Pagan Holidays

[Ignatius the Kiwi]

Sorry but I believe you're wrong. Just google Sol Invictus birthday, it is December 25th, plenty of articles you can read if you care.

Two questions. Do you have any primary sources? Do you know what a primary source is?

 

[Strong in Him]

Bottom line: What makes any day a "pagan" or "holy" day?

Personally, as a Christian, I try to wake each morning giving thanks for a new day, a day that the Lord has made; and for life, health, warmth, food, and for the new opportunities that each day brings. I try to give myself again to God, worship him, read his word and ask for his Spirit to honour and serve him. Then I go into a new day, with him.
I never pray/sacrifice to the sun god (there isn't one.) Nor the moon god, god of war or whatever god that particular day was named after.

So is a particular day "pagan" because a long time ago people named it after a god whom I do not recognise or worship? Or is it holy because it has been created by, and dedicated to, the Lord?

 

[Der Alte]

Two questions. Do you have any primary sources? Do you know what a primary source is?

When I was in grad school one of my profs said something about consulting "primary sources" then he said "I don't mean the first one you look at."

 

[Der Alte]

Sorry but I believe you're wrong. Just google Sol Invictus birthday, it is December 25th, plenty of articles you can read if you care.

Nonsense! You are wrong. Pagan deities don't have birthdays. If someone googles they have no way of knowing if the information is reliable. You may not have noticed my source was the University of Chicago. And at the bottom of the page was a plethora of sources including;
A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Series II (1890-1896) edited by by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace;
The Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis (1987, 1994) translated by Frank Williams;
On Roman Time: The Codex-Calendar of 354 and the Rhythms of Urban Life in Late Antiquity (1990) by Michele Renee Salzman;
etc., etc. etc.

 

[prodromos]

Sorry but I believe you're wrong. Just google Sol Invictus birthday, it is December 25th, plenty of articles you can read if you care.

Plenty of articles repeating the same false information doesn't make them any less wrong. None of those articles provide references unlike the one posted above by Der Alter.

 

[Not David]

The fact that pagans celebrate it around the world every year shows it’s a pagan holiday.

Atheist and secular Jews celebrate Passover.

 

[BlessedCreator]

Please do your own research concerning these holidays. There may be some false information or theories on this page I am not %100 sure at the moment, I need to do further research, but as far as I know, what is posted is the truth.

 

[Ignatius the Kiwi]

Please do your own research concerning these holidays. There may be some false information or theories on this page I am not %100 sure at the moment, I need to do further research, but as far as I know, what is posted is the truth.

No, you posted falsehoods regarding these holidays. Whether you admit it or not.

 

[prodromos]

Please do your own research concerning these holidays. There may be some false information or theories on this page I am not %100 sure at the moment, I need to do further research, but as far as I know, what is posted is the truth.

As long as all your research consists of is googling the cesspool of everybody's pet theory which is the internet, you are never going to get reliable information. Try reading some ancient history written by people who have gained the qualifications to present what they have learned through studying hundreds of source documents. You wouldn't accept medical advice from someone who hadn't completed medical school, why would you accept historical advice from people who aren't trained as historians? Websites that don't provide their sources, or provide sources which themselves don't provide sources cannot be considered reliable.

 

[Der Alte]

***

As long as all your research consists of is googling the cesspool of everybody's pet theory which is the internet, you are never going to get reliable information. Try reading some ancient history written by people who have gained the qualifications to present what they have learned through studying hundreds of source documents. You wouldn't accept medical advice from someone who hadn't completed medical school, why would you accept historical advice from people who aren't trained as historians? Websites that don't provide their sources, or provide sources which themselves don't provide sources cannot be considered reliable

***

Looks like you have been reading some of my posts I have been saying the same things right here since Billary was POTUS.

"You wouldn't accept medical advice from someone who hadn't completed medical school, why would you accept historical advice from people who aren't trained as historians?"​

To which I might add you would not accept legal advice from some anonymous person online who hadn't completed law school, passed the bar and a member of ALA. You should not accept financial/tax advice from some anonymous person online who does not have a degree in accounting and has a CMA or CPA.

 

[JSRG]

Various posters have already demonstrated various errors in the original post (this one is especially good), but there are a few points I don't think others have mentioned, or I feel need to really emphasized, so I wish to mention them.

Before anything else, there is an overall point I wish to mention. An argument you'll sometimes see, and it occurs multiple times in the original post, is to say "look at this thing pagans did on this holiday! That's similar to what Christians do now!" For this argument to work, one must demonstrate two things:
1) That pagans did actually engage in the practice claimed (sometimes there isn't proof of such)
2) That Christians actually started doing it around the time of the pagans, when there would be reason to.

For example, take Christmas trees. Some try to claim that this was copied from some pagan usage of trees. The problem is that Christmas trees first enter the historical record in the 14th century. By that time, the pagan holidays had been gone for so long that any similarity to them would be coincidental.

December 25th is not the day of the Lord's birth but is actually the birthdays of
the Roman gods Sol Invictus & Mithras. Which we know are no gods but sun/nature
and demon/fallen angel worship. A quick Google search will confirm this for you.

The claim of December 25 being Mithra's birthday, from what I can tell, comes from simply conflating him with Sol Invictus.

Now, it is true that there is proof that December 25 was regarded as Sol Invictus's birthday. The problem is when that source comes from. The first source to attest to this is the Chronography of 354, which mentions that. But that same source also mentions (in a separate section) that the birth of Jesus was celebrated on December 25. So if there was any "borrowing" of festivals, it could have easily gone the other way, with the pagans deciding to assign Sol Invictus's birthday to December 25 because Christians had already done that with Jesus.

But remember, these people had grown up in pagan customs, chief of which was this idolatrous
festival of December 25th. It was a festival of merrymaking, with its special spirit.

"Chief of which"? If it's so "chief", then why doesn't it show up in any record prior to 354?

Also Santa being an obvious anagram of Satan. Santa giving worldly gifts to who he deems "nice".
Satan also giving worldly gifts & pleasures to those who worship him.

