THE EUROPEAN PAGAN ORIGIN OF CHRISTMAS-FROM THE HUMAN TRUTH FOUNDATION

The Human Truth Foundation The True Meaning of Christmas Paganism, Sun Worship and Commercialism By Vexen Crabtree #christianity #christmas #history #paganism #sun_worship Christmas is the celebration of the time when the days start to lengthen, which in the Northern Hemisphere, is in the middle of winter. Many religions in history have claimed the winter solstice as a holy day. The "reason of the season" is a combination of different traditions. It includes sun worship and pagan nature religions who have venerated the natural cycle for many thousands of years. Many traditional elements of Christmas pre-date Christianity1. Nowadays it is laid upon by various Christian stories, and Christians even say, quite wrongly, that they invented Christmas. In combination with these religious sources is a heavy dose of commercialism - many "traditions" are in fact invented by commercial companies trying to find nifty ways of selling goods. A sensible and modern refrain is that Christmas is simply a secular midwinter holiday season; it is important to all families as one of the three holiday seasons in between children's school terms. Christmas is a multicultural festival with a long pagan history, and can be celebrated by anyone. Pagan Religions and Sun Worship A General Pagan History of Christmas Sun Worship (the Reason for the Season) The Date of the 25th The Commercial Takeover of Christmas The Origin of Christmas Cards Father Christmas, Santa Claus: The Personification of Christmas Commercial Christmas Christianity Versus Christmas Christmas Was Always Largely Secular Early Christians Celebrated Christmas in April and May Anti-Christmas Christians Case Study: The United Kingdom Statistics on Church Christmas Attendance in England and Wales Winterval: The UK Controversy Invented by Cheap Newspapers Such as The Daily Mail Conclusion: Christmas is Multicultural Links 1. Pagan Religions and Sun Worship 1.1. A General Pagan History of Christmas Many traditional elements of Christmas pre-date Christianity1. In other words, Christmas was pagan before it was adopted (and renamed) by Christians. The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1908 states that "Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the Church. Irenaeus and Tertullian omit it from their lists of feasts"2 - those authors lived into the 3rd century. The CE article concludes that when later Christians adopted the date of the 25th of December for Jesus' birth, "the abundance of analogous midwinter festivals may indefinitely have helped the choice of the December date, the same instinct which set Natalis Invicti at the winter solstice will have sufficed, apart from deliberate adaptation or curious calculation, to set the Christian feast there too". Prof. Hutton, a respected and careful primary-sources historian, mentions Christmas in his valuable book on the history of modern Paganism. “It is also absolutely correct that some British folk customs have descended directly from pagan rituals, such [...] the giving of presents and decoration of homes with greenery at midwinter.” "The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft" by Ronald Hutton (1999)3 “Most Christmas customs are, in fact, based on old pagan festivals, the Roman Saturnalia and the Scandinavian and Teutonic Yule. Christians adopted these during the earliest period of Church history. The Church, however, has given this recognition and incorporates it into the Church year without too many misgivings. Only the more radical fundamentalist elements in some churches protest from time to time about this mixing of 'pagan' elements into the religion.” "The Phenomenon Of Religion: A Thematic Approach" Moojan Momen (1999) [Book Review]4 And Hutton, from an earlier book, agrees: “The habit of a midwinter festivity had come by the dawn of history (and probably very long before) to seem a natural one to the British, and not one to be eradicated by changes of political or religious fashion. [...] It was general custom in pagan Europe to decorate spaces with greenery and flowers for festivals, attested wherever records have survived.” "The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain" by Ronald Hutton (1996)5 1.2. Sun Worship (the Reason for the Season) #mithraism #zoroastrianism Sun worship formed the basis of Mithraism, Zoroastrianism, other Roman religions and many other pagan traditions. It is the reason Sun-day is a holy day in many religions, and why major festivals are held at spring and at the Solstices. The real meaning of Christmas is sun worship; a reminder to all life on Earth that we owe everything to the Sun. Sun worship is one of the main pillars of all religion, especially older religions. Sun worshippers and nature religions held major celebrations at the Winter Solstice the victory of the strength of the Sun over the forces of darkness that try to suppress it. Osiris-Dionysus represented and was represented by the sun, as was Jesus, whom the Church father Clement of Alexander calls 'The Sun of Righteousness'6. When old relics and religious symbols (such as Human faces) are given a light backdrop of rays of light or a corolla it means they represent the sun. “Sir James Frazer says, "The largest pagan religious cult which fostered the celebration of December 25 as a holiday . . . was the pagan sun- worship, Mithraism . . . This winter festival was called . . . 'the Nativity of the SUN.' [...] Franz Cumont, perhaps the greatest scholar of Mithraism, wrote, quoting Minucius Felix, "The Mithraists also observed Sun-day and kept sacred the 25th of December as the birthday of the Sun. Many scholars have pointed out how the Sun- worshipping Mithraists, the Sun-worshipping Manicheans and the Christians were all syncretised and reconciled when Constantine led the take-over by Christianity[...]" However, other Sun-worshipping groups were included too, because of the general importance and popularity of Sol Invictus, the Invincible Sun-deity. Mario Righetti, a renowned Catholic liturgist, writes, "the Church of Rome, to facilitate the acceptance of the faith by the pagan masses, found it convenient to institute the 25th December as the feast of the temporal birth of Christ, to divert them from the pagan feast, celebrated on the same day in honour of the 'Invincible Sun', Mithras. [...] The mixing of pagan Sun-worship and Christianity is exemplified by the testimony of a Syrian scholiast on Bar Salibi, who said, "It was a custom of the heathen to celebrate on the same 25th of December the birthday of the Sun, at which they kindled lights in token of festivity. In these solemnities and festivities the Christians also took part." Practically all the known Sun-deities were born on the 25th December. In S.E. Titcomb, Aryan Sun myths, the Origin of Religions, we find it cited, quoted from primary sources, that the following Sun-deities were all born on 25 December, according to their legends: Crishna (Vishnu), Mithra (Mithras), Osiris, Horus, Hercules, Dionysus (Bacchus), Tammuz, Indra, Buddha. Therein we also read of the Scandinavian goddess Frigga in whose honour a "Mother-night" festival was held at the winter solstice (+ - 25 December), as well as a similar great feast of Yule, where a boar was offered at the winter solstice in honour of Frey.” www.iahushua.com/ST-RP/xmas.htm, accessed 2005 Dec 06 Hutton highlights the role that the celebration of light has had through all the threads of history that combined to become part of the symbols of modern Christmas. “What the Scots did emphasize, in common with many of the English, was light. In 1725 Henry Bourne, a Newcastle clergyman, commented that many people in the North of England lit huge 'Christmas candles' on Christmas Eve. [...] The Scots and] the Irish were also fond of them. [...] Yule candles were also common in Scandinavia, a region which had strong contacts with those parts of Britain which maintained them.” "The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain" by Ronald Hutton (1996)5 It must also be clear that many Christmas customs are, as we heard from Moojan Momen and Prof. Hutton, very ancient. But they have in present centuries been combined with the very modern phenomenon of commercialism. 1.3. The Date of the 25th #christianity #mithraism Christmas day, by other names, "was the ancient feast-day of the Sun, in the depths of winter", pre-dating Christianity1. But the exact date of the Winter Solstice changes slowly over time. "So, although the solstice moved progressively from 6 January to 25 December, some traditions continued to celebrate it on the familiar night. Today it falls around 22 December"6. The Roman religion of Mithraism, which existed for hundreds of years before Christians started celebrating Christmas, holds that the birth of Mithras was on the 25th of December. In another coincidence, the birth of Mithras was also said 'to have been witnessed by three shepherds'7. 2. The Commercial Takeover of Christmas The most skeptical view of modern Christmas is that the fads, decorations, festive goods and all the paraphernalia are a commercial scam to make us spend money on over-priced useless goods. However true this is, it has also become a secular social festival much akin to the American thanksgiving. Families come together at Christmas even if they do not for the rest of the year. It probably helps that Christmas and New Year's celebrations have become institutionally intertwined. These make Christmas in essence a meaningful family celebration, even if on top of that there is a thick cover of shallow commercialism. The festivities are largely led by commerce and retail outlets: The relevant decorations, cards, food and goods are all marketed for Christmas, and it is the High Streets that press Christmas upon the populace way before the populace itself is ready. It is a frequent complaint that stores start Christmas "too early" and too aggressively. Several elements of Christmas are the invention purely of commercial advertisements. 