Once again we are in the month of December and the Christmas festivities are upon us yet again. But what is Christmas? What is its purpose and what is the origin of this festival? Are the claims surrounding it supported by evidence? The gift giving, the Christmas trees, the Christmas carols, Christmas pudding, Santa Claus, Boxing day etc. Are these activities supported by the religious texts? And even if so, are those religious texts true and accurate? This article presents some of the evidence for the origin of religion, Christianity and the Christmas phenomenon. As always readers are encouraged to add their comments to this important debate.
As far as back as 10,000 BC carvings, artworks, and historical records show ancient peoples' respect and adoration for the sun and phenomena associated with it such as the seasons, weather and many others. And it is simple to understand why as every morning the sun would rise and bring vision, warmth, and security, saving humans from a cold, blind predator filled darkness of night. The ancient people understood that without it the crops would not grow, and life on earth would not survive. These realities make the sun the most adored object of all time. Likewise the ancient peoples were very aware of the stars. The tracking of the stars enabled ancient peoples to anticipate and recognize events which occurred over long periods of time, for example full moons, and eclipses. They in turn catalogued some of these groups of stars into what we know as constellations. One of oldest conceptual images of the constellations is called the zodiac. The zodiac represents the sun as it figuratively passes through the constellations of the zodiac over the course of the year. This is indeed how humans were able to know that a year consists of 365 days or 12 months. It also depicts the seasons, and solstices. The word zodiac itself is the Greek word for animal. This reflects the fact that the constellations were anthropomorphized or personified as familiar figures or animals. In other words the ancient peoples did not just follow the sun and stars, they personified them with elaborate myths involving their movements and relationships. Today it is a popular custom for people to read their star in the newspapar. This custom came from the zodiac which was thought to influence human affairs. The ancient Babylonians for example looked at the sun with its life giving and saving qualities and personified it as the representative of the unseen creator or god. They gave it representations such as god's son, the light of the world, the savior of human kind. They viewed the stars as consisting of 12 constellation through the year and personified these constellations as places of travel or residence for god's son in the course of a year. The constellations were given names representing elements of nature that happened during that period of time. For example Aquarius the water bearer who brought the rains.

At around 3000 BC the ancient Egyptians worshipped many gods among them was Horus the sun god. He is the sun anthropomorphized and his life is a series of allegorical myths involving the sun's travels across the sky. A lot about this solar messiah has been obtained from the ancient hieroglyphics left by the ancient Egyptian culture. For example Horus being the sun or the light had an enemy called Set who was the personification of the night or darkness. And metaphorically speaking every dawn Horus would defeat Set and every evening Set would defeat Horus and send him to the underworld. It is important to note that darkness versus light or good versus evil is the most ubiquitous duality in the philosophies all cultures all over the world and is still expressed at many levels to this day.

Broadly speaking the story of Hours is as follows. Horus was born on December 25th of the virgin Isis-Meri. His birth was accompanied by a star in the east which caused three kings to look for and adorn this new born savior. At the age of 12 Horus was a prodigious child teacher. At the age of 30 he was baptized by another Egyptian deity named Anup, after which he pursued his mission on earth. Horus had 12 disciples who travelled with him and he performed miracles such as healing the sick, raising the dead, and walking on water. Horus was known by many honorific names such as the Truth, The Light, The Lamb of God, God's Anointed Sun, The Good Shepard, and many others. After being betrayed by Typhon, Hours was crucified, buried for three days and resurrected. These attributes whether original or not seem to permeate many cultures of the ancient world for many other gods have been described that tend to conform to this general mythological structure. Some example include:

Attis of Phrygia born of the virgin Nanon on December 25th, crucified, placed in a cave and after 3 days resurrected.
Krishna of India, born of the virgin Devaki with a star in the east signaling his coming. He performed miracles with his followers and upon his death he was resurrected.
Dionysus of Greece, born of a virgin on December 25th, was a travelling teacher who performed many miracles such as turning water into wine. He was referred to as the King of Kings, Gods only begotten son, the Alpha and the Omega, and many others. When he died he was resurrected.
Mithra of Persia, born of a virgin on December 25th. He had 12 disciples and performed miracles. When he died he was buried and after 3 days he resurrected. Some of his names include the Truth, the Light, and many others. Interestingly Mithras is the first deity known to be worshipped on Sunday.