Santa Claus is simply an anglicization of "Sinterklaas," a Dutch word that referred to Saint Nicholas. The term "Santa Claus" first shows up, as far as I can find it, in the 18th century. Kind of late for some kind of pagan origin.

VALENTINE'S DAY

Even if all of these ruminations on Lupercalia are correct (and from what I can tell, some are not), trying to connect the romantic ideas associated with Valentine's Day with a much earlier pagan holiday are rendered moot by the fact that there weren't romantic connotations with the holiday until around the 14th century, long after Lupercalia had been abrogated.

This is what I noted at the start. You can't try to point to similarities between two holidays to demonstrate borrowing if the holidays are separated by this amount of time.

EASTER

Others have covered this one, but it needs to be hammered home. The idea that Easter is somehow derived from Ishtar is principally based on two things: The phonetic similarity between it and Ishtar, and a bunch of alleged similarities between it and Ishtar festivals. The latter similarities, some of which you mention, are simply made up and you won't find them in any primary sources, but the phonological similarity is especially bad, as the phonetic similarity really exists only in English (and even there, contrary to what you'll claim, they are not pronounced the same).

When the early Christians were celebrating Easter, they referred to it in Greek as Pascha (which also could mean Passover). Pascha, needless to say, sounds nothing like Ishtar. If you were to try to propose this "Easter comes from Ishtar!" to someone in basically any other language, they'd be confused as all heck; most languages take their name for Easter from Pascha. For example, it's Pascua in Spanish and Paques in French. Even languages that don't take their word for Easter from Pascha sound nothing like Ishtar; in Japanese the word for Easter is fukkatsusai (which means "Resurrection Festival"), and in German it's Ostern.

For more information on the rest, see these links (the first is the most important, the second two are just expansions)
AS BEREANS DID: Easter FAQ
AS BEREANS DID: History of Easter - part I
AS BEREANS DID: Easter History - part II

This was how the people of Europe came to celebrate Old Midsummer's Eve on
July 4th (eleven days after June 23). Many people found it hard to accept that eleven
days had just disappeared, so they continued to refer to holidays by the old Julian calendar by
the word "old" before the holiday. The "new" date of July 4th was actually the "old" June 23rd.
As a result, instead of celebrating Midsummer's Eve on June 23th,
many celebrated Old Midsummer's Eve on July 4th."

What?! "The people of Europe"? What people of Europe? The Fourth of July (Independence Day) isn't a European holiday, but an American one! Americans living in Europe will obviously celebrate the Fourth of July, but regular Europeans don't. Where in the world does this claim of "the people of Europe" celebrating anything on July 4th come from?!

That aside, while I can see various problems with the convoluted explanation that is advanced to try to get this "Old Midsummer's Eve" to July 4, even if you could somehow manage that, it still proves no pagan origin for the Fourth of July. The reason Independence Day is on the Fourth of July is because that's when the Declaration of Independence was... well, declared. It is hard historical fact that it happened on that date, and that is why the date got chosen as an American celebration. So even if it is on the same day as some pagan festival, which is still a dubious assertion, it would be simple coincidence.

I'm surprised more people didn't point out the problems with the Fourth of July thing... maybe they considered is so blatantly ridiculous there was no need.

Credit to "Last Trumpet Ministries International" for some quotes/information in this post.

Well, now I know not to take them seriously.

 

[jamiec]

EDIT: Please do your own research concerning these holidays. There may be some false information or theories on this page I am not %100 sure at the moment, I need to do further research, but as far as I know, what is posted is the truth.

Again, sorry if this is not the best forum for this post but I couldn't find one that would better suit it, please move if needed. Thank you!


CHRISTMAS
Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the church. It was not instituted
by Christ or the apostles, or by Bible authority. Christmas was not observed by
Christians the first two or three hundred years. It was picked up afterwards from
paganism in the fifth century when the Roman Church ordered it to be celebrated as
an official "Christian" festival". Scripture does not tell us when Jesus was born but
gives clues that He was not even born in winter.

December 25th is not the day of the Lord's birth but is actually the birthdays of
the Roman gods Sol Invictus & Mithras. Which we know are no gods but sun/nature
and demon/fallen angel worship. A quick Google search will confirm this for you.

The pagan festival with its riot and merrymaking was so popular, that Christians were
glad of an excuse to continue its celebration with little change in spirit and in manner.

Christian preachers of the West and Near East protested against the unseemly frivolity
with which Christ's birthday was celebrated, while Christians of Mesopotamia accused their
Western brethren of idolatry and sun-worship for adopting as Christian this pagan festival.

Remember, the Roman world had been pagan. Prior to the fourth century, Christians were
few in number, tho increasing, and were persecuted by the government and by pagans.

But, with the advent of Constantine as emperor, who his profession of Christianity, in the
fourth century, placing Christianity on an equal footing with paganism, people of the Roman
world began to accept this now popular Christianity by the hundreds of thousands.

But remember, these people had grown up in pagan customs, chief of which was this idolatrous
festival of December 25th. It was a festival of merrymaking, with its special spirit.

They didn't want to give it up. The recognition by Constantine, of Sunday, which had been the day
of pagan sun-worship, and how the influence of pagan Manichaeism which identified the Son of God
with the physical sun, gave these pagans of the fourth century, now turning over wholesale to
"Christianity," their excuse for calling their pagan-festival date of December 25th (birthday of
the sun god, the birthday of the Son of God.

And that is how Christmas got into Christianity. We may call it by another name, but it's
the same old pagan sun-worshipping festival. The only change being what we call it.

Also Santa being an obvious anagram of Satan. Santa giving worldly gifts to who he deems "nice".
Satan also giving worldly gifts & pleasures to those who worship him.



VALENTINE'S DAY
In the days of the Roman Empire, the month of February was the last and shortest month
of the year. February originally had 30 days, but when Julius Caesar named the month of
July after himself, he decided to make that month longer and shortened February to 29
days while making July a month of 31 days.

Later when Octavius Caesar, also known as Augustus, came to power, he named the month of August
after himself, and not to be outdone he also subtracted a day from February and gave the month of
August 31 days.

