse proclaiming His handiwork.

*m’sepharim- literally from, or out of the books.  When looking at the constellations and the path of the sun we are seeing another witness to the Holy Scriptures.
Psa 19:2  Day by day they pour forth speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.
Psa 19:3  There is no speech, nor are there words where their voice is not heard.
Psa 19:4  Their measuring line has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world; in them He has set up a dwelling-place for the sun,
Psa 19:5  and he comes forth like a bridegroom from his canopy. He rejoices like a hero to run a race;
Psa 19:6  his going forth from the end of the heavens, and his orbit to their ends; and nothing is hidden from his heat.

The religions of the heathens incorporate different aspects of the work of the Messiah in their religions because they knew what the zodiac taught concerning the Messiah to come.  The adversary knew since the garden that the Seed of the woman was going to come to crush his head and sought to pervert the picture of this Seed to lead mankind astray.  This is why it is so important for believers not to associate with Christmas because it is a part of that perversion of the picture of the Messiah.  The reason why movies like Zeitgeist and books like Holy Blood, Holy Grail and the DaVinci Code can lead so many astray because it is true that the Roman Catholic Church mixed heathen customs with the Scriptures.  The next logical step is to think that they perverted the Scriptures themselves or that they are just retelling the same pagan myths in a different form.  This is just one reason among many that Christmas is so dangerous to the spiritual welfare of mankind.

“In Constantine’s day, Rome’s official religion was sun worship–the cult of Sol Invictus, or the Invincible Sun–and Constantine was its high priest…By fusing pagan symbols, dates, and rituals into the growing Christian tradition, he created a type of hybrid religion…

The pre-Christian God Mithras – called the Son of God and the Light of the World – was born on December 25…By the way, December 25 is also the birthday of Osiris, Adonis, and Dionysus” (Brown D. The Da Vinci Code. Doubleday, New York, 2003, p. 232).

2Pe 1:16  For we have not followed cunningly devised fables(Pagan mythology), when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

What saith the Scriptures?

The fact that Christmas is derived from paganism is a statement of fact that can’t be denied.  The question is whether or not it is acceptable to our Heavenly Father to join in customs, traditions and holidays that are birthed from the religions of satan worship.  The Holy Scriptures are clear on what the answer is:

Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her*, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

*Come out of Babylon…this is speaking of the customs of the satanic system.  Christmas is Babylonian to the core.
Isa 52:11  Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD.
Jer 51:45  My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and deliver ye every man his soul from the fierce anger of the LORD.
2Co 6:17  Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,

We will loathe ourselves when we see the horrible abominations we have committed
Eze 6:8  Yet will I leave a remnant, that ye may have some that shall escape the sword among the nations, when ye shall be scattered through the countries.
Eze 6:9  And they that escape of you shall remember me among the nations whither they shall be carried captives, because I am broken with their whorish heart, which hath departed from me, and with their eyes, which go a whoring after their idols: and they shall lothe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.
Jer 16:19  O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.

Clean can not come out of unclean
Job 14:4  Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.
Hag 2:11  Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Ask now the priests concerning the law, saying,
Hag 2:12  If one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and with his skirt do touch bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any meat, shall it be holy? And the priests answered and said, No.
Hag 2:13  Then said Haggai, If one that is unclean by a dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priests answered and said, It shall be unclean.
Hag 2:14  Then answered Haggai, and said, So is this people, and so is this nation before me, saith the LORD; and so is every work of their hands; and that which they offer there is unclean.

Sir 34:4  Of an unclean thing what can be cleansed? and from that thing which is false what truth can come?
Sir 34:5  Divinations, and soothsayings, and dreams, are vain: and the heart fancieth, as a woman’s heart in travail.
Sir 34:6  If they be not sent from the most High in thy visitation, set not thy heart upon them.
Sir 34:7  For dreams have deceived many, and they have failed that put their trust in them.
Sir 34:8  The law shall be found perfect without lies: and wisdom is perfection to a faithful mouth.

Keep far from a false matter
Exo 23:7  Keep thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not: for I will not justify the wicked.

Do not desire the “pretty” things of the heathens
Deu 7:25  The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire: thou shalt not desire the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it unto thee, lest thou be snared therein: for it is an abomination to the LORD thy God.
Deu 7:26  Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it: but thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it; for it is a cursed thing.

Jos 7:15  And it shall be, he who is taken with the accursed thing shall be burned with fire, he and all that he has, because he has transgressed the covenant of YHWH and because he has committed folly in Israel.
Jos 7:21  When I saw among the spoil a goodly robe of Shinar (Babylonish garment), and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold, one of fifty shekels in weight, then I lusted after them, and took them. And behold, they are hidden in the earth, in the middle of my tent, and the silver under it.
Isa 44:9  Those who form a carved image are all of them vanity. And their delights do not profit; and they are their own witnesses. They do not see, nor know, that they may be ashamed.
Psa 141:4  Do not let my heart turn aside to any evil thing, to practice deeds in wickedness with men who practice iniquity; and do not let me eat of their delicacies.

The ways of the heathen are abominations

Deu 12:29  When the LORD thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land;
Deu 12:30  Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.
Deu 12:31  Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.

Golden Calf/Synchretism

Exo 32:1  And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.
Exo 32:2  And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me.
Exo 32:3  And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron.
Exo 32:4  And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
Exo 32:5  And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to the LORD.

Notice, Aharon stated that the golden calf was YHWH.  We can not take the customs of the heathen and apply them to YHWH or Messiah Yahshua.
Exo 32:7  And the LORD said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves:
Exo 32:8  They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
Exo 32:9  And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:
Exo 32:10  Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation.

Deu 12:29  When the LORD thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land;
Deu 12:30  Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.
Deu 12:31  Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.
Deu 12:32  What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.
Deu 18:9  When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.

Lev 18:3  After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do: neither shall ye walk in their ordinances.
Lev 18:4  Ye shall do my judgments, and keep mine ordinances, to walk therein: I am the LORD your God.
Lev 18:5  Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the LORD.

LEARN NOT THE WAY OF THE HEATHEN
Jer 10:2  Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.
Eph 4:17  This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other(G3062…remaining) Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,
Eze 20:32  And that which cometh into your mind shall not be at all, that ye say, We will be as the heathen, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone.
Eze 20:33  As I live, saith the Lord GOD, surely with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule over you:
Eze 20:34  And I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out.
Eze 20:35  And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face.
Eze 20:36  Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord GOD.
Eze 20:37  And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant:
Eze 20:38  And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
Eze 20:39  As for you, O house of Israel, thus saith the Lord GOD; Go ye, serve ye every one his idols, and hereafter also, if ye will not hearken unto me: but pollute ye my holy name no more with your gifts, and with your idols.
2 TABLES…we must choose 1
1Co 10:19  What say I then? that the idol is any thing, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing?
1Co 10:20  But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.
1Co 10:21  Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils.
Mat 6:24  No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
2Co 6:15  And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
2Co 6:16  And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
2Co 6:17  Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,

BE NOT CONFORMED
Rom 12:2  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may
prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

1Pe 1:14  As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:

Eph 4:17  This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,
Eph 4:18  Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
Eph 4:19  Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
Eph 4:20  But ye have not so learned Christ;
Eph 4:21  If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:
Eph 4:22  That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
Eph 4:23  And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
Eph 4:24  And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

1Co 10:2  And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea;
1Co 10:3  And did all eat the same spiritual meat;
1Co 10:4  And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.
1Co 10:5  But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
1Co 10:7  Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play……Shaul makes a reference to the golden calf and warns believers not to be idolaters who mixed worship as Israel did in the wilderness.

1Co 10:8  Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. ….NUMBERS 25 BAAL PEOR AND BILAM…again mixing worship.
1Co 10:14  Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.
1Co 10:19  What say I then? that the idol is any thing, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing?
1Co 10:20  But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.
1Co 10:21  Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils.

Mat 10:5  These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not:
2Kings 17:24-41; Samaritans “believed” in YHWH but also followed after their own gods.

We must forsake traditions that lead us away from the Word.

Mar 7:6  He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
Mar 7:7  Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
Mar 7:8  For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.
Mar 7:9  And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.
Mar 7:13  Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.
Mat 15:6  And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.

Jer 16:19  O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.

Elijah Messageclick here

The Custom of Christmas trees was passed down to us from the “sacred groves” of the heathen religions.  This is Baal worship, this was a main battleground for Eliyahu.

Rom 11:2  “God did not thrust away His people” whom He foreknew. Psa. 94:14 Or do you not know what the Scripture said in Elijah, how he pleaded with God against Israel, saying,

Rom 11:4  But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to {the image} of Baal.

Why was “the image of” added to the text in Romans 11:4

To Baal (τῇ Βάαλ)
The feminine article is used with the name instead of the masculine (as in Septuagint in this passage). It occurs, however, in the Septuagint with both the masculine and the feminine article. Various reasons are given for the use of the feminine, some supposing an ellipsis, the image of Baal; others that the deity was conceived as bisexual; …it may also be referring to Baal’s female consort Ashtoreth.

Asherah, came to denote the symbol of the goddess. The trunk of the tree was often provided with branches, and assumed the form of the tree of life.

History

the New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge
tells us how the December 25 holiday entered the Christian church:
“How much the date of the festival depended upon
the pagan Brumalia [The December 25 celebration],
following the Saturnalia [an eight-day December 17-
24 festival preceding it], and celebrating the shortest
day of the year and the ‘new sun’ . . cannot be accurately
determined. The pagan Saturnalia and Brumalia
were too deeply entrenched in popular custom to be
set aside by Christian influence . . The pagan festival
with its riot and merrymaking was so popular that
Christians were glad of an excuse to continue its celebration
with little change in spirit and in manner.
Christian preachers of the West and the Near East
protested against the unseemly frivolity with which
Christ’s birthday was celebrated, while Christians of
Mesopotamia accused their Western brethren of idolatry
and sun worship for adopting as Christian this
pagan festival.”—New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of
Religious Knowledge, “Christmas.”

“A feast was established in memory of this event
[Christ’s birth] in the fourth century. In the fifth century
the Western Church ordered it to be celebrated
forever on the day of the old Roman feast of the birth
of Sol [the Latin word for ‘sun’], as no certain knowledge
of the day of Christ’s birth existed.”—Encyclopedia
Americana (1944 edition), “Christmas.”

“Certain Latins, as early as [A.D.] 354, may have
transferred the birthday from January 6th to December
25, which was then a Mithraic feast . . or birthday
of the unconquered sun . . The Syrians and Armenians
accused the Romans of sun worship and idolatry.”—
Encyclopedia Britannica, 1946 ed.

“The uncertainty that existed at the beginning of the
third century in the minds of Hippolytus and others—
Hippolytus earlier favored Jan. 2; Clement of Alexandria
(Strom., i. 21), “the 25th of Pachon” [May 20]; while
others, according to Clement, fixed upon Apr, 18 or 19
and Mar. 28—proves that no Christmas festival had been
established much before the middle of the century. Jan.
6 was earlier fixed upon as the date of the baptism or
spiritual birth of Christ, and the feast of Epiphany . .
was celebrated by the Basilidian Gnostics in the second
century . . and by Catholic Christians by about the beginning
of the fourth century.

