Western Christianity is steeped in paganism just as Western culture is intrinsically pagan and anti-Christian. Intriguingly, most Western countries claim to be Christian and the many churches of the West like to send missionaries to proselytise people from such Eastern places as Africa, Asia and India whose inhabitants are regarded by Western Christians as heathens. The three most celebrated Western holidays provide astounding proofs of the high paganism of Western civilisation.

The new year celebration is the first pagan commemoration in Western countries each year. The month of January was named for Janus, the pagan Roman god of beginnings and endings, who was famous for having two faces, one looking back at the old year and the other seeing into the future new year. In fact, other months got their names from pagan origins. Februus was the old Italian god of festivals (februa) and Roman purifications occurred in that month. March was named for Mars, the Roman god of war and was actually the first month of the Roman calendar. April is more secular than pagan since its Latin name, Aprilis, came from the word aperire, meaning "to open", perhaps referring to opening buds. May is linked to Maiesta, the Roman goddess of reverence and honour and may be related to the word "majors" or older men, since May was the Roman's third month and was dedicated to older men with June being dedicated to juniors or younger men. June honours Juno the mother goddess, wife of Jupiter, the supreme Roman god. July borders on idolatry, being named for Emperor Julius Caesar after his assassination in July, 44 BCE. Julius and other Roman emperors were revered as gods. August memorialises the first Roman emperor-god, Augustus Caesar. The names of the other months stemmed from Latin numbers. For example, September was month number seven (septem in Latin) for the Romans; October was month eight (octo); November was month nine (novem) and December was month 10 (decem). Incidentally, the names of the days of the week are also steeped in paganism, with Sunday and Monday honouring sun worship and moon worship, respectively.

On February 24, 1582, Pope Gregory XIII issued a papal bull drastically changing the worldwide calendar from the original Julian calendar to what was named the Gregorian calendar. Time went suddenly from August 5, 1582 to the next day becoming August 15, 1582! For a very long period these two different calendars operated legally among Western nations even while Eastern peoples like the Chinese and Jews (Hebrews) continued, as they do today, to follow their own calendars, a combination of the lunar and solar years. Much confusion reigned in Western Europe regarding the correct dates for certain Christian feasts and other calendar commemorations. Two very significant differences existed between the Gregorian calendar followed by most Western nations today and the original Roman calendar. First, there was a change from March 25 to January 1 for New Year's Day. Second, there was an arithmetical adjustment to the year length from 354 days (lunar year) to 365 days (solar year). The Julian calendar had recognised the solar cycle to be 365.25 days and did establish leap days and years.

However, the Gregorian calendar more accurately adjusted the solar cycle to 365.2522 days, thus forcing several countries to discard 14 days in the year that they switched from Julian to Gregorian calendars. The main reason for the time adjustments was to ensure a fixed or reasonable date for the spring equinox, once set by the Romans as March 21.
That event coincided with many ancient rituals relating to fertility, such as worship of Oester, the many-breasted Roman fertility goddess, from which originated the Christian Easter holiday.

Easter is the second pagan commemoration of the Western world, although it is called a Christian holy day, supposedly recalling the resurrection of Jesus the Christ. In Acts 12:4 of the King James Version the only biblical reference to Easter occurs but the Greek word thus translated is pascha, which in all other places in the KJV is translated as "Passover". Much controversy exists as to whether Easter is pagan or Christian in origin. The fact is that Easter eggs, bunnies, sunrise services (sun worship) and other Western practices are all solidly grounded in pagan festivities.

The third Western pagan commemoration is Christmas, reminiscent of a major Roman pagan celebration named "Festival of the birth of the unconquered sun". December 25 was celebrated as the day of the winter solstice.

Thus, all three major Western pagan holidays commemorate the significance of sun worship. All of these so-called Christian customs come from idol-worship. Easter commemorates the Egyptian cult of Isis, the Syrian and Babylonian cults of Astarte or "Ishtar". It celebrates the Greek cult of Dionysus and the Roman festivals of Saturnalia.
Christmas honours the cults of the Druids in England, with their "boughs of holly" and other European pagan feasts. Those cults practise witchcraft, ceremonial prostitution, and human sacrificing. Many Christian churches accept that it was rather unlikely for Jesus the Christ to have been born in the dead of winter on December 25, yet Pope Julius I in AD 350 officially declared that day as Jesus' birthday. In ancient England September 29 or Michaelmas was the official birthday of the Christ. Other Christians celebrated Jesus' birthday in March or May. New Year's Day, as we saw earlier, was celebrated on January 1 to honour Janus, the pagan god.

Paganism engulfs and permeates Christianity, thanks to the historical mishap called The Holy Roman Empire when religion and politics were sadly wedded. Consequently, Western holy days have become secular holidays on which to rip off the poor, exhibit the glamour of the wealthy and feed the greed of mankind's most evil invention called capitalism.
It is rather difficult to say if it is a religious or secular greeting or even a pagan insult for someone to wish you "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year".

Rev Mervin Stoddart is a freelance writer out of Florida. INMerv@hotmail.com

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