To this very day it remains that way. The ancient Romans believed that every month had a
spirit that gained strength and reached its peak or apex of power in the middle or ides of the
month. This was usually the 15th day, and it was a day when witches and augurs, or soothsayers
worked their magic.

An augur was a person filled with a spirit of divination (undoubtedly), and from the word
augur we get the word "inaugurate", which means to "take omens". Since February had been robbed
by Caesars and had only 28 days, the ides of February became the 14th day of that month.

Since the ides of a month were celebrated on the preceding eve, the month of February was
unique, because it was the 13th day that became the eve of the ides that month, and it
became a very important pagan holiday in the Empire of Rome. The sacred day of February 14th
was called "Lupercalia" or "Day of the Wolf".

This was a day that was sacred to sexual frenzy of the goddess Juno (there are no gods,
only fallen angels/demons). This day also honored the Roman gods, Lupercus and
Faunus, as well as the legendary twin brothers, who supposedly founded Rome, Remus and Romulus.
These two are said to have been suckled by wolves in a cave on Palatine Hill of Rome.

The cave was called Lupercal and was the center of the celebrating on the eve of Lupercalia or
February 14th. On this day, Lupercalia, which was later named Valentine's Day, the Luperci
or priests of Lupercus dressed in goatskins for a bloody ceremony.

The priests of Lupercus, the wolf god, would sacrifice goats and a dog and then smear themselves
with blood. These priests, made red with sacrificial blood, would run around Palatine Hill
in a wild frenzy while carving a goatskin thong called a "februa".

Women would sit all around the hill, as the bloody priests would strike them with the goatskin
thongs to make them fertile. The young women would then gather in the city and their names
were put in boxes.

These "love notes" were called "billets". The men of Rome would draw a billet, and the woman
whose name was on it became his sexual lust partner with whom he would fornicate until
the next Lupercalia or February 14th.

Thus, February 14th became a day of unbridled sexual lust. The color "red" was sacred to that day
because of the blood and the "heart shape" that is popular to this day. The heart-shape was not a
representation of the human heart, which looks nothing like it. This shape represents the human
female matrix (the womb) or "opening to the chamber of sacred copulation".

When the Gnostic Catholic Church began to get a foothold in Rome around the 3rd century A.D., they
became known as Valentinians. The Catholic Valentinians retained the sexual license of the festival
in what they called "angels in a nuptial chamber", which was also called the "sacrament of copulation".

This was said to be a reenactment of the marriage of "Sophia and the Redeemer".
As the participants of the February 14th ritual began their sexual sacrament, presided over and
watched by the priests known as Valentinians, the following literary was spoken.
"Let the seed of light descend into thy bridal chamber, receive the bridegroom... open thine
arms to embrace him. Behold, grace has descended upon thee".

As time went on, the Orthodox Church suppressed the Gnostic Catholics and manufactured
"St. Valentine", whose day continues to be celebrated in these modern times.

Christians should avoid Valentine's Day like a plague. In God's eyes, it is still
"Lupercalia", the "Day of the Wolf".
Men become wolves, as they carry on the Satanic rituals of fornication, which means
sexual intercourse without marriage. We have heard of the "wolf whistle", and we all know
that wolves do not whistle. It is lustful men and women, who carry on Satan's blasphemy to
this very day.



HALLOWEEN
The earliest Halloween celebrations were held "not by the inspired early Church, but
by the Druids in honor of Samhain, Lord of the Dead, whose festival fell on November 1".

This festival is an old pagan holiday, masquerading as though it was one of the customs of
the Church. And yet professing Christians allow their children to get into the spirit
of this pagan custom.

Now notice what the Encyclopedia Britannica says about Halloween: "It long antedates
Christianity. The two chief characteristics of ancient Halloween were the lighting
of bonfires and the belief that this is the one night in the year during which ghosts
and witches are most likely to wander about.

History shows that the main celebrations of Halloween were purely Druidical "from the
Druids of Northwest Europe and this is further proved by the fact that in parts of Ireland
October 31 is still known as Oidhch Shamhna, 'Vigil of Saman'. "Saman or Samhain was
the pagan Lord of the Dead among the Druids".

So Halloween was celebrated among the pagans long before Jesus was born in Bethlehem.
This pagan holiday, however, was not celebrated alone among the Druids.

It was also a Roman festival. The Britannica continues: "On the Druidic ceremonies were
grafted some of the characteristics of the Roman festival in honor of Pomona held
about November 1, in which nuts and apples, representing the winter store of fruits, played
an important part".

Notice the widespread pagan custom to celebrate this season of the year.

Among the heathen Druids, Samhain or Saman, the Lord of the Dead, was Satan.

To this day people still celebrate with frolicking fun, a wild night in honor of the devil.
In Galatians Paul says that the heathen who thought they were worshipping the true God were
actually serving demons. Undoubtedly!


EASTER
The name "Easter" is merely the slightly changed English spelling of the name of the
ancient Assyrian goddess Ishtar, pronounced by the Assyrians exactly as we pronounce "Easter".
The Babylonian name of this goddess was Astarte, consort of Baal, the sun-god, whose worship
is denounced by the Almighty in the Holy Bible as the most abominable of all pagan idolatry.

Easter "bears its Chaldean origin on its very forehead. Easter is nothing else than Astarte,
one of the titles of Beltis, the 'queen of heaven', whose name, as pronounced by the people
of Nineveh, was evidently identical with that now in common use in this country".

The ancient gods of the pagans had many different names. While this goddess was called
Astarte in Babylon, it appears on Assyrian monuments found by Layard in excavations at
Nineveh as Ishtar (Layard's Nineveh and Babylon, page 629). Both were pronounced "Easter".

Likewise, Beltis, or Bel (referred to in the Old Testament) also was called Moloch. It was
for sacrificing to Moloch (1 Kings 11:1-11, especially verse 7, where Moloch is called
an abomination) and other pagan gods that the Lord condemned Solomon, and rent away
the kingdom of Israel from his son.

In the ancient Chaldean idolatrous sun-worship, Baal was the sun god, Astarte his consort,
or wife. And Astarte is the same as Ishtar, or the English Easter.