The fact of the matter is there are numerous saviors from different periods from all over the world which subscribe to these general characteristics. The question is why these attributes? Why the virgin birth, Why December 25th, why the inevitable resurrection, and why does it always occur after 3 days and not 7 days or 14 days? Why 12 disciples and not 10 or 6? To answer these questions let us review the life of the most recent solar messiah.

Jesus Christ was born on December 25th (as it is claimed by Christian tradition) of a virgin named Mary. His birth was announced by a star in the east star which three kings or magi followed to locate and worship this new savior. He became a child prodigy teaching the teachers by age 12. At age 30 he was baptized by his cousin John the Baptist and thus began his ministry. He had 12 disciples that he traveled about with performing miracles such as healing the sick, walking on water, raising the dead, among others. He was also known as the King of Kings, Son of God, Light of the World, the Alpha and Omega, Lamb of God and many many others. He was later betrayed by his disciple Judas who was paid 30 pieces of silver. He was crucified, placed in a tomb and after 3 days he resurrected, and later ascended into heaven. The question is why is the narrative similar to the previous messiah's? Why are the number of disciples, and number of days before resurrection the same?

Well first of all the birth sequence of events is purely astrological. The star in the east is Sirius, the brightest star observable from earth, which every December 24th aligns with three prominent stars in the Orion Constellation. These three stars in Orion are called today what they have been called since antiquity, The Three Kings. Incidentally modern science has revealed that the middle star of the three kings is not a star at all but a nebula cloud in which new stars are being formed right this minute as we speak, but that is another expose for another day, we shall concentrate on the origins of the solar messiahs and the Christmas festival currently passed off as a Christian celebration. As the sun rises on December 25th it will be observed that the three kings and Sirius align and point to the exact position the sun rises from the horizon. This why the Three Kings are said to follow the star in the east, in order to locate the sunrise, the birth of the sun. The virgin Mary is actually the constellation Virgo also called Virgo the virgin (in Latin). The ancient Egyptian symbol for virgin is the altered M, that is why Mary with other mythical virgin mothers such as Adonis mother Myrrha, or Buddha's mother Maya, always begin with an M. Virgo was also referred to as the House of Bread. That is why early Greco-Roman representations of Virgo showed a maiden holding a sheaf of wheat. The wheat represents August through September which was a time of harvest in Europe and the Middle East. In fact the name Bethlehem actually translates as House of Bread. So Bethlehem is actually a reference to the constellation Virgo, a place in the sky, not on earth.

There is another interesting natural phenomenon that occurs around December 25th. As we all know the summer solstice occurs on June 21st, this is the day with the longest daylight hours for the year. Likewise the winter solstice occurs on December 22nd and is the shortest day of the year. From the summer solstice to the winter solstice the days become shorter and if in the high latitude countries the daily temperatures also get colder. From the perspective of an observer in the northern hemisphere, the sun appears to gradually move south and gets smaller. The shortening of the day and the expiration of the crops as the seasons change, to the ancient people of the northern hemisphere represented death. It was the death of the sun and the consequences of it. By the December 22nd the sun's demise was fully realized, for the sun having moved south continually for six months makes it to its lowest point in the sky. This is the winter solstice. On this day an even more curious thing occurs. The sun stops moving south, at least perceivably, for three days, December 22, 23, and 24. During this 3 day period, the sun rises in vicinity of the group of stars called the Crux constellation. Crux means cross, as the brightest and most visible stars in this constellation appeared to line up in the shape of cross, as the ancient astrologers observed them. However on December 25 the sun moves, but this time it moves north or up by 1 degree beginning the process of moving continuously higher and higher until it reaches its peak at the summer solstice (June 21st) of the following year. This is the origin of death and resurrection myth of the ancient Egyptians which later permeated into many other religions in the region at that time. The sun died at the cross, was dead for three days, and then resurrected or born again. This is why Jesus and the solar deities before him all share the crucifixion, death for THREE days and then resurrection concept. It is representing the sun's transition period before it shifts direction back towards the northern hemisphere bringing spring warmth rebirth of crops etc and thus salvation. However the ancients did not celebrate the resurrection of the sun until the Spring equinox or Easter. This is because at the spring equinox, the sun officially overcomes the darkness (evil) and thereafter daytime becomes longer than night and the revitalizing conditions of spring emerge.