2.1. The Origin of Christmas Cards Take the example of the commercial invention of the Christmas card; with corporate effort, these would have remained an expensive privilege of the rich. “The Christmas card represented a convenient and sophisticated evolution of the ancient custom of giving blessings or good wishes for the New Year. By 1840 it was often carried on among the wealthier classes by sending a short poem engraved within an ornamental framework. [...] This, and some imitations, proved to be commercial failures because they were too expensive. In 1862, therefore, a fresh start was made by the stationers Messrs Charles Goodall, which printed cheap plain greetings. By the end of the decade they were becoming decorated, and other firms were producing them. [...] In 1878 the volume sent was sufficient for the Post Office to commence a separate record of Christmas mail, and in the 1890s the cards became a popular craze, and continued to expand their market over the next century. In 1992 1,560 million were sent, and the commercial value of the Christmas card trade was £250 million.” "The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain" Ronald Hutton (1996)8 2.2. Father Christmas, Santa Claus: The Personification of Christmas The human figurehead of the festive season is a modern creation; before the seventeenth century such a figure has no history. “Nobody seems to have thought of personifying Christmas until the early seventeenth century. It was done then partly because of the general taste of the age for allegory and partly because the criticism of observation of the feast by radical Protestants made a representation of it convenient to writers determined to defend it. Thus in 1616 Ben Jonson introduced to the world, Christmas His Masque, presented a figure 'in a round hose, long stockings, a close doublet, a high-crowned hat with a brooch, a long thin beard, a truncheon, little ruffs, white shoes, his scarfs, and garters tied cross.' [...] Over the next 250 years this sort of character was to feature repeatedly in pictures, stage plays, and folk-drama, known variously as Sir Christmas, Lord Christmas, or (increasingly) as Father Christmas. He was essentially concerned with the adult world, personifying feasting and games, he had no connection with presents, and he was not treated with much respect, being generally a burlesque figure of fun. Then Santa Claus turned up. In origins he was, of course, the medieval patron of children, St Nicholas, who remained a favourite popular figure amongst the Dutch.” "The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain" Ronald Hutton (1996)9 This figure gradually moved from St Nicholas Eve to Christmas Eve. “In 1809 Washington Irving, whose sentimental interest in traditional Christmases has been mentioned, drew attention to the old tradition in his Knickerbocker's History of New York, rescheduling it from St Nicholas's Eve to Christmas Eve. Irving's portrait was repeated in an 1821 issue of the Children's Friend, published in the same city, and that may have been the direct inspiration to another New Yorker, Clement Clark Moore, to create the modern Santa. [...] His saint was not the traditional, sentimental, figure of the Dutch, but a magical sprit of the northern midwinter. He wore fur cloths, had a bushy white beard, traveled through the sky merrily in a sleigh drawn by reindeer, and came down chimneys with a sack of gifts. [...] Soon after 1863, he was frequently depicted wearing a red suit, trimmed with white fur.” "The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain" Ronald Hutton (1996)8 From 1931, Haddon Sundblom the illustrator for Coca Cola "drew a series of Santa images in their Christmas advertisements until 1964"10, which is where the tradition of a Santa Claus wearing red comes from. The colours red and green had always been prominent in Christmas card greetings, however. 2.3. Commercial Christmas Prominent elements of Christmas are commercial inventions, from Father Christmas (and his suit) to Christmas Cards. The history of commercialist Christmas is older still than those creations. From the 1870s onwards, The Times broadsheet could be relied upon to attack the commercialism of Christmas11. Clearly, its commercialisation has not destroyed it and since the nineteenth century, it has become even more popular than ever. To remove the commercial aspects of Christmas would be largely to destroy it; religious activists would create in its place a series of historically-challenged myths and break it into a sectarian event. Without commercialism the general populace, Protestant Christians, secularists and evangelical Christians would all cease to have anything in common during the festive season. 3. Christianity Versus Christmas 3.1. Christmas Was Always Largely Secular Despite the nature-reveration, pagan festivals and sun-worship that formed the basis of the Christmas period, Christians sometimes complain that the 'original' Christian message is ignored at Christmas. Such modern Christians do not know its history. Christian Churches have themselves led long and bitter campaigns against the observance of Christmas and in various times and places banned it completely. The religious content was always very small, with most celebrations and rituals being secular (i.e., organized by the people, not by clerics). Major elements of Christmas are simply commercial inventions based on themes of nature, such as Christmas cards: “From the beginning, the proportion of religious themes in [Christmas card] designs was small. Examples from before 1890 (of which the Jonathan King collection has 163,000) show an overwhelming concentration upon the natural world and upon jollity. [...] The choice of imagery has remained more or less constant ever since; an evocation of survival, rejoicing, and the resilience of nature, usually constructed around the (literally) vivacious colours red and green.” "The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain" Ronald Hutton (1996)8 Modern-day Christmas frequently contains modern Christian elements. Not least of all, in English, the word 'Christmas' is the one we are all familiar with, moreso than Yule or Winter Solstice. Nativity stories are taken from the Christian tradition - even though the ideas of shepherds, wise men and the like were all originally pagan, the stories are now told with Christian overtones at Christmas. 3.2. Early Christians Celebrated Christmas in April and May 44% of English children think Christmas is about Jesus12 “Mostly derived from pagan myths, Jesus' birth stories are very dubious, and it very likely that all such beliefs were written retrospectively by the Roman gospel writers, or were assumed from the outset. There is no evidence or reason to believe that they actually occurred.” "The Birth of Jesus and the Christmas Story: Pagan and Unhistorical" by Vexen Crabtree (2014) Christians of the first few centuries did not know for certain where Jesus was born, where he died, or where he was buried. This fact is bemoaned by early Christian leaders. When they did celebrate Christmas, they generally did so in April and May. "Pope Julius I, in the fourth century commanded a committee of bishops to establish the date of the nativity of Jesus. December 25 (the day of Sol Invictus, the invincible sun) was decided upon. Not coincidentally, that is the day when the "pagan world celebrated the birth of their Sun Gods -- Egyptian Osiris, Greek Apollo and Bacchus, Chaldean Adonis, Persian Mithra -- when the Zodiacal sign of Virgo (the sun is born of a virgin) rose on the horizon. Thus the ancient festival of the Winter Solstice, the pagan festival of the birth of the Sun, came to be adopted by the Christian Church as the nativity of Jesus, and was called Christmas"13. The reasons that the Christians annexed the Winter Solstice, and chose to celebrate Christmas in December instead of Spring, was that influential Roman religions celebrated the birth of the sun-of-the-sun on the Winter Solstice, and the first Christian emperor fused paganism and early Christianity, to create the Pauline Christianity that we know today14. 3.3. Anti-Christmas Christians #christianity #judaism #paganism The rhetoric that Christians have used against the celebration of Christmas pre-dates Christianity and originated with Jewish mores against the celebration of birthdays plus their wish to avoid pagan practices. In the book of Jeremiah, 7th century BCE15, it warns Jews and Christians not to "learn the ways" of pagans who bring trees into their homes and decorate them with silver and gold: “This is what the LORD says: Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by signs in the sky, though the nations are terrified by them. For the customs of the peoples are worthless; they cut a tree out of the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel. They adorn it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter.” Jeremiah 10:2-4 (NIV) The first Christians were Jewish converts such as the Nazarenes and Ebionites. Such early Christians and Jews did not celebrate birthdays because they considered it a pagan practice. There are no Christian birthday celebrations in the Bible. It was related, said early Christians, to pagan representation of sun cycles. For these reasons, Biblical fundamentalists do not celebrate birthdays, including Christmas. One such group is the Jehovah's Witnesses. “There is no evidence that the first-century disciples of Jesus observed such a holiday. [...] Even if Jesus' disciples had known the exact date of his birth, they would not have celebrated it. [...] The only birthday observances mentioned in the Bible are those of two rulers who did not worship Jehovah. (Genesis 40:20; Mark 6:21). [...] Those who want to please God do not celebrate it or any other holiday that has its roots in pagan worship.” "What Does the Bible Really Teach" by The Jehovah's Witnesses (2005)16 The suspicion of birthdays and the fact that there are no written first-hand records of Jesus or his life, mean that it has long been impossible to work out when he was born. Modern Christian fundamentalists and evangelicals tell Christians not to celebrate Christmas. "Three and a half centuries ago the English Puritans used their influence within the Cromwellian Republic (Protectorate) to ban Christmas celebrations. [...] They asserted (quite correctly by their own lights) that the 25 December had no biblical connection with the birth of their messiah and that the Christmas festival was therefore essentially pagan"13. The Scottish reformers of the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, for example, claimed that the "Papists" (Catholics) had invented all the rites of Christmas so they abolished the lot of them. “A literary debate [...] broke out in December 1643 and was to continue intermittently [...] until 1656. Despite a few desperate efforts upon both sides to find some scriptural indication of the true date of Christ's birth, a common ground was established almost at once; that as there was indeed no objective evidence of when Christ was born, the feast of the Nativity was wholly a creation of later authorities and supported by tradition and not the Bible.” "The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain" Ronald Hutton (1996)17 “In 1647 the English Parliament ordered that Christmas, along with other pagan holidays, should cease to be observed. A 1652 Parliamentary act repeated [the ban on Christmas]18. In New England, where celebrating Christmas was considered a criminal offense and remained forbidden until the second half of the nineteenth century... [...] as late as 1870 in Boston, students who failed to attend public schools on Christmas were punished by public dismissal.19” "The Dark Side of Christian History" by Helen Ellerbe (1995)20 Christians nowadays who proclaim that we should "remember the reason for the reason" are ignorant of their own religion and of the history of paganism. 