Also Jesus observed no Lent. The Apostles and the early true Church of God observed no
Lenten season. The forty days abstinence of Lent was directly borrowed from
the worshippers of the Babylonian goddess.


4TH OF JULY
In short, July 4th is actually the pagan celebration of "Old Midsummer's Eve" which is
based on solar (sun) worship, which we know is really just Satan worship. sun=Satan
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"In the British Isles, Midsummer Eve, the evening before the Christian Feast of
St John the Baptist, was celebrated on 24th of June. Old Midsummer's Eve fell on a later
date (one which Americans will certainly recognize), after the calendar change of 1752. In
the old Julian calendar, June 24th was celebrated as the Summer Solstice and the counterpart
to the December 25th Winter Solstice.

This calendar change has to do with Pope Gregory XIII (1572-1585), who changed the scope of the
Julian calendar. During the sixteenth century, the calendar was ten days slow, as the Romans'
during the reign of Julius Caesar was ten days behind the sun. Under Pope Gregory's orders,
a more accurate calendar was constructed and the Julian calendar was replaced with the Gregorian
calendar. The correction of the drifting of the calendar away from the astronomically fixed
moments of the solstices and equinoxes was the very reason for the Gregorian reform (so that the
date of Easter could be reliably calculated by the Church). Ten days were "skipped" in October of
1582 to realign the calendar correctly with the sun.

However, many non-Catholic countries did not go along with this calendric change for years, so England
did not adopt the modern Gregorian calendar until 1752 (one hundred and seventy years later). With
the old Julian calendar eleven days behind the new Gregorian calendar, it was necessary to drop the
eleven days. In the 1752 reform in Britain, the old Julian calendar was eleven days off, which
required the change made wherein the 11:59 PM September 2, 1752 was followed by 12:00 AM September 14, 1752.

This was how the people of Europe came to celebrate Old Midsummer's Eve on
July 4th (eleven days after June 23). Many people found it hard to accept that eleven
days had just disappeared, so they continued to refer to holidays by the old Julian calendar by
the word "old" before the holiday. The "new" date of July 4th was actually the "old" June 23rd.
As a result, instead of celebrating Midsummer's Eve on June 23th,
many celebrated Old Midsummer's Eve on July 4th."



The world is at enmity to God.
We are to be in the world, not of the world.

1 John 17:16
"They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world."

1 John 2:15
"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.
If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him."

Let us not be partakers of the sinful pleasures and idolatrous celebrations of the heathen world but let us
take hold of eternal life through obedience unto God and His commandments.

Credit to "Last Trumpet Ministries International" for some quotes/information in this post.

The entry on Easter is a myth from 1850s Scotland. It has no basis in fact. As for this, on St Valentine's day:

 

[prodromos]

The entry on Easter is a myth from 1850s Scotland. It has no basis in fact. As for this, on St Valentine's day:

This thread has been dead for over two years. The OP hasn't visited the forum for the last two years.

Why the thread resurrection?

 

[Jipsah]

This thread has been dead for over two years. The OP hasn't visited the forum for the last two years.

Why the thread resurrection?

Not enough rubbish to go around.

 

[Bible Highlighter]

EDIT: Please do your own research concerning these holidays. There may be some false information or theories on this page I am not %100 sure at the moment, I need to do further research, but as far as I know, what is posted is the truth.

Again, sorry if this is not the best forum for this post but I couldn't find one that would better suit it, please move if needed. Thank you!


CHRISTMAS
Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the church. It was not instituted
by Christ or the apostles, or by Bible authority. Christmas was not observed by
Christians the first two or three hundred years. It was picked up afterwards from
paganism in the fifth century when the Roman Church ordered it to be celebrated as
an official "Christian" festival". Scripture does not tell us when Jesus was born but
gives clues that He was not even born in winter.

December 25th is not the day of the Lord's birth but is actually the birthdays of
the Roman gods Sol Invictus & Mithras. Which we know are no gods but sun/nature
and demon/fallen angel worship. A quick Google search will confirm this for you.

The pagan festival with its riot and merrymaking was so popular, that Christians were
glad of an excuse to continue its celebration with little change in spirit and in manner.

Christian preachers of the West and Near East protested against the unseemly frivolity
with which Christ's birthday was celebrated, while Christians of Mesopotamia accused their
Western brethren of idolatry and sun-worship for adopting as Christian this pagan festival.

Remember, the Roman world had been pagan. Prior to the fourth century, Christians were
few in number, tho increasing, and were persecuted by the government and by pagans.

But, with the advent of Constantine as emperor, who his profession of Christianity, in the
fourth century, placing Christianity on an equal footing with paganism, people of the Roman
world began to accept this now popular Christianity by the hundreds of thousands.

But remember, these people had grown up in pagan customs, chief of which was this idolatrous
festival of December 25th. It was a festival of merrymaking, with its special spirit.

They didn't want to give it up. The recognition by Constantine, of Sunday, which had been the day
of pagan sun-worship, and how the influence of pagan Manichaeism which identified the Son of God
with the physical sun, gave these pagans of the fourth century, now turning over wholesale to
"Christianity," their excuse for calling their pagan-festival date of December 25th (birthday of
the sun god, the birthday of the Son of God.

And that is how Christmas got into Christianity. We may call it by another name, but it's
the same old pagan sun-worshipping festival. The only change being what we call it.

Also Santa being an obvious anagram of Satan. Santa giving worldly gifts to who he deems "nice".
Satan also giving worldly gifts & pleasures to those who worship him.



VALENTINE'S DAY
In the days of the Roman Empire, the month of February was the last and shortest month
of the year. February originally had 30 days, but when Julius Caesar named the month of
July after himself, he decided to make that month longer and shortened February to 29
days while making July a month of 31 days.

Later when Octavius Caesar, also known as Augustus, came to power, he named the month of August
after himself, and not to be outdone he also subtracted a day from February and gave the month of
August 31 days.

To this very day it remains that way. The ancient Romans believed that every month had a
spirit that gained strength and reached its peak or apex of power in the middle or ides of the
month. This was usually the 15th day, and it was a day when witches and augurs, or soothsayers
worked their magic.