So people must be ware that on Christmas they are not celebrating anything to do with so called Christianity, they are continuing an ancient tradition from astrology that personified the sun and stars as divine objects on which humans owe their existence and sustenance. In another article I shall review the origin of Santa Claus, Christmas tree, Christmas box etc etc. Christmas is an ancient pagan festival and has absolutely nothing to do with modern Christianity. Jesus and his disciples were never recorded to have celebrated Christmas. The early Christians never celebrated Christmas. Christmas is never is never mentioned anywhere in the Bible. How, the number festival of the Christian religion? Christmas was introduced by decree of the Roman Empire after Emperor Constantine declared Rome a so called Christian entity and instructed his priest to mention Jesus in instead of the Roman gods on their festival days but keep the festival dates exactly intact. It has continued because more members attend church and give more money to church leaders on that day. For governments it is a time to foster good relations in society, and for the commercial sector it is the time of year when the highest economic activity is conducted, so nobody questions it. But that does not change anything. Christmas is a pagan custom based on ancient Egyptian and Greco-Roman astrology. By the way the reasons for these behaviors of the sun and stars have been fully understood by modern science, again I shall write an entire article on that subject.

Probably the most obvious astrological symbolism of Jesus is the 12 disciples. They are simply the 12 constellations of the zodiac, with Jesus being the sun whom they travel about with. In fact we see the number 12 replete throughout the bible. 12 disciples, 12 tribes of Israel, 12 brothers of Joseph, 12 Judges, 12 prophets in the Old Testament, 12 Kings of Israel etc etc. This is all due to the fact that the bible stories originated in the ancient Egyptian religion which was founded based on astrology.

At this juncture we have educated ourselves on the origins of some of the concepts of Judeo-Christianity that we generally take for granted. So we can now ask some tough questions and provide answers based on the solid evidence.

1. Is the story of Jesus birth true? No it is not. The story comes from a number of allegorical myths that originated in the ancient Middle East from astrology, sun deities, and pagan traditions.
2. Is Jesus the true messiah for all mankind? No. Jesus is just one in a long line of solar deities who all had the same structure of narrative, virgin birth, 12 disciples, miracles, death and resurrection after 3 days. The Jesus story is simply the most recent one, there have been many others.
3. But kwaku ba, without Jesus or religion how can we get people to do good? Because as modern humans today we know better. We don’t need boogey men to scare us before we help the poor in our society. We know that if we don’t help the poor we shall be fostering a marginalized and desperate sector of our population, and this is not good for stability, cohesion and national unity. How can free enterprise, free market economics, social advancement and institutions thrive and develop if there is chaos and resentment. That is why in the advanced nations millions, if not billions, are set aside to help the poor and vulnerable so they may also enjoy some of the benefits of whatever that nation offers or has achieved. They give them fancy names like Medicare, Social Security, NHS, Income tax credits etc etc, but they are all based on taking from those who can afford it and giving to those who do not have. Sadly we are yet to learn the value of such programs in our national lives in Africa.

So at this juncture the religiously inclined may come forward and justify why they take pagan festivals, co-opt them and call them Christmas whiles doing exactly what the pagans did on those days with our Santa Claus and Christmas trees, but claim we are worshipping Jesus.

kwaku ba, December 2010.