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every aspect, Saturnalia and Christmas share the same ritualistic traditions. Christmas, it is taught in Christianity, is a commemoration of the birth day of the Christian god, Jesus.

The bible gives us no indication that we are to celebrate the birth of the Messiah. So obscure is this holiday in the bible that the day of the Messiah's birth is not even noted, and in fact cannot be found anywhere within the book. Where, then, did the rituals of Christmas come from, if not from the bible? Does the bible tell us to cut a tree, place it in our homes, and decorate it in order to celebrate Jesus' birthday? Does it tell us to hang wreaths, drape lights, and exchange gifts as a tribute to Jesus' birthday? Are we instructed to gather together family and friends for a festive dinner in honor of his birth? Nowhere in scripture are we given instructions to celebrate the birth of the Messiah at all, much less instructions on what rituals to observe while doing so. Yet, Christianity persists in claiming that this is indeed a biblical holiday, and should be observed as such.

Christmas is most assuredly a Christian holiday, but is also most definitely not a biblical one. There is not a single mention in the New Testament of any of the apostles celebrating Jesus' birth, and in fact, Christians in the first, second, and third centuries A.D. did not celebrate the Messiah's birth day; Christmas was not commemorated. Saturnalia, however, was still honored. In the 4th century A.D., Constantine the Great became emperor of Rome, declared Christianity the state religion, and began to attempt to pull pagans into the religion. Pagans, however, wanted no part of this new religion. The Roman Catholic Church therefore decided the best way to attract these people into this new religion was to allow them to continue practicing their pagan holidays, complete with rites, rituals, and traditions, and instead simply decided to rename the pagan holidays to reflect the teachings of the Church. Saturnalia, which gradually became supplanted by the feast of "Deus Sol Invicta" ("Unconquered Sun God", introduced into the Roman culture by emperor Aurelian in 274 A.D., and celebrated on December 25th, which is the day of the winter solstice) became "Christianized" by the Roman Catholic Church. The pagans simply had a new name for their old holiday. Instead of Saturnalia, instead of being called the "festival of Saturn", they now had "Christes Maesse", meaning "festival of Christ", which eventually was

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