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OT:OT:OT:No MS:NO Hurt US:Persian roots of Christian traditions

abdi

2005-12-24, 6:01 pm

Persian roots of Christian traditions

By Ramona Shashaani
December 23, 1999
The Iranian

A while ago, I was invited to give a talk at a Christmas party about the
Persian tradition of
celebrating the winter solstice on December 21st. In order to speak
intelligently to a
spiritually and psychologically keen audience, I set out to research the
subject. I was
scrambling to find resource material when my day was saved by our list
co-moderator, Peter
Bridge, who provided me with more references than I had hoped to find in my
attempt to unravel
the historical, symbolic and mythic bases behind the Persian people's
celebration of this
festive occasion.

What I did not expect to find, however, was a fascinating history of how
Christmas may have its
origins in the ancient Persian Mithraic tradition of worshipping Mithra or
Mehr, the sun-god or
god of love. With the approaching winter solstice, I thought it might be
appropriate share this
history with you.

While Christians around the world are preparing to celebrate Christmas on
Dec. 25th, the
Persians are getting ready to tribute one of their most festive celebrations
on Dec. 21st, the
eve of winter solstice, the longest night and shortest day of the year. In
Iran this night is
called SHAB-E YALDAA, also known as SHAB-E CHELLEH, which refers to the
birthday or rebirth of
the sun.

In the east more than in the west, lifestyles have often remained more in
tune with nature. This
integration of natural rhythms into life cycles is especially true in
ancient Persia and has
survived the ages. YALDAA, like other major Persian celebrations, is focused
on the changing of
the seasons. It is as ancient as the time that people organized their lives
around the
precession of equinoxes.

The most eminent festive affair is NOROOZ, the Iranian new year, which
occurs with the spring
equinox, around March 21st. It is no wonder that astrology was first
inaugurated in ancient
Babylonia, a part of the Persian Empire. Yet YALDAA is chiefly related to
MEHR YAZAT; it is the
night of the birth of the unconquerable sun, Mehr or Mithra, meaning love
and sun, and has been
celebrated by the followers of Mithraism as early as 5000 B.C.

Is it a mere coincidence that Christmas and YALDAA are so close in time and
similar in nature? I
suggest that the origins of Christmas may be from ancient Persia.

According to the Bible, the man Jesus Christ was actually born on January 6,
and the celebration
of his birthday on December 25th, may in fact be born out of the Persian
Mithraic influence. In
the old Persian mythology, Mitra (Mithra, Mehr), the God of love,
friendship, and light, the
sun-god, was miraculously born from a rock by a river or stream on this
longest night of the
year.

In his fifth volume of the collected works, Symbols of Transformation, Carl
Jung, the famous
Swiss psychiatrist who broke away from Freud, has extensively discussed the
influence of
Mithraism on Christianity and has portrayed its images and symbols. He
quotes Franz Cumont's The
Mysteries of Mithra, p. 149, modified:

"Perhaps no other religion has ever offered to its votaries, in so high a
degree as Mithraism,
opportunities for prayer and motives for veneration. When the initiate
betook himself in the
evening to the sacred grotto concealed in the solitude of the forest, at
every step new
sensations awakened in his heart some mystical emotion. The stars that shone
in the sky, the
wind that whispered in the foliage, the spring or brook that hastened
murmuring to the valley,
even the earth which he trod under his feet, were in his eyes divine, and
all surrounding nature
evoked in him a worshipful fear of the infinite forces that swayed the
universe (para. 109)."

In praise of the Mithraic sun-god, Jung states:

"The sun. . . is the truly "rational"image of God, whether we adopt the
standpoint of the
primitive savage or of modern science. In either case Father-God from whom
all living things
draw life; he is the fructifier and the creator, the source of energy into
our world. The
discord into which the human soul has fallen can be harmoniously resolved
through the sun as a
natural object which knows no inner conflict . . . It shines equally on the
just and the unjust,
and allows useful creatures to flourish as well as the harmful. Therefore
the sun is perfectly
suited to represent the visible God of this world, i.e., the creative power
of our own soul,
which we call libido, and whose nature it is to bring forth the useful and
the harmful, the good
and the bad. That this comparison is not just a matter of words can be seen
from the teachings
of the mystics: when they descend into the depths of their own being, they
find "in their heart"
the image of the sun, they find their own life-force which they call the
"sun" for a legitimate
and, I would say, a physical reason, because our source of energy and life
actually is the sun.
Our physiological life, regarded as an energy process, is entirely solar
(para. 176)."

