Remember: Your Calendar is Pagan

OP this was by design. The reason Christianity spread so quickly was that the people leading the church knew what they were doing. Rather than force entirely new customs and festivals on people they just co-opted existing ones. And it was wildly successful.

Celtic Animal Zodiac

Interesting

OP great topic, but FYI your Calendar only references Heathen/Wiccan/Gaelic holidays and neglects to mention Brython celebrations I.e. Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasadh, Solstices, Harvest/Gwyn’s Feast & Yule.

As you were.

I love laying out in the summer sun and letting Brân warm me up in his strong arms.

The sales tactic for Christianity is the ethereal "everlasting life."

If you don't care to live for eternity, they really don't have anything else to offer you.

Christianity did not pioneer the everlasting life gambit, nota bene.

Very cool R2, I did not know that. I surmise that Dec. 25 th was chosen because solstice on 21/22 would give the church a few days to find out which pagans celebrated Saturnalia. Convert or die. Rid the isle of "serpents"

Saint Patrick was the first Christian to confront his kin in Ireland who were pagans and High Kings of the land, at their annual vernal fire on Samhain. In order for St Patrick to symbolize his dedication to his new religion of Christianity and in condemnation of many of the brutal pagan rites associated with these pagan festivals, he had lit a fire in a different area than the traditional fires of Samhain on a hill called Slane Hill.

How was everyone’s Beltane?

Easter is tied to Passover. Are you saying the Jews also chose the date for Passover based on pagan holidays?

I know :D! I've seen a T.V. Show about this that is highly educational!

Mar's Day?

Oh, dear!

[quote] I surmise that Dec. 25 th was chosen because solstice on 21/22 would give the church a few days to find out which pagans celebrated Saturnalia.

December 25th was actually Mithras' birthday and Christians placed Jesus' birth festival on the same day to keep their people from going to the Mithras party. (The Mithras cult was the primary competitor cult in the Roman Empire at the time.)

Hmm Wolf/Hound just doesn't have the same ring to it 🤔

The Pagan calendar = Greek, Roman, Norse and Celtic festivals all lumped together, apparently?

Mabon, also called Maponos (and loosely cognate with Pryderi in The Mabinogion, Aengus mac Oc in the Irish Gael traditions & Percival in the Arthurian tales as well as the Roman Apollo) is the Midsummer god (aka The Awen) and so next in line to venerate this year. He's usually depicted or portrayed as a beautiful strapping youth, so as a divine character he's a natural fit for the DL to praise.

In the 17th Century the sacral Welsh poet & doctor Henry Vaughan wrote a very gay romantic poem about a shepherd lad who correlates perfectly with Mabon. It runs thus...

[quote] There in Summer time following the sheep & looking to their lambs, he fell into a deep sleep in which he dreamt, that he saw a beautiful young man with a garland of green leafs upon his head, & an hawk upon his fist: with a quiver full of Arrows att his back, coming towards him (whistling several measures or tunes all the way) att last lett the hawk fly att him, which (he dreamt) gott into his mouth & inward parts, & suddenly awaked in a great fear & consternation: butt possessed with such a vein, or gift of poetrie, that he left the sheep & went about the Countrey, making songs upon all occasions...

Sex outside is a good way to celebrate Summer Solstice I’m just saying🥴

Good Pagan Bitches!

[quote]Easter is tied to Passover. Are you saying the Jews also chose the date for Passover based on pagan holidays?

Easter is tied to the phases of the Moon.

It doesn't get any more pagan than that.

Pagan girls are some of the best fucks fyi.

If I could go back in time and mash Bede into the ground for that BC/AD horseshit I would.

Right on R19. And they taste better and muskier because they eschew toxic tampons and chemical fresheners/soaps.

[quote] If you don't care to live for eternity, they really don't have anything else to offer you.

Except genocide.

R14 Caeser wrote about the Druids & Pagans but it was nothing complimentary. We prefer not to talk about Rome.

Imbolc’s coming, ladies.

Everyone got their red candles & Brighid crosses at the ready?

Why does the northern hemisphere have so much more influence? Clearly, there is some baton-passing as the holidays of older religions are repurposed by new religions. But it seems pretty obvious that Christmas and Hanukkah occur near the shortest days of the year to keep people from going batshit crazy. Ramadan, Passover, and Easter/lent also align.

I don’t think it’s just a matter of making a new religion feel “comfortable” to practitioners of older religions. I think the dates of religious holidays fulfill a more innate need.

Agreed- feasts and harvests all to do with the weather and the light. I think Christmas lights are meant to help with seasonal depression. I’m only half joking.

[quote] gott into his mouth & inward parts, & suddenly awaked in a great fear & consternation: butt possessed..

Hot R15!

Happy Mabon aka Autumn Equinox, all!

Remember to enjoy your cakes and ale responsibly..

[quote] Here is another point of perfect balance on the journey through the Wheel of the Year, its counterpart being Ostara or the Spring Equinox. Night and day are again of equal length and in perfect equilibrium - dark and light, masculine and feminine, inner and outer, in balance. But we are again on the cusp of transition and from now the year now begins to wane and from this moment darkness begins to defeat the light. The cycle of the natural world is moving towards completion, the Sun's power is waning and from now on the nights grow longer and the days are are shorter and cooler. The sap of trees returns back to their roots deep in the earth, changing the green of summer to the fire of autumn, to the flaming reds, oranges and golds. We are returning to the dark from whence we came. But before we do that, we're gonna party (again)! This is the Second Harvest, the Fruit Harvest and the Great Feast of Thanksgiving. The Goddess is radiant as Harvest Queen and the God finally dies with His gift of pure love with the cutting of the last grain. As the grain harvest is safely gathered in from Lammas and reaches completion, we enjoy the abundance. In terms of life path it is the moment of reaping what you have sown, time to look at the hopes and aspirations of Imbolc and Ostara and reflect on how they have manifested. It is time to complete projects, to clear out and let go that which is no longer wanted or needed as we prepare for descent, so that the winter can offer a time for reflection and peace. And it is time to plant seeds of new ideas and hopes which will lie dormant but nourished in the dark....