An augur was a person filled with a spirit of divination (undoubtedly), and from the word
augur we get the word "inaugurate", which means to "take omens". Since February had been robbed
by Caesars and had only 28 days, the ides of February became the 14th day of that month.

Since the ides of a month were celebrated on the preceding eve, the month of February was
unique, because it was the 13th day that became the eve of the ides that month, and it
became a very important pagan holiday in the Empire of Rome. The sacred day of February 14th
was called "Lupercalia" or "Day of the Wolf".

This was a day that was sacred to sexual frenzy of the goddess Juno (there are no gods,
only fallen angels/demons). This day also honored the Roman gods, Lupercus and
Faunus, as well as the legendary twin brothers, who supposedly founded Rome, Remus and Romulus.
These two are said to have been suckled by wolves in a cave on Palatine Hill of Rome.

The cave was called Lupercal and was the center of the celebrating on the eve of Lupercalia or
February 14th. On this day, Lupercalia, which was later named Valentine's Day, the Luperci
or priests of Lupercus dressed in goatskins for a bloody ceremony.

The priests of Lupercus, the wolf god, would sacrifice goats and a dog and then smear themselves
with blood. These priests, made red with sacrificial blood, would run around Palatine Hill
in a wild frenzy while carving a goatskin thong called a "februa".

Women would sit all around the hill, as the bloody priests would strike them with the goatskin
thongs to make them fertile. The young women would then gather in the city and their names
were put in boxes.

These "love notes" were called "billets". The men of Rome would draw a billet, and the woman
whose name was on it became his sexual lust partner with whom he would fornicate until
the next Lupercalia or February 14th.

Thus, February 14th became a day of unbridled sexual lust. The color "red" was sacred to that day
because of the blood and the "heart shape" that is popular to this day. The heart-shape was not a
representation of the human heart, which looks nothing like it. This shape represents the human
female matrix (the womb) or "opening to the chamber of sacred copulation".

When the Gnostic Catholic Church began to get a foothold in Rome around the 3rd century A.D., they
became known as Valentinians. The Catholic Valentinians retained the sexual license of the festival
in what they called "angels in a nuptial chamber", which was also called the "sacrament of copulation".

This was said to be a reenactment of the marriage of "Sophia and the Redeemer".
As the participants of the February 14th ritual began their sexual sacrament, presided over and
watched by the priests known as Valentinians, the following literary was spoken.
"Let the seed of light descend into thy bridal chamber, receive the bridegroom... open thine
arms to embrace him. Behold, grace has descended upon thee".

As time went on, the Orthodox Church suppressed the Gnostic Catholics and manufactured
"St. Valentine", whose day continues to be celebrated in these modern times.

Christians should avoid Valentine's Day like a plague. In God's eyes, it is still
"Lupercalia", the "Day of the Wolf".
Men become wolves, as they carry on the Satanic rituals of fornication, which means
sexual intercourse without marriage. We have heard of the "wolf whistle", and we all know
that wolves do not whistle. It is lustful men and women, who carry on Satan's blasphemy to
this very day.



HALLOWEEN
The earliest Halloween celebrations were held "not by the inspired early Church, but
by the Druids in honor of Samhain, Lord of the Dead, whose festival fell on November 1".

This festival is an old pagan holiday, masquerading as though it was one of the customs of
the Church. And yet professing Christians allow their children to get into the spirit
of this pagan custom.

Now notice what the Encyclopedia Britannica says about Halloween: "It long antedates
Christianity. The two chief characteristics of ancient Halloween were the lighting
of bonfires and the belief that this is the one night in the year during which ghosts
and witches are most likely to wander about.

History shows that the main celebrations of Halloween were purely Druidical "from the
Druids of Northwest Europe and this is further proved by the fact that in parts of Ireland
October 31 is still known as Oidhch Shamhna, 'Vigil of Saman'. "Saman or Samhain was
the pagan Lord of the Dead among the Druids".

So Halloween was celebrated among the pagans long before Jesus was born in Bethlehem.
This pagan holiday, however, was not celebrated alone among the Druids.

It was also a Roman festival. The Britannica continues: "On the Druidic ceremonies were
grafted some of the characteristics of the Roman festival in honor of Pomona held
about November 1, in which nuts and apples, representing the winter store of fruits, played
an important part".

Notice the widespread pagan custom to celebrate this season of the year.

Among the heathen Druids, Samhain or Saman, the Lord of the Dead, was Satan.

To this day people still celebrate with frolicking fun, a wild night in honor of the devil.
In Galatians Paul says that the heathen who thought they were worshipping the true God were
actually serving demons. Undoubtedly!


EASTER
The name "Easter" is merely the slightly changed English spelling of the name of the
ancient Assyrian goddess Ishtar, pronounced by the Assyrians exactly as we pronounce "Easter".
The Babylonian name of this goddess was Astarte, consort of Baal, the sun-god, whose worship
is denounced by the Almighty in the Holy Bible as the most abominable of all pagan idolatry.

Easter "bears its Chaldean origin on its very forehead. Easter is nothing else than Astarte,
one of the titles of Beltis, the 'queen of heaven', whose name, as pronounced by the people
of Nineveh, was evidently identical with that now in common use in this country".

The ancient gods of the pagans had many different names. While this goddess was called
Astarte in Babylon, it appears on Assyrian monuments found by Layard in excavations at
Nineveh as Ishtar (Layard's Nineveh and Babylon, page 629). Both were pronounced "Easter".

Likewise, Beltis, or Bel (referred to in the Old Testament) also was called Moloch. It was
for sacrificing to Moloch (1 Kings 11:1-11, especially verse 7, where Moloch is called
an abomination) and other pagan gods that the Lord condemned Solomon, and rent away
the kingdom of Israel from his son.

In the ancient Chaldean idolatrous sun-worship, Baal was the sun god, Astarte his consort,
or wife. And Astarte is the same as Ishtar, or the English Easter.

Also Jesus observed no Lent. The Apostles and the early true Church of God observed no
Lenten season. The forty days abstinence of Lent was directly borrowed from
the worshippers of the Babylonian goddess.


