The winter solstice was also the time of the great Scandinavian
festival in honor of Frey, son of Odin and Frigga, who was supposed
to have been born at this time. The Jews, likewise, have a feast
beginning on the 25th of December, which lasts eight days, and is in
memory of the victory of the Maccabees over the Greeks. It is called
the feast of Hanuca.
A great annual festival, called the "feast of lamps," was held by the
Egyptians in the early part of the year in honor of the goddess Neith,
during which lamps of oil were burned all night before the houses. This
festival was renamed Candlemas or the "purification of the virgin,"
and was adopted by the Christian church.
The ancient pagan inhabitants of Europe annually celebrated a spring
festival which began with a week's indulgence in all kinds of sports
and was called the carne-vale, or taking farewell of meat, because a
fast of forty days immediately followed. In Germany this was held in
honor of the Saxon goddess Hertha, or Ostara, or Eostre--as you may
prefer to call her--whose name was adopted as Easter by the Christians
as the name to be applied to the end of their lenten period. Among
the Syrians it was the custom to celebrate an elaborate festival
at the time of the spring equinox in honor of the glorious Adonis,
beloved of the great goddess Astarte. This worship was later introduced
into Greece, whence it traveled to Rome with the majority of Grecian
mythological theories. It was later introduced into Egypt, where it was
annually celebrated at Alexandria, the cradle of Christianity, until
the latter part of the fourth century, when a Christian significance
was given it.
The myth of Adonis is too well known to need repetition here, and
its parallel to that of the Christ is readily seen. The ceremonies
now held in Rome at Easter are but slightly different from those
held there at the same time of year centuries ago. This similarity
was explained away by the assertion of the Christian fathers "that
a long time before there were Christians in existence, the devil had
taken pleasure to have their future mysteries and ceremonies copied
by his worshipers"--a very simple and satisfactory explanation!
That Easter is in reality an astronomical festival in honor of the
sun-god seems conclusive from the fact that it occurs on no settled
date, but takes place on the first Sunday after the first full moon
after the passing of the vernal equinox, which, for convenience,
is fixed at March 21.
Among the many Christian fasts of pagan origin none is more familiar
to all than the weekly Friday abstinence from meat. Under the old
mythology, Friday, the dies veneris, was sacred to Venus, and on that
day the devout worshipers of this charming goddess ate nothing but
fish, as all the "finny tribe" were sacred to her, and considered
proper diet for those that worshiped at her shrine.
When the Bishop of Rome assumed the power and dignity of head of
the western church, he also assumed all the prerogatives of the
ancient pontifex maximus (who was supposed to be the direct physical
communication between the people and the deities), and many of the
attributes of the emperors. He adopted the gorgeous vestments of the
ancient high priest and even stretched forth a foot to be kissed, as
Heliogabalus had done. He considered himself capable of raising such as
he saw fit to semi-divine honors by canonization, just as the emperors
had raised altars to their favorites, and he claimed precedence over
every monarch of the earth, just as they also had done. But the Roman
pontiff is not unique in his position of viceroy of the deity. The
grand lama of Thibet is considered as the representative of Buddha
and has the power of dispensing divine blessings on whomsoever he
will. Taoism also has a pope who resides on the Lung-hû mountain,
in the department of Kwang-hsi, who bears the surname Chang and is
called "Heavenly Master."
The best known rites of the Christian church are probably those of
baptism, confession and communion, with which are associated the
ideas of purification, prayer and transubstantiation.
The rite of baptism, like all ideas which refer to the purification
of sin by water, is a most ancient one. Rivers, as sources of
purification, were at an early date invested with a sacred character,
and every great river was supposed to be permeated with a divine
essence and its waters were believed to cleanse from all mortal
guilt and contamination. The Ganges and the Jordan are well known
examples of this faith, and vases of Ganges water are to be found in
almost every dwelling in India for religious purposes. In Mongolia
and Thibet children are named by the priests, who immerse them in
holy water while reading a prescribed prayer, after which the name is
bestowed. Baptism preceded initiation into the mysteries of both the
Egyptian Isis and the Persian Mithras, and was held to be the means
of regeneration and of remission of sins.
Tertullian, noticing the great similarity between the Christian and
pagan baptisms, naïvely remarked that the devil "baptizes some, of
course, such as believe in him and are faithful to him; he promises
expiation of sins from the bath, and, if my memory of Mithras serves
me still, in this rite he signs his soldiers on their foreheads."
Much akin to baptism is the general use by the Christian church of
so-called holy water, which is ascribed to Pope Alexander the First,
who ruled during the first century. This pontiff probably did little
more than officially to condone, by his papal sanction, the very
general use of lustral water, which the Romans had inherited from
their pagan ancestors; for lustral water was always kept in vases
at the entrance of the Roman temples, that those passing in and out
might sprinkle themselves with it; and the priests used a sprinkling
brush called the aspersorium with which they threw the purifying
water over their congregations, in the same manner as modern priests
use the hyssop. The druids gave, or sprinkled upon, the worshipers
water in which mistletoe had been immersed or steeped.