The earliest record of the recognition of Dec. 25 as
a church festival is in the Philocalian Calendar [although
copied in 354, represented Roman practice in 336].”—
Newman, A.H., “Christmas,” New Scaff-Herzog Encyclopedia
of Religious Knowledge, Vol. 3, 47.

“Uncertainty about Jesus’ birthday in the
early third century is reflected in a disputed passage of
the presbyter Hippolytus, who was banished to Sarinia
by Maximinus in 235, and in an authentic statement of
Clement of Alexandria. While the former favored January
second, the learned Clement of Alexandria enumerates
several dates given by the Alexandrian chronographers,
notably the twenty-fifth of the Egyptian month,
Pachon (May twentieth), in the twenty-eighth year of
Augustus and the twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth of
Pharmuthi (April eighteenth or nineteenth) of the year
A.D. 1, although he favored May twentieth. This shows
that no Church festival, in honor of the day, was established
before the middle of the third century. Origen, at
that time in a sermon, denounced the idea of keeping
Jesus’ birthday like that of Pharaoh and said that only
sinners such as Herod were so honored. Arnobius later
similarly ridiculed giving birthdays to ‘gods.’ A Latin treatise,
De pascha computus (of ca. 243), placed Jesus’
birth on March twenty-first since that was the supposed
day on which God created the Sun (Gen 1:14-19), thus
typifying the ‘Sun of righteousness’ as Malachi 4:2 called
the expected Messiah. A century before, Polycarp, martyred
in Smyrna in 155, gave the same date for the birth
and baptism placing it on a Wednesday because of the
creation of the Sun on that day.”—Walter Woodburn
Hyde, Paganism to Christianity in the Roman Empire,
249-25

“It is now generally granted that the day of the nativity was
not observed as a feast in any part of the church, east or
west, till some time in the fourth century. If any day had
been earlier fixed upon as the Lord’s birthday, it was
not commemorated by any religious rites, nor is it mentioned
by any writers.”—Samuel J. Andrews, The Life
of Our Lord Upon the Earth, New York: Charles
Scribner’s Sons, 1891, 17.

“While Christianity won a comparatively
easy victory over the Graeco-Roman religion, it had a hard
struggle with the Mithras religion. The worshipers of
Mithras were won by taking over the birthday of Mithras,
December 25, as the birthday of Christ.”—H. Lamer,
“Mithras,” Worterbuch der Antike, 2nd ed.; Leipzig: A. Kroner, 1933.

“Remains of the struggle are found in two institutions adopted from its rival by Christianity in the fourth century, the two Mithraic sacred
days, December twenty-fifth, dies natalis solis [birthday
of the sun], as the birthday of Jesus, and Sunday “the
venerable day of the Sun,” as Constantine called it in his
edict of 321.”—Walter Woodburn Hyde, Paganism to
Christianity in the Roman Empire, 60.

“The first footsteps we find of the observation of this
day are in the second century, about the time of the emperor
Commodus.”—Charles Buck, A Theological Dictionary,
“Christmas,” Philadelphia: Crissy and Markley,
copyright 1851, 71.

Tertullian 160-22o AD

Tertullian

The Minervalia are as much Minerva’s, as the Saturnalia Saturn’s; Saturn’s, which must necessarily be celebrated even by little slaves at the time of the Saturnalia. New-year’s gifts likewise must be caught at, and the Septimontium kept; and all the presents of Midwinter and the feast of Dear Kinsmanship must be exacted; the schools must be wreathed with flowers; the flamens’ wives and the aediles sacrifice; the school is honoured on the appointed holy-days. The same thing takes place on an idol’s birthday; every pomp of the devil is frequented. Who will think that these things are befitting to a Christian master, unless it be he who shall think them suitable likewise to one who is not a master? (Tertullian. On Idolatry, Chapter X. Translated by S. Thelwall. Excerpted from Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3. Edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson. American Edition, 1885. Online Edition Copyright © 2004 by K. Knight).
But, however, the majority (of Christians) have by this time induced the belief in their mind that it is pardonable if at any time they do what the heathen do, for fear “the Name be blasphemed”…To live with heathens is lawful, to die with them is not. Let us live with all; let us be glad with them, out of community of nature, not of superstition. We are peers in soul, not in discipline; fellow-possessors of the world, not of error. But if we have no right of communion in matters of this kind with strangers, how far more wicked to celebrate them among brethren! Who can maintain or defend this?…By us,…the Saturnalia and New-year’s and Midwinter’s festivals and Matronalia are frequented–presents come and go–New-year’s gifts–games join their noise–banquets join their din! Oh better fidelity of the nations to their own sect, which claims no solemnity of the Christians for itself!…Not the Lord’s day, not Pentecost, even it they had known them, would they have shared with us; for they would fear lest they should seem to be Christians. We are not apprehensive lest we seem to be heathens! (Tertullian. On Idolatry, Chapter XIV. Translated by S. Thelwall. Excerpted from Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3. Edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson. American Edition, 1885. Online Edition Copyright © 2004 by K. Knight).

But “let your works shine,” saith He; but now all our shops and gates shine! You will now-a-days find more doors of heathens without lamps and laurel-wreaths than of Christians. What does the case seem to be with regard to that species (of ceremony) also? If it is an idol’s honour, without doubt an idol’s honour is idolatry. If it is for a man’s sake, let us again consider that all idolatry is for man’s sake; let us again consider that all idolatry is a worship done to men, since it is generally agreed even among their worshippers that aforetime the gods themselves of the nations were men; and so it makes no difference whether that superstitious homage be rendered to men of a former age or of this. Idolatry is condemned, not on account of the persons which are set up for worship, but on account of those its observances, which pertain to demons (Tertullian. On Idolatry, Chapter XV. Translated by S. Thelwall. Excerpted from Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3. Edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson. American Edition, 1885. Online Edition Copyright © 2004 by K. Knight).

An Armenian scholar called Ananias of Shirak, circa 600 A.D., wrote:

The Festival of the holy Birth of Christ, on the 12th day before the feast of the Baptism, was not appointed by the holy apostles, nor by their successors either, as is clear from the canons of the holy apostles…which is 6th of January, according to the Romans.

But many years after their fixing the canons, this festival was invented, as some say, by the disciples of the heretic Cerinthus; and was accepted by the Greeks, because they were truly fond of festivals and most fervent in piety; and by them it was spread and diffused all over the world.

But in the days of the holy Constantine, in the holy Council of Nice, this festival was not received by the holy fathers (Ananias of Shirak, On Christmas, The Expositor, 5th series vol. 4 (1896) Translation. pp.323-337, as reported by ccel).

Cerinthus was a heretic who the Apostle John publicly denounced towards the end of the first century. Notice that Irenaeus wrote that John detested Cerinthus so much that he would not even take a bath in the same building as him:

There are also those who heard from him that John, the disciple of the Lord, going to bathe at Ephesus, and perceiving Cerinthus within, rushed out of the bath-house without bathing, exclaiming, “Let us fly, lest even the bath-house fall down, because Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, is within.” (Irenaeus. Adversus Haeres. Book III, Chapter 3, Verse 4).

The Roman Catholics have also condemned Cerinthus as a heretic:

Cerinthus A Gnostic-Ebionite heretic, contemporary with St. John…Cerinthus was an Egyptian, and if not by race a Jew…Cerinthus’s doctrines were a strange mixture of Gnosticism, Judaism, Chiliasm, and Ebionitism (Arendzen J.P. Transcribed by William D. Neville. The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume III. Published 1908. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Nihil Obstat, November 1, 1908. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York).

The Catholic Encyclopedia admits this about Christmas:

Christmas…Irenaeus and Tertullian omit it from their lists of feasts; Origen, glancing perhaps at the discreditable imperial Natalitia, asserts (in Lev. Hom. viii in Migne, P.G., XII, 495) that in the Scriptures sinners alone, not saints, celebrate their birthday; Arnobius (VII, 32 in P.L., V, 1264) can still ridicule the “birthdays” of the gods.

Alexandria. The first evidence of the feast is from Egypt. About A.D. 200, Clement of Alexandria (Strom., I, xxi in P.G., VIII, 888) says that certain Egyptian theologians “over curiously” assign, not the year alone, but the day of Christ’s birth, placing it on 25 Pachon (20 May) in the twenty-eighth year of Augustus…

Cyprus, Mesopotamia, Armenia, Asia Minor. In Cyprus, at the end of the fourth century, Epiphanius asserts against the Alogi (Hær., li, 16, 24 in P. G., XLI, 919, 931) that Christ was born on 6 January…

Rome. At Rome the earliest evidence is in the Philocalian Calendar (P. L., XIII, 675; it can be seen as a whole in J. Strzygowski, Kalenderbilder des Chron. von Jahre 354, Berlin, 1888), compiled in 354, which contains three important entries. In the civil calendar 25 December is marked “Natalis Invicti”…

By the time of Jerome and Augustine, the December feast is established, though the latter (Epp., II, liv, 12, in P.L., XXXIII, 200) omits it from a list of first-class festivals. From the fourth century every Western calendar assigns it to 25 December…

Notice what The Catholic Encyclopedia reported:

Jerusalem…In 385, therefore, 25 December was not observed at Jerusalem.This checks the so-called correspondence between Cyril of Jerusalem (348-386) and Pope Julius I (337-352), quoted by John of Nikiu (c. 900) to convert Armenia to 25 December (see P.L., VIII, 964 sqq.). Cyril declares that his clergy cannot, on the single feast of Birth and Baptism, make a double procession to Bethlehem and Jordan. (This later practice is here an anachronism.) He asks Julius to assign the true date of the nativity “from census documents brought by Titus to Rome”; Julius assigns 25 December…(Martindale C. Christmas, 1908).

Notice what a Franciscan Catholic priest from Jerusalem reported:

The peregrinations also extended to Bethlehem on the occasion of the Epiphany, which was a feast that united with Christmas.

The feast of Christmas, on December 25 despite the protestation of St. Jerome that the feast was already “universal”, was not introduced until the 6th century (Bagatti, Bellarmino.  Translated by Eugene Hoade.  The Church from the Gentiles in Palestine, Part 1, Chapter 1.  Nihil obstat: Ignatius Mancini. Imprimi potest: Herminius Roncari. Imprimatur: +Albertus Gori, die 28 Februarii 1970.  Franciscan Printing Press, Jerusalem, p. 73).

Mixing Christianity & Paganism

“Christianity did not destroy paganism; it adopted it”  Will Durant- 20th Century American Historian

Puritans

Puritans sought to keep the Biblical commandments click here
When the Puritans came to power in the 1600’s, they attacked Christmas as ‘the old heathens’ feasting day to Saturn their god.’  Even singing carols was forbidden.