4TH OF JULY
In short, July 4th is actually the pagan celebration of "Old Midsummer's Eve" which is
based on solar (sun) worship, which we know is really just Satan worship. sun=Satan
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"In the British Isles, Midsummer Eve, the evening before the Christian Feast of
St John the Baptist, was celebrated on 24th of June. Old Midsummer's Eve fell on a later
date (one which Americans will certainly recognize), after the calendar change of 1752. In
the old Julian calendar, June 24th was celebrated as the Summer Solstice and the counterpart
to the December 25th Winter Solstice.

This calendar change has to do with Pope Gregory XIII (1572-1585), who changed the scope of the
Julian calendar. During the sixteenth century, the calendar was ten days slow, as the Romans'
during the reign of Julius Caesar was ten days behind the sun. Under Pope Gregory's orders,
a more accurate calendar was constructed and the Julian calendar was replaced with the Gregorian
calendar. The correction of the drifting of the calendar away from the astronomically fixed
moments of the solstices and equinoxes was the very reason for the Gregorian reform (so that the
date of Easter could be reliably calculated by the Church). Ten days were "skipped" in October of
1582 to realign the calendar correctly with the sun.

However, many non-Catholic countries did not go along with this calendric change for years, so England
did not adopt the modern Gregorian calendar until 1752 (one hundred and seventy years later). With
the old Julian calendar eleven days behind the new Gregorian calendar, it was necessary to drop the
eleven days. In the 1752 reform in Britain, the old Julian calendar was eleven days off, which
required the change made wherein the 11:59 PM September 2, 1752 was followed by 12:00 AM September 14, 1752.

This was how the people of Europe came to celebrate Old Midsummer's Eve on
July 4th (eleven days after June 23). Many people found it hard to accept that eleven
days had just disappeared, so they continued to refer to holidays by the old Julian calendar by
the word "old" before the holiday. The "new" date of July 4th was actually the "old" June 23rd.
As a result, instead of celebrating Midsummer's Eve on June 23th,
many celebrated Old Midsummer's Eve on July 4th."



The world is at enmity to God.
We are to be in the world, not of the world.

1 John 17:16
"They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world."

1 John 2:15
"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.
If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him."

Let us not be partakers of the sinful pleasures and idolatrous celebrations of the heathen world but let us
take hold of eternal life through obedience unto God and His commandments.

Credit to "Last Trumpet Ministries International" for some quotes/information in this post.

I think looking at history is not always the best way to determine the truth. I see history as only supplementary to the Bible. We should look at how holidays exists today and compare it to the Bible. Most people who celebrate Christmas also celebrated evil just two months prior with Halloween. Sure, they might have done in it fun, and not with any thought of evil, but the Bible tells us to avoid having any appearance of evil (Which is exactly what the holiday promotes). Even churches promote Trunk or Treat are worldly and their minds are not focused solely on things above. Many watch horror movies on this day, and seek to be scared or in fear. This is not of God clearly. One does not fill their mind with murder, and evil things and expect it not to affect them. Throwing down the fantasy card is just an excuse. The Bible says you can commit sins in your mind. Watching sinful things or partaking of sinful things will affect you whether you like it or not.

Anyways, as for Christmas: Check out my thread here On why I believe it unbiblical.

Why I Think Christmas is Not Biblical (Please read OP before posting).

Important Note: (Please read this before posting and or reading the rest of my OP): I want to first say that I love you in the Lord Jesus Christ. I also want to say that I love all people. I am commanded by God to even love my enemies. My message today here is not that I want to be of hate...

www.christianforums.com

 

[Bible Highlighter]

EDIT: Please do your own research concerning these holidays. There may be some false information or theories on this page I am not %100 sure at the moment, I need to do further research, but as far as I know, what is posted is the truth.

Again, sorry if this is not the best forum for this post but I couldn't find one that would better suit it, please move if needed. Thank you!


CHRISTMAS
Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the church. It was not instituted
by Christ or the apostles, or by Bible authority. Christmas was not observed by
Christians the first two or three hundred years. It was picked up afterwards from
paganism in the fifth century when the Roman Church ordered it to be celebrated as
an official "Christian" festival". Scripture does not tell us when Jesus was born but
gives clues that He was not even born in winter.

December 25th is not the day of the Lord's birth but is actually the birthdays of
the Roman gods Sol Invictus & Mithras. Which we know are no gods but sun/nature
and demon/fallen angel worship. A quick Google search will confirm this for you.

The pagan festival with its riot and merrymaking was so popular, that Christians were
glad of an excuse to continue its celebration with little change in spirit and in manner.

Christian preachers of the West and Near East protested against the unseemly frivolity
with which Christ's birthday was celebrated, while Christians of Mesopotamia accused their
Western brethren of idolatry and sun-worship for adopting as Christian this pagan festival.

Remember, the Roman world had been pagan. Prior to the fourth century, Christians were
few in number, tho increasing, and were persecuted by the government and by pagans.

But, with the advent of Constantine as emperor, who his profession of Christianity, in the
fourth century, placing Christianity on an equal footing with paganism, people of the Roman
world began to accept this now popular Christianity by the hundreds of thousands.

But remember, these people had grown up in pagan customs, chief of which was this idolatrous
festival of December 25th. It was a festival of merrymaking, with its special spirit.

They didn't want to give it up. The recognition by Constantine, of Sunday, which had been the day
of pagan sun-worship, and how the influence of pagan Manichaeism which identified the Son of God
with the physical sun, gave these pagans of the fourth century, now turning over wholesale to
"Christianity," their excuse for calling their pagan-festival date of December 25th (birthday of
the sun god, the birthday of the Son of God.

And that is how Christmas got into Christianity. We may call it by another name, but it's
the same old pagan sun-worshipping festival. The only change being what we call it.

Also Santa being an obvious anagram of Satan. Santa giving worldly gifts to who he deems "nice".
Satan also giving worldly gifts & pleasures to those who worship him.



VALENTINE'S DAY
In the days of the Roman Empire, the month of February was the last and shortest month
of the year. February originally had 30 days, but when Julius Caesar named the month of
July after himself, he decided to make that month longer and shortened February to 29
days while making July a month of 31 days.

