The Saturnalia
The Saturnalia (which means 'sun-stop') is the week-long pagan festival of the winter solstice which began on December the 17th(The festival originally ended on December 19 and was later extended to December 23.) as the sun was seen to be rising further to the south and thought of as "dying". By December the 25th, the ancient world's solstice, it could be recognised as beginning to turn northwards again and was said to be "re-born" and therefore was proclaimed to be the birthday of the sun-deity. It is also important to note that these dates reference the Julian calendar, not the Gregorian (which we currently use). The actual days Saturnalia was celebrated correspond to December 30-January 5.
All of the known sun-deities were 'born' on December the 25th, these include Mithra, Krishna (Vishnu), Osiris, Horus, Hercules, Dionysus (Bacchus), Tammuz, Indra, Buddha as well as the Scandinavian goddesses. [Aryan Sun Myths, The Origins of Religion - S.E. Titcombe], as well as all the other reincarnations of the child-god of the Babylonian religious system.
Behind all Pagan deity worship stands Satan himself. He accepts honor in whatever name we wish to call him; Baal, Moloch, Marduk, Venus, Odin, Krishna, Aphrodite, Ishtar, Zeus, Mithras, Ahura-Mazda, Dagon -- male or female, it matters not. The most important day in the life of any satan worshipper is their annual birthday. Remember the dates have changed from the Julian/Gregorian calendar. So, the big day for pagan deity birthdays is January 1.
For roughly 4,000 years, the SOLSTICE has been -- by proxy -- the day of Satan's birthday celebration (because he is the designer of the original astrological religious pattern), and deceived mankind to cause them to worship the sun.
Nimrod, grandson of Noah, son of Cush, was the real founder of the Babylonian system that has gripped the world ever since. Nimrod built the tower of Babel, the original Babylon, ancient Nineveh, and many other cities. He organized this world's first kingdom. The name Nimrod, in Hebrew, maybe derived from "Marad' meaning, "he rebelled." (Gen. 10: 6,8-12)
Nimrod was known as the god of the Chaldean Mysteries. In the Chaldean mysteries, the Babylonian dictator Nimrod was deified as Saturn. Satan and Saturn are the same words, one 'Early Latin', and the other 'Late Latin'... His birthday was celebrated on December 25th or the Saturnalia. Saturn and Mystery are both chaldean words, and they are correlative terms. As Mystery signifies the hidden system, so Saturn signifies the hidden god.*
...Saturn in Chaldee is pronounced Satur, but as every Chaldee scholar knows, it consists only of four letters, thus-STUR. This name contains exactly the Apocalyptic number 666:--
S=060
T=400
U=006
R=200
---------
666
Satur is the goat-legged half man half goat 'deity' headed by Pan (a representation of satan) sometimes spelt 'satyr' in English.
The Oxford dictionary identifies it as 'Saturos' in Greek. The Saturs and their leader Pan are also known as "Goat-gods".
The early Babylonians called the sun "the Goat" and said that the "Goat-god" was the "Sun-god". Isaiah 13:21 identifies the Saturs as belonging to Babylon.
The scapegoat Azazel of Leviticus 16 was a figure of satan (Christianity and Mythology J.M. Robertson pp.319-325). This is also confirmed by the Church Father, Origen.
A deity with two goat-legs has always been identified as satan. The names Satur and Saturn therefore are camouflaged references to Satan. (Hislop and Jacob Grimm)
The Saturnalia was named for Saturn, otherwise known as Cronus. Cronus is an alias for Tammuz. Tammuz was Nimrod reborn - alias, his son. His wife and mother was Rhea (Semiramis). Egyptian and Babylonian antiquities recognize his mother as Semiramis, and his birthday is celebrated on 25th December. Semiramis was depicted as a virgin Madonna holding the "Christ" child.
The Saturnalia, therefore, was just another observance for Tammuz/Nimrod, the Babylonian, counterfeit redeemer.
Ezekiel was shown some of the abominations taking place in the temple with the people incorporating the worship of Tammuz in their religious observances. (Ezekiel/Yehezqel 8:15-16).
They were mixing the worship of the One true God with the customs of sun worship and Yahweh called it an abomination to Him. Yahweh says "Do not learn the way of the pagans/gentiles," Jeremiah 10:1
Satan (Hebrew shatan) means "adversary" and is against God-ordained worship and the true worshippers of God. He is a real, fallen messenger opposed to Yahweh, and is ruling the entire Earth in all religious, political, and mercantile areas that are substituting the true worship of Yahweh for counterfeit practices and methods of worship. True worship is in SPIRIT and in TRUTH. (John 4:24) Soulish worship is centred in man's emotions to meet man's need to worship something. "Your Word is truth" (John 17:17) i.e. true worship must be according to the Word - not according to tradition or human sentiment. Rome was once know as Saturnalia, "The city of Saturn".