In 1644, in protest against Christmas, the Church of England proclaimed December 25th as a fast day, and Parliament banned celebrating the festival.  The new rule was enforced by the English army, and the prohibition was enforced with great rigor.

In the 17th century, the English anti-Christmas attitude spread to the Puritan territories in America.   As ardent Protestants, Puritans identified the embracing of Christianity by the Roman Emperor Constantine in the early 300s as the starting point of the degeneration and corruption of the church. They believed the corruption of the church was brought on by the interweaving of the church with the pagan Roman state. To Puritans, Christmas was impure because it entered the Roman Church sometime in this period. The New England culture was permeated with Puritan values. As late as 1847, no college in New England had a Christmas holiday.

The Puritans banned the holiday in 1659.

“For preventing disorders, arising in several places within this jurisdiction by reason of some still observing such festivals as were superstitiously kept in other communities, to the great dishonor of God and offense of others: it is therefore ordered by this court and the authority thereof that whosoever shall be found observing any such day as Christmas or the like, either by forbearing of labor, feasting, or any other way, upon any such account as aforesaid, every such person so offending shall pay for every such offence five shilling as a fine to the county.”

From the records of the General Court,
Massachusetts Bay Colony
May 11, 1659

The General Court banned the celebration of Christmas and other such holidays at the same time it banned gambling and other lawless behavior, grouping all such behaviors together. The court placed a fine of five shillings on anyone caught feasting or celebrating the holiday in another manner.

“The generality of Christmas-keepers observe that festival after such a manner as is highly dishonourable to the name of Christ. How few are there comparatively that spend those holidays (as they are called) after an holy manner. But they are consumed in Compotations, in Interludes, in playing at Cards, in Revellings, in excess of Wine, in mad Mirth …”

- Reverend Increase Mather, 1687

Not celebrated by early believers

Abodah Zarah 1:3 These are the festivals of gentiles: ` Calends, Saturnalia, Cratesis [the commemoration of the empire], `and the emperor`s anniversary, his birthday, `“and the day of his death,”

“There is no historical evidence that our [Savior's] birthday was celebrated during the apostolic or early post-apostolic times,” The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, “Christmas,” p. 47.

“The day was not one of the early feasts of the Christian church. In fact the observance of birthdays was condemned as a heathen custom repugnant to Christians,”click here The American Book of Days, George W. Douglas, p. 658

Saturnalia

In memory of the Golden Age of man, a mythical age when Saturn was said to have ruled, a great feast called Saturnalia was held during the winter months around the time of the winter solstice.

In Babylon he was called Ninib and was an agricultural deity. Saturn, called Cronus by the Greeks, was, at the dawn of the Ages of the Gods, the Protector and Sower of the Seed and his wife, Ops, (called Rhea by the Greeks) was a Harvest Helper.

In memory of the Golden Age, when Saturn reigned in Italy, the great feast of Saturnalia was held every year during the winter.  The idea of it was that the Golden Age returned to the earth during the days it lasted.

Author Hugo Slim reminds us that Christmas “is perhaps the best example of the early Church Christianizing the traditional non-Christian festivals of a season—in this case the festivals of returning light surrounding the winter solstice” (A Feast of Festivals, pp. 36–37). The Romans celebrated the solstice season as the “Saturnalia, honoring Saturn, the god of agriculture” (Fillmore, p. 10).
This connection to the Saturnalia reveals an even darker side to Christmas traditions, and shows plainly why Christmas is not a child-friendly holiday! The Encyclopaedia Britannica explains that at the feast of Saturnalia, “all classes exchanged gifts, the commonest being wax tapers and clay dolls. These dolls were especially given to children…” (article: “Saturnalia,” 11th edition). What was the purpose of those gifts? “Varro thought these dolls represented original sacrifices of human beings to the infernal god. There was, as we have seen, a tradition that human sacrifices were once offered to Saturn, and the Greeks and Romans gave the name of Cronus and Saturn to a cruel Phoenician Baal, to whom, e.g. children were sacrificed at Carthage” (ibid.).

Saturnalia—the festival Christmas absorbed—even carries echoes of ancient child sacrifice! It sounds horrific that dolls were given as gifts as symbols or proxies of children burnt to pagan gods. Yet this practice echoes the modern tradition of hanging cherubs or human figures on Christmas trees! The ancient Greeks placed small masks called oscilla on branches, where they could twirl freely in the wind. Encyclopaedia Britannica explains that oscilla were small figures, most commonly masks or faces, that were hung up “as offerings to various deities.… The custom of hanging these oscilla represents an older practice of expiating human sacrifice” (ibid.).
Not only did ancient Saturn-worship and fire-worship involve child sacrifice, it also included cannibalism. Author John Garnier noted: “Cannibalism appears to have been initiated by Cronus, i.e. Saturn… For we are told by Sanchoniathon that Cronus was the originator of human sacrifices… Saturn is represented as devouring his own children.” (The Worship of the Dead, pp. 34–35).

Passing through the fire to Molech

Jer 7:30  For the sons of Judah have done evil in My eyes, says YHWH. They have set their idols in the house on which is called My name, in order to defile it.
Jer 7:31  They have built the high places of Tophet in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into My heart.

Psa 106:34  They did not destroy the peoples, as Jehovah said to them,
Psa 106:35  but mingled with the nations, and learned their works.
Psa 106:36  And they served their idols, and they became a snare to them.
Psa 106:37  Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons;
Psa 106:38  and they shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan. And the land was polluted with the blood.
Psa 106:39  And they were unclean with their works, and went whoring in their acts.

Alexander Hislop in his book, The Two Babylons, says, “The god whom the Druids worshipped was Baal, as the blazing Baal-fires show — We know that they offered human sacrifices to their bloody gods. We have evidence that they made `their children pass through the fire to Molech’, and that makes it highly probable that they also offered them in sacrifice; for, from Jeremiah 32:35, compared with Jeremiah 19:5, we find that these two things were parts of one and the same system.” Further, it is to be noted that the “priests of Nimrod or Baal were necessarily required to eat of the human sacrifices; and thus it has come to pass that `Cahna-Bal’, (Cahna is the emphatic form of Cahn which means `a priest’) meaning the priest of Baal, is the established word in our tongue for a devourer of human flesh.” (from The Two Babylons, Hislop. See page 232).

John Gill commentary

to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire: which was done, as Jarchi says, by putting them into the arms of the brasen image Moloch, heated hot. The account he gives of Tophet is this,

“Tophet is Moloch, which was made of brass; and they heated him from his lower parts; and his hands being stretched out, and made hot, they put the child between his hands, and it was burnt; when it vehemently cried out; but the priests beat a drum, that the father might not hear the voice of his son, and his heart might not be moved:”

but in this he is mistaken; for “Tophet” was not the name of an idol, but of a place, as is clear from this and the following verse. There is some agreement between this account of Jarchi, and that which Diodorus Siculus (z) gives of Saturn, to whom children were sacrificed by the Carthaginians; who had, he says, a brasen image of Saturn*, which stretched out his hands, inclining to the earth; so that a child put upon them rolled down, and fell into a chasm full of fire:

*This is important to note.  The worship of Saturn = Ba’al worship. This brazen image of Saturn is the origin of placing children into the lap of Santa Claus.  Halloweenclick here (death) and Christmas (birthdays) are intimately connected.  Birthdaysclick here originally were celebrations of the dead which can be seen by the Greek word that is translated into ‘birthday’.

Moreover, the Romans practiced human sacrifice during the Saturnalia and human heads adorned the pine trees as ornaments.
“William Smith, in his Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities…notes this is stated distinctly in Macrobius who tells us that ‘on the Saturnalia presents were made with little pottery figures or faces.’… And he adds that, as with Dionysus, ‘We have then the propitiation by human sacrifice once real and afterwards simulated, at festivals of Jupiter, and of gods connected with death, Saturnus (to whom human sacrifice especially belonged…). These masks or figures…were hung upon the boughs of trees…for Vergil speaks of a pine… There can be little doubt that (they)…represented sacrifices’.”

The 12th century rabbi Rashi, commenting on Jeremiah 7.31 stated:
Tophet is Moloch, which was made of brass; and they heated him from his lower parts; and his hands being stretched out, and made hot, they put the child between his hands, and it was burnt; when it vehemently cried out; but the priests beat a drum, that the father might not hear the voice of his son, and his heart might not be moved.
A different rabbinical tradition says that the idol was hollow and was divided into seven compartments, in one of which they put flour, in the second turtle-doves, in the third a ewe, in the fourth a ram, in the fifth a calf, in the sixth an ox, and in the seventh a child, which were all burnt together by heating the statue inside.

This is the origin of setting children on the lap of Santa.

Christmas Bacchus connectionclick here

Two Babylons pg 95
It was no mere astronomic festival, then, that the Pagans celebrated at the winter solstice. That festival at Rome was called the feast of Saturn, and the mode in which it was celebrated there, showed whence it had been derived. The feast, as regulated by Caligula, lasted five days; * loose reins were given to drunkenness and revelry, slaves had a temporary emancipation, ** and used all manner of freedoms with their masters. {Exactly the same as the feast of Bacchus seen above that Antiochus forced Yisrael into doing}

* Subsequently the number of the days of the Saturnalia was increased to seven.
** If Saturn, or Kronos, was, as we have seen reason to believe, Phoroneus, “The
emancipator,” the “temporary emancipation” of the slaves at his festival was
exactly in keeping with his supposed character.

This is important to note.  This is a counterfeit of the Jubilee of the Scriptures.  The Jubilee was sounded at Yom Kippur and Sukkot which follows 5 days later is a picture of dwelling/tabernacling with the Messiah when He returns.  According to the book of Maccabees, Hanukkah is just a replay of Sukkot (2Maccabees 1:9).  So we see two opposing feasts which represent two opposing marks.  Hanukkah which is a ‘2nd Sukkot’ where the Temple (body) is rededicated (resurrection) at the coming of the Messiah or Christmas which is a rehearsal of the coming of the antichrist where the Temple (body) is defiled (mark of beast).

Christmas Customs

“Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the Church . . The first evidence of the feast is from Egypt. Pagan customs centering around the January calends [the pagan calendar] gravitated to Christmas.”— Catholic Encyclopedia, 1911 ed., “Christmas.”

Christmas Carols

CHRISTMAS CAROLS
Gal 5:21  Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings,G2970 and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

G2970
κῶμος
kōmos
Thayer Definition:
1) a revel, carousal
1a) a nocturnal and riotous procession of half drunken and frolicsome fellows who after supper parade through the streets with torches and music in honour of Bacchusclick here or some other deity, and sing and play before houses of male and female friends; hence used generally of feasts and drinking parties that are protracted till late at night and indulge in revelry

Christmas plays

The European drama had its origin in Greece. Both forms, tragic and comic, took their rise in the celebrations of the Greek festivals of Dionysus (Bacchus), at which hymns and chants were sung by choruses in honour of the god, and the chorus continued to be a prominent feature of the old Greek drama.

In most modern European countries the regular drama took its rise in the mysteries, miracle-plays, and moralities of the middle ages.

