The Calendrical Holy Daze
What is this thing called the calendar a representation of, truly? It's a bored game called Polyopoly wholly hiding the truth about the holy daze. It's a discombobulation of deities, dictators and dislocations so far removed they've been long since 4gotten. (ever find it peculiar SEPTember and OCTober r not the 7th and 8th months?)The year originally began in March, as spelled out 2 Moses in Exodus 12, during instructions 4 the original Passover. (Full month names of the Hebrew calendar r listed in annotated Bibles.) This tradition was kept thru the beginnings of the Roman calendar (which is the 4father 2 the current method of date-tracking), until Julius Caesar introduced his calendar in 45 BC and moved the year's start 2 January 1.
The original Roman calendar, beginning on March 1, consisted of 10 months of 304 days. The months were: Martius, Aprilis, Maius, Junius, Quintilis, Sextilis, September, October, November, and December (note the current month names in proper numerical order!), followed by an unnamed, unnumbered winter period.
Roman king Numa Pompilius (715-673 BC) is attributed with adding February and January (in that order) between December and Martius, increasing the length of the year to 354 or 355 days. An extra month, Intercalaris ("intercalendar") or Mercedonius, was added 2 make up 4 the 'missing' days in the year. Confusion left some years longer than others, and in 45 BC, Julius Caesar introduced a reformed, solar calendar in an attempt 2 correct. Month lengths were adjusted and Intercalaris was removed. Tho not perfectly accurate (many re4rmed calendars followed in later centuries), the Julian calendar was an improvement. Quintilius was renamed Julius (July) in his own honor, and in 8 BC, Sextilus became Augustus in honor of that Caesar.
Note that 2 of r month names r in honor of dictators. What do the rest mean?
January: (Latin: Januarius) Named 4 the god Janus.
February: (Latin: Februarius) Named after Februa, a Roman purification festival.
March: (Latin: Martius) Named 4 the god Mars.
April: (Latin: Aprilis) Named 4 goddess Aphrodite.
May (L: Maius) Named 4 the goddess Maia.
June: (L: Junius) from Junonius, meaning sacred 2 the goddess Juno.
July: (L: Julius (Caesar)) 4merly Quintilis, from quintus, fifth. 5th month in the old Roman calendar.
August: (L: Augustus.) 4merly Sextilis, from the word sextus, sixth.
September: From septem, seven, the 7th month in the old Roman calendar.
October: From octo, eight; it was the 8th month in the old Roman calendar.
November: From novem, nine, as it was the 9th month.
December: From decem, ten, because it was the 10th month.
Of 12 month names used in the current Christian calendar, 5 deities, 2 dictators and an ancient Roman purification festival r honored! Y????
B prepared 4 a shock when Part 2 lifts the veil surrounding the true origins of the tradition of Christmas... the roots of the word itself will cause many a jawjacking!
In-spect Holy Daze, part 2, here
The Holey Season...
happy birthday 2 who?
Here we r, a handful of days away from the celebration called Christmas. But where does this Dec. 25th 'holy day' come from? Was it really Christ's date of birth?
Nowhere in the Bible or in writings of his day, is Christ's actual birth date mentioned. Yet the New Testament offers clues 4 calculation:
Luke 1:5 states: "In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a certain priest named Zacharias, of the daily division of Abijah…"
Priests worked 'divisions' (shifts of approx. 2 weeks) in the temple; each division named 4 its leader (full list at 1 Chronicles 24:10). Abijah was the eighth of 24 divisions, so Zacharias' shift would have been around the 15th-16th weeks of the year. (Remember, March was the 1st month of the Hebrew year.)
Luke 1 goes on 2 xplain that during Zacharias' turn in the temple, the angel Gabriel appears and tells Zacharias his wife, Elizabeth (who had been unable 2 bear children), would conceive. He returns home after his shift, and soon his wife is pregnant.
Let's look at the Hebrew months as they correlate 2 r Western calendar:
(note: Hebrew month lengths vary slightly from the western system, so some overlapping occurs.)
Nisan (Abib) = March
Iyyar (Ziv) = April
Sivan = May
Tammuz = June
Ab = July
Elul = August
Tishri (Ethanim) = September
Marchesvan = October
Chislev = November
Tebeth = December
Shebat = January
Adar = February
The division of Abijah, 15 weeks in2 the year, would've been near the last 2 weeks of Tammuz, June. Zacharias would've been back home by the beginning of Ab, the following month, and soon after, his wife had become pregnant.
In Luke 1:26-37, Gabriel visits Mary and in4ms her she will bear a son, Jesus. He also tells her that her cousin Elizabeth is in her sixth month of pregnancy. (doing the math, this would've been sometime during the month of Tebeth, December). Mary conceives soon after - by the time she hurries 2 Elizabeth's village, the enspirited Elizabeth realizes she is talking 2 the mother of Christ.
Counting nine full months from the end of Tebeth is the month of Tishri - late September/early October on r calendars. If Mary had a full-term pregnancy, Jesus would've been born around this time.
One can only speculate the actual date of birth, but from the sources at hand, it appears 2 b far from Dec. 25.
So y is Christmas celebrated when it is, and y is it called Christmas?
Travelling back 2 the early years of this millennium, we find Greeks and Romans still holding strong 2 the ancient religious systems honoring their own deities - time gods, earth goddesses and war gods whose names r still repeated thru the naming of the months, days, planets and constellations. Every change of season was attributed 2 one of these deities.
In 273 AD, the emperor Aurelian officially declared Dec. 25 the Roman winter solstice (solar standstill) festival. (note: winter solstice is the shortest day of the year - days prior 2 it r progressively shorter, those after it gain the lost daylight back.) It was called Birthday of the Unconquered Sun, a feast which signaled the day in which the ancient sun god Mithras-Apollo would reverse the cycle of dwindling daylight hours and 1ce again banish the darkness with more light -- the sun was 'reborn'.
When Constantine 'legalized' Christianity in 313, it wasn't long b4 this feast was adopted as the celebration of Christ - the one who eternally banished darkness. This 'new spin' on an old tradition allowed those with clandestine polytheistic beliefs 2 continue celebrating them under the guise of Christianity.
The word Christmas does not mean 'birth of Christ' at all, as we have been led 2 believe. Let's look up its roots: Christ + Mass. 'Christ' means "anointed;" 'mass' comes from Latin "missa", which meant '2 send away.' Catholic masses got that name bcuz at the end of them, the priest would say, 'ite missa est', meaning: "go, it is the dismissal."
Christmas is a celebration of sending Christ away?!! It almost seems so, when we c his actual date of birth has been clouded by the fog of time, and is instead noted on the day of an ancient pagan celebration (how convenient - the tradition stays the same!).
Another tradition has attached itself 2 this holey season: 'purchase envy,' the competition 2 c who can buy the best gifts. Visit a toy store during this time and watch greed, tempers and words fly when another gets in the way of the master Santaplan. Hardly a way 2 honor Christ, or any1 4 that matter!
Y is there only one day in honor of the one who said honor one another, EVERY day? Let us honor one another ALL days thru unselfish love, and therein rediscover the greatest gift of all.
Re-view Calendrical Holy Daze, part 1? Read it here
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