MERRY YULE
By Jenness

We hope you will find this interesting and though provoking reading while you are doing your Christmas shopping.
 
DID YOU KNOW THAT: "Christmas Trees" and "Hanukkah Bushes" are Pagan and forbidden by the Bible: "Thus saith the Lord: Learn not the way of the heathen…for the customs of these people are vain. For one cutteth a tree out of  the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the ax. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with hails and with hammers, that it move not." Jeremiah 10:2-6

 

DID YOU KNOW THAT: The celebrations of birthdays was forbidden by Jewish law? Josephus, the first century Jewish historian, states: "Nay, indeed the law does
not permit us to make festivals at the births of our children." The only birthdays recorded in the Bible were those of two evil men, a Pharaoh (Genesis 40) and Herod Matthew 14:6-10.

 

DID YOU KNOW THAT: according to the evidence presented in the New Testament, Jesus could not have been born in winter, but probably in early autumn? Shepherds in Palestine do not "abide with their flocks in the flocks by night"
in winter �?its too cold. They bring them in to caves or stables by the end of October.

 

DID YOU KNOW THAT: December 25th was celebrated as the festival of the birthday of the Sun-God Mithra, as well as a host of other Incarnated Gods (Avatars) including Bacchus of Egypt, Bacvchus of Greece, Adonis of Greece, Krishna of India, Sakia of India, Shan-ti of China, Chris of Chaldea, and Jao Walpaul of ancient Britain: All were said to have been born of a virgin, perhaps because the astrological sign of Virgo, the Virgin, is newly risen above the horizon at this time.

 

DID YOU KNOW THAT: most of our customs in celebration of the Winter Solstice were taken from the ancient Pagan festival of Yule? Today the Solstice falls on December 21, but in ancient times, before the recent calendar changes, it was on
December 25.

 

DID YOU KNOW THAT: the carol "Here we come-a-Caroling" was originally "Here we come a-Wassailing"? Wassailing was an ancient Pagan custom of singing and talking to the fruit and nut trees at Yule to insure an abundant harvest in the season to come. We hope you found this interesting. No offense is intended, for this is a season for happiness and joy. The joy that the Sun, which reaches its farthest distance from Mother Earth at Yuletide, is now on its journey back to warm us. You are welcome to celebrate our holiday, and may the Goddess bless your for it.