4. Case Study: The United Kingdom21 4.1. Statistics on Church Christmas Attendance in England and Wales21 These graphs are from data published by the Church of England which show the percent of the total population of England and Wales involved. The marriages graph has "Anglican" mean "Church of England" or "Church of Wales", and also shows the % as the total population of England and Wales (excluding the Isle of Man and Channel Islands).22 You might expect that the National Secular Society would have found statistics that show lower attendance, therefore supporting their cause that organized religion should not be an official part of public politics. However in 2011 they commented on Christmas attendance and state higher values23. They mention that surveys before Christmas in 2010 saw about a quarter of respondents say that they were going to go to Church over Christmas, but, actual counts of attendance shows that only 11% did, which is less than half of those who said they would. This is very similar to the phenomenon by which in official polls, about twice as many say they are religious as actually are. See "Institutionalized Religions Have Their Numbers Inflated by National Polls" by Vexen Crabtree (2009). The Church of England think that just over 2% of the population attended Christmas or Easter in Church in 2010. Links: "Religion in the United Kingdom: Diversity, Trends and Decline" by Vexen Crabtree (2012) "Institutionalized Religions Have Their Numbers Inflated by National Polls" by Vexen Crabtree (2009) 4.2. Winterval: The UK Controversy Invented by Cheap Newspapers Such as The Daily Mail21 #atheism #christianity #islam See: "The Worst of the Modern Mass Media" by Vexen Crabtree (2009) for an analysis of UK news outlets. Some low-brow newspaper outlets pushed the idea for many years that the 'political-correctness-gone-mad' idea of Winterval was officialdom's replacement for Christmas. The sensationalist idea was that because Christmas has the word 'Christ' in it, then, modern secular governments and councils could not support it. So, the types of newspapers that peddle anti-foreigner positions took up the story with gusto. The Guardian blogger Kevin Ascott reported that the Daily Mail repeated the myth the most between 1998 and 2011, a total of 44 times. The Times and The Sunday Times together repeated it 40 times, The Sun 31 times, The Express 26 times and The Daily Telegraph 22 times. The Guardian even mentioned it a few times however, it also ran several articles debunking the myth and in 2011, the Daily Mail eventually faced its critics and admitted that it was wrong. “After years of perpetuating the Winterval myth, the Daily Mail Corrections and Clarifications column this week admitted it was all made up. It said: 'We stated in an article on 26 September that Christmas has been renamed in various places Winterval. Winterval was the collective name for a season of public events, both religious and secular, which took place in Birmingham in 1997 and 1998. We are happy to make clear that Winterval did not rename or replace Christmas.” National Secular Society24 Newsline (2011 Nov 11) The true source of the story is that of one event promoter who combined several winter events (including Christmas) into one Winterval event in order to simplify marketing. From the Guardian: The myth was not just repeated, either. It was also gradually distorted to become ever more removed from the original misconception. What started as a myth that one council had rebranded or renamed Christmas became a pluralised, open-ended narrative that 'councils' and 'authorities' were rebranding or renaming Christmas as 'Winterval'. It then mutated from a simple rebranding to a calculated attack on Christianity by 'atheists', 'Muslims', or the 'PC brigade' who feared offending 'other faiths' or 'ethnic minorities'. In one extreme example, the South Wales Echo claimed that Winterval was the result of 'virulent attacks on religion by atheists', which had led to 'new rules such as Christmas being renamed as 'Winterval'. [...] In all, at least 15 articles directly claim that Christmas was renamed Winterval because of a fear of offending 'other faiths'. At least a further 10 articles directly claim that Winterval was used to avoid offending 'ethnic minorities'. So now, thanks to perhaps one repetition too far, the Daily Mail has finally admitted that Winterval is a media fiction. But what impact will those few lines of correction have compared with the huge body of journalism that has been repeating it for so long as fact? And, more important, will Melanie Phillips offer her own apology for repeating the myth? www.guardian.co.uk (2011 Nov 08) When I first heard the story, I thought 'ridiculous' and didn't believe it was true. I spent a few minutes researching it, and found out that I was right to doubt. Therefore, my world-view was not distorted. Journalists broadcast their opinions to others, and it is downright criminal that failures in basic fact-checking can be so endemic amongst them. 5. Conclusion: Christmas is Multicultural #christianity #christmas #history #paganism #polytheism #sun_worship Christmas is a multicultural, multi-religious festival. It combines sun worship, polytheism, pagan nature religions who have venerated the natural cycle for many thousands of years, Christianity and other myths and traditions. When Christians complain it is too pagan, or when lay folk complain it is too religious, or when both groups complain it is too commercial, then they are all in need of realizing that Christmas is a commercial fusion of diverse nature-based festivals. The date of the 25th accords with Sun Worship thousands of years old, the Christmas tree and some of the decorations are pagan, even the Nativity stories are originally pagan, Mithraistic, Roman and Christian. The main outstanding issue in the West is the Christian assertion that Christmas has something to do with the Christian figure of Christ or his birthday. These elements should be disclaimed. Firstly, the paganism inherent in Christmas, such as decorating trees, is warned against in the Bible (Jeremiah 10:2-4). Second, there are no Christian birthday celebrations in the Bible. Thirdly, early Christians celebrated Christ's birthday in April or May - it was only changed to match with 25th of December, a major pagan holiday, by Emperor Constantine, in order to harmonize Christianity with paganism. It is certain that Christians should not attempt to celebrate Jesus' birthday, and they certainly shouldn't do so at Christmas. In addition to its rich history, Christmas has now become largely a secular holiday, a social festival based on the family, and a commercial enterprise. Critics largely concentrate of the portions of Christmas they don't like, and claim that those portions ruin the rest of it. As long as no-one tries to "capture the flag" and exclude others, then there need be no modern conflict over the nature of Christmas. The non-religious can celebrate the commercial and social event, Christians can pretend Christmas has something to do with Christ, pagans can celebrate nature, and all can be happy. There are even alternative and well-known names for Christmas, such as Yuletide, which can be used according to taste. Whether or not one choses to celebrate Christmas is mostly a matter of mood! Current edition: 2008 May 24 Last Modified: 2014 Dec 13 http://www.humanreligions.info/christmas.html Parent page: Human Religions Links DMOZ links for category dmoztools.net/Society/Holidays/Christmas/Opinions/ Religion in the United Kingdom: Diversity, Trends and Decline The Birth of Jesus and the Christmas Story: Pagan and Unhistorical Christianity Modern Paganism (Neopaganism) "We asked Satanists to describe their perfect Christmas" by Mike Rampton (2017) All #tags used on this page - click for more: #atheism #christianity #christmas #history #islam #judaism #mithraism #paganism #polytheism #sun_worship #zoroastrianism Social Media References: (What's this?) The Guardian. UK newspaper. See Which are the Best and Worst Newspapers in the UK?. Respectable and generally well researched UK broadsheet newspaper. The Bible (NIV). The NIV is the best translation for accuracy whilst maintaining readability. Multiple authors, a compendium of multiple previously published books. I prefer to take quotes from the NIV but where I quote the Bible en masse I must quote from the KJV because it is not copyrighted, whilst the NIV is. Book Review. The Catholic Encyclopedia. 15 volumes were produced between 1907 and 1912. Updates occurred in 1914 (an index) and 1914 (supplementary volumes). Published by the Robert Appleton Company, New York, USA (later renamed to The Encyclopedia Press). Reproduced on newadvent.org. Breuilly, O'Brien & Palmer (1997) Religions of the World. Subtitled: "The Illustrated Guide to Origins, Beliefs, Traditions, & Festivals". Published by Lionheart Books. By Elizabeth Breuilly, Joanne O'Brien & Martin Palmer. Published for Transedition Limited and Fernleigh Books. A hardback book. Crabtree, Vexen (1998) "Christianity" (1998). Accessed 2018 Apr 23. (2014) "The Birth of Jesus and the Christmas Story: Pagan and Unhistorical" (2014). Accessed 2018 Apr 23. Ellerbe, Helen (1995) The Dark Side of Christian History. Published by Morningstar & Lark, Windermere, FL, USA. A paperback book. Freke, Timothy & Gandy, Peter (1999) The Jesus Mysteries. 2000 edition. Published by Thorsons, London, UK. A paperback book. Book Review. Hutton, Ronald (1996) The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain. 2001 re-issue. Published by Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. A paperback book. (1999) The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft. 2001 edition. Published by Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. A paperback book. Martindale, C.C. (1908) Christmas. Date last accessed 2014 Dec 11. An Entry in The Catholic Encyclopedia. 15 volumes were produced between 1907 and 1912. Updates occurred in 1914 (an index) and 1914 (supplementary volumes). Published by the Robert Appleton Company, New York, USA (later renamed to The Encyclopedia Press). Reproduced on newadvent.org. Momen, Moojan (1999) The Phenomenon Of Religion: A Thematic Approach. Published by Oneworld Publications, Oxford, UK. A paperback book. Book Review. NSS. The National Secular Society, London, UK. Newsline. Weekly news letter. See: "Secularism" by Vexen Crabtree (2011). Roberts, Jenny (1997) Bible Facts. Originally published 1990. Current version published by Grange Books, London. A hardback book. Weiser, Francis X. Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs (1983) 64-65. Published by Random House, New York, USA. In Ellerbe (1995) P153.. Footnotes Breuilly, O'Brien & Palmer (1997). Chapter "Introduction" p21. Added to this page on 2014 Aug 31.^^^ Martindale (1908) .^ Hutton (1999). P122.^ Momen (1999) .^ Hutton (1996). P34,38.^^ Freke & Gandy (1999). P41-42.^^ Freke & Gandy (1999). P40.^ Hutton (1996). P115-116.^^^ Hutton (1996). P177-178.^ Ontario Consultants for Religious Tolerance (OCRT), www.religioustolerance.org website accessed 2005 Dec.^ Hutton (1996). P122-123.^ BBC Newsround survey of 1,063 children aged from 7-11. 44% thought Christmas was about the birth of Jesus. The figures were similar for most of the UK, apart from Northern Ireland, where 71% of children said so. Source: National Secular Society 2006 Dec 22 newsline.^ National Secular Society 2006 Dec 15 newsline. Letter submitted by Steve Radford.^^ "How Modern Christianity Began: The Cappadocian-Nicene-Pauline Roman Amalgamation" by Vexen Crabtree (2008)^ Roberts (1997) .^ Jehovah's Witnesses, The (2005). Ch.16 "Take Your Stand for True Worship".^ Hutton (1996). P28.^ Ellerbe (1995). P153. . Refers to Weiser (1983).^ Weiser (1983) in Ellerbe (1995) p153^ Ellerbe (1995). P153. Added to this page on 2011 Oct 20.^ Added to this page on 2013 Apr 03.^^^ Church of England Archbishop's Council "Church Statistics 2010/11" on chuchofengland.org, accessed 2013 Feb 13.^ Newsline (2011 Dec 09) .^ NSS .^ 2008 Sep 30: Page moved from the Bane of Monotheism website to here. ©2018 Vexen Crabtree all rights reserved. This site uses the HTF Disclaimer (as linked here)

