DIVESTED of all explanation, the announcement of the fact that the time
of the birth of many of the incarnated Gods and Saviors of antiquity was
fixed at the same period, and this period the twenty-fifth of December,
celebrated all over Christendom as the birthday of Jesus Christ, would
sound marvelously strange, especially when it is noticed that this
period formerly dated the birth of a new year--the birth of King
Sol. And when we find that the ancient pagans were in the habit of
celebrating this venerated twenty-fifth of December as the birthday
of their Gods in the same manner Christians now celebrate it as the
birthday of Christ, we are driven to admit that something more than mere
fortuitous accident must be adduced to account for the coincidence.
According to Dr. Lightfoot, the temple of Jerusalem was employed in
celebrating the birthday of a pagan God (Adonis) on the very night
Christians assign for the birth of Christ. And Robert Taylor informs us
that nearly all the nations of the East were once in the habit of rising
at midnight to celebrate the birthday of their Gods, on the twenty-fifth
of December. And to this statement Mr. Higgins adds that, "At the first
moment after midnight of the twenty-fourth of December, the ancient
nations celebrated the accouchement of the queen of heaven and celestial
virgin, and the birth of the God Sol, the Infant Savior, and the God of
Day."
Bacchus of Egypt, Bacchus of Greece, Adonis of Greece, Chrishna of
India, Chang-ti of China, Chris of Chaldea, Mithra of Persia, Sakia of
India, Jao Wapaul (a crucified Savior of ancient Britain), were all
born on the twenty-fifth of December, according to their respective
histories. Chrishna is represented to have been born at midnight on the
twenty-fifth of the month Savarana, which answers to our December, and
millions of his disciples celebrated his birthday by decorating their
houses with garlands and gilt paper, and the bestowment of presents to
friends. The Rev. Mr. Barret tells us, "It was once common for the women
in Rome to perambulate the streets on the twenty-fifth of December,
singing in a loud voice, 'Unto us a child is born this day.'"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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