If you love Christmas, thank a Pagan

If you love Christmas, thank a pagan By SUSAN GABLE Judging from recent columns and letters, it seems many readers believe Christians were the first to have the idea of a midwinter holiday. It's time to set the record straight.

Many, if not most, early pagan cultures celebrated the winter solstice. The ancient Romans celebrated Saturnalia, in honor of the god of agriculture, in December. It was a time of masquerades in the streets, festive banquets, visiting friends, decorating with garlands of green accented with candles, and exchanging good-luck gifts.

The upper-clbutt followers of the Persian god Mithra celebrated his birthday on Dec. 25, the ''Birth of the Unconquerable Sun.'' Ancient Mesopotamians celebrated Zagmuk, when they believed their chief god Marduk would do battle with the forces of chaos for 12 days near the winter solstice.

The Norse celebrated yule from the solstice into January, with the burning of the yule log and feasts. Germanic countries honored Oden in December. It was believed that he made nocturnal flights, checking up on his people and deciding who would prosper and who would perish during the coming year. Throughout Europe, people had ways of celebrating the return of longer days as the winter solstice pbutted.

Around 350 AD, Pope Julius I was the first to declare Dec. 25 as the day to celebrate the birth of Christ. Earlier observances of the birth of Jesus had been solemn remembrances on different dates.

Church leaders apparently hoped that the pagan holidays celebrated then would eventually be celebrated simply as Christmas. For the most part, they succeeded in transferring the customs from the old gods to the new one, though the custom of coming home from church to start a raucous, drunken celebration was probably not entirely what they had in mind.

After the Reformation, some Protestant groups banned the celebration of Christmas altogether on the grounds that it was primarily a pagan celebration. The Puritans noted that the Bible gives no date for the birth of Jesus as part of their argument against observing Christmas.

Celebrating Christmas was illegal in Boston from 1659 to 1681.

Congress was in session on Dec. 25, 1789, the first Christmas under the new Consbreastution, a remnant of the Puritan rejection of the holiday. Christmas wasn't declared a federal holiday until 1870, after waves of new immigrants had arrived bringing their Christmas customs with them.

In short, anyone who enjoys the traditions of the season - decorating, visiting with friends and family, feasting, exchanging gifts - should thank a pagan and wish him ''Happy Holidays.''

Susan Gable lives in Mashpee.