THE EUROPEAN PAGAN ORIGIN OF CHRISTMAS-FROM THE HUMAN TRUTH FOUNDATION

The Human Truth Foundation The True Meaning of Christmas Paganism, Sun Worship and Commercialism By Vexen Crabtree #christianity #christmas #history #paganism #sun_worship Christmas is the celebration of the time when the days start to lengthen, which in the Northern Hemisphere, is in the middle of winter. Many religions in history have claimed the winter solstice as a holy day. The "reason of the season" is a combination of different traditions. It includes sun worship and pagan nature religions who have venerated the natural cycle for many thousands of years. Many traditional elements of Christmas pre-date Christianity1. Nowadays it is laid upon by various Christian stories, and Christians even say, quite wrongly, that they invented Christmas. In combination with these religious sources is a heavy dose of commercialism - many "traditions" are in fact invented by commercial companies trying to find nifty ways of selling goods. A sensible and modern refrain is that Christmas is simply a secular midwinter holiday season; it is important to all families as one of the three holiday seasons in between children's school terms. Christmas is a multicultural festival with a long pagan history, and can be celebrated by anyone. Pagan Religions and Sun Worship A General Pagan History of Christmas Sun Worship (the Reason for the Season) The Date of the 25th The Commercial Takeover of Christmas The Origin of Christmas Cards Father Christmas, Santa Claus: The Personification of Christmas Commercial Christmas Christianity Versus Christmas Christmas Was Always Largely Secular Early Christians Celebrated Christmas in April and May Anti-Christmas Christians Case Study: The United Kingdom Statistics on Church Christmas Attendance in England and Wales Winterval: The UK Controversy Invented by Cheap Newspapers Such as The Daily Mail Conclusion: Christmas is Multicultural Links 1. Pagan Religions and Sun Worship 1.1. A General Pagan History of Christmas Many traditional elements of Christmas pre-date Christianity1. In other words, Christmas was pagan before it was adopted (and renamed) by Christians. The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1908 states that "Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the Church. Irenaeus and Tertullian omit it from their lists of feasts"2 - those authors lived into the 3rd century. The CE article concludes that when later Christians adopted the date of the 25th of December for Jesus' birth, "the abundance of analogous midwinter festivals may indefinitely have helped the choice of the December date, the same instinct which set Natalis Invicti at the winter solstice will have sufficed, apart from deliberate adaptation or curious calculation, to set the Christian feast there too". Prof. Hutton, a respected and careful primary-sources historian, mentions Christmas in his valuable book on the history of modern Paganism. “It is also absolutely correct that some British folk customs have descended directly from pagan rituals, such [...] the giving of presents and decoration of homes with greenery at midwinter.” "The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft" by Ronald Hutton (1999)3 “Most Christmas customs are, in fact, based on old pagan festivals, the Roman Saturnalia and the Scandinavian and Teutonic Yule. Christians adopted these during the earliest period of Church history. The Church, however, has given this recognition and incorporates it into the Church year without too many misgivings. Only the more radical fundamentalist elements in some churches protest from time to time about this mixing of 'pagan' elements into the religion.” "The Phenomenon Of Religion: A Thematic Approach" Moojan Momen (1999) [Book Review]4 And Hutton, from an earlier book, agrees: “The habit of a midwinter festivity had come by the dawn of history (and probably very long before) to seem a natural one to the British, and not one to be eradicated by changes of political or religious fashion. [...] It was general custom in pagan Europe to decorate spaces with greenery and flowers for festivals, attested wherever records have survived.” "The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain" by Ronald Hutton (1996)5 1.2. Sun Worship (the Reason for the Season) #mithraism #zoroastrianism Sun worship formed the basis of Mithraism, Zoroastrianism, other Roman religions and many other pagan traditions. It is the reason Sun-day is a holy day in many religions, and why major festivals are held at spring and at the Solstices. The real meaning of Christmas is sun worship; a reminder to all life on Earth that we owe everything to the Sun. Sun worship is one of the main pillars of all religion, especially older religions. Sun worshippers and nature religions held major celebrations at the Winter Solstice the victory of the strength of the Sun over the forces of darkness that try to suppress it. Osiris-Dionysus represented and was represented by the sun, as was Jesus, whom the Church father Clement of Alexander calls 'The Sun of Righteousness'6. When old relics and religious symbols (such as Human faces) are given a light backdrop of rays of light or a corolla it means they represent the sun. “Sir James Frazer says, "The largest pagan religious cult which fostered the celebration of December 25 as a holiday . . . was the pagan sun- worship, Mithraism . . . This winter festival was called . . . 'the Nativity of the SUN.' [...] Franz Cumont, perhaps the greatest scholar of Mithraism, wrote, quoting Minucius Felix, "The Mithraists also observed Sun-day and kept sacred the 25th of December as the birthday of the Sun. Many scholars have pointed out how the Sun- worshipping Mithraists, the Sun-worshipping Manicheans and the Christians were all syncretised and reconciled when Constantine led the take-over by Christianity[...]" However, other Sun-worshipping groups were included too, because of the general importance and popularity of Sol Invictus, the Invincible Sun-deity. Mario Righetti, a renowned Catholic liturgist, writes, "the Church of Rome, to facilitate the acceptance of the faith by the pagan masses, found it convenient to institute the 25th December as the feast of the temporal birth of Christ, to divert them from the pagan feast, celebrated on the same day in honour of the 'Invincible Sun', Mithras. [...] The mixing of pagan Sun-worship and Christianity is exemplified by the testimony of a Syrian scholiast on Bar Salibi, who said, "It was a custom of the heathen to celebrate on the same 25th of December the birthday of the Sun, at which they kindled lights in token of festivity. In these solemnities and festivities the Christians also took part." Practically all the known Sun-deities were born on the 25th December. In S.E. Titcomb, Aryan Sun myths, the Origin of Religions, we find it cited, quoted from primary sources, that the following Sun-deities were all born on 25 December, according to their legends: Crishna (Vishnu), Mithra (Mithras), Osiris, Horus, Hercules, Dionysus (Bacchus), Tammuz, Indra, Buddha. Therein we also read of the Scandinavian goddess Frigga in whose honour a "Mother-night" festival was held at the winter solstice (+ - 25 December), as well as a similar great feast of Yule, where a boar was offered at the winter solstice in honour of Frey.” www.iahushua.com/ST-RP/xmas.htm, accessed 2005 Dec 06 Hutton highlights the role that the celebration of light has had through all the threads of history that combined to become part of the symbols of modern Christmas. “What the Scots did emphasize, in common with many of the English, was light. In 1725 Henry Bourne, a Newcastle clergyman, commented that many people in the North of England lit huge 'Christmas candles' on Christmas Eve. [...] The Scots and] the Irish were also fond of them. [...] Yule candles were also common in Scandinavia, a region which had strong contacts with those parts of Britain which maintained them.” "The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain" by Ronald Hutton (1996)5 It must also be clear that many Christmas customs are, as we heard from Moojan Momen and Prof. Hutton, very ancient. But they have in present centuries been combined with the very modern phenomenon of commercialism. 1.3. The Date of the 25th #christianity #mithraism Christmas day, by other names, "was the ancient feast-day of the Sun, in the depths of winter", pre-dating Christianity1. But the exact date of the Winter Solstice changes slowly over time. "So, although the solstice moved progressively from 6 January to 25 December, some traditions continued to celebrate it on the familiar night. Today it falls around 22 December"6. The Roman religion of Mithraism, which existed for hundreds of years before Christians started celebrating Christmas, holds that the birth of Mithras was on the 25th of December. In another coincidence, the birth of Mithras was also said 'to have been witnessed by three shepherds'7. 2. The Commercial Takeover of Christmas The most skeptical view of modern Christmas is that the fads, decorations, festive goods and all the paraphernalia are a commercial scam to make us spend money on over-priced useless goods. However true this is, it has also become a secular social festival much akin to the American thanksgiving. Families come together at Christmas even if they do not for the rest of the year. It probably helps that Christmas and New Year's celebrations have become institutionally intertwined. These make Christmas in essence a meaningful family celebration, even if on top of that there is a thick cover of shallow commercialism. The festivities are largely led by commerce and retail outlets: The relevant decorations, cards, food and goods are all marketed for Christmas, and it is the High Streets that press Christmas upon the populace way before the populace itself is ready. It is a frequent complaint that stores start Christmas "too early" and too aggressively. Several elements of Christmas are the invention purely of commercial advertisements. 