A Christian View of Paganism

 So, Yule and Christmas have come and gone. Here in our home, we celebrate both because me and my biologicals are Heathen, and my wife and her biologicals are Christian. Our tradition is to celebrate Yule on the Solstice from sundown on the 19^th to sundown on the 22^nd of December. I understand that some celebrate the Medieval tradition of the 12-Days of Yule, and other use the Lunar method and Yule will be January 6^th for you. For us Yule fell during the wee and we had work, school, afterschool activities, and daily life to contend with. This makes Yule a trying time to prepare for and to celebrate. In contrast Christmas fell on a weekend and most people get the time off from work and it makes things all nice and neat.

Yule came and went with some difficulties and life went on. Then on the 23^rd of December I was sick and tested positive for Covid. Yeah me! That only kept me down a day. By the 24^th I was doing. However, we could not go to see my wife’s family due to the plague and were forced to stay home. As a family we opened gifts, had Chinese food, and generally had a good time. All-in-all the holiday season went by without much of a hitch.

Throughout the Christmas season there are TV commercials, shows, and stories about the birth of little baby Jesus and all that mumbo jumbo. Me being Heathen and a historian I just felt the need to debunk that myth every time I heard it. We all know that Jesus was not born on the 25^th of December and the reality is we don’t really know when Jesus was born. Best guess based on scripture and scientific analysis is somewhere around the beginning of April in 5 BC. The common Christian traditional dating of the birthdate of Jesus was 25 December, a date first asserted officially by Pope Julius I in 350 AD, although this claim is dubious or otherwise unfounded.[1] I also had to point out that all this decorating, feasting, bonfires, and shit also pagan, various pagans at that! The one exception is the fir tree we all decorate. That is actually Christian thanks to St. Boniface in 723 AD after he interfered with Heathen rites and allegedly cut down a decorated sacred oak. That’s enough of a history lesson. As I stated, I felt the need to debunk these Jesus myths with the facts.

This debunking along with a few other choice issues led my wife to say, “I don’t make fun of your holiday.”. In the nature of keeping frith, I said no more. However, I wanted the say, “Well, my ancestors didn’t kill your sin the name of God, then try to snuff out my religions with murder, wars, and laws punishable by imprisonment or death.”. Let’s not forget the changing of dates to coincide with pagan holidays and yes, assimilate them. These days a lot of Heathens want to say this did not happen. It did. Historically dates were changed to stop the new Christians from being pagan. Pagan traditions were modified and brought into church practices to assimilate them.

I find that most devote Christians tend to “stick with the Church” when it comes to their practice. In the case of Catholicism, the would be the Pope. They also tend to stand by the core issues that the Church has always stood by (such as abortion) and ignore lesser know dogma such as visiting mediums, soothsayers, and fortunetellers. I expect this pick and choose from pagans and heathens because there is no higher authority passing out dogma to us. This makes most Christians acceptance of the beliefs of their friends and family members that are pagan. Christians who have a close relationship with pagans tend to be accepting and supporting of their pagan friends. However, this only goes so far.

In my life I have experience varying degrees of acceptance and involvement. In my house, the Christians do not get involved in the rites, but they participate in the feasting and drinking. Not sure they fully understand that these two elements are just parts of the religious rite. I also get pushback when it comes to having a centralized altar and setting up a sacred space within the house. The scales are a bit uneven, in that more weight is put on Christianity than the pagan. I think subconsciously the Christian looks at the pagan as silly and just playing some sort of game. I have had Christians friends and relatives outright tell me that my beliefs are not real, and that they don’t matter because there is only one God. They tell me I’m really a Christian even if I don’t know it yet. WTF? My parents just ignore it all together, despite having been pagan since 1983! That’s just there way of accepting. The basic takeaway is that the support of our Christian brethren only goes so far.

As far as what I expect from my Christian associates, very little. However, if we share a space, I expect it to be equally shared. I should be able to have a space for an altar, my herbs, and religious items. I don’t have church or a temple to go to, my temple is my home and the land around it. I need to feel I can practice my religion in my own home.

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[1] Pearse, Roger (21 December 2018). "Dubious claims: Pope Julius I decided that Jesus was born on 25 December?". Roger Pearse. Retrieved 30 January 2022.