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Astronomically speaking, today, December 21, begins a new year.
fact, the sun reaches the lowest point of declination, in its apparent motion along the ecliptic, or the intersection of Earth's orbit with the celestial sphere, the hypothetical three-dimensional figure on which all the stars are projected.
From tomorrow the daylight hours begin to increase again, up to even the equinox in March and then have the maximum at the summer solstice, June 21, to decrease again, until the equinox September and return to a minimum to the next winter solstice.
So the eternal and cyclical perpetuation, renewing from time to time, in an endless confirmation.
Since antiquity, people have lined the transcendental value of this cosmic phenomenon.
In particular, the winter solstice has always been a point of renewal, of rebirth, the victory of life (the light, the sun, the spiritual and heroic) than death (the dark, darkness , earthquakes and demonic aspects), in the eternal conflict between Good and Evil.
The Sun has often been for the peoples of antiquity one of the most important deities.
Ra, the sun god of Heliopolis in ancient Egypt or Helios, the god of Greek mythology, are the best known examples. The Sun as a source of light, but also the source of life. Thanks to the sun the plants fruit is ripe, feeding men. Sunning themselves, heal wounds suffered in battle. Sun is even attributed to capacity to improve human fertility.
Do not think, however, that these arcane cults are the result of the alleged ignorance of these people. I challenge any manufacturer capable or brave engineer, to design and produce works like the pyramids, but using the means of work at the time, instead of efficient modern machines. That alone is a valid answer to those who consider "primitive" peoples.
Consequently, their rituals, their religions, are not mere superstition. And in the derivation of this, the veneration of celestial bodies can not be considered a mere amazement natural events, but a recognition of religious and spiritual forces.
These cults embraced the entire Mediterranean basin, getting to lick the Nordic peoples.
One example is the solar chariot of Trundholm.
It is a bronze artefact, belonging to the Norse mythology, dating back to XV-XVI centuries BC, discovered in 1902 in Denmark.
Even in Italy there is evidence of this cult. In Lombardy, in Vallecamonica to be exact (Brescia), the rock inscriptions Camuno, reported 92 times out of a total of 350,000 marks, a symbol called "Rosa camuna", which really is not a flower, but a sort of cosmic spiral, which is a solar symbol.
The solar symbol called "Rosa camuna" [Source: Wikipedia]
Across Europe, spoked wheels, solid circles, empty, or crusaders, spirals and swastikas testify to the common worship of the sun
Even the Romans, the rulers of the world then known, had a cult linked to the Sun, which fits perfectly in the context mentioned so far.
This is the festival of Dies Natalis Solis Invicti.
In 274 BC, Emperor Aurelian in Rome introduced the cult of Deus Sol Invictus. He built the Temple of the Sun (located in the Campus Agrippae, at of the Piazza San Silvestro) for the worship of this deity and elevates December 25, at the time expected date of the winter solstice, a day of celebration in his honor.
The emperor himself declared that his chief priest, pontifex, also in the sense of a bridge builder [1] , intermediaries between God and his worshipers, saying that he had been granted the power to directly the Sun God
Note two things here.
The first concerns the introduction of the grant by the divine power of the temporal formula to be kept for the next two millennia, the sovereign will rule the nations "by the grace of God."
The second aspect that concerns us most closely relates to the coincidence of this party with the greatest holiday of Christianity, Christmas.
The term "Christmas" means birth. The feast of Dies Natalis Solis Invicti celebrated the re-birth of the sun after the winter solstice, when in fact they take up the daylight hours increase, promoting the revival of life in the vegetation, the animals waking from hibernation, making it just "solar " the entire life cycle of creation.
At that time, Aurelian had just implemented the reunification of the Roman Empire, conquering an enemy of Rome: The Kingdom of Queen Zenobia of Palmyra. The Roman military success was possible thanks to the alliance with the Syrian city-state of Emesa. The Emperor, before the decisive battle, claimed to have had a very auspicious vision of the sun god, revered for its Emesa.
Again we note a similarity, in particular with the view that Constantine had the day before the battle of Ponte Milvio, in which he opposed Maxentius in 312 AD
the Tetrarch would have appeared a miraculous celestial event: a cross of light with the words "in hoc signo vinces."
According to the story of Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea, a close associate of Constantine, the following night, Christ himself would appear to the Roman commander, ordering them to adopt as its own flag, a sign that he had seen in the sky.
Constantine affixed on the banners of his legions, the Christian symbol of the chi-ro ", also known as the monogram of Christ and the symbols with his defeated rival.
The chi-ro ", the monogram of Christ [Source: Wikipedia]
Some historians, however, argue that the chi-ro", composed by the Greek letters X and P (the first two ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ of the word, that is Christos, literally "anointed") overlay, were nothing but a cross and a cross inscribed in a circle, which is the Eastern symbol of the god of the sun Mithra, whose cult was very common among the Roman soldiers, identified largely with the Deus Sol Invictus. Most likely, both saw the Roman emperors, in promoting those religious practices, an opportunity for cultural and political cohesion of the empire, given the widespread worship of the sun, albeit in different aspects, which exist in several provinces and between various peoples subject to the government of Rome, Egypt and Anatolia, among the Celtic people and the Arabs, the Greeks and Romans themselves.
Moreover Aurelian decreed that the first day of the week, was named after the Sun god, Dies Solis, or "day of the sun." In 383 AD, Emperor Theodosius, after Christianity made state religion, decreed that the day of the week he changed the name in Dies Dominicus, or "Lord's Day", today's Sunday in the Christian doctrine that is the day consecrated to God, yet in northern Europe, remains the original name of Aurelian, whence came the German and English Sontag Sunday.
But the similarities, coincidences, the contiguity between the pagan world and Christianity are also present in two expressions of the typical traditional and popular Christmas tree and nativity scene.
The tree, a predominantly evergreen coniferous or coniferous trees, was among ancient peoples, especially Nordic symbol of life, which resists the dark winter and the day of the solstice illuminates a new light, as in the tree houses lit up with candles and now multiple light colored.
sigillum stems from the crib, which was a clay or wax statue depicting a family of the deceased. These dead ancestors, or the Lares (Lares familiares), according to Roman tradition, but also in Latin and Etruscan general, keeping watch on the same, protecting them from adversity.
These statues were placed, usually in a corner of the house and on occasions particular, were honored by the lighting of small flames.
Around December 20, during a party that just Sigillaria, relatives exchanged gifts in the seals of the family died during the year. The family then met to invoke the protection of the ancestors in front of the niche where they were placed the statues of the Lares, leaving their bowls with food and wine. The next morning, instead of the bowls, children's games and family were sweet and they were told that the gifts they had brought the deceased grandparents and great grandparents.
This also means an ideal continuity between the traditions pagan pre-Christian and the subsequent evangelization of the peoples of Europe, or the populations which inhabited the then known world, demonstrating the universality of Christ, in contrast to recent and reductive directions, such as those that emerge from the book by Corrado and Augias Mauro Pesce "Investigation of Jesus," which mainly tend to depict Christ as a prophet only jew, whose teaching and miraculous operations manifested, were only addressed to the "chosen people" and not to all humanity.
[1] Rene Guenon in his book "The king of the world" (Adelphi - Milano - 1989) indicate precisely the religious connections of the word pontifex, "Character" pontifical "in the truest sense of that word, really belongs to, and excellence, the head of the hierarchy, initiation, and this requires an explanation: literally, the Pontifex is a "bridge builder" and this title has roman somehow, because of its origin, a title "Masonic" but symbolically, the Pontifex is the one who fulfills the function of mediator, as it establishes communication between this world and higher worlds. "
