… and a partridge in a pear tree?

Most of us recognize the song that starts, ‘On the first day of Christmas…,” but how many know the real origin of those famous twelve days?

Are they Christian?  Are they Pagan?

And, when do the twelve days start, anyway?  Do we celebrate the beginning [...]]]>

… and a partridge in a pear tree?

Most of us recognize the song that starts, ‘On the first day of Christmas…,” but how many know the real origin of those famous twelve days?

Are they Christian?  Are they Pagan?

And, when do the twelve days start, anyway?  Do we celebrate the beginning of them, the conclusion, or every day?

BABYLON

The Mesopotamians may have started it in Babylon.

The festival was Zagmuk, their twelve-day festival of renewal that began their new year. According to lore, this celebration honored their chief god, Marduk, who brought order to a chaotic world.

At the darkest time of year, Marduk needed the help of humans to defeat Chaos once again.

In Babylonian traditions, Chaos was an actual god.  His natural state was inertia.  Anything that upset inertia was a threat to Chaos, and he tried to destroy it.

Pop Quiz: Where was Babylon?

Answer: About 50 miles south of modern Baghdad, just north of the Iraqi town of al-Hillah.

For more information, see A Brief History of Babylon. [Link]

EGYPT

Others claim another source for the 12 days.

They explain that the tradition began 4000 years ago in Egypt.  There, an annual twelve-day celebration signified the twelve divisions of their calendar year.

During these twelve days that started at the Winter Solstice, Egyptians celebrated the rebirth of Horus in his new form, the Sun.

At this festival’s conclusion, the new year began — just as ours does today — approximately 12 days after the Solstice.

PERSIA AND GREECE

Next, the Persians and the Greeks adopted the twelve-day festival, as Sacaea.

In Persia’s Sacaea traditions, servants swapped roles with their masters, so their masters served them.

(This holiday tradition is still in practice today in various parts of the world.)

In Greece, Sacaea celebrated Zeus’ defeat of Kronos (the original “Father Time”) and the Titans.

Sacaea also marked the annual ritual to protect the family–especially children–from the Kallikantzaroi (Christmas goblins).

The Kallikantzaroi are faeries or imps who live underground but visit our world between December 25th and January 6th, to wreak havoc here.

To protect the home from Kallikantzaroi, it is traditional to leave on the doorstep something with many holes in it.

Apparently, the Kallikantzaroi love to count, but–in our world–can’t safely count above two (three being a holy number). When they pronounce the number three, they are instantly returned to the Underworld.

ROME

The Persian and Egyptian versions of the twelve-day festival merged in Rome, where the celebration became Saturnalia.

During Saturnalia, people dress up in costume, visit friends, and exchange gifts.

In fact, it is from this Roman tradition that historians trace our “Christmas gift” traditions.

MITHRAS

In addition to the Winter Solstice festival, the Romans also adopted the Persian god, Mithras (or Mithra).  He was the sun god worshipped by Constantine, who made Christianity the official religion of Rome.

Mithras was the “Unconquered Sun”.  Like Jesus, he was called “the light of the world”, and we can trace Mithras’ popularity to the sixth century, BCE.

Mithras’ birthday was the 25th of December, but that’s not the only parallel with Jesus Christ:

• Mithras’ birth was attended by shepherds.
• At the end of his time on earth and before returning to his father, Mithras celebrated with a “last supper” involving bread and wine with his twelve followers (sometimes linked to the twelve signs of the zodiac).
• Mithras was put to death on a cross, and just as he was born in a cave, he was buried in a cave until he rose to join his father.
• Mithras’ followers await his return when he will raise the dead and begin a final judgement of all who have lived on earth.
• Mithras’ and Jesus’ birthday also coincide with the birthday of another, earlier Roman god who led the cult of Sol Invictus.

AND THE REST IS HISTORY

As Christianity spread–and with it the celebration of Christmas (and its “twelve days”)–more Pagan traditions were incorporated into the celebration.