Similar to the idea of purification by baptism is that of purification
by confession and prayer. The idea involved in confession is
that the declaration of the crime relieves the conscience of its
criminality. In Iceland and among the Scandinavian and Teutonic
peoples in general, murder ceased to be a crime when the slayer had
declared himself guilty. Among the Jews confession was practiced,
the purpose of its institution being that the priest might judge of
the sacrifice required for the expiation of the sin committed, and,
also, that every crime might be rehearsed over the scapegoat. The
Peruvians confessed their sins to their priests with the exception
of the Incas, who confessed to the sun. At the famous Samothracian
mysteries a priest was especially charged with hearing the confessions
of great criminals and with granting them absolution.
Among Protestant Christians confession is often made directly to
the supreme deity in the form of prayer, which, like most other
religious practices, is an eminently pagan custom. The Assyrians,
Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, Persians, and most other ancient peoples
offered sacrifices on the altars of their gods to propitiate them,
and accompanied these offerings with prayers. Today, instead of
presenting wines and viands to his god, the devout Christian offers
verbal expressions of a contrite spirit or, more often, asks a
favor. He demands, begs, or advises through this method, according
to his own nature and disposition.
The expression used in modern orthodox Protestant prayers, "through
our Lord, Jesus Christ," is merely the concrete expression of the
idea of mediation. The great supreme God was looked upon by most
nations of antiquity as being too great, too sublime, too holy, to
be addressed directly; and, in this lofty conception of the deity,
they prayed for favors to mediators whom they created to request
boons from the real ruler of heaven and earth.
Among the Hindus, supplications were addressed to the various
apotheosized incarnations of Vishnu, rather than to the great Brahma;
the Greeks made supplication to numerous lesser gods, rather than to
Zeus; Persians addressed Mithras instead of Ormuzd; and the modern
Romanist kneels to saints and martyrs, or Jesus or his mother, at
whose shrines they place offerings which are bribes for favors; but
almost never do they immediately supplicate the supreme God. In this
they are certainly less blasphemous than their Protestant fellows, who
do not hesitate to talk familiarly to God of the most trivial affairs.
Belief in the efficacy of prayer is an absurdity which owes its
origin to a hereditary trait of humanity, descended through a long
line of superstitious ancestors. Primitive man prayed to his dead
fathers for their good will, believing them more powerful in their
post mortem state than during life. The ancients offered prayers
at the shrines of their various gods and, among all nations, from
time immemorial, deities have been supplicated to bestow gifts and
avert misfortunes. The overcharged mind of the superstitious has
ever found relief in expressing its troubles to the imaginary beings
on whom it has bestowed superhuman attributes. All over the world,
in all languages, have arisen various petitions to the deities,
and still do they continue to arise. Savages pray to their idols,
Moslems crouch facing Mecca to pray to Allah, Hindus pray to the
avatars of Vishnu, and all Christendom besieges the throne of God in
constant supplication.
Can any rational mind believe that these numerous, varied and even
antagonistic petitions will be answered? Some are praying for rain,
some for a cessation of it, some for health, some for happiness,
some for material blessings, and some for spiritual welfare. Vain
repetitions! The material universe is governed by immutable laws which
all the breath in creation wasted in prayer cannot in any way affect;
while such spiritual benefits as morality, character and virtue "are
equally dependent on the invariable laws of cause and effect." Prayers
for forgiveness of sins are perhaps the most common, as well as the
most absurd, that are daily offered. Sin is the breaking of a material
or moral law, and no law can be broken without the transgressor's
incurring the penalty. Is it not absurd of the church to preach the
immutable justice of God, and at the same time declare that sinners
may escape punishment by prayer?
Communion, or union with the deity, is an idea of great antiquity
and has been common to all religions; although the methods practiced
are numerous and varied. The more common mode, however, is by the
consumption of consecrated foods and drinks, with the idea that these
have acquired (by the act of consecration) a divine character of which
the communicant becomes a partaker through their reception. The dogma
of the eucharist was instituted many centuries before the Christian era
and was believed in by the ancient Egyptians (from whom the Christians
probably received it through the Alexandrian school), who, at the
time of the celebration of the resurrection of Osiris, ate a sacred
wafer, which, after consecration by a priest, was declared the flesh
of the god. In ancient Greece, bread was worshiped as Ceres and wine
as Bacchus; and, when the devout ate the bread and drank the wine,
they claimed they were eating the flesh and drinking the blood of
their deities. The ancient Mexicans used bread of corn meal mixed
with blood, which, after, having been consecrated by the priests,
was given to the people to eat as the flesh of Quetzalcoatl, much
to the surprise and horror of the first Spanish missionaries, who
ascribed it to mockery of their holy eucharist due to Satan.