The ancient winter solstice
December 5, 2010 by Bill
The Northern world approaches the time of death. The days become shorter and the skies darker. The brilliant colors of fall have been replaced by bare branches, outlined against a gray sky, fading into an off-white ground cover. It has been so for thousands and thousands of years. But our ancestors in Cro-Magnon caves learned that it was not a permanent death, for the dying time was always followed by a resurrection of the sun in which longer, warmer days would return again. They watched the stars move in the heavens. They built rock monoliths and pyramids to be in harmony with the movements taking place between earth and the constellations. They began to call this period the “Winter Solstice,” when the earth and the sun moved back together again.
It became the most celebrated time of the year. This December 22-to-25 period, with special honors to the myth of their god king. Whether in India, Africa or China, to the Aztecs of Meso-America or the forest people of Northern Europe, the god kings with their virgin births, were celebrated in one of the most majestic universal myths of humankind. One of the oldest great god saviors was Osiris of Egypt, the god of resurrection and eternal life. It was Mithra and Zarathustra of Persia, virgin-born gods long before Jesus, whose births were celebrated at this 25th of December period, and whose resurrections were celebrated between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. Now, we call those long ago resurrection celebrations “Easter.”
The Roman people were used to calling the Winter Solstice period “the birthday of the gods.” So in the 4th century, the Roman church said, “We will celebrate our god king’s birthday on this date also.” The Roman Saturnalia, a 7-day celebration, became one of the most famous of the ancient world, and the god, Saturn, had his name given to the 6th day of the week and the 6th planet in distance from the sun. And still so, today, the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus is a continuation of one of the most wondrous and majestic mythologies of humankind. The savior god king is born of a virgin at the Winter Solstice, dies, and becomes the resurrected hero of eternal life at the vernal equinox, the carnival of Spring. Read more