2.1. The Origin of Christmas Cards Take the example of the commercial invention of the Christmas card; with corporate effort, these would have remained an expensive privilege of the rich. “The Christmas card represented a convenient and sophisticated evolution of the ancient custom of giving blessings or good wishes for the New Year. By 1840 it was often carried on among the wealthier classes by sending a short poem engraved within an ornamental framework. [...] This, and some imitations, proved to be commercial failures because they were too expensive. In 1862, therefore, a fresh start was made by the stationers Messrs Charles Goodall, which printed cheap plain greetings. By the end of the decade they were becoming decorated, and other firms were producing them. [...] In 1878 the volume sent was sufficient for the Post Office to commence a separate record of Christmas mail, and in the 1890s the cards became a popular craze, and continued to expand their market over the next century. In 1992 1,560 million were sent, and the commercial value of the Christmas card trade was £250 million.” "The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain" Ronald Hutton (1996)8 2.2. Father Christmas, Santa Claus: The Personification of Christmas The human figurehead of the festive season is a modern creation; before the seventeenth century such a figure has no history. “Nobody seems to have thought of personifying Christmas until the early seventeenth century. It was done then partly because of the general taste of the age for allegory and partly because the criticism of observation of the feast by radical Protestants made a representation of it convenient to writers determined to defend it. Thus in 1616 Ben Jonson introduced to the world, Christmas His Masque, presented a figure 'in a round hose, long stockings, a close doublet, a high-crowned hat with a brooch, a long thin beard, a truncheon, little ruffs, white shoes, his scarfs, and garters tied cross.' [...] Over the next 250 years this sort of character was to feature repeatedly in pictures, stage plays, and folk-drama, known variously as Sir Christmas, Lord Christmas, or (increasingly) as Father Christmas. He was essentially concerned with the adult world, personifying feasting and games, he had no connection with presents, and he was not treated with much respect, being generally a burlesque figure of fun. Then Santa Claus turned up. In origins he was, of course, the medieval patron of children, St Nicholas, who remained a favourite popular figure amongst the Dutch.” "The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain" Ronald Hutton (1996)9 This figure gradually moved from St Nicholas Eve to Christmas Eve. “In 1809 Washington Irving, whose sentimental interest in traditional Christmases has been mentioned, drew attention to the old tradition in his Knickerbocker's History of New York, rescheduling it from St Nicholas's Eve to Christmas Eve. Irving's portrait was repeated in an 1821 issue of the Children's Friend, published in the same city, and that may have been the direct inspiration to another New Yorker, Clement Clark Moore, to create the modern Santa. [...] His saint was not the traditional, sentimental, figure of the Dutch, but a magical sprit of the northern midwinter. He wore fur cloths, had a bushy white beard, traveled through the sky merrily in a sleigh drawn by reindeer, and came down chimneys with a sack of gifts. [...] Soon after 1863, he was frequently depicted wearing a red suit, trimmed with white fur.” "The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain" Ronald Hutton (1996)8 From 1931, Haddon Sundblom the illustrator for Coca Cola "drew a series of Santa images in their Christmas advertisements until 1964"10, which is where the tradition of a Santa Claus wearing red comes from. The colours red and green had always been prominent in Christmas card greetings, however. 2.3. Commercial Christmas Prominent elements of Christmas are commercial inventions, from Father Christmas (and his suit) to Christmas Cards. The history of commercialist Christmas is older still than those creations. From the 1870s onwards, The Times broadsheet could be relied upon to attack the commercialism of Christmas11. Clearly, its commercialisation has not destroyed it and since the nineteenth century, it has become even more popular than ever. To remove the commercial aspects of Christmas would be largely to destroy it; religious activists would create in its place a series of historically-challenged myths and break it into a sectarian event. Without commercialism the general populace, Protestant Christians, secularists and evangelical Christians would all cease to have anything in common during the festive season. 3. Christianity Versus Christmas 3.1. Christmas Was Always Largely Secular Despite the nature-reveration, pagan festivals and sun-worship that formed the basis of the Christmas period, Christians sometimes complain that the 'original' Christian message is ignored at Christmas. Such modern Christians do not know its history. Christian Churches have themselves led long and bitter campaigns against the observance of Christmas and in various times and places banned it completely. The religious content was always very small, with most celebrations and rituals being secular (i.e., organized by the people, not by clerics). Major elements of Christmas are simply commercial inventions based on themes of nature, such as Christmas cards: “From the beginning, the proportion of religious themes in [Christmas card] designs was small. Examples from before 1890 (of which the Jonathan King collection has 163,000) show an overwhelming concentration upon the natural world and upon jollity. [...] The choice of imagery has remained more or less constant ever since; an evocation of survival, rejoicing, and the resilience of nature, usually constructed around the (literally) vivacious colours red and green.” "The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain" Ronald Hutton (1996)8 Modern-day Christmas frequently contains modern Christian elements. Not least of all, in English, the word 'Christmas' is the one we are all familiar with, moreso than Yule or Winter Solstice. Nativity stories are taken from the Christian tradition - even though the ideas of shepherds, wise men and the like were all originally pagan, the stories are now told with Christian overtones at Christmas. 3.2. Early Christians Celebrated Christmas in April and May 44% of English children think Christmas is about Jesus12 “Mostly derived from pagan myths, Jesus' birth stories are very dubious, and it very likely that all such beliefs were written retrospectively by the Roman gospel writers, or were assumed from the outset. There is no evidence or reason to believe that they actually occurred.” "The Birth of Jesus and the Christmas Story: Pagan and Unhistorical" by Vexen Crabtree (2014) Christians of the first few centuries did not know for certain where Jesus was born, where he died, or where he was buried. This fact is bemoaned by early Christian leaders. When they did celebrate Christmas, they generally did so in April and May. "Pope Julius I, in the fourth century commanded a committee of bishops to establish the date of the nativity of Jesus. December 25 (the day of Sol Invictus, the invincible sun) was decided upon. Not coincidentally, that is the day when the "pagan world celebrated the birth of their Sun Gods -- Egyptian Osiris, Greek Apollo and Bacchus, Chaldean Adonis, Persian Mithra -- when the Zodiacal sign of Virgo (the sun is born of a virgin) rose on the horizon. Thus the ancient festival of the Winter Solstice, the pagan festival of the birth of the Sun, came to be adopted by the Christian Church as the nativity of Jesus, and was called Christmas"13. The reasons that the Christians annexed the Winter Solstice, and chose to celebrate Christmas in December instead of Spring, was that influential Roman religions celebrated the birth of the sun-of-the-sun on the Winter Solstice, and the first Christian emperor fused paganism and early Christianity, to create the Pauline Christianity that we know today14. 3.3. Anti-Christmas Christians #christianity #judaism #paganism The rhetoric that Christians have used against the celebration of Christmas pre-dates Christianity and originated with Jewish mores against the celebration of birthdays plus their wish to avoid pagan practices. In the book of Jeremiah, 7th century BCE15, it warns Jews and Christians not to "learn the ways" of pagans who bring trees into their homes and decorate them with silver and gold: “This is what the LORD says: Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by signs in the sky, though the nations are terrified by them. For the customs of the peoples are worthless; they cut a tree out of the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel. They adorn it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter.” Jeremiah 10:2-4 (NIV) The first Christians were Jewish converts such as the Nazarenes and Ebionites. Such early Christians and Jews did not celebrate birthdays because they considered it a pagan practice. There are no Christian birthday celebrations in the Bible. It was related, said early Christians, to pagan representation of sun cycles. For these reasons, Biblical fundamentalists do not celebrate birthdays, including Christmas. One such group is the Jehovah's Witnesses. “There is no evidence that the first-century disciples of Jesus observed such a holiday. [...] Even if Jesus' disciples had known the exact date of his birth, they would not have celebrated it. [...] The only birthday observances mentioned in the Bible are those of two rulers who did not worship Jehovah. (Genesis 40:20; Mark 6:21). [...] Those who want to please God do not celebrate it or any other holiday that has its roots in pagan worship.” "What Does the Bible Really Teach" by The Jehovah's Witnesses (2005)16 The suspicion of birthdays and the fact that there are no written first-hand records of Jesus or his life, mean that it has long been impossible to work out when he was born. Modern Christian fundamentalists and evangelicals tell Christians not to celebrate Christmas. "Three and a half centuries ago the English Puritans used their influence within the Cromwellian Republic (Protectorate) to ban Christmas celebrations. [...] They asserted (quite correctly by their own lights) that the 25 December had no biblical connection with the birth of their messiah and that the Christmas festival was therefore essentially pagan"13. The Scottish reformers of the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, for example, claimed that the "Papists" (Catholics) had invented all the rites of Christmas so they abolished the lot of them. “A literary debate [...] broke out in December 1643 and was to continue intermittently [...] until 1656. Despite a few desperate efforts upon both sides to find some scriptural indication of the true date of Christ's birth, a common ground was established almost at once; that as there was indeed no objective evidence of when Christ was born, the feast of the Nativity was wholly a creation of later authorities and supported by tradition and not the Bible.” "The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain" Ronald Hutton (1996)17 “In 1647 the English Parliament ordered that Christmas, along with other pagan holidays, should cease to be observed. A 1652 Parliamentary act repeated [the ban on Christmas]18. In New England, where celebrating Christmas was considered a criminal offense and remained forbidden until the second half of the nineteenth century... [...] as late as 1870 in Boston, students who failed to attend public schools on Christmas were punished by public dismissal.19” "The Dark Side of Christian History" by Helen Ellerbe (1995)20 Christians nowadays who proclaim that we should "remember the reason for the reason" are ignorant of their own religion and of the history of paganism. 