Heathen Festivals by Merritt E. Cornell

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 20, 1870

Heathen Festivals.

By Merritt E. Cornell

“Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain.” Gal. 4:10, 11.

The festivals here referred to, are those instituted by the heathen in honor of their gods. The context clearly shows that they were celebrated in memory of, or pertained to, their idolatrous worship. The apostle cannot refer to days of divine appointment, or that had reference to the worship of the true God, such as the Sabbath of the Lord, which was a memorial of the God that created all things.

Paul was afraid that the continued observance of those Roman festivals would prove a snare to them, because it would perpetuate in them a respect for human customs and idolatrous ordinances.

CHRISTMAS.

The festival of Christmas is regarded by Roman Catholics and Episcopalians, and many in other sects, as a religious festival. Millions have lived and died in the faith that Christmas was a divine festival occurring on the very day of the birth of our Saviour. Protestants wonder at the credulity and superstition of the Romanist in regard to Ash Wednesday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, St. Patrick’s day, etc., yet at the same time regard, as sacred, days that have no better reason, nor any higher authority, for their observance.

There may be no evil in the use of the Christmas holiday as a day of recreation and good cheer; but it is well to understand that there is neither reason nor Scripture authority for its observance as a sacred festival.

1. There is no proof that Dec. 25 was the day of Christ’s nativity; but the probabilities are strongly against it.

2. If it could be certainly proved that the 25th of December was the day of Christ’s birth, even then we should only have human authority, that it ought to be observed.

We find no Scripture authority for keeping a festival day in honor of Christ’s birth, crucifixion, resurrection, or ascension. Yet men, in their proud presumption, have invented festival days in honor of all these events. In support of the first proposition above, we quote the following high authority:—

“The day, however, now kept as Christmas, cannot be that of the nativity of our Lord, for the reason assigned long ago by Shaw and others; viz., that in December, which is the height of the rainy season in Judea, neither flocks nor shepherds could have been at night in the fields of Bethlehem, which we are told was the case at the nativity of Christ. As to the antiquity of this festival, the first traces we find of it are in the second century, about the time of the Emperor Commodus.” —Ency. Brit.

Sir Isaac Newton remarks: “The times of the birth and passion of Christ, with such like niceties, being not material to religion, were little regarded by the Christians of the first age.”

An unknown author, speaking of Christmas, says: “Its institution is attributed by the Decretal letters, to Telesphorus, who died, A. D. 138. At first, it was one of the most movable of the Christian festival days, often confounded with the Epiphany, and celebrated by the Eastern churches in the months of April and May. In the fourth century, the urgency of St. Cyril, of Jerusalem, obtained, from Pope Julius I., an order for an investigation to be made concerning the day of Christ’s nativity. The result of the inquiry by the theologians of the East and the West was an agreement upon the 25th of Dec. The chief grounds for the decision were the tables of the censors, in the archives of Rome; and although, in the opinion of some of the Fathers, there was not authentic proof of the identification of the day, yet the decision was uniformly accepted.”

ORIGIN OF THE NAME.

The Christian Spectator, of 1821, says: “Our English appellation of ‘Christmas’ originated in the mass at this season being called Christ’s mass. It was usual, at this season, for the Romish priests to offer up masses to the saints, imploring forgiveness for the people, for their debaucheries or backslidings at this festival.”

PAGAN ORIGIN.

We find it generally admitted by the best authors, that the Christmas festival was of pagan and papal origin.

The following is from the New Monthly Magazine, by Thos. Campbell: “Many of the anniversaries solemnized by the Christian church were transplanted into it from the heathen soil. Whilst Easter has succeeded to the ‘Floralia’ of the Romans, there can be little doubt that Christmas has taken the place of their ‘Saturnalia.’ This festival, instituted in honor of Saturn, was celebrated by them with the greatest splendor, debauchery, and extravagance. “The Christian church was anxious to abolish the celebration of these Saturnalia, in which she blushed to see her own disciples partaking; and, therefore, appointed a festival in honor of her divine Redeemer.”

CHRISTMAS PRESENTS.

“The custom of making presents on Christmas eve is derived from an old heathen usage, practised among the Northern nations at the feast of the birth of Sol on the 25th of December, to which it succeeded, and retained the name of Yule or Inul, i. e., the ‘wheel,’ or revolution of the sun.” —Relig. Cyclo.

NEW YEAR’S.

This festival, like Christmas, may be harmless as a recreation day; but that it is properly the commencement of the year, is to be questioned. The year is naturally divided into four seasons; viz., 1. Spring; 2. Summer; 3. Autumn; 4. Winter. How unnatural, to begin the year in the middle of the fourth season! The winter seems to be the old age of the year; while the month Abib, or April, is the youth of the year. Abib, or April, signifies the opening flowers. Here, then, is where the year would naturally commence, and this is according to the ancient order. See Ex. 12:2: “This month shall be unto you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you.”

Men have thought to improve the original plan; and in this, as in many other things, have proved that their own wisdom was folly. And in the language of Scripture we may say, “Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay.” Again, we read of those who “put darkness for light, and light for darkness.” The wise man says that “God hath made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions.”

Some human inventions are comparatively harmless; but when a human institution is put in the place of a divine, as in the case of the Sabbath, making void one of God’s commandments, then we must “ask for the old paths, and walk therein.”

But in regard to the January festival, the following may be of interest:—

“JANUARY.—This month is named from the Roman god Janus, who was represented with two faces, one toward the old year, and one toward the new. Everybody invoked him on commencing a new undertaking. From the time of Numa, second king of Rome, January began the religious year of the Romans. On its first day was presented to Janus an offering of wine and fruits; his idol was crowned with laurel; the consul or chief magistrate ascended in solemn procession to the capital; and small presents were made to one another by friends. The most usual presents were figs and dates covered with leaf gold. Hence the modern agreeable custom of New Year’s presents.” —Goodrich’s History, p. 364.

“January, the first month in our present calendar, was also the first month in the more recent Roman calendar. It was not the first month in the year in this country till 1752, when the legislature, by an act passed in the preceding year, altered the mode of reckoning time from the Julian to the Gregorian style.” —National Cyclo.

“It was not uniformly the beginning of the year among the Latin Christian nations till the eighteenth century, the year being in several countries reckoned from March 1, or other dates.” —American Cyclo.

M. E. CORNELL.