The Ancient Source of Christmas

The Ancient Source of Christmas
By Dr. Arthur Frederick Ide

Approximately four thousand years ago, ancient Egyptians from all walks of life throughout the kingdom of the sun joyfully celebrated the rebirth of the sun in the twelfth month of each year. An ambitious people devoted to the holiest of numbers, twelve, the Egyptians (like other advanced, civilized people) reckoned most “happenings” in groups of twelve. To this end, the Egyptians set the length of the festival at 12 days, to reflect the 12 divisions in their sun calendar.

To commemorate and glorify the rebirth of the sun god (Ra, known as the Son of God), the Egyptian people used every possible expression of the existence of rebirth. They decorated homes, temples, palaces and tombs—especially the pyramids—with greenery that was common among them. Among the favorite foliage were palms with 12 shoots. These twelve shoots, known as “apostles” were the symbol of the completed year, as a palm was thought to put forth a shoot each month. Sun-worshipping Egyptians had the idea, and having their sun god ride a “beast” (usually an ass with a newborn walking beside it) beneath waving palm branches, bearing on his sacred head a laurel crown. Later this Son of God would be found sleeping on a tree, resting and praying in a garden with a young boy to indicate the perpetual youthfulness of their savior sun god, before he would be whipped to restore fertility to the earth with his blood and then be hung on a post to be worshipped until nightfall. Afterwards he would be carried to a tomb where he would rest until three days later to proclaim that the gods of Spring had found favor on the people of Egypt and planting could begin. Only after this ceremony was he allowed to ascend to his father god in the sky—a ritual that required smoke, incense and prayers.

The Saturnalia, of course, celebrated Saturn—the fire god (represented, as expected, by fire—an element sacred to all gods and thus the source of heat and...