4. Case Study: The United Kingdom21 4.1. Statistics on Church Christmas Attendance in England and Wales21 These graphs are from data published by the Church of England which show the percent of the total population of England and Wales involved. The marriages graph has "Anglican" mean "Church of England" or "Church of Wales", and also shows the % as the total population of England and Wales (excluding the Isle of Man and Channel Islands).22 You might expect that the National Secular Society would have found statistics that show lower attendance, therefore supporting their cause that organized religion should not be an official part of public politics. However in 2011 they commented on Christmas attendance and state higher values23. They mention that surveys before Christmas in 2010 saw about a quarter of respondents say that they were going to go to Church over Christmas, but, actual counts of attendance shows that only 11% did, which is less than half of those who said they would. This is very similar to the phenomenon by which in official polls, about twice as many say they are religious as actually are. See "Institutionalized Religions Have Their Numbers Inflated by National Polls" by Vexen Crabtree (2009). The Church of England think that just over 2% of the population attended Christmas or Easter in Church in 2010. Links: "Religion in the United Kingdom: Diversity, Trends and Decline" by Vexen Crabtree (2012) "Institutionalized Religions Have Their Numbers Inflated by National Polls" by Vexen Crabtree (2009) 4.2. Winterval: The UK Controversy Invented by Cheap Newspapers Such as The Daily Mail21 #atheism #christianity #islam See: "The Worst of the Modern Mass Media" by Vexen Crabtree (2009) for an analysis of UK news outlets. Some low-brow newspaper outlets pushed the idea for many years that the 'political-correctness-gone-mad' idea of Winterval was officialdom's replacement for Christmas. The sensationalist idea was that because Christmas has the word 'Christ' in it, then, modern secular governments and councils could not support it. So, the types of newspapers that peddle anti-foreigner positions took up the story with gusto. The Guardian blogger Kevin Ascott reported that the Daily Mail repeated the myth the most between 1998 and 2011, a total of 44 times. The Times and The Sunday Times together repeated it 40 times, The Sun 31 times, The Express 26 times and The Daily Telegraph 22 times. The Guardian even mentioned it a few times however, it also ran several articles debunking the myth and in 2011, the Daily Mail eventually faced its critics and admitted that it was wrong. “After years of perpetuating the Winterval myth, the Daily Mail Corrections and Clarifications column this week admitted it was all made up. It said: 'We stated in an article on 26 September that Christmas has been renamed in various places Winterval. Winterval was the collective name for a season of public events, both religious and secular, which took place in Birmingham in 1997 and 1998. We are happy to make clear that Winterval did not rename or replace Christmas.” National Secular Society24 Newsline (2011 Nov 11) The true source of the story is that of one event promoter who combined several winter events (including Christmas) into one Winterval event in order to simplify marketing. From the Guardian: The myth was not just repeated, either. It was also gradually distorted to become ever more removed from the original misconception. What started as a myth that one council had rebranded or renamed Christmas became a pluralised, open-ended narrative that 'councils' and 'authorities' were rebranding or renaming Christmas as 'Winterval'. It then mutated from a simple rebranding to a calculated attack on Christianity by 'atheists', 'Muslims', or the 'PC brigade' who feared offending 'other faiths' or 'ethnic minorities'. In one extreme example, the South Wales Echo claimed that Winterval was the result of 'virulent attacks on religion by atheists', which had led to 'new rules such as Christmas being renamed as 'Winterval'. [...] In all, at least 15 articles directly claim that Christmas was renamed Winterval because of a fear of offending 'other faiths'. At least a further 10 articles directly claim that Winterval was used to avoid offending 'ethnic minorities'. So now, thanks to perhaps one repetition too far, the Daily Mail has finally admitted that Winterval is a media fiction. But what impact will those few lines of correction have compared with the huge body of journalism that has been repeating it for so long as fact? And, more important, will Melanie Phillips offer her own apology for repeating the myth? www.guardian.co.uk (2011 Nov 08) When I first heard the story, I thought 'ridiculous' and didn't believe it was true. I spent a few minutes researching it, and found out that I was right to doubt. Therefore, my world-view was not distorted. Journalists broadcast their opinions to others, and it is downright criminal that failures in basic fact-checking can be so endemic amongst them. 5. Conclusion: Christmas is Multicultural #christianity #christmas #history #paganism #polytheism #sun_worship Christmas is a multicultural, multi-religious festival. It combines sun worship, polytheism, pagan nature religions who have venerated the natural cycle for many thousands of years, Christianity and other myths and traditions. When Christians complain it is too pagan, or when lay folk complain it is too religious, or when both groups complain it is too commercial, then they are all in need of realizing that Christmas is a commercial fusion of diverse nature-based festivals. The date of the 25th accords with Sun Worship thousands of years old, the Christmas tree and some of the decorations are pagan, even the Nativity stories are originally pagan, Mithraistic, Roman and Christian. The main outstanding issue in the West is the Christian assertion that Christmas has something to do with the Christian figure of Christ or his birthday. These elements should be disclaimed. Firstly, the paganism inherent in Christmas, such as decorating trees, is warned against in the Bible (Jeremiah 10:2-4). Second, there are no Christian birthday celebrations in the Bible. Thirdly, early Christians celebrated Christ's birthday in April or May - it was only changed to match with 25th of December, a major pagan holiday, by Emperor Constantine, in order to harmonize Christianity with paganism. It is certain that Christians should not attempt to celebrate Jesus' birthday, and they certainly shouldn't do so at Christmas. In addition to its rich history, Christmas has now become largely a secular holiday, a social festival based on the family, and a commercial enterprise. Critics largely concentrate of the portions of Christmas they don't like, and claim that those portions ruin the rest of it. As long as no-one tries to "capture the flag" and exclude others, then there need be no modern conflict over the nature of Christmas. The non-religious can celebrate the commercial and social event, Christians can pretend Christmas has something to do with Christ, pagans can celebrate nature, and all can be happy. There are even alternative and well-known names for Christmas, such as Yuletide, which can be used according to taste. Whether or not one choses to celebrate Christmas is mostly a matter of mood! Current edition: 2008 May 24 Last Modified: 2014 Dec 13 http://www.humanreligions.info/christmas.html Parent page: Human Religions Links DMOZ links for category dmoztools.net/Society/Holidays/Christmas/Opinions/ Religion in the United Kingdom: Diversity, Trends and Decline The Birth of Jesus and the Christmas Story: Pagan and Unhistorical Christianity Modern Paganism (Neopaganism) "We asked Satanists to describe their perfect Christmas" by Mike Rampton (2017) All #tags used on this page - click for more: #atheism #christianity #christmas #history #islam #judaism #mithraism #paganism #polytheism #sun_worship #zoroastrianism Social Media References: (What's this?) The Guardian. UK newspaper. See Which are the Best and Worst Newspapers in the UK?. Respectable and generally well researched UK broadsheet newspaper. The Bible (NIV). The NIV is the best translation for accuracy whilst maintaining readability. Multiple authors, a compendium of multiple previously published books. I prefer to take quotes from the NIV but where I quote the Bible en masse I must quote from the KJV because it is not copyrighted, whilst the NIV is. Book Review. The Catholic Encyclopedia. 15 volumes were produced between 1907 and 1912. Updates occurred in 1914 (an index) and 1914 (supplementary volumes). Published by the Robert Appleton Company, New York, USA (later renamed to The Encyclopedia Press). Reproduced on newadvent.org. Breuilly, O'Brien & Palmer (1997) Religions of the World. Subtitled: "The Illustrated Guide to Origins, Beliefs, Traditions, & Festivals". Published by Lionheart Books. By Elizabeth Breuilly, Joanne O'Brien & Martin Palmer. Published for Transedition Limited and Fernleigh Books. A hardback book. Crabtree, Vexen (1998) "Christianity" (1998). Accessed 2018 Apr 23. (2014) "The Birth of Jesus and the Christmas Story: Pagan and Unhistorical" (2014). Accessed 2018 Apr 23. Ellerbe, Helen (1995) The Dark Side of Christian History. Published by Morningstar & Lark, Windermere, FL, USA. A paperback book. Freke, Timothy & Gandy, Peter (1999) The Jesus Mysteries. 2000 edition. Published by Thorsons, London, UK. A paperback book. Book Review. Hutton, Ronald (1996) The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain. 2001 re-issue. Published by Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. A paperback book. (1999) The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft. 2001 edition. Published by Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. A paperback book. Martindale, C.C. (1908) Christmas. Date last accessed 2014 Dec 11. An Entry in The Catholic Encyclopedia. 15 volumes were produced between 1907 and 1912. Updates occurred in 1914 (an index) and 1914 (supplementary volumes). Published by the Robert Appleton Company, New York, USA (later renamed to The Encyclopedia Press). Reproduced on newadvent.org. Momen, Moojan (1999) The Phenomenon Of Religion: A Thematic Approach. Published by Oneworld Publications, Oxford, UK. A paperback book. Book Review. NSS. The National Secular Society, London, UK. Newsline. Weekly news letter. See: "Secularism" by Vexen Crabtree (2011). Roberts, Jenny (1997) Bible Facts. Originally published 1990. Current version published by Grange Books, London. A hardback book. Weiser, Francis X. Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs (1983) 64-65. Published by Random House, New York, USA. In Ellerbe (1995) P153.. Footnotes Breuilly, O'Brien & Palmer (1997). Chapter "Introduction" p21. Added to this page on 2014 Aug 31.^^^ Martindale (1908) .^ Hutton (1999). P122.^ Momen (1999) .^ Hutton (1996). P34,38.^^ Freke & Gandy (1999). P41-42.^^ Freke & Gandy (1999). P40.^ Hutton (1996). P115-116.^^^ Hutton (1996). P177-178.^ Ontario Consultants for Religious Tolerance (OCRT), www.religioustolerance.org website accessed 2005 Dec.^ Hutton (1996). P122-123.^ BBC Newsround survey of 1,063 children aged from 7-11. 44% thought Christmas was about the birth of Jesus. The figures were similar for most of the UK, apart from Northern Ireland, where 71% of children said so. Source: National Secular Society 2006 Dec 22 newsline.^ National Secular Society 2006 Dec 15 newsline. Letter submitted by Steve Radford.^^ "How Modern Christianity Began: The Cappadocian-Nicene-Pauline Roman Amalgamation" by Vexen Crabtree (2008)^ Roberts (1997) .^ Jehovah's Witnesses, The (2005). Ch.16 "Take Your Stand for True Worship".^ Hutton (1996). P28.^ Ellerbe (1995). P153. . Refers to Weiser (1983).^ Weiser (1983) in Ellerbe (1995) p153^ Ellerbe (1995). P153. Added to this page on 2011 Oct 20.^ Added to this page on 2013 Apr 03.^^^ Church of England Archbishop's Council "Church Statistics 2010/11" on chuchofengland.org, accessed 2013 Feb 13.^ Newsline (2011 Dec 09) .^ NSS .^ 2008 Sep 30: Page moved from the Bane of Monotheism website to here. ©2018 Vexen Crabtree all rights reserved. This site uses the HTF Disclaimer (as linked here)