Later when Octavius Caesar, also known as Augustus, came to power, he named the month of August
after himself, and not to be outdone he also subtracted a day from February and gave the month of
August 31 days.

To this very day it remains that way. The ancient Romans believed that every month had a
spirit that gained strength and reached its peak or apex of power in the middle or ides of the
month. This was usually the 15th day, and it was a day when witches and augurs, or soothsayers
worked their magic.

An augur was a person filled with a spirit of divination (undoubtedly), and from the word
augur we get the word "inaugurate", which means to "take omens". Since February had been robbed
by Caesars and had only 28 days, the ides of February became the 14th day of that month.

Since the ides of a month were celebrated on the preceding eve, the month of February was
unique, because it was the 13th day that became the eve of the ides that month, and it
became a very important pagan holiday in the Empire of Rome. The sacred day of February 14th
was called "Lupercalia" or "Day of the Wolf".

This was a day that was sacred to sexual frenzy of the goddess Juno (there are no gods,
only fallen angels/demons). This day also honored the Roman gods, Lupercus and
Faunus, as well as the legendary twin brothers, who supposedly founded Rome, Remus and Romulus.
These two are said to have been suckled by wolves in a cave on Palatine Hill of Rome.

The cave was called Lupercal and was the center of the celebrating on the eve of Lupercalia or
February 14th. On this day, Lupercalia, which was later named Valentine's Day, the Luperci
or priests of Lupercus dressed in goatskins for a bloody ceremony.

The priests of Lupercus, the wolf god, would sacrifice goats and a dog and then smear themselves
with blood. These priests, made red with sacrificial blood, would run around Palatine Hill
in a wild frenzy while carving a goatskin thong called a "februa".

Women would sit all around the hill, as the bloody priests would strike them with the goatskin
thongs to make them fertile. The young women would then gather in the city and their names
were put in boxes.

These "love notes" were called "billets". The men of Rome would draw a billet, and the woman
whose name was on it became his sexual lust partner with whom he would fornicate until
the next Lupercalia or February 14th.

Thus, February 14th became a day of unbridled sexual lust. The color "red" was sacred to that day
because of the blood and the "heart shape" that is popular to this day. The heart-shape was not a
representation of the human heart, which looks nothing like it. This shape represents the human
female matrix (the womb) or "opening to the chamber of sacred copulation".

When the Gnostic Catholic Church began to get a foothold in Rome around the 3rd century A.D., they
became known as Valentinians. The Catholic Valentinians retained the sexual license of the festival
in what they called "angels in a nuptial chamber", which was also called the "sacrament of copulation".

This was said to be a reenactment of the marriage of "Sophia and the Redeemer".
As the participants of the February 14th ritual began their sexual sacrament, presided over and
watched by the priests known as Valentinians, the following literary was spoken.
"Let the seed of light descend into thy bridal chamber, receive the bridegroom... open thine
arms to embrace him. Behold, grace has descended upon thee".

As time went on, the Orthodox Church suppressed the Gnostic Catholics and manufactured
"St. Valentine", whose day continues to be celebrated in these modern times.

Christians should avoid Valentine's Day like a plague. In God's eyes, it is still
"Lupercalia", the "Day of the Wolf".
Men become wolves, as they carry on the Satanic rituals of fornication, which means
sexual intercourse without marriage. We have heard of the "wolf whistle", and we all know
that wolves do not whistle. It is lustful men and women, who carry on Satan's blasphemy to
this very day.



HALLOWEEN
The earliest Halloween celebrations were held "not by the inspired early Church, but
by the Druids in honor of Samhain, Lord of the Dead, whose festival fell on November 1".

This festival is an old pagan holiday, masquerading as though it was one of the customs of
the Church. And yet professing Christians allow their children to get into the spirit
of this pagan custom.

Now notice what the Encyclopedia Britannica says about Halloween: "It long antedates
Christianity. The two chief characteristics of ancient Halloween were the lighting
of bonfires and the belief that this is the one night in the year during which ghosts
and witches are most likely to wander about.

History shows that the main celebrations of Halloween were purely Druidical "from the
Druids of Northwest Europe and this is further proved by the fact that in parts of Ireland
October 31 is still known as Oidhch Shamhna, 'Vigil of Saman'. "Saman or Samhain was
the pagan Lord of the Dead among the Druids".

So Halloween was celebrated among the pagans long before Jesus was born in Bethlehem.
This pagan holiday, however, was not celebrated alone among the Druids.

It was also a Roman festival. The Britannica continues: "On the Druidic ceremonies were
grafted some of the characteristics of the Roman festival in honor of Pomona held
about November 1, in which nuts and apples, representing the winter store of fruits, played
an important part".

Notice the widespread pagan custom to celebrate this season of the year.

Among the heathen Druids, Samhain or Saman, the Lord of the Dead, was Satan.

To this day people still celebrate with frolicking fun, a wild night in honor of the devil.
In Galatians Paul says that the heathen who thought they were worshipping the true God were
actually serving demons. Undoubtedly!


EASTER
The name "Easter" is merely the slightly changed English spelling of the name of the
ancient Assyrian goddess Ishtar, pronounced by the Assyrians exactly as we pronounce "Easter".
The Babylonian name of this goddess was Astarte, consort of Baal, the sun-god, whose worship
is denounced by the Almighty in the Holy Bible as the most abominable of all pagan idolatry.

Easter "bears its Chaldean origin on its very forehead. Easter is nothing else than Astarte,
one of the titles of Beltis, the 'queen of heaven', whose name, as pronounced by the people
of Nineveh, was evidently identical with that now in common use in this country".

The ancient gods of the pagans had many different names. While this goddess was called
Astarte in Babylon, it appears on Assyrian monuments found by Layard in excavations at
Nineveh as Ishtar (Layard's Nineveh and Babylon, page 629). Both were pronounced "Easter".

Likewise, Beltis, or Bel (referred to in the Old Testament) also was called Moloch. It was
for sacrificing to Moloch (1 Kings 11:1-11, especially verse 7, where Moloch is called
an abomination) and other pagan gods that the Lord condemned Solomon, and rent away
the kingdom of Israel from his son.

