Tag Archives: Romans

In the modern age, the majority of the world view Christmas as a Christian holiday in origin. However, this is not the case. A lot of popular traditions that are associated with Christmas are not indeed Christian in origin. Many have pre-Christian beginnings in pagan festivals that were celebrated by the pagan populace around the winter solstice before they were later converted to Christianity. Examples of such festivals are Saturnalia and Yule. In addition to this, Christmas was banned on a few occasions within certain Protestant groups, such as the Puritans, because they believed that Christmas was too pagan.[1] In modern times Christmas, for those who celebrate it, is generally thought to be most people’s favourite holiday.  The same could be said for the pagan winter festivals in ancient Europe. This was due to the fact that everyone was looking forward to better weather with the arrival of Spring and that there was far less agricultural work to be done at this time of year. Continue reading →