Holly/Ivy wreaths

According to “The Green Mountain Gardener,” Dr. Leonard Perry, ancient pagans fashioned ivy “into wreaths and garlands for decorations during the winter months.” Ivy had close ties with the Roman god of wine, Bacchus. Holly, meanwhile, figured prominently in the Roman celebration of the Saturnalia (upon which the Christmas holiday was directly modeled), as it was considered sacred to Saturn.

Circular wreaths of evergreen
branches (especially holly) were a featured part
of the festival. These were formed in the shape of the
sun, and represented life which could not exist without sunlight. These wreaths were placed on inside and outside
walls during the celebrations. At the time of initiation
into the Dionysian mysteries, these were worn by
the initiates as fertility symbols. They represented the
perpetuity of existence through on-going cycles of life,
death, and rebirth.
“Holly berries were also considered sacred to the sungod.
“The use of Christmas wreaths is believed by authorities
to be traceable to the pagan customs of decorating
buildings and places of worship at the feast
which took place at the same time as Christmas.”—
Frederick J. Haskins, Answers to Questions.

Mistletoe

Where did the mistletoe custom originate?
Among the ancients, because mistletoe was considered
sacred to the sun, it was used at the December
festival of the winter solstice, when the sun was lowest
in the noon sky.
Kissing under the mistletoe was thought to be an
act of solar worship, empowering the worshipers for still
further worship. As this indicates, pagan sun-worship
services were very licentious. Temple prostitution was
performed during the eight-day Roman Saturnalia which
immediately preceded the December 25 sun-birth celebration.

“The mistletoe was a sacred plant
in the pagan religion of the Druids in Britain. It was believed to have all sorts of miraculous qualities: the
power of healing diseases, making poisons harmless,
giving fertility to humans and animals, protecting from
witchcraft, banning evil spirits, bringing good luck and
great blessings. In fact, it was considered so sacred that
even enemies who happened to meet beneath a mistletoe
in the forest would lay down their arms, exchange a
friendly greeting, and keep a truce until the following
day. From this old custom grew [p. 104] the practice of
suspending mistletoe over a doorway or in a room as a
token of good will and peace to all comers . .
“After Britain was converted from paganism to Christianity,
the bishops did not allow the mistletoe to be
used in churches because it had been the main symbol
of a pagan religion. Even to this day mistletoe is rarely
used as a decoration for altars. There was, however, one
exception. At the Cathedral of York at one period before
the Reformation a large bundle of mistletoe was brought
into the sanctuary each year at Christmas and solemnly
placed on the altar by a priest. In this rite the plant that
the Druids had called ‘All-heal’ was used as a symbol of
Christ, the Divine Healer of nations.

“The people of England then adopted the mistletoe
as a decoration for their homes at Christmas. Its old,
pagan religious meaning was soon forgotten, but some
of the other meanings and customs have survived: the
kiss under the mistletoe; the token of good will and friendship;
the omen of happiness and good luck and the new
religious significance.”—Francis X. Weiser, Handbook of
Christian Feasts and Customs (New York: Harcourt,
Brace and World, Inc., 1958), 103-104.

Exchanging gifts

“The interchange of presents between friends is alike
characteristic of Christmas and the Saturnalia, and
must have been adopted by Christians from the pagans,
as the admonition of Tertullian plainly shows.”—
Bibiothica Sacra, Vol. 12, 153-155.

“Christmas”, THE WORLD BOOK ENCYCLOPEDIA, Vol. 3, “C-Ch”, 1997

“The first mention of December 25 as the birth date of Jesus occurred in A.D. 336

in an early Roman calendar. The celebration of this day as Jesus’ birth date was

probably influenced by pagan [unchristian] festivals held at that time. The ancient

Romans held year-end celebrations to honor Saturn, their harvest god; and Mithras,

the [sic] god of light… As part of all these celebrations, the people prepared special

foods, decorated their homes with greenery, and joined in singing and gift giving.

These customs gradually became part of the Christmas celebration.”

The Yule Log

The yule log. The calend fires were a scandal even to Rome, and St. Boniface obtained from Pope Zachary their abolition (Martindale C. Christmas, 1908).

Hence it is clear that even early Roman writers such as Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Origen did not endorse Christmas, nor did Augustine even list it as an important holiday. And that even later Catholic sources recognize that it is not likely that a census (as shown in Luke 2:1) would be done during the winter–making a December 25th date of birth unlikely (it was also too cold for shepherds to spend the night with their flocks out in an open field, as shown in Luke 2:8, making a December 25th birth basically impossible).

Yule {Eol} in Chaldee means infant.
“It was a custom of the Pagans to celebrate on the same 25 December the birthday of the Sun, at which they kindled lights in token of festivity. In these solemnities and revelries the Christians also took part. Accordingly when the doctors of the Church perceived that the Christians had a leaning to this festival, they took counsel and resolved that the true Nativity should be solemnised on that day.” (cited in “Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries”, Ramsay MacMullen. Yale:1997, p155)

Christmas Trees

Jer 10:1  Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel:
Jer 10:2  Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.
Jer 10:3  For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.
Jer 10:4  They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.
Jer 10:8  But they are altogether brutish and foolish: the stock is a doctrine of vanities.
Jer 10:9  Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz (DAN 10:5), the work of the workman, and of the hands of the founder: blue and purple is their clothing: they are all the work of cunning men.
Jer 10:11  Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens.

In the midst of Jeremiah 10 we read Jeremiah proclaim that there is none like unto thee O YHWH! You are great, and your Name is great in might.  Who would not fear thee or King of the nations?

Jer 10:6  There is none like You, O YHWH; You are great, and Your name is great in might.

This is a direct reference to Revelation 15 and those who overcome the mark of the beast. ‘Who is like thee’ is a reference back to the Maccabees who overcame the mark of the beast in their day.  The name Maccabee is an acronym for mi kamocah b’elim YHWH…which comes from Exodus 15.  The song of Moshe and the song of the Lamb.

So we don’t reject the use of trees at Christmas time because they were pagan, we continue to use them, because as symbols of life they now point to Christ. (Killian Brian. Halloween, as autumn celebration, reminder God’s name is hallowed. Catholic Online International News. 10/31/06. http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=21818).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

Ashtoreth
The moon goddess of the Phoenicians, representing the passive principle in nature, their principal female deity; frequently associated with the name of Baal, the sun-god, their chief male deity (Jdg_10:6; 1Sa_7:4; 1Sa_12:10). These names often occur in the plural (Ashtaroth, Baalim), probably as indicating either different statues or different modifications of the deities. This deity is spoken of as Ashtoreth of the Zidonians. She was the Ishtar of the Accadians and the Astarte of the Greeks (Jer_44:17; 1Ki_11:5, 1Ki_11:33; 2Ki_23:13). There was a temple of this goddess among the Philistines in the time of Saul (1Sa_31:10). Under the name of Ishtar, she was one of the great deities of the Assyrians. The Phoenicians called her Astarte. Solomon introduced the worship of this idol (1Ki_11:33). Jezebel’s 400 priests were probably employed in its service (1Ki_18:19). It was called the “queen of heaven” (Jer_44:25).

John Gill

the star of your god {hexagram/Talisman of Saturn/seal of Solomon/star of David}, which ye made to yourselves; or the star “your god” (q); meaning the same with Chiun or Saturn; perhaps the same with the star that fell from the air or sky*, mentioned by Sanchoniatho (r); which Astarte, the wife of Chronus or Saturn, is said to take and consecrate in Tyre; this they made for themselves, and worshipped as a deity.

Astarte was the wife of Saturn.  Otherwise known as the wife of Nimrod. Please notice in the image above that the hexagram was her symbol as well.  More on this at the bottom of this study.

ISBE (International Standard Bible Encyclopedia)

In Assyrian asirtu, which appears also under the forms asrātu, esrēti (plural) and asru, had the further signification of “sanctuary.” Originally Asirtu, the wife of Asir, and asirtu, “sanctuary,” seem to have had no connection with one another, but the identity in the pronunciation of the two words caused them to be identified in signification, and as the tree-trunk or cone of stone which symbolized Asherah was regarded as a Beth-el or “house of the deity*,” wherein the goddess was immanent, the word Asirtu, Asherah, came to denote the symbol of the goddess. The trunk of the tree was often provided with branches, and assumed the form of the tree of life*. It was as a trunk, however, that it was forbidden to be erected by the side of “the altar of Yahweh” (Deu_16:21; see Jdg_6:25, Jdg_6:28, Jdg_6:30; 2Ki_23:6). Accordingly the symbol made for Asherah by his mother was “cut down” by Asa (1Ki_15:13). So, too, we hear of Asherim or symbols of the goddess being set up on the high places under the shade of a green tree (Jer_17:2; see 2Ki_17:10). Manasseh introduced one into the temple at Jerusalem (2Ki_21:3, 2Ki_21:7).
*This connection between the Christmas tree the House of God (Bethel) and the tree of Life is important to note.  The Christmas tree is a counterfeit tree of life which is really the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  The tree of life represents the Messiah who is pictured by the menorah.  The tree of knowledge represents the adversary who is pictured by the Christmas tree/Asherah pole.

Exo 23:24  You shall not bow down to their gods, and you shall not serve them. And you shall not do according to their works. But tearing you shall tear them down, and smashing you shall smash their pillars.

H4676 מצּבה matstsêbâh
BDB Definition:
1) pillar, mastaba, stump
1a) pillar
1a1) as monument, personal memorial
1a2) with an altar
1b) (Hophal) stock, stump (of tree)*

*This is the word used in Genesis referring to the stone that Jacob anointed and proclaimed as Bethel.

Gen 28:18  And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar{H4678 matstsebeth}, and poured oil upon the top of it.
Gen 28:19  And he called the name of that place Bethel {H1008 house of God}:: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.
Gen 35:14  And Jacob set up a pillar(H4678 matstsebeth) in the place where he talked with him, even a pillar of stone: and he poured a drink offering thereon, and he poured oil thereon {This is a strong reference to the Messiah, which means anointed one.}.
Gen 35:15  And Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Bethel{H1008 בּית־אלbeytḣ’el house of God}

Messiah is the image of Elohim
2Co 4:4  in whom the god of this age has blinded the thoughts of the unbelieving, so that the brightness of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God, should not dawn on them.

The congregation of believers are to be the “image” of Messiah
Rom 8:29  because whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, for Him to be the First-born among many brothers.
2Co 3:18  But we all with our face having been unveiled, having beheld the glory of the Lord in a mirror, are being changed into the same image from glory to glory, as from the Lord Spirit.

Here we see that the pillar that Jacob anointed is to be the house of Elohim.  His house are His people (Hebrews 3:6).  His body.  Pictured by the menorah, the tree of Life.  The counterfeit is a pillar/Asherah which is called Bethel.  The antichrist’s house are his people.  His body.  Pictured by the Christmas tree, the tree of knowledge.

