It's the Winter Solstice, so I'm getting into my ancient pagan roots and celebrating the rebirth of the great horned hunter god Cernunnos (above). Since I'm a civilized man, there won't be any human or animal sacrifices, but we will be drinking some fine home-brewed ale. As most if not all of us know, the traditions surrounding the celebration of the Solstice and the Yule festival would later become incorporated into those of Christmas, such as hanging evergreen boughs around our doors and windows. Later, this would lead to the tradition of putting evergreen trees in our homes and decorating them for the Christmas Season. Placing a Nativity scene beneath the tree is a classic example of the Christian-Pagan synthesis. Of course, there was a lot of partying going on during the ancient pagan festivals and this tradition has continued with the celebrations surrounding Christmas. In early America, the Puritans in Massachussetts frowned on this "pagan mockery" of Christmas - boo! - and penalized anyone who hung decorations in their homes and engaged in any frivolity (I believe the same thing happened in Britain when Cromwell and the Puritans were in their ascendancy). Evidently, the influx of other immigrants, primarily from Ireland and Germany, put an end to that Scroogery and now everyone can enjoy themselves. Anyhoo, back to the Solstice, the pagans in England will be dressing up in funny clothes and making the annual pilgrimage to Stonehenge where much silliness and merriment will be had, and in keeping with that I wish you a Happy Winter Solstice and a Cool Yule. The Christmas greetings will come later - have fun, and here's to Cernunnos! PS. I wonder if the popular image of the horned Satan is a bastardization of the horned pagan god which was then connected to EEEEVIL.
Thanks, and I'm glad to see you're upholding our fine pagan traditions. For me, Christmas wouldn't be right without them.
I hope all went well. My pagan friends through a few parties a year. Bonfires, lots of good food, adult fun times for those interested. I'm mostly the "den mother" for those events: checking in on folks, making sure everyone has a safe time, etc. Those pagans do through the best parties, though.
Sorry, missed this before, but you are almost certainly correct, particularly when it comes to Pan. There's a reason why demons in Christian art so closely resemble satyrs.
It does make sense. I can only imagine what the people at the time must've thought of the transformation of their quasi-natural gods into evil supernatural beings that were dedicated to their destruction.
I wish we knew more about Cernunnos as well, but I think it is very, very likely that the more nature-oriented gods of the Greeks, Celts, Romans, etc. were reworked as demons. We even see some examples of this in the Bible, with figures like Asherah likely pointing to an older tradition. I think a big part of this is just that pagans (and I use that term affectionately) didn't typically treat ethics and religion as all that interrelated. Humans were expected to find their morality in personal well-being and in the well-being of their social groups, not in the commands of gods.
