Cartoon 833: What is Christmas?

The origin of Christmas is not so sacrosanct as we are taught today.

The Romans introduced the pagan holiday of Saturnalia. It was a week long festival that concluded on December 25^th. The week was a time of lawlessness and people running naked through the streets. There was wide spread intoxication, rape, and sexual debauchery. At its conclusion, some people were sacrificially murdered.

Christian leaders hoped to sway large numbers of pagans to the faith. But to do so they had to guarantee the converted pagans could still celebrate Saturnalia. Christian leaders in the 4^th century imported the Saturnalia festival into Catholicism.

The problem for the Christian leaders was that there was nothing intrinsically Christian about Saturnalia. The solution was that the Christian leaders declared the concluding day of the Saturnalia festival, December 25^th, to be celebrated as the birthday of Jesus.

Perhaps it is the spirit of its origin, why it has reverted to the paganism of today.