Roman Saturnalia

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Horus was not born on December 25th, that was The Persian god Mithras/Roman God Sol Invicta and neither was Jesus born on that date. The December 25th date is not found in the Gospels or the New Testament. It was a later adoption by the church in Rome In the first half of the fourth century AD when Christianity became the official State Religion of the Roman Empire and they started merging in popular Pagan customs and ceremonies by changing the names and symbolism to Christian names and symbols so that the now State run church would have universal appeal through out the Empire and unite all the people as one.

The holiday that Roman Church turned into Christmas was Saturnalia, a week long period of lawlessness celebrated between December 17-25. During Saturnalia, Roman courts were closed, and Roman law dictated that no one could be punished for damaging property or injuring people during the week long celebration. The Saturnalia festival began when Roman authorities chose “an enemy of the Roman people” to represent the “Lord of Misrule.” Each Roman community selected a victim whom they forced to indulge in food and other physical pleasures throughout the week. At the Saturnalia festival’s conclusion, December 25th, Roman authorities believed they were destroying the forces of darkness by brutally murdering this innocent man or woman.

In addition to human sacrifice, there was widespread intoxication; going from house to house while singing naked; rape and sexual orgies; and consuming human-shaped biscuits. (Apart from the cookies and human sacrifice, in some modern families the way the holiday is celebrated has not changed all that much!)

Anyway, the now Official Roman State Church succeeded in converting to Christianity large numbers of pagans by promising them that they could continue to celebrate the Saturnalia as Christians, which is probably a very good an argument for separation of Church and State and keeping politics out of religion!

Selengkapnya mengenai Saturnalia:

http://www.netglimse.com/holidays/saturnalia/history_of_saturnalia.shtml