In the ancient Chaldean idolatrous sun-worship, Baal was the sun god, Astarte his consort,
or wife. And Astarte is the same as Ishtar, or the English Easter.

Also Jesus observed no Lent. The Apostles and the early true Church of God observed no
Lenten season. The forty days abstinence of Lent was directly borrowed from
the worshippers of the Babylonian goddess.


4TH OF JULY
In short, July 4th is actually the pagan celebration of "Old Midsummer's Eve" which is
based on solar (sun) worship, which we know is really just Satan worship. sun=Satan
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"In the British Isles, Midsummer Eve, the evening before the Christian Feast of
St John the Baptist, was celebrated on 24th of June. Old Midsummer's Eve fell on a later
date (one which Americans will certainly recognize), after the calendar change of 1752. In
the old Julian calendar, June 24th was celebrated as the Summer Solstice and the counterpart
to the December 25th Winter Solstice.

This calendar change has to do with Pope Gregory XIII (1572-1585), who changed the scope of the
Julian calendar. During the sixteenth century, the calendar was ten days slow, as the Romans'
during the reign of Julius Caesar was ten days behind the sun. Under Pope Gregory's orders,
a more accurate calendar was constructed and the Julian calendar was replaced with the Gregorian
calendar. The correction of the drifting of the calendar away from the astronomically fixed
moments of the solstices and equinoxes was the very reason for the Gregorian reform (so that the
date of Easter could be reliably calculated by the Church). Ten days were "skipped" in October of
1582 to realign the calendar correctly with the sun.

However, many non-Catholic countries did not go along with this calendric change for years, so England
did not adopt the modern Gregorian calendar until 1752 (one hundred and seventy years later). With
the old Julian calendar eleven days behind the new Gregorian calendar, it was necessary to drop the
eleven days. In the 1752 reform in Britain, the old Julian calendar was eleven days off, which
required the change made wherein the 11:59 PM September 2, 1752 was followed by 12:00 AM September 14, 1752.

This was how the people of Europe came to celebrate Old Midsummer's Eve on
July 4th (eleven days after June 23). Many people found it hard to accept that eleven
days had just disappeared, so they continued to refer to holidays by the old Julian calendar by
the word "old" before the holiday. The "new" date of July 4th was actually the "old" June 23rd.
As a result, instead of celebrating Midsummer's Eve on June 23th,
many celebrated Old Midsummer's Eve on July 4th."



The world is at enmity to God.
We are to be in the world, not of the world.

1 John 17:16
"They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world."

1 John 2:15
"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.
If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him."

Let us not be partakers of the sinful pleasures and idolatrous celebrations of the heathen world but let us
take hold of eternal life through obedience unto God and His commandments.

Credit to "Last Trumpet Ministries International" for some quotes/information in this post.

As for Valentine’s Day. How does it exist today? Are the things you refer to promote those things today? Generally it is about giving a card to a person you love along with either chocolates and or flowers. Not sure why that is bad. Maybe your history is true, and maybe it is not. But the point here is that Valentine’s Day does not currently promote any evil today that I am aware of. Perhaps it is more of commercialized thing. We should not love just because a holiday is telling us to. We should love each other each day regardless.

I agree that celebrating Easter is problematic because there are two versions you can choose from, just like with Christmas. There is the Christianized version, and the pagan version. I believe a Christian should be holy and separate from the world and not partake of this day because others can be confused as to your celebration of it. They may think you partake of the bunny aspect of it. The word “Passover” was invented by William Tyndale. Before that point in time, the word easter was used, which was a reference to the Jewish Passover. The short book called, “Don’t Passover Easter” by Bryan C. Ross is really good at explaining this.

As for your claims about the 4th of July. Okay. That is just silly to claim that the 4th of July is tied to pagan religious practices. Your not thinking logically here why the 4th of July actually happened. If you study history, it was not the result of trying to celebrate religious pagan rituals. We were defecting from the British because of their unfair treatment here in America. Actually, many of the early founding fathers were Christian and they called for days of fasting and getting your heart right with Jesus Christ and in trusting that He died for your sins, etcetera. I know. I did an in-depth study on this topic just recently. Men like Chris Pinto are either misinformed or they are lying about the founding fathers. So his documentary attacking the founding fathers is false. In fact, his claims have been refuted actually by Bill Fortenberry’s book titled, "Hidden Fact of the Founding era (Historical Treasures from America’s Founding). Granted, no nations or political leader should be our hope or savior, like some think. But it is also equally wrong to ignore the early history of America and its Christian foundation and promotion in its early years. America started out promoting Christianity heavily. Sure, some founders of our nations or presidents were not perfect, but others were better for sure. The deception today is that all the atheists and people who hate God are trying to erase the history that we were once a Christian nation. They are the ones who have convinced many in the church today that we were not a Christian nation. Lies about George Washington being a Mason have been refuted, etcetera. Lies about Benjamin Franklin have been refuted, as well. There are atheists today who actually succeeded in taking out some elements of Christianity in the military in recent history. In the 1960s, prayer and the Bible was taken out of public schools. There is an agenda that is against Christianity here in America. It is only going to get worse. Most in America today do not even know the Bible anymore like it was in the past.

​

 

[Der Alte]

Various posters have already demonstrated various errors in the original post (this one is especially good), but there are a few points I don't think others have mentioned, or I feel need to really emphasized, so I wish to mention them.
Before anything else, there is an overall point I wish to mention. An argument you'll sometimes see, and it occurs multiple times in the original post, is to say "look at this thing pagans did on this holiday! That's similar to what Christians do now!" For this argument to work, one must demonstrate two things:
1) That pagans did actually engage in the practice claimed (sometimes there isn't proof of such)
2) That Christians actually started doing it around the time of the pagans, when there would be reason to.
For example, take Christmas trees. Some try to claim that this was copied from some pagan usage of trees. The problem is that Christmas trees first enter the historical record in the 14th century. By that time, the pagan holidays had been gone for so long that any similarity to them would be coincidental.
The claim of December 25 being Mithra's birthday, from what I can tell, comes from simply conflating him with Sol Invictus.
Now, it is true that there is