Our “star,” Greek ” aster,” Latin stella, is akin*. Her worship was most licentious and abominable; closely connected with that of (See ASHERAH, “THE GROVE”. Ashtoreh is the goddess, asherah “the grove,” the image or the symbol of the goddess, of wood;* asher, yashar, “to be straight,” a straight stem of a tree living, or fixed upright (1Ki_18:19; 2Ki_21:7; 2Ki_23:6; 2Ki_23:13-14; 2Ki_23:15; Jdg_6:25; Jdg_6:30). The “bringing out the asherah from the house of the Lord,” and the “cutting down,” suit such a symbol, not a grace in our sense. The active and passive powers of nature, generative and receptive, suggested the male and female deities, Baal and Ashtoreh. {This is seen further in the principle ‘as above, so below’ which will be discussed in connection to the mark of the beast in a future study, Yah willing}

Again, another connection to the star (hexagram) and the Asherah (Christmas tree).

Exo 34:11  Take heed for yourself what I am commanding you today. Behold, I am about to drive out from before your face the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite.
Exo 34:12  Take heed to yourself, that you not cut a covenant with the people of the land to which you are going in, that it not be a snare in your midst.
Exo 34:13  But you shall cut down their altars, break their pillars, and you shall cut off their Asherahs.
Exo 34:14  For you shall not bow to another god, for YHWH whose name is Jealous, He is a jealous God;*

1Co 10:20  But the things the nations sacrifice, “they sacrifice to demons, and not to God.” Deut. 32:17 But I do not want you to become sharers of demons;
1Co 10:21  you cannot drink the cup of the Lord and a cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord, and a table of demons. {Mixed worship}
1Co 10:22  Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He? Deut. 32:21

Deu 7:5  But you shall deal with them in this way: you shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces the cult-stones; and you shall cut down their Asherahs; and you will burn their carved images with fire.
Deu 7:6  For you are a holy people to YHWH your God. YHWH your God has chosen you to be His own treasure out of all the people on the face of the earth.

John Gill commentary on Deu. 7:5

Deu 7:5  But thus shall ye deal with them,…. The inhabitants of the land of Canaan:

ye shall destroy their altars; on which they sacrificed to their idols:

and break down their images; of their gods, and the statues and pillars erected to the honour of them:

and cut down their groves; sacred to idols, which were usually planted on hills, and about Heathen temples, and under which idols were placed to be worshipped. The Targum of Jonathan calls them trees of their adoration, under which they worshipped; though there was a worship paid to them, not indeed directly to them, or for their sakes, but for the sake of the idols they were sacred to, or were placed under them; so Maimonides (e) says, a tree which at first was planted to be worshipped is forbidden of any use (or profit); and this is the אשרה, or “grove”, spoken of in the law, a tree planted and lopped, of which a graven image is made for an idol; and so the tree that has been worshipped, though the body of it is, not forbidden, all the shoots and leaves, and the branches, and the fruits it produces all the time it is worshipped, are forbidden to be used: though the word here used sometimes seems to signify, not a grove of trees, but some image itself, since we read of it in the temple, 2Ki_21:7,

and burn their graven images with fire; distinguished from their molten images, which may be meant in a preceding clause, and which are particularly mentioned as to be destroyed as well as these, Num_33:52.

(e) Hilchot Obede Cochabim, c. 8. sect. 3, 4. Vid. Misn. Avodah Zarah, c. 3. sect. 7.

Deu 12:3  And you shall break down their altars, and shatter their standing pillars. And you shall burn their Asherahs with fire. And you shall cut down the carved images of their gods, and shall destroy their names out of that place.
Deu 12:4  You shall not do so to YHWH your God.

Two Babylon’s – Alexander Hislop

The Christmas tree, now so common among us, was equally common in Pagan Rome and Pagan Egypt. In Egypt that tree was the palm-tree; in Rome it was the fir; the palm-tree denoting the Pagan Messiah, as Baal-Tamar, the fir referring to him as Baal-Berith.

The mother of Adonis, the Sun-God and great mediatorial divinity, was mystically said to have been changed into a tree, and when in that state to have brought forth her divine son. If the mother was a tree, the son must have been recognised as the “Man the branch.” And this entirely accounts for the putting of the Yule Log into the fire on Christmas-eve, and the appearance of the Christmas-tree the next morning. As Zero-Ashta, “The seed of the woman,” which name also signified Ignigena, or “born of the fire,” he has to enter the fire on “Mother-night,” that he may be born the next day out of it, as the “Branch of God,” or the Tree that brings all divine gifts to men. But why, it may be asked, does he enter the fire under the symbol of a Log? To understand this, it must be remembered that the divine child born at the winter solstice was born as a new incarnation of the great god (after that god had been cut in pieces), on purpose to revenge his death upon his murderers. Now the great god, cut off in the midst of his power and glory, was symbolised as a huge tree, stripped of all its branches, and cut down almost to the ground. But the great serpent, the symbol of the life restoring Aesculapius, twists itself around the dead stock (see figure 27), and lo, at its side up sprouts a young tree–a tree of an entirely different kind, that is destined never to be cut down by hostile power–even the palm-tree, the well-known symbol of victory*.

*Notice that the serpent wrapping around this tree brings forth life from the dead or resurrection or transformation.  This will be seen below in connection with the Christmas tree and Kundalini.

The Christmas-tree, as has been stated, was generally at Rome a different tree, even the fir; but the very same idea as was implied in the palm-tree was implied in the Christmas-fir; for that covertly symbolised the new-born God as Baal-berith, * “Lord of the Covenant,” and thus shadowed forth the perpetuity and everlasting nature of his power, not that after having fallen before his enemies, he had risen triumphant over them all.
* Baal-bereth, which differs only in one letter from Baal-berith, “Lord of the Covenant,” signifies “Lord of the fir-tree.”
Therefore, the 25th of December, the day that was observed at Rome as the day when the victorious god reappeared on earth, was held at the Natalis invicti solis, “The birth-day of the unconquered Sun.” Now the Yule Log is the dead stock of Nimrod, deified as the sun-god, but cut down by his enemies; the Christmas-tree is Nimrod redivivus–the slain god come to life again.*

*Again it is seen that Christmas is not about birth.  But about life from the dead/rebirth or the ‘evolution of man’ into homo noeticus.  The promise of the adversary in the garden.

In the light reflected by the above statement on customs that still linger among us, the origin of which has been lost in the midst of hoar antiquity, let the reader look at the singular practice still kept up in the South on Christmas-eve, of kissing under the mistletoe bough. That mistletoe bough in the Druidic superstition, which, as we have seen, was derived from Babylon, was a representation of the Messiah, “The man the branch.” The mistletoe was regarded as a divine branch *–a branch that came from heaven, and grew upon a tree that sprung out of the earth.

*See Mark of the Beast part 3- Ivy, Bacchus, Christmas & Hanukkahclick here

FROM CHRISTMAS IN RITUAL BY CLEMENT MILES
Let us turn to the customs of the Roman Empire which may be in part responsible for the German Christmas-tree. The practice of adorning houses with evergreens at the January Kalends was common throughout the Empire, as we learn from Libanius, Tertullian, and Chrysostom. A grim denunciation of such decorations and the lights which accompanied them may be quoted from Tertullian; it makes a pregnant contrast of pagan and Christian. “Let them,” he says of the heathen, “kindle lamps, they who have no light; let them fix on the doorposts laurels which shall afterwards be burnt, they for whom fire is close at hand; meet for them are testimonies of darkness and auguries of punishment. But thou,” he says to the Christian, “art a light of the world and a tree that is ever green; if thou hast renounced temples, make not a temple of thy own house-door.”

Birthday connectionclick here

“Herod reigned over the Jews in Syria, in the times of Augustus; therefore the Herodians kept Herod’s birthday, as also the sabbath, on which day they set up candles in the windows lighted, and encircled with violets.”

This they did, believing him to be the Messiah: and it is further to be observed, that the word here used, is said (r) to be proper to the dead, and not to the living; and that he that uses it of the living, speaks very inaccurately: but however, it was a festival, and a time of great mirth and jollity; and a proper opportunity offered to Herodias, to execute her malicious designs against John the Baptist; for at this time,
2Ma 6:7 On the monthly celebration of the king’s birthday, the Jews were taken, under bitter constraint, to partake of the sacrifices; and when the feast of Dionysus came, they were compelled to walk in the procession in honor of Dionysus, wearing wreaths of ivy click here.

Isa 1:29  For they shall be ashamed of the trees which you lusted after; and you shall be ashamed of the gardens that you have chosen.
Isa 1:30  For you shall be like a tree whose leaf fades, and like a garden that has no water in it.

The Christmas tree represents the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  The Menorah represents the tree of Life, Yahshua where the living waters come from (Psalm 1).

Isa 57:5  Enflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the clifts of the rocks?
Isa 30:21  And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.
Isa 30:22  Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven images of silver, and the ornament of thy molten images of gold: thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth; thou shalt say unto it, Get thee hence.

Eze 16:16  And of thy garments thou didst take, and deckedst thy high places (where the trees were) with divers colours (H2921), and playedst the harlot thereupon: the like things shall not come, neither shall it be so.

H2921 טלא ṭâlâ’ taw-law’
A primitive root; properly to cover with pieces; that is, (by implication) to spot or variegate (as tapestry):
Tapestry
TAP’ESTRY, n. [L. tapes, tapestry.] A kind of woven hangings of wool and silk, often enriched with gold and silver, representing figures of men, animals, landscapes, &c.

Eze 6:13  Then shall ye know that I am the LORD, when their slain men shall be among their idols round about their altars, upon every high hill, in all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the place where they did offer sweet savour to all their idols.
Jer 3:6  The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot.

Christmas tree – Kundalini connection

Kundalini is the belief that there is a serpent encoiled at the base of the spine which can be meditation and ’spiritual’ acts, causing it to climb the spine where it reaches your pineal gland and opens your ‘3rd eye.’   Interestingly, the word for spine and tree are the same.

The serpent rises up the spine to the pineal gland which was represented in ancient cultures as the pine cone….the fruit of the pine tree.

Staff of Osiris

Staff of Bacchus

The pine cone is associated with the Sumerian Annunaki who are said to have ‘created’ men from clay jars.  This is referring to manipulation of DNA which will need to be discussed in greater detail in another study but needless to say it is associated with the Kundalini spirit, the ‘awakening’ of the serpent and the result of man being ‘enlightened’ or evolving into a higher spiritual being.

Notice that Christmas tree lights are connected to the serpent.  The word for serpent is nachash which literally means shining one.  This is also connected to Lucifer which means light bringer.  Here we see the Christmas tree, which represents the ‘born again’ pagan Christ who brings enlightenment to mankind.