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BLEACH AND DIE OOO- OMOTOLA WILL NOT DIE CAUSE SHE HAS STOPPED BLEACHING ATI RETURNED TO HER ORIGINAL BEAUTIFUL BLACKNESS OOO!- FROM 9JAHYPER.COM

Bleaching Lady Revert To Her Real Black Colour (Before And After Photos) A lady who was formerly bleaching have come online to share her before and after photos, after she quit bleaching. She shared the photos with the caption ” I love the way I am now. I don’t care about you what people say about me. Isn’t because I don’t have money, is because black is beautiful. and is my pride Omotola black… change of colour is a sin”. 

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A Glimpse of Heaven

The Million Man March, Oct. 16, 1995

Inspired and led by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, more than a million Black men gathered in Washington, D.C. to declare their right to justice to atone for their failure as men and to accept responsibility as the family head.

On that day, Monday, October 16, 1995 there was a sea of Black men, many who stood for 10 hours or more sharing, learning, listening, fasting, hugging, crying, laughing, and praying. The day produced a spirit of brotherhood, love, and unity like never before experienced among Black men in America. All creeds and classes were present: Christians, Muslims, Hebrews, Agnostics, nationalists, pan-Africanists, civil rights organizations, fraternal organizations, rich, poor, celebrities and people from nearly every organization, profession and walk of life were present. It was a day of atonement, reconciliation and responsibility.

“The Million Man March was one of the most historic organizing and mobilizing events in the history of Black people in the United States,” said Chicago-based Dr. Conrad Worrill, who was a main organizer of the March and the current president emeritus of the National United Black Front.

Congress shut down that day and President William Clinton was “out of town.” Mainstream media in American and media outlets from around the world were watching. The world did not see thieves, criminals and savages as usually portrayed through mainstream music, movies and other forms of media; on that day, the world saw a vastly different picture of the Black man in America. The world saw Black men demonstrating the willingness to shoulder the responsibility of improving themselves and the community. There was neither one fight nor one arrest that day. There was no smoking or drinking. The Washington Mall, where the March was held, was left as clean as it was found. Two of the best descriptions of the Million Man March include the word “miracle” and the phrase “a glimpse of heaven.”

Along with those who attended, many men, women and children spent the day at home watching the event on television and participating in the day of fasting and absence. Workers did not go to work that day, children did not go to school that day and no one engaged in sport or play.

During Min. Farrakhan’s message to the millions gathered in the mall and those watching on television around the world that day, he explained to the world the need for atonement and he laid out the eight steps of atonement. Thus, for the past 18 years, people gather, reflect and observe the Holy Day of Atonement.

At the conclusion of the March, the millions of men repeated a pledge given by Minister Farrakhan that focused on a personal commitment to be responsible and active in improving the Black community. The purpose was for Black men to take responsibility for their own actions and to help develop their own communities, and to atone for their lack of responsibility. Many of the men assembled took the pledge given that day seriously and have been actively involved in making their word bond ever since.

“The March changed my life and my perspective of life in so many ways. I (gained) a tremendous commitment to the betterment of my culture, and a heightened capacity to care and to love. I am now trying to live by the code of honor and the right conditions set forth in the pledge that I took,” said Glenn Towery, owner of Fairy God Brother Productions and Film Company, LLC that produced the DVD, Long Live the Spirit, a documentary about the Million Man March.

“I have formed my own company and am striving to create culturally enriching productions for African Americans and the world. Thank you Minister Farrakhan for being a conduit to God that allowed such a magnificent idea as the Million Man March to come through your person into fruition. Thank you Benjamin Chavis and all of the organizers, planners and conveners of the Million Man March.”

Immediately following the March, roughly 1.7 million Black men registered to vote and organizational memberships skyrocketed—the NAACP, churches and mosques reported huge increases and the National Association of Black Social Workers reported a flood of 13,000 applications to adopt Black children.

The spirit of the March continues to this day.

“Since the Million Man March, October has become a special month for me,” said Dr. Ayo Maat, Organizer in Green and Disability Issues. “During the first march, I kept my children out of school and they stayed up all night and watched the event the entire day without complaint or fatigue. Since then, I have been working to instill the spirit of atonement and uplift of the race.”

“The spirit, energy, and the ideas that were articulated on that day still resonate among the activists and organizers and thinkers and the masses of Black men who participated in 1995,” said Dr. Worrill. “Although it may not appear that the energy and spirit and impact of that day is still with us; it has manifested itself with us today as Black men are engaged in numerous projects inspired by the Million Man March that can be documented.”

In another public display of accountability, the Million Man March was the first ever public march to provide an independent Financial Audit of its operations.

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DIABETES IS KILLING AFRICANS OOO!-EAT WHITE PEOPLE'S FOOD, GET WHITE PEOPLE'S DISEASES!

Jooo nobody mentions the real reason AFRICANS are dying of diabetes ooo! They now eat white people's food-white sugar,sweets, white bread, biscuits...Eat their food you get their diseases!

Watch "ESU Is Not The Devil: Mistranslation Has Africans Demonizing Their Own Spirituality" on YouTube

https://youtu.be/iYx9YWxfOjk

BLACK MEN OOO!-IDRIS ELBA-"SEXIEST MAN ALIVE"?-PEOPLE MAGAZINE COVER OOO!

Every year, People magazine designates its “Sexiest Man Alive.”And every few years, we agree with them; the last time being in 2016, when the magazine rightly honored Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

This year, we’re saying a collective “yasssss!” at the sight of perpetual thirst trap Idris Elba flashing his incredible grin from the coveted annual cover for 2018, after many years in the top 100 (including a #2 spot in 2013).

In fact, it’s an honor many would say is long overdue for the multi-talented Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild award winner—especially those who’ve been following Idris since his breakout role as Stringer Bell on The Wire. Since that time, his swoon-worthiness has only increased, along with his prestige. Matter of fact, do you know that he’s an Officer of the Order of the British Empire? That officially makes him a “Sir”—to which we say, “Yes, Sir.”

Of winning the title this year, Idris was adorably real with People about his initial reaction: “I was like, ‘Come on, no way. Really?’ Looked in the mirror, I checked myself out. I was like, ‘Yeah, you are kind of sexy today.’ But to be honest, it was just a nice feeling. It was a nice surprise — an ego boost for sure.”

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Frankly, it’s an ego boost for us, too—if only to validate our excellent taste. So, how did it (finally) happen? Let People’s editorial team tell you below, as Idris gets revealing about his celebrity crush (Serena Williams, who he says is “pretty hot—and badass”); the last person who (enviably) saw him naked, fiancée Sabrina Dhowre; what inspired his impromptu proposal; how fatherhood factors into his high-profile life; and how he grew from an awkward kid into his well-muscled physique—which he now credits to his kickboxing regimen.