With the advent of regional battles between ancient Persians and Romans, a
majority of the Roman
soldiers who lamented their brutish ways, came to find reverence for the
Mithraic devotion to
nature and beauty. They exalted Mithra's illustrating of slaying the bull,
representing
sacrifice of the animal instinct in order to find the path to the divine.
Soon, Mithraism spread
its wings from Persia to the ancient-civilized world in Rome and many
European countries.
Consequently, in Europe as in Persia, the 21st of December was celebrated as
Mithra's birthday.

Early Christians took this very ancient Persian celebration to Mithra, the
sun- god, and linked
it to Christ's birthday. But in the 4th century A.D., because of some errors
in counting the
leap year, the birthday of Mithra shifted to 25th of December and was
established as such.

Hence, in 274 A.D., the Roman emperor Aurelia declared December 25th as he
birthday of the
unconquered sun ("natAlis solis invicti"), which at the winter solstice
begins to show an
increase of light; he declared this day as a day of festivities. Later, the
church of Rome
established the commemoration of the birthday of Christ, the "sun of
righteousness," on this
same date. Until that time the birthday of Jesus Christ was celebrated on
January 6th. But the
religion of most of the Romans and many people of the European continent was
still Mithraism.
Pope Leo in the fourth century, after almost destroying the temple of Mithra
in 376 A.D., in his
campaign against Mithraism -- and in the good old Christian tradition, "If
you can't claim it,
imitate it" -- proclaimed the 25th of December as Christ's birthday instead
of January 6th, a
date, by the way, which is still celebrated by the Eastern Orthodox Church
and Armenians.

It is also noteworthy that Epiphany, or the "Feast of the Three Holy Kings"
on January 6,
commemorates the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles, the Magi. The
Magi, who were known
astrologers, saw a newborn bright star in the sky and predicted the birth of
Christ. From the
religious city of Qum in Iran, they set out to Jerusalem to greet the infant
Christ as the newly
born king of the Jews, offering him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Originally, the Magi had been disciples of Zoroaster, who spread his new
religion in Persia long
after Mithra. Their name is the Latinized form of Magoi [Herodotus I, 101].
They were a priestly
caste during the Seleucid, Parthian and Sassanian periods in ancient Persia.
Later, parts of the
Avesta, the holy book of Zoroastrians, including the ritualistic sections of
the Vendidad,
probably derive from them. As a sacred and powerful caste, Zoroastrians
ruled the Persian Empire
in the 6th century B.C.; they continued to have a dominating religious
influence on the
subsequent kings of Persia and were still powerful at the time of the birth
of Christ.

The connection of the Magi with astrology and their Persian origin is all
that is known of the
Magi ("wise men" in most English Bibles, "astrologers" in the new English
Bible). In early
Christian art the Magi usually wear Persian clothes (e.g., the Catacombs of
Priscilla in Rome,
2nd century). In the Syriac tradition those names are Persian and they are
connected with
Persian religious history.

Zoroastrians, after refining and discarding some of the mythical and
"heretical" aspects of
Mithraism, retained YALDAA, a Soryani word meaning "the birth'" The ceremony
is traced to the
historical combat myth between the good forces of light against the evil
forces of darkness.
This longest night with evil as its zenith is considered ill-fated by this
ancient Persian
religion. From this day onward, the good forces of light triumph as the days
grow longer and
give more light.

This celebration comes on the eve of the Persian month of "DAY," the first
month of winter, also
the name of the pre-Zoroastrian creator god, more commonly known as 'Saturn"
in the west. In
Persia, DAY was praised and revered as the most powerful God of creation and
light, from which
we have the English word "day" (the period of light in 24 hours). In the
Roman world, the
Saturnalia, from December 17 through December 24, became a time of
merrymaking and exchange of
presents, in honor of the Roman God Saturn.

Ancient Zoroastrians believed that AHURA MAZDA (the good God) created light,
day and sunshine as
representations of order and "the ahurAic," or good. The day is a time of
work, harvest and
productivity. They also believed that AHRIMAN (an equally powerful, but evil
god) created "the
night', a time of darkness, cold, hidden secrets and wild predators.
Observing the cyclical
changes in the length of days and nights, engendered a belief that light and
darkness, or day
and night are in continuous battle. The triumphant light brought about
longer days, whereas the
victory of darkness produced longer nights. It was believed that the
greatest battle between the
forces of good and evil was fought on SHAB-E YALDAA, the night before winter
solstice. Since the
first night of winter is the longest and from that night onwards, the days
get longer while the
warmth and light of the sun increases, the night of the winter solstice was
recognized and
celebrated as the time of the sun's birth or rebirth by Aryan tribes in
Iran, India and Europe.