Antichrist connection

The tradition of the Christmas tree symbolically portrayed the death and reincarnation of Osiris in his son, Horus:
“…the divine child born at the winter solstice was born as a new incarnation of the great god (after that god had been cut in pieces…on purpose to revenge his death upon his murderers.) Now the great god, cut off in the midst of his power and glory, was symbolised as a huge tree, stripped of all his branches, and cut down almost to the ground. But the great Serpent, the symbol of the life restoring Aesculapius, twists itself around the dead stock…and lo, at its side sprouts a young tree – a tree of an entirely different kind, that is never to be cut down by a hostile power -…and thus shadowed forth the perpetuity and everlasting nature of his power, how that after having fallen before his enemies, he has risen triumphant over them all. Therefore, the 25th of December, the day that was observed in Rome as the day when the victorious god reappeared on earth was held at the Natalis invicti solis, ‘The birthday of the unconquered Sun.”

The feast of Christmas is, in allegorical form, the pagan celebration of the Serpent’s eventual triumph over the very God who frustrated the Babylonian attempt to build a tower to heaven (symbolized by a tree). By reviving and restoring the mystery religions as they were practiced in the pre-flood civilization, Horus became the Egyptian savior and virtual counterpart of Jesus Christ. In her Theosophical Glossary, H.P. Blavatsky thus describes Horus:
“Horus (Eg.). The last in the line of divine Sovereigns in Egypt, said to be the son of Osiris and Isis. He is the great god ‘loved of Heaven,’ the ‘’beloved of the Sun, the offspring of the gods, the subjugator of the world.’ At the time of the Winter Solstice (our Christmas), his image in the form of a small newly-born infant, was brought out from the sanctuary for the adoration of the worshipping crowds…

In pagan Rome, the celebration of the Winter Solstice began on December 17 with the feast of Saturn — also called the Saturnalia. Through December 23rd, the Roman world engaged in merrymaking and the exchanging of gifts in honor of Saturn, the god of sowing and husbandry and, according to a Rosicrucian source, to commemorate a future Golden Age of Saturn:
“Here is the general reformation of the world announced in the Rosicrucian manifestos described as a world reformation… Whilst involving definite reforms in education, church, and law, this general reformation has millenarian overtones; it will bring the world back to the state in which Adam found it, which was also Saturn’s golden age. So, in the Confessio, the second Rosicrucian manifesto, the general reformation is said to presage ‘a great influx of truth and light’ such as surrounded Adam in Paradise, and which God will allow before the end of the world…this millennium, this return to the golden age of Adam and Saturn, is said to be assisted by ‘the high society of the Rosicrucians.’”

…the manner and the means by which the present-day man is transformed into the Divine Superman.  This symbol-  Christian Rose Cross- shows the end and aim of human evolution; ” “the solution of the World Mystery – Man’s past evolution, present constitution, and particularly the secret of his future development.

Christmas is a “Christianized” form of Saturnalia.  The winter-solstice celebration in honor of Saturn.  It established that Saturn’s mark is the hexagram and is the star which ancient Yisrael worshipped in the wilderness according to the prophet Amos.

Interestingly, it is said that Mithras referred to himself as a star.  December 25th was Mithras birthday
“I am a star which goes with thee and shines out of the depths”-Mithraic Saying

Crowned Emperor
On Christmas Day in 800, while Charlemagne knelt in prayer in Saint Peter’s in Rome, Pope Leo III seized a golden crown from the altar and placed it on the bowed head of the king. The throng in the church shouted, “To Charles the August, crowned by God, great and pacific emperor, long life and victory!”…the history of Charlemagne is interesting and connects to the Merovingian bloodline.  This will have to be discussed in more detail in a future study, Yah willing.

Connection to Nibiruclick here ?

The Star of Bethlehem, also called the Christmas Star,[1] is a star in Christian tradition that revealed the birth of Jesus to the magi (or “wise men”) and later led them to Bethlehem.

Share International Reveals Christmas Miracle
In 1988, CNN and other media reported on Maitreya’s miraculous appearance to 6,000 people in Nairobi, Kenya, on Saturday, June 11. A week before the event, a remarkable sign occurred: “On Saturday 4 June a big, bright star was sighted, unusually brighter than ordinary stars,” reported Kenya Times editor Job Mutungi.
News Release No. 87, 11 December 2008
Christmas Miracle

For years the world has been filled with miracles of all kinds. In April 1995 Time magazine devoted an eight-page spread to its cover story on miracles, and concluded:”People are hungry for signs.”

Look now for the biggest miracle of all. In the very near future a large, bright star will appear in the sky visible to all throughout the world – night and day.
Awaited by all faiths under different names, Maitreya is the Christ to Christians, the Imam Mahdi to Muslims, Krishna to Hindus, the Messiah to Jews, and Maitreya Buddha to Buddhists. He is the World Teacher for all, religious or not, an educator in the broadest sense.

“In the very near future, people everywhere will have the opportunity to witness an extraordinary and significant sign, the like of which has been manifested only once before, at the birth of Jesus. Then, according to Christian teaching, a star appeared in the heavens and led three wise men from the East to the birthplace of Jesus. Soon, once again, a star-like luminary of brilliant power will be seen around the world.” (Benjamin Creme’s Master, ‘Maitreya’s first interview’, SI Jan/Feb 2009)

On 12 December 2008 Share International distributed a news release announcing that in the very near future a large, bright star would appear in the sky visible throughout the world, night and day, heralding the imminent appearance of Maitreya in His first interview on a major US television programme. Since early January 2009 sightings of the star have been reported all over the world and hundreds of sightings have been sent to Share International. We include a selection of the latest reports from the media, Share International readers, and sightings from YouTube. All are genuine sightings confirmed by Benjamin Creme’s Master to be the ‘star’.

With Maitreya and His group working openly in the world, humanity is assured not only of survival but of the creation of a brilliant new civilization.

The term “Novus Ordo Seclorum,” A New Order of the Ages, was adapted by Charles Thomson in 1782 who, while designing the Great Seal of the United States, was inspired by a line in Virgil’s Ecologue IV from the first century:

Now the last age by Cumae’ Sibyl has come and gone,

And the majestic roll of circling centuries begins anew:

Justice returns, old Saturn’s reign

With a new breed of men sent down from heaven.

On do thou, at the boy’s birth in whom

The iron shall cease, the golden race arise,

Befriend him, chaste Lucina: ‘this thine own Apollo reigns….

He shall receive the life of gods,

And see Heroes and gods commingling,

And himself be seen of them,

And with his father’s worth.

Santa Claus

Santa Claus

Santa Claus is designed to be a direct counterfeit of the Messiah…therefore he is a representative of the antichrist

Mat 18:6  But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

2Co 11:4  For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.
2Co 11:14  And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.

Satan wants to be like the Most High…he is a counterfeiter
Isa 14:12  How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
Isa 14:13  For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
Isa 14:14  I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

WHITE HAIR
Rev 1:13  And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.
Rev 1:14  His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;

CLOTHING…red & white

Dan 7:9  I was looking until the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of Days sat, whose robe was white as snow and the hair of His head like pure wool. His throne was like flames of fire, its wheels like burning fire.

Isa 63:2  Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat?

FURNACE
Rev 1:15  And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.

CARPENTER (Santa’s North pole workshop)
Mar 6:3  Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him.

NORTH POLE
Eze 8:14  Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the LORD’S house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.

CROWN OF THORNS(HOLLY)
Mar 15:17  And they clothed him with purple, and platted a crown of thorns, and put it about his head,

RIDES UPON THE SKIES

Deu 33:26  There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heaven in thy help, and in his excellency on the sky.

HO HO HO
Zec 2:6  Ho, ho, come forth, and flee from the land of the north, saith the LORD: for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heaven, saith the LORD.

FALLEN ANGELS=ELVES
Rev 12:9  And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

LOVES US
Eph 2:4  But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,

ASK AND YOU SHALL RECEIVE
Mat 7:7  Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:

ALL POWERFUL
Mat 28:18  And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

IMMORTAL
Psa 102:24  I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days: thy years are throughout all generations.

OWN SPIRIT…Christmas spirit
Pro 1:23  Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.

FEAR…children taught to fear Santa
Psa 34:11  Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the LORD.

GIVE ACCOUNT…making a list, checking it twice
Rom 14:12  So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.

THRONE…Santa’s throne of Molech
Mat 25:31  When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:

JUDGEMENT BOOKS
Rev 20:12  And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

BELIEVE
Joh 10:42  And many believed on him there.

WHITE HORSE
Rev 19:11  And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.

GLORIOUS APPEARING
Tit 2:13  Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

Santa Claus Poseidon connection

St. Nicholas ever existed as a human. In fact, there are quite a few indicators that his life story was simply recycled from those of Pagan gods. Many other ancient Pagan gods and goddesses were similarly Christianized in the early centuries of the Church. His legends seems to have been mainly created out of myths attributed to the Greek God Poseidon, the Roman God Neptune, and the Teutonic God Hold Nickar.  “In the popular imagination [of many Russians] he became the heir of Mikoula, the god of harvest, ‘who will replace God, when God becomes too old.’

“St. Nicholas of Bari (Fourth Century),” Catholic Information Network, at: http://www.cin.org/nichbari.html

When the church created the persona of St. Nicholas, they adopted Poseidon’s title “the Sailor.” They seem to have picked up his last name from Nickar. Various temples of Poseidon became shrines of St. Nicholas. 1 “In medieval England… in tiny sea ports we find the typical little chapel built on an eminence and looking out to sea.” 8 St. Nicholas also adopted some of the qualities of “The Grandmother” or Befana from Italy. She was said to have filled children’s stockings with gifts. Her shrine at Bari was also converted into a shrine to St. Nicholas.

“Probably earlier than the association of St. Nicholas with Poseidon is that with Demeter, or Diana*, whose cult was particularly in vogue in Lycia, the scene of the principal events in the story of St. Nicholas.”
George H. McKnight, St. Nicholas: His Legend and His Role in the Christmas Celebration and Other Popular Customs (1917).

*Here we see again the connection between Nimrod & Semiramis.

Poseidon-The horse, the dolphin (the symbol of the calm sea) and the pine-tree, with wreaths* of which the Isthmian victors were crowned, were sacred to him.
By far the most famous of his festivals was that celebrated every alternate year on the isthmus of Corinth, at which the “Isthmian games” were held. Here a colossal statue of him was set up in bronze by the Greeks after their victory over the Persians.

*Isthmian games:

Ivyclick here
ı̄´vi (κισσός, kissós): The only mention of the word in all the sacred writings is in 2 Macc 6:7 in connection with the oppression of the Jews by Antiochus Epiphanes: “On the day of the king’s birth every month they were brought by bitter constraint to eat of the sacrifices; and when the feast of Bacchus (Dionysus) was kept, the Jews were compelled to go in procession to Dionysus, carrying ivy,” this plant (Hedera helix)* being sacred to the Greek god of wine and of the culture of the vine (compare Eur. Bacchae, passim). It was of ivy or of pine that the “corruptible crown” of the famous 1sthmian games was made (1Co_9:25).

1Co 9:25  But everyone striving controls himself in all things. Then those truly that they may receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible.