And by Shakespeare’s time, the twelve days had spawned another celebration, Twelfth Night.

But, it probably started with the Babylonians and the Egyptians.

Whether you begin your “twelve days” on the Winter Solstice or with Christmas, may your 12 days (and many past then) be filled with blessings and delights of the season.

Today, we most often associate Babylon with its leaders Hammurabi and Nebuchadnezzar, as well as the the Epic of Gilgamesh.

HAMMURABI

Babylon was the most important [...]]]> Babylon, which means “the Gate of God(s)”, was the capital of Babylonia, in southern Mesopotamia. Some claim that it was also the site of the Bible’s “Tower of Babel.”

Today, we most often associate Babylon with its leaders Hammurabi and Nebuchadnezzar, as well as the the Epic of Gilgamesh.

HAMMURABI

Babylon was the most important Middle Eastern city during the reign of Hammurabi (ca. 1792-1750 BCE), remembered for the Code of Hammurabi.

Hammurabi’s code of laws, found on a black stone monument in Persia in 1901, are the earliest-known public declaration of laws by a ruler.

The code began and ended with prayers to the gods, and many were curses on anyone who disregarded the laws.

After Hammurabi’s death, Babylon survived many centuries of oppression and war, but was restored to glory by King Nebuchadnezzar II. This king is usually referred to as simply “Nebuchadnezzar”, pronounced “nebb-yoo-kuhhd-NEZZ-urr”.

NEBUCHADNEZZAR

Under Nebuchadnezzar — famous for the Hanging Gardens of Babylon — the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and took the Jews captive.

However, after casting three Jews into a “fiery furnace” (See the Bible, Dan. 3), Nebuchadnezzar was cursed for four years with depression and lycanthropy.

Nebuchadnezzar (ca. 630 BCE – ca. 560 BCE) was following in the footsteps of his father, the warrior-king Nabopolassar.

Nabopolassar freed Babylonia from the control of its northern neighbor, Assyria, and destroyed the Assyrian city of Nineveh, which is today known as Mossul.

(In ancient times, Assyria was composed of today’s northern provinces of Iraq, and parts of Turkey, Syria, and Iran.)

Nebuchadnezzar restored Babylon to glory, and created a legendary network of canals, aquaducts, and reservoirs. He was boastful of how he rebuilt Babylon, perhaps with good reason. It’s estimated that nine-tenths of the bricks found in Babylon’s ruins were stamped with Nebuchadnezzar’s name.

But, as in previous centuries, Babylon continued to war with its neighbors, especially Assyria and Persia.

MARDUK AND BABYLONIAN RELIGION

While Assyria is proud to say that it was the first country to accept Christianity in 33 CE, the Babylonians worshipped several gods, the chief of whom was Marduk, “lord of Justice”, also known as Bel-Marduk or Marduk Bal. He is also linked with Merodach, “lord god of heaven and earth” as well as “lord of Babylon”.

Marduk, according to Babylonian tradition, created heaven and earth. Babylon was his city.

Babylonians and others in that region may have believed that statues of deity really were that deity. Further, a city had its own gods. (Babylon was sometimes associated with Ishtar as well as Marduk.) Therefore, when a city prospered, other cities and countries might try to “capture” the god of that city (perhaps in statue form) to bring him or her to their own land.

This may be why Nebuchadnezzar, after destroying the Temple in Jerusalem, brought the “sacred vessels” of the temple back to Babylon, along with a large portion of the city’s population.

THE DEMISE OF BABYLON

Within 25 years of the death of Nebuchadnezzar, around 538 BCE, Babylon fell to Cyrus II of Persia.

(Persia is known today as Iran, which gets its name from the Indo-European Aryans who settled there. Their early prophet — thousands of years before Jesus Christ — was Zarathustra.)

Cyrus II — also called Cyrus the Great by some historians — allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem. When American President Harry Truman supported the nation of Israel in 1948, he declared, “I was Cyrus.”