> I suggest you look up solar calendars and sun worshipping. > Specifically the festival of Sol Invictus and Mithraism, which > actually competed with Christianity in the beginnings. The bottom line > is that Christmas coincides with the solstice because this was good to > market Christianity to the peoples who were already worshipping and > having festivals around those dates. > > j > > > ========= > And they wanted people to forget their pagan practices and switch over. > Easier to do that with an overlay than a completely different date. > > Marnie aka Doe
----- Which reminds me that in Ravenna, Italy, there are two late Roman baptistries, both dating, I think, to the 5th century. Both contain original Roman mosaics in the ceiling, naturally depicting John baptizing Jesus. In both scenes, John is assisted by the river god Jordan. And in one, Jesus is slightly hermaphroditic, with small breasts. Elsewhere in a Roman mosaic in Ravenna, Jesus is depicted similar to the depiction of Apollo, who was hermaphroditic in one of his manifestations. Joe -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