The Encyclopedia Britannica, Volume II (1943-1973), under Christmas, we find: “In the Roman world, the Saturnalia was a time of merrymaking and exchanging of gifts. December 25th was also regarded as the birthdate of the Iranian Mystery god, Mithra, the Sun of Righteousness.” The sun god was also known as Saturnalia as well as Nimrod!
Note: Much of the information stated below is unsubstatiated, and not based on any known documentation. Anyone can make things up, and claim it is fact, so the statements need to show a source for any documentation that corroborates, or proves this was indeed the case regarding Mithradic legend before the time of Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus Christ).
"Mithra, according to ancient legend (pre the birth of Yeshua the Messiah), was born on December 25, of a virgin. His birth was witnessed by shepherds and magicians [magi]. Mithra raised the dead and healed the sick and cast out demons. He returned to heaven at the spring equinox (northern hemisphere) and before doing so had a last supper with his 12 disciples (representing the 12 signs of the zodiac), eating mizd, a piece of bread marked with a cross (an almost universal symbol of the sun)."
The Celebration in Rome
New International Dictionary of the Christian Church, p. 223: “December 25 was the date of the Roman pagan festival inaugurated in 274 as the birthday of the unconquered sun which at the winter solstice begins again to show an increase in light. Sometime before 336 the Church in Rome, unable to stamp out this pagan festival, spiritualized it as the Feast of the Nativity of the Sun of Righteousness.” Hislop observes, “That Christmas was originally a Pagan festival, is beyond all doubt. The time of the year, and the ceremonies with which it is still celebrated, prove its origin,” The Two Babylons, p. 93.
Funk and Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology, and Legend, on page 974, says -"The usual was suspended during the Saturnalia: no punishments were handed down by the courts; schools were closed; war-making ceased; the toga was replaced by an undergarment; masquerading and change of dress between the sexes occurred; gambling, especially dicing, was fully countenanced; social distinctions not only were not observed, but often reversed, as in the instance of masters serving their servants; speech and action (as in many fertility ceremonies) were to some extent unbridled. The whole series of observances obviously place the Saturnalia among the fertility rites; everything tended towards increasing the fruitfulness of nature and of the people of ensuring the rotation of the seasons by observing the turn of the sun northward again. The gift of imitation fruit has apparently to do with increase; the candles indicate the making of new fires customary at the solstices; the dolls, as has been noted as early as Varro, are the remains of the custom of human sacrifice."
Each Roman community selected a victim whom they forced to indulge in food and other physical pleasures throughout the week. At the festival’s conclusion, December 25th, Roman authorities believed they were destroying the forces of darkness by brutally murdering this innocent man or woman.
The ancient Greek writer poet and historian Lucian (in his dialogue entitled Saturnalia) describes the festival’s observance in his time. In addition to human sacrifice, he mentions these customs: widespread intoxication; going from house to house while singing naked (a precursor of modern caroling); rape and other sexual license; and consuming human-shaped biscuits.
They celebrated what they thought was the sun’s return by having orgies, human and animal sacrifices and eating blood pudding.
The festival was characterized by gift-giving, feasting, singing and debauchery, as the priests of Saturn carried wreaths of evergreen boughs in procession throughout the Roman temples. People decorated their homes with green branches, evergreen wreaths, incense, candles, and religious figurines and gave them as gifts to one another. Everywhere, people stopped work to join in the celebration.
The Roman Empire was a World-Ruling Empire at that time. The customs of Rome were spread to the entire known world! Britons and Celts, Indians and Egyptians were all called part of the Roman Empire at one time. These nations brought their own sun worshiping cults to join into the Saturnalia Celebrations! It was an empire-wide celebration. All the people in this Empire, save only a few... gathered in their homes to drink wine... to dance and sing... to light their candles and exchange presents... giving their children the little clay dolls that represented their former sacrifices! The Strenae... honoring the goddess Strenia... were given for ‘good luck!’ The feast of fools and the Lord of Misrule derived directly from the Saturnalia
The Christmas Tree, the holly, the mistletoe, the lights, the gold and silver decorations and even the colour theme of red (for the sun) and green (for new life) had their origin in the festivities associated with sun-worship.
The early Christians found a birthday celebration of a religious figure strange or blasphemous. The only people who celebrated birthdays were the pagans in Rome.