Robertson Word Pictures

A corruptible crown (phtharton stephanon). Stephanos (crown) is from stephō, to put around the head, like the Latin corona, wreath or garland, badge of victory in the games. In the Isthmian games it was of pine leaves, earlier of parsley, in the Olympian games of the wild olive. “Yet these were the most coveted honours in the whole Greek world” (Findlay).

The triden of Shiva is another representation of Poseidon…In Hinduism it is associated with transformation…

The shin is associated with 3 vav’s…ie 666click here.

The birth of the Messiah

Luk 2:1  And it happened in those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus for all the habitable world to be registered.
Luk 2:2  This registration first occurred under the governing of Syria by Cyrenius.
Luk 2:3  And all went to be registered, each to his own city.
Luk 2:4  And Joseph also went from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because of his being of the house and family of David,
Luk 2:5  to be registered with Mary, the one having been betrothed to him as wife, she being pregnant.
Luk 2:6  And it happened as they were there, the days were fulfilled for her to bear.
Luk 2:7  And she bore her son, the First-born. And she wrapped Him and laid Him in the manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

Luk 2:8  And shepherds were in the same country living in the fields and keeping guard over their flock by night.
Luk 2:9  And, behold, an angel of the Lord came on them. And the glory of the Lord shone around them. And they feared with a great fear.
Luk 2:10  And the angel said to them, Do not fear. For, behold, I proclaim good news to you, a great joy, which will be to all people,
Luk 2:11  because today a Savior, who is Christ the Lord, was born to you in the city of David.
Luk 2:12  And this is a sign to you: You will find a babe having been wrapped, lying in the manger.
Luk 2:13  And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,
Luk 2:14  Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth, good will among men.
Luk 2:15  And it happened as the angels departed from them into the heaven, even the men, the shepherds, said to one another, Indeed, let us go over to Bethlehem, and let us see this thing occurring, which the Lord made known to us.
Luk 2:16  And hurrying, they came and sought out both Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in the manger.
Luk 2:17  And seeing, they publicly told about the word spoken to them about this Child.
Luk 2:18  And all those hearing marveled about the things spoken to them by the shepherds.
Luk 2:19  And Mary kept all these words, meditating in her heart.
Luk 2:20  And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all things which they heard and saw, even as was spoken to them.

The Shepherds would not have been in the fields during December 25th

Lightfoot commentary

Luk 2:8

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field,  keeping watch over their flock by night.

[And there were shepherds keeping watch over their flock;  etc.]  These are the sheep of the wilderness;  viz.  Those which go out to pasture about the time of the Passover,  and are fed in the fields,  and return home upon the first rain.

“Which is the first rain?  It begins on the third of the month Marchesvan.  The middle rain is on the seventh:  the last on the seventeenth.  So R. Meier:  but R. Judah saith,  On the seventh,  seventeenth,  and one-and-twentieth.”

The spring coming on,  they drove their beasts into wildernesses or champaign grounds,  where they fed them the whole summer,  keeping watch over them night and day,  that they might not be impaired either by thieves or ravenous beasts.  They had for this purpose their tower to watch in;  or else certain small cottages erected for this very end,  as we have observed elsewhere.  Now in the month Marchesvan,  which is part of our October and part of November,  the winter coming on,  they betook themselves home again with the flocks and the herds.

John Gill commentary

abiding in the field, watching over their flock by night: from whence it appears, that Christ was born in the night; and the (o) Jews say, that the future redemption shall be in the night; and Jerom says (p), it is a tradition of the Jews, that Christ will come in the middle of the night, as was the passover in Egypt: it is not likely that he was born, as is commonly received, at the latter end of December, in the depth of winter; since at this time, shepherds were out in the fields, where they lodged all night, watching their flocks: they were diligent men, that looked well to their flocks, and watched them by night, as well as by day, to preserve them from beasts of prey; they were, as it is in the Greek text, “keeping the watches of the night over their flock.” The night was divided into four watches, the even, midnight, cock crowing, and morning; and these kept them, as the Arabic version adds, alternately, some kept the flock one watch, and some another, while the rest slept in the tent, or tower, that was built in the fields for that purpose. There were two sorts of cattle with the Jews; there was one sort which they called מדבריות, “the cattle of the wilderness”, that lay in the fields; and another sort which they called בייתות, “the cattle of the house”, that were brought up at home: concerning both which, they have this rule (q),

“they do not water nor slay the cattle of the wilderness, but they water and slay the cattle of the house: these are the cattle of the house, that lie in the city; the cattle of the wilderness, are they that lie in the pastures.

On which, one of their commentators (r) observes,

“these lie in the pastures, which are in the villages, all the days of cold and heat, and do not go into the cities, until the rains descend.

The first rain is in the month Marchesvan, which answers to the latter part of our October, and the former part of November; and of this sort, seem to be the flocks those shepherds were keeping by night, the time not being yet come, of their being brought into the city: from whence it appears, that Christ must be born before the middle of October, since the first rain was not yet come; concerning this, the Gemara (s) is more large,

“the Rabbins teach, that these are they of the wilderness, or fields, and these are they of the house; they of the field are they that go out on the passover, and feed in the pastures, and come in at the first rain; and these are they of the house, all that go out and feed without the border, and come and lie within the border (fixed for a sabbath day’s journey): Rabbi says, those, and those are of the house; but these are they that are of the field, all they that go out and feed in the pastures, and do not come in to remain, neither in the days of the sun, nor in the days of the rains.

(o) Tzeror Hamrnor, fol. 73. 3. (p) In Matt. xxv. 6. (q) Misn. Betza, c. 5. sect. 7. (r) Maimon. in ib. (s) T. Bab. Betza, for. 40. 1. & Sabbat. fol. 45. 2. Vid Maimon Hilch. Yom Tob, c. 2. sect. 2.

Adam Clarke

Luk 2:8
There were – shepherds abiding in the field – There is no intimation here that these shepherds were exposed to the open air. They dwelt in the fields where they had their sheep penned up; but they undoubtedly had tents or booths under which they dwelt.
Keeping watch – by night – Or, as in the margin, keeping the watches of the night, i.e. each one keeping a watch (which ordinarily consisted of three hours) in his turn. The reason why they watched them in the field appears to have been, either to preserve the sheep from beasts of prey, such as wolves, foxes, etc., or from freebooting banditti, with which all the land of Judea was at that time much infested. It was a custom among the Jews to send out their sheep to the deserts, about the passover, and bring them home at the commencement of the first rain: during the time they were out, the shepherds watched them night and day. As the passover occurred in the spring, and the first rain began early in the month of Marchesvan, which answers to part of our October and November, we find that the sheep were kept out in the open country during the whole of the summer. And as these shepherds had not yet brought home their flocks, it is a presumptive argument that October had not yet commenced, and that, consequently, our Lord was not born on the 25th of December, when no flocks were out in the fields; nor could he have been born later than September, as the flocks were still in the fields by night. On this very ground the nativity in December should be given up. The feeding of the flocks by night in the fields is a chronological fact, which casts considerable light upon this disputed point. See the quotations from the Talmudists in Lightfoot.
The time in which Christ was born has been considered a subject of great importance among Christians. However, the matter has been considered of no moment by Him who inspired the evangelists; as not one hint is dropped on the subject, by which it might be possible even to guess nearly to the time, except the chronological fact mentioned above. A late writer makes the following remark: “The first Christians placed the baptism of Christ about the beginning of the fifteenth year of Tiberius; and thence reckoning back thirty years, they placed his birth in the forty-third year of the Julian period, the forty-second of Augustus, and the twenty-eighth after the victory at Actium. This opinion obtained till a.d. 527, when Dionysius Exiguus invented the vulgar account. Learned and pious men have trifled egregiously on this subject, making that of importance which the Holy Spirit, by his silence, has plainly informed them is of none. Fabricius gives a catalogue of no less than 136 different opinions concerning the Year of Christ’s birth: and as to his birth Day, that has been placed by Christian sects and learned men in every month in the year. The Egyptians placed it in January – Wagenseil, in February – Bochart, in March – some, mentioned by Clemens Alexandrinus, in April – others, in May – Epiphanius speaks of some who placed it in June – and of others who supposed it to have been in July – Wagenseil, who was not sure of February, fixed it probably in August – Lightfoot, on the 15th of September – Scaliger, Casaubon, and Calvisius, in October – others, in November – but the Latin Church, supreme in power, and infallible in judgment, placed it on the 25th of December, the very day on which the ancient Romans celebrated the feast of their goddess Bruma.” See more in Robinson’s Notes on Claude’s Essay, vol. i. p. 275, etc. Pope Julius I. was the person who made this alteration, and it appears to have been done for this reason: the sun now began his return towards the northern tropic, ending the winter, lengthening the short days, and introducing the spring. All this was probably deemed emblematical of the rising of the Sun of righteousness on the darkness of this world, and causing the day-spring from on high to visit mankind.

Alexander Hislop writes in The Two Babylons:

And first, as to the festival in honor of the birth of Christ, or Christmas. How comes it that that festival was connected with the 25th of December? There is not a word in the Scriptures about the precise day of His birth, or the time of the year when He was born. What is recorded there, implies that at what time so ever His birth took place, it could not have been on the 25th of December. At the time that the angel announced His birth to the shepherds of Bethlehem, they were feeding their flocks by night in the open fields. Now, no doubt, the climate of Palestine is not so severe as the climate of this country; but even there, though the heat of the day be considerable, the cold of the night, from December to February, is very piercing. It was not the custom for the shepherds of Judea to watch their flocks in the open fields later than about the end of October. It is in the last degree incredible, then, that the birth of Christ could have taken place at the end of December. There is great unanimity among commentators on this point (pp. 91-92).

Hislop continues:

Indeed, it is admitted by the most learned and candid writers of all parties that the day of our Lord’s birth cannot be determined, and that within the Christian Church no such festival as Christmas was ever heard of until the third century, and that not till the fourth century was far advanced did it gain much observance (pp. 92-93)

Messiah Yahshua was born around the Sukkot seasonclick here.