[Quote] Rather than force entirely new customs and festivals on people they just co-opted existing ones.

Not just Christianity. All religions do this.

Christianity not only took the holidays, it took everything from other religions--virgin birth an all.

Religions are syncretic. They overlay beliefs over belief system. Archetypal myths, animism, ancestor worship, and laws for social cohesion underlie them all.

Holy books are compilations of old ideas. Monotheist religions with their concepts of the one true God (theirs) could not have spread their ideas if they did not include tropes already in people's minds. We only understand what we already know.

R31 exactly.

Which is why the hypocritical horseshit of the Abrahamics screaming “heathen” and “infidel” and “unbeliever” and “Gentile” at atheists and pagans has really got to stop.

[quote] But it seems pretty obvious that Christmas and Hanukkah occur near the shortest days of the year to keep people from going batshit crazy. Ramadan, Passover, and Easter/lent also align.

Posting incredible stupidity about Jewish and Muslim observances and calendars and then extrapolating on that incredible stupidity to reach new heights in woeful ignorance.

R32 All religions developed discretely in the days when communities were isolated. In fact many peoples did not have a name for their religions until they encountered other communities and other belief systems.

Calling believers of other religions heathens will likely stop with more communication. Religions will probably have to find other means to survive independently of other belief systems.

One of my favourite pastimes is reminding Christians that Bede was a plagiarist and a hack.

r33, Ramadan occurs at a different (slightly earlier) time every year. This year it went from April 23 to May 22. Next year it will be April 12 to May 11. That's because the dates are based on the lunar calendar.

sorry, my r36 was meant for the idiot at r25, obviously.

Re: the calendar, let's not forget that month names - all of them - are of Roman origin. So they're pagan, but definitely not heathen.

Au contraire, mon frere!

It took the Roman Catholic Church to *FINALLY* put an accurate calendar into place - complete with Leap Centuries.

The days you reference are naturally-occurring milestones throughout the year - equinoxes; solstices; semi-solstices. It’s just that different cultures marked these celestial events in different ways.

Fun Fact: To deal with the drift in lost days because the Julian calendar was fixed, the date was advanced 10 days; Thursday 4 October 1582 was followed by Friday 15 October 1582. Therefore, in the West, 10/12/1592 never existed.

Another Fun Fact: Saint Theresa of Avila died on October 4, 1592, the last day of the Julian Calendar.

Druids practiced human sacrifice on a regular basis. Just sayin, it was not all pretty.

Easter is the first Sunday following the first full moon after the Spring Solstice. And its celebration centers around eggs.

How much more pagan can you get?

r40 Spring, or Vernal, Equinox, not Solstice.

Pagans! Sinners!

Since there are only 365 (or 366) days in a year, of course every day that is a religious observance will also be a day celebrated for some other reason by pagans across the millennia.

Christmas was also Yuletide.

Different Pagan factions and different people call these Pagan holidays by different names.

Usually one thing is in agreement and that is that there are 8 pagan holidays in the year. This can be found on the "Wheel Of The Year".

On my calendar they are printed as follows, with the dates being generalized.

Yule: December 21 Imbolc: February 2 Spring Equinox: March 21 May Day: May 1 Midsummer: June 21 August Eve: July 31 Autumn Equinox: September 21 Samhain: October 31

The number of days between the 8 holidays are more or less equal or equidistant.

I wanna celebrate Odin Christmas

[quote] Easter is the first Sunday following the first full moon after the Spring Solstice. And its celebration centers around eggs.

Dyed eggs are a folk tradition associated with Easter but they’re definitely not the focus of the holiday. That’s like saying Christmas is centered around stockings rather than the birth of Christ.

[Quote] Just sayin, it was not all pretty.

Yes, just because something is traditional does not mean it's good. There are plenty of appalling traditional beliefs. There is such a thing as progress, enlightenment, and reason after all.

Since this is DL, take male and female circumcision as an example.

R39/R48 trembling in their booties.

No-one’s suggesting we bring back the Wicker Man, loves. Do everyday Christians eschew meat on the Sabbath, still? You can give your wagging fingers a rest.

R39/R48 trembling in their booties.

No-one’s suggesting we bring back the Wicker Man, loves. Do everyday Christians eschew meat on the Sabbath, still? You can give your wagging fingers a rest.

[quote] Do everyday Christians eschew meat on the Sabbath, still?

Fridays. Only during Lent now.

Calm down R50. Of course religions and religious practice change over time. They will continue to change. What one knows and understand as the Bible has itself undergone change. More changes will take place with more and more communication.

Samhain in a few weeks. Whose got plans?

I’m gonna fire up the fire pit, maybe roast some meats for offering.

No thanks pagans, I have enough trouble with the few Jewish holidays I still celebrate!

Why is Saturn Day left off the graphic?

R4 The graphic says “your calendar is pagan.” It shows how current days of the week and holidays relate to pre-Judeo-Christian beliefs. The graphic isn’t called “an exhaustive and all-inclusive guide to pagan celebrations.”

Will Trump be dead by the Saturnalia?

Pagan gods laugh at mens’ hubris and punish those who get jumped-up and ahead of themselves with nothing to show for it. Don will get his due, don’t worry about it.

[Quote] Pagan gods laugh at mens’ hubris and punish

Yeah, right.

Can we sacrifice Trump to the Gods?

He is the pagan god Baal and that is why Americans worship him, except for a minority.