The Hidden Side of Christian Festivals Author:Charles Webster Leadbeater Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II CHRISTMAS Christmas is one of the greatest of the festivals of the Church; it is perhaps surpassed only by Easter, for on this day we celebrate ... more »the birth of the. Sun-God, as on that day we celebrate His victory over the powers of darkness. Christianity, like all the other religions, was founded in the northern hemisphere, and consequently its festivals all fall at inappropriate times so far as the southern hemisphere is concerned. The rebirth of the Sun-God after the eclipse of winter was celebrated on the first day which was definitely longer both in the morning and in the evening, immediately after the winter solstice, the point at which the earth turns in its circuit round the sun, and begins to pass away from him instead of drawing towards him. In the same way the victory of the Sun-God over the powers of darkness was celebrated as soon as the equinox had passed—as soon as the day was definitely longer than the night. These festivals of the Sun-God had been kept for thousands of years before the birth of Jesus, so that it was quite natural for the early Church to adopt their dates for its celebrations. The actual date of the birth of Jesus is not known, but from various indications it seems probable that it was some time in the spring. The 25th of December was, however, selected fairly early in ecclesiastical history, because it coincided with that great Sun-festival, and it was naturally convenient totake advantage of what was already a public holiday. Those who do not recognize the symbolical meaning of the life of the Christ naturally suppose all these ecclesiastical commemorations to be merely historical; but we, who are trying to delve a little deeper into the truths of nature, shall none the less find it interesting to look for other and deeper signif...« less