Conception of John the Baptist

Course of Abijah
Luk 1:5  In the days of Herod the king of Judea, there was a certain priest named Zacharias, of the daily course of Abijah. And his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.
Luk 1:6  And they were both righteous before God, walking blameless in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord.
Luk 1:7  And no child was born to them, because Elizabeth was barren. And both were advanced in their days.
Luk 1:8  And it happened in his serving as priest in the order of his course before God,
Luk 1:9  according to the custom of the priests, entering into the Holy Place of the Lord, it was Zacharias’ lot to burn incense.
1Ch 24:1  And these are the divisions of the sons of Aaron. The sons of Aaron were Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.
1Ch 24:2  But Nadab and Abihu died before their father, and they had no sons. And Eleazar and Ithamar were priests.
1Ch 24:3  And David divided them according to their offices in their service, even Zadok of the sons of Eleazar, and Ahimelech of the sons of Ithamar.
1Ch 24:4  And more sons of Eleazar were found than the sons of Ithamar, for heads of the men. And they divided them. For the sons of Eleazar were: sixteen chiefs to their father’s house; and eight to the sons of Ithamar, to the house of their fathers.
1Ch 24:5  So they divided them by lots, these with these. For these were the rulers of the sanctuary and rulers of God, of Eleazar’s sons and Ithamar’s sons.
1Ch 24:6  And Shemaiah the son of Nethaneel the scribe, of the Levites, wrote them before the king, and the rulers, and Zadok the priest, and Ahimelech the son of Abiathar, and the rulers of the fathers of the priests and Levites. One father’s house was taken for Eleazar, and one taken for Ithamar.
1Ch 24:7  And the first lot came out for Jehoiarib, the second to Jedaiah,
1Ch 24:8  the third to Harim, the fourth to Seorim,
1Ch 24:9  the fifth to Malchijah, the sixth to Mijamin,
1Ch 24:10  the seventh to Hakkoz, the eighth to Abijah,
1Ch 24:11  the ninth to Jeshua, the tenth to Shecaniah,
1Ch 24:12  the eleventh to Eliashib, the twelfth to Jakim,
1Ch 24:13  the thirteenth to Huppah, the fourteenth to Jeshebeab,
1Ch 24:14  the fifteenth to Bilgah, the sixteenth to Immer,
1Ch 24:15  the seventeenth to Hezir, the eighteenth to Aphses,
1Ch 24:16  the nineteenth to Pethahiah, the twentieth to Jehezekel,
1Ch 24:17  the twenty first to Jachin, the twenty second to Gamul,
1Ch 24:18  the twenty third to Delaiah, the twenty fourth to Maaziah.
1Ch 24:19  These were the orderings of them in their service to come into the house of YHWH, according to their ordinance, to Aaron their father, as YHWH God of Israel had commanded him.
The Talmud records that each shift was a week.  From noon sabbath to noon sabbath

Josephus records that these courses were being followed in the 1st century.
Josephus Antiquities 7:14.7
He divided them also into courses: and when he had separated the priests from them, he found of these priests twenty-four courses, sixteen of the house of Eleazar, and eight of that of Ithamar; and he ordained that one course should minister to God eight days, from sabbath to sabbath. And thus were the courses distributed by lot, in the presence of David, and Zadok and Abiathar the high priests, and of all the rulers; and that course which came up first was written down as the first, and accordingly the second, and so on to the twenty-fourth; and this partition hath remained to this day.

Yahshua was born in the Fall of 5 BC, therefore John the Baptist was born in the Spring of 5 BC and conceived 9 months earlier in the summer of 6 BC.  In the year 6 BC, the first day of the first month was a weekly Sabbath March 20.
Zachariah was of the 8th course.  He was assigned the 9th and 10th weeks from the beginning of the year.  Iyar 27 – Sivan 5 (May 15-22) and Sivan 5 – Sivan 12 (May 22-29).  Sometime during these two weeks Gabriel appeared to him.  It is a possibility that this occurred on Pentecost which was Sivan 6 (May 16).  Zachariah returned home on May 29 so it can be assumed that Elizabeth conceived May 30 – June 12 in the year 6 BC.  6 months later Mary visited Elizabeth (Luk 1:36) at the time of Hanukkah.  John would have been born sometime between Adar 19 & Nisan 3 or February 27 – March 11 5 BC.  Mary’s conception would have been around Kislev 17-30 Nov 28- Dec 11, this brings Messiah’s birth to around the time of Elul 24-Tishri 15 or August 27- September 8.

This would mean that Yahshua was conceived on Hanukkah (the Festival of Lights) and born on Sukkot (the Festival of Lights).  Hanukkah is also an 8 day festival that was based on Sukkot.

2Ma 10:6  And they kept the eight days with gladness, as in the feast of the tabernacles, remembering that not long afore they had held the feast of the tabernacles, when as they wandered in the mountains and dens like beasts.
2Ma 10:7  Therefore they bare branches, and fair boughs, and palms also, and sang psalms unto him that had given them good success in cleansing his place.
2Ma 10:8  They ordained also by a common statute and decree, That every year those days should be kept of the whole nation of the Jews.

During the Sukkot season (John 7-8) Yahshua proclaimed the following:

Joh 8:12  Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, I am the Light of the world. The one following Me will in no way walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.

The building of the Tabernacle

Exo 25:8  And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.
Exo 25:9  According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.

Joh 1:9  He was the true Light; He enlightens every man coming into the world.
Joh 1:10  He was in the world, and the world came into being through Him, yet the world did not know Him.
Joh 1:11  He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.
Joh 1:12  But as many as received Him, to them He gave authority to become children of God, to the ones believing into His name,
Joh 1:13  who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but were born of God.
Joh 1:14  And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us. And we beheld His glory, glory as of an only begotten from the Father, full of grace and of truth.

What is the counterfeit of these festival of lights?  Christmas.  This has connections to the mark of the beast, which is a counterfeit of the mark of YHWHclick here

Sukkot is a picture of the Messianic kingdom where Messiah dwells with His people.

Zec 14:16  And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.

Yahshua dwelling with His people during the Messianic era
Eze 37:22  And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all:
Eze 37:23  Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwellingplaces, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God.
Eze 37:24  And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them.
Eze 37:25  And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children’s children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever.
Eze 37:26  Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore.
Eze 37:27  My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Christmas is a counterfeit of Sukkot.  Hence, Christmas is a picture of the antichrist kingdom.

It is clear from Scripture that the magi did not come to visit the babe.  He was close to 2 years old when they came to see Him.

Mat 2:1  And when Jesus had been born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men arrived from the east to Jerusalem,
Mat 2:2  saying, Where is He born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.

Mat 2:7  Then secretly calling the wise men, Herod asked of them exactly the time of the star appearing.
Mat 2:8  And sending them to Bethlehem, he said, Having gone, exactly inquire about the child. And when you find him, bring me word again so that coming I may also worship him.

Mat 2:16  Then seeing that he was mocked by the wise men, Herod was greatly enraged, and having sent, he killed all the boys in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he exactly asked from the wise men.

Where does this tradition of the wise men visiting the baby Jesus come from?  The Gnostic gospels.

Protoevangelion 15:9  Wise men come to Christ in the cave

1 Infancy 3:1 Wise men, listening to a prophecy of Zoroaster bring gifts to Jesus

Mark of the Beast connection

Moloch is synomonous with Saturn.  Christmas is derived from Saturnalia…
The Talisman of Saturn became known as the Seal of Solomon.

From James Fausset Brown commentary on Amos 5:26
the star of your god — R. Isaac Caro says all the astrologers represented Saturn as the star of Israel. Probably there was a figure of a star on the head of the image of the idol, to represent the planet Saturn; hence “images” correspond to “star” in the parallel clause. A star in hieroglyphics represents God (Num_24:17). “Images” are either a Hebraism for “image,” or refer to the many images made to represent Chiun.

John Gill commentary on Amos 5:26

Holy Blood Holy Grail pg 297
Quoting from Perlesvaus pg. 359
“Well I know that many brave knights dwell with the Grail at Munsalvaesche.  Always when they ride out, as they often do, it is to seek adventure.  They do so for their sins, these templars, whether their reward be defeat or victory.  A valiant hose lives there, and I will tell you how they are sustained.  They live from a stone of purest kind.  If you know not know it, it shall here be named to you.  It is called lapsit exillis. By the power of that stone the phoenix burns to ashes, but the ashes give him life again.  Thus does the phoenix molt and change its plumage, which afterward is bright and shining and as lovely as before.  There never was a human so ill but that, if he on day sees that stone, he cannot die within the week that follows.  And in looks he will not fade.  His appearance wills tay the same as when the best years of his life began, and though he should see the stone for two hundred years, it will never change, save that his hair might perhaps turn gray.  Such power does the stone give a man that flesh and bones are at once made young again.  The stone is called the Grail.”

“Lapsit exillis might be a corruption of lapis ex caelis– ‘stone from the heavens.’ It might also be a corruption of lapsit ex caelis – ‘it fell from heaven’; or of lapis lapsus ex caelus- ‘a stone fallen from heaven; or, finally, of lapis elixir -the fabulous Philosopher’s Stone of alchemy.”…The Philosopher’s stone will need to be discussed in more detail in a future study, but it points to the ‘evolution of man’ into a ‘god.’  DNA is a stone, when it is mixed with the ’stone’ from heaven the ‘Holy Grail’ or transformation is attained.  This is what Christmas is a foreshadow of.  The return of the age of Saturn.  The age of Aquarius.  The golden age of the ‘gods.’

Back to John Gill’s commentary:

The Targum is,

“ye have borne the tabernacle of your priests, Chiun your image, the star your God, which ye have made to yourselves.”

It may be further observed, for the confirmation and illustration of what has been said concerning Chiun, that the Egyptian Anubis, which Plutarch (x) says is the same with Saturn, is called by him Kyon, which seems to be no other than this word Chiun: and whereas Stephen calls it Rephan, this is not a corruption of the word, reading Rephan or Revan for Chevan; nor has he respect to Rimmon, the god of the Syrians, but it is the Egyptian name for Saturn; which the Septuagint interpreters might choose to make use of, they interpreting for the king of Egypt: and Diodorus Siculus (y) makes mention of an Egyptian king called Remphis, whom Braunius (z) takes to be this very Chiun; see Act_7:43; but Rephas, or Rephan, was the same with Chronus, or Saturn, from whence came the Rephaim (a), who dwelt in Ashtaroth Karnaim, a town of Ham or Chronus; see Gen_14:5.

(q) כוכב אלהיכם “sidus deum vestrum”, Liveleus; “sidus, vel stellam deos vestros”, Calvin. (r) Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 1. p. 38. (s) כיון צלמיכם “placentam imagiuum vestrarum”, Pagninus, Tigurine version, Vatablus. (t) Dictionary, in the word “Chiun”. (u) “Basim imaginum vestrarum”, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; “statumen”, Burkius. (w) Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 1. p. 35. (x) De Iside. (y) Bibliothec. l. 1. p. 56.

The six-pointed star is considered by occultists to be the Star of Bethlehem which will precede the Advent of the False Christ.

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days…shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven…” (Matt. 24:29-30) “The Star is the symbol of the perfect life, the perfect balance, of the Christ-man. The six-pointed star is the Star of Bethlehem, which again means the Star of the Son of man…
“The star with the six points represents the star of Light…of brotherhood, the Star of Christ. The love of Christ is represented by this Star.  So, we have in that symbol a representation of the Ancient Wisdom, and the love of Christ, the wisdom and love combined, which is to be realized by humanity in this New Age – the age of Aquarius.” -Gaia Mind

Broken Heart

Eze 6:9  And they that escape of you shall remember me among the nations whither they shall be carried captives, because I am broken (H7665) with their whorish heart, which hath departed from me, and with their eyes, which go a whoring after their idols: and they shall lothe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.

H7665
שׁבר
shâbar
A primitive root; to burst (literally or figuratively): – break (down, off, in pieces, up), broken ([-hearted]), bring to the birth, crush, destroy, hurt, quench, X quite, tear,

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