PeopleTV

And while all that is great, after seeing a tease of his photo spread, we’re pretty sure we won’t be doing much reading of the article when the issue hits stands on Friday, November 9.

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But first, the midterms—which Idris agrees is even more important than drooling over him. Frankly, we’re considering his honor a good omen, because if People can get this right, maybe people can get it right at polls, too.
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https://thegrapevine.theroot.com/yes-sir-people-magazine-names-idris-elba-sexiest-man-1830251715
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Maiysha Kai
Maiysha Kai is Managing Editor of The Glow Up and your average Grammy-nominated goddess next door. Minneapolis born, Chicago bred, New York built. Nuance is her superpower.

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BLACK MAN RUNS FOR GOVERNOR OF FLORIDA OOO!--WANTS TO KILL"STAND YOUR GROUND LAW"!!

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BLACK MAN IN THE WHITE HOUSE OO!--OBAMA OOO!--"YES WE CAN OOO!"--10 YEARS AGO!-FROM THE GRIOT

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FARRAKHAN SAYS "BLACK MAN-YOU ARE CHOSEN"OOOO!

MINISTER FARRAKHAN (@LouisFarrakhan) Tweeted: You are chosen. You have value. https://t.co/AGFgm5pNYS https://twitter.com/LouisFarrakhan/status/1057968182525341701?s=17

BUHARI OOOO!-OBASANJO'SON JOINS BUHARI OOOO!

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BLACK SKINNED BEAUTY#6

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MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. SPEAKS ON "NEW PHASE OF CIVIL RIGHTS STRUGGLE"-11 MONTHS BEFORE HIS ASSASSINATION!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xsbt3a7K-8&feature=youtu.be

MLK Talks 'New Phase' Of Civil Rights Struggle, 11 Months Before His Assassination | NBC News
Published on Apr 4, 2018
In 1967, at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, Martin Luther King spoke with NBC News' Sander Vanocur about the "new phase" of the struggle for "genuine freedom".
Top comments

Kurt Willems6 months ago
Just have to say this: The fact that there are (at this time) 14 people who have given this a thumbs down is heartbreaking. I pray for all of my neighbors of color.
Reply 166
View 23 replies

A FACE FOR RADIO5 months ago
A meme about MLK said: MLK wasn’t killed for having a dream, he was killed because he WOKE UP. FACT!!!!
Reply 100
View 2 replies

Jaiafrica6 months ago
I find these videos of him way more impactful than the I have a dream speech.
Reply 203
View 16 replies

Ian Sun6 months ago
This should be required and repeated viewing in all public schools.
Reply 212
View 20 replies

CRC Singleton6 months ago
This should be a mandatory study in our schools. The entire country should know their history.
Reply 149
View 8 replies

Chaylen Patricia5 months ago
This is why he was assassinated! Martin was not assassinated because he had a dream, but because he woke up ! And they will never play his last speeches of his life because he whole philosophy changed to more of a Malcom x approach. This is why they always just play the I have dream speech
Reply 22
View 2 replies

CRC Singleton6 months ago
His mild, intelligent, clear and strong voice speaks louder even today.
Reply 140
View 3 replies

TYRONE THOMPKINS6 months ago
51 years later the same thing
Reply 112
View 7 replies

Purpose Driveñ6 months ago
He was definitely called by God and anointed for this purpose. Intelligence is incredible.
Reply 83

David W. Johnson6 months ago
Awesome footage. He would have made a great president.
Reply 28
View reply

Natlleata Williams6 months ago
Every time I hear him speak, my spirit is moved. So eloquent, with a tone of honesty and integrity. He is still, very impactful. His ability to articulate in such a simple, yet profound way is amazing. Amazing man
Reply 53
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ROMEY RUSH6 months ago (edited)
Every word used via question and answer had absolute significance. One of the best interviews I have ever seen.
Reply 32

Dereka H.6 months ago
Every issue he is speaking on is still going on.
Reply 23

Sama Alghali6 months ago
This is so relevant today, 2018. It's a referendum on the difference between overt conservative racism and liberal covert racism, and how both are detrimental to the success of the black man/woman.
Reply 25
View 18 replies

Merrill Scott6 months ago
He is so intelligent.
Reply 22

A FACE FOR RADIO5 months ago
Malcolm X spoke about how viscous and racist the North was.
Reply 15

Libra Smith6 months ago
I’m so triggered when people say that slaves were immigrants. There are still people today who’ve convinced themselves that.
Reply 14

Flat Foot6 months ago
Amazing he is so ahead of his time
Reply 42
View 2 replies

KEENster D6 months ago
He was incredible. What a brilliant man and everything he said is so true. His death was such a huge loss.
Reply 20

Ignigma6 months ago
And yet incompetent Caucasian male squandered $16 trillion in a few years
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ORIGINAL BLACK INDIANS FROM INDIA-THE ANDAMANESE PEOPLE ARE DYING OFF -FROM FACE2FACE AFRICA

From Face2Face Africa

BY FARIDA DAWKINS, at 05:00 pm, October 23, 2018, HISTORY

The almost extinct dark-skinned Andamanese people of India who are also called the ‘Negritios.

Andamanese children
The Andamanese people are referred to as the ‘Negritos’ that reside in India’s Andaman and the Nicobar Islands in the southeastern portion of the Bay of Bengal. The name ‘Negritos’ is derived from their dark skin tone and physique. They settled in their current location during the Last Glacial Maximum, approximately 26,000 years ago and lived in isolation up until the 18th century incorporating little to no contact with the outside world.

After mingling with other civilizations, most Andamanese died and 7,000 survived. Now it said that only 400 to 450 Andamanese people live today. They are made up of the Great Andamanese, Jarawas of the Great Andaman archipelago, the Jangil of Rutland Island, the Onge of Little Andaman and the Sentinelese of North Sentinel Island.

The Andamanese are considered a scheduled tribe or belonging to a caste of disenfranchised Indians.

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The Andamanese are comprised of the five large tribes mentioned above; the Great Andamanese on Strait Island are speculated to be 50 in number, the Jarawa of the Jarawas of the Great Andaman archipelago, the Jangil of Rutland Island, the Onge of Little Andaman, and the Sentinelese of North Sentinel Island now residing in the West Coast and central parts of South and Middle Andaman Islands are 380 in number as of 2011, the Jangil or Rutland Jarawa of Rutland Island were extinct in 1921, the Onge of Little Andaman have 101 members as of 2011 and the Sentinelese of North Sentinel Island is estimated to have 100 to 200 tribe members.

History

Theory suggests that during the Great Coastal Migration or the Southern Dispersal, populations along the southern coast of Asia, the Arabian Peninsula via Persia and India to Southeast Asia to Oceania crossed East Africa through the Bab-el-Mandeb straits 70,000 years ago.

Though Chaubey and Endicott (2013) disagree and say that the Andamanese people migrated from Africa due to the time frame, what else explains their physical features of dark skin, frizzy hair and short stature? One can venture to say their way of life and attributes can be compared to the Pygmy people.

Dental structure states that the structure the Andamanese people’s teeth showed that they were from Africa and South Asia. Further study concluded that dental morphology was similar to that of South Asians.

The cranial formation of the tribe indicates it is similar to that of Africans.

Originally, the Andamanese were hunter-gatherers hunting pigs and fish using bows, adzes – which are cutting tools similar to axes that date back to the stone age and wooden harpoons. They did not know how to generate fire, instead, they used preserved embers from carved out trees as a result of lightning strikes.

The Andamanese, having no permanent or temporary housing structure instead slept on mats or leaves. They also used leaves and hibiscus fiber to make clothing.

They have been documented to also use paint on their bodies.

Oko-pai-ad or tribal members thought to have super-natural powers assisted other members with healthcare using herbal medicine made by medicinal plants.

The Andamanese people speak Aka-Jeru, Ongan or Jarawa-Ongan and Sentinelese – which can be spoken by 50 individuals. Not much is known about the Sentinelese language because tribe members are completely cut off from the rest of the world.

During the British invasion of the southeastern regions of South Andaman from 1789 to 1793, the majority of the Andamanese people perished due to alcoholism, pneumonia, measles and influenza. In 1867 during what was dubbed the Andaman Islands Expedition, British colonialists avenged the death of sailors by the Andamanese by killing them off the Onge. By 1875, the tribe was close to extinction.

In a full-on attempt to obliterate the tribe, the British and Indian governments worked together to establish punitive codes that allowed them to impinge upon Andamanese territory. This exacerbated the dwindling population.

The Andamanese have no formal governance structure and make decisions using group consensus.

When visited by outsiders, the instinct of the Andamanese is to attack, in some cases, some have been killed. In 1996, attacks ceased when settlers took a Jarawa teenager named Enmei to the hospital to nurse his broken foot.

The Andamanese continue to keep strangers at arms-length so there is no current information on how they live their life presently.

FARIDA DAWKINS , Staff Writer

Farida Dawkins is a blogger, video content creator and staff writer at Face2Face Africa. She enjoys writing about relatable and controversial lifestyle issues that pertain to women in Africa and the African diaspora.