Fires and lights, symbols of AHURA MAZDA, warmth and lasting life have
always been associated
with the winter festival. To remain safe from AHRIMAN'S harms, in the
evening of SHAB-E YALDAA,
bonfires are lit outside, while inside family and friends gather in a
nightlong vigil around the
KORSEE, a low, square table covered with a thick quilt overhanging on all
sides. A brazier with
hot coals is placed under the table, in the center. All night, families and
friends sit on large
cushions on the ground around the KORSEE with the quilt over their laps.
They arrange a special
sacred space wherein the elders tell stories and fairytales or read poetry
to the younger
generations. The oldest member of the family says prayers, asks sun "yazat"
to bless them,
thanks God for the previous year's crops, and prays for the prosperity of
next year's harvest.
Then with a sharp knife, he or she cuts through a thick yogurt or
watermelon, giving everyone a
share. The cutting symbolizes the removal of sickness and pain from the
family.

Snacks are passed around throughout the night. It is virtually obligatory to
eat pomegranates
with angelica powder (GOLPAR) and AJEEL-E SHAB-E YALDAA, a tasty mixture of
nuts and dried
fruits as a symbol for solving problems, translated as "opening one's
problems" or "knots."
Eating nuts is said to keep illness at bay until the spring. The fruits are
meant to bring more
fruits and prosperity in the coming spring and onwards. More substantial
fare for the night's
feast include eggplant stew with plain saffron-flavored rice; or rice with
chicken or fish;
thick yogurt, as well as sweets made with carrots and saffron (HALVAA-E
HAVEEJ).

The foods themselves symbolize the balance of the seasons; watermelons and
yogurt are eaten as a
remedy for the heat of the summer, since these fruits are considered cold or
SARDEE; while
HALVAA, the saffron and carrot sweets, is meant to overcome the cold
temperatures of winter
since they are considered hot or GARMEE. Throughout the night of
festivities, the family keeps
the fires burning and the lights glowing to "help" the sun in its battle
against darkness.

Ancient Persians also decorated an evergreen tree called SARVE. The SARVE or
"Rocket Juniper" -
also known as the cypress tree, being straight, upright and resistant to the
cold weather, was
known as a symbol of enduring hardship, thus appropriate for celebrating
Mithra. The younger
ones had their "wishes" symbolically wrapped in colorful silk cloth and hung
them on the tree
along with lots of offerings for Mithra in the hopes that he would answer
their prayers.

Again in the same tradition, Luther, the famous German reformer, in mid 18th
century (1756),
having learned of the YALDAA SARVE, introduced the Christmas tree to the
Germans. As cypress
trees were not widespread in Germany, as indeed in most of Europe, the
chosen tree became a
variety of pine which was abundant in Europe.

In summary, it is not just Mithra's birth time which entered Christianity.
There are many
similarities between the Mithraic and Christian traditions. Nowadays all
Christians who
celebrate the birth of Jesus, light fireplaces and candles, decorate trees
with lights, stay up
all night, sing and dance, eat special foods, pay visits, and celebrate this
festive occasion
with family and friends.

Christmas and YALDAA are just another example of the many common beliefs,
customs, symbols,
stories and myths that bind people of different nations and religions across
the globe. Let us
honor these manifestations of the collective unconscious, so that we may be
the keepers of
light, love, friendship and peace among the peoples of the world. Enjoy your
Christmas holidays,
in its true spirit of love, gratitude, compassion, giving and forgiving,
knowing that it may
have its origins in an ancient tradition which, as Carl Jung says, links us
back to "the
creative power of our own soul." As our teacher Rumi suggests,

"Open up your hidden eyes and return to
the root of the root of your own Self."

--
Quaecomque sunt vera ----

roger_pearse@yahoo.co.uk

2005-12-24, 6:01 pm

abdi wrote:
> Persian roots of Christian traditions

Are primarily mythical, since the thesis of Cumont that Mitra is the
same as Roman Mithras is now exploded, and has been for 50 years. The
actual data on which the idea that Christmas derives from Mithras
celebrations is not online, and may not exist!

All the best,

Roger Pearse

abdi

2005-12-24, 6:01 pm

To be honest a Zoroastrian would know the answer, I am not sure, I can only
speculate that since Romans, Persians and Greeks had so many contacts, if it
not
the same they are similar (i.e. like Xmas). Unfortunately, Zoroastrians
(because of sever restriction in that religion) are becoming more and more
rare.

--
Quaecomque sunt vera ----
<roger_pearse@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1135459070.231014.259010@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> abdi wrote:
>
> Are primarily mythical, since the thesis of Cumont that Mitra is the
> same as Roman Mithras is now exploded, and has been for 50 years. The
> actual data on which the idea that Christmas derives from Mithras
> celebrations is not online, and may not exist!
>
> All the best,
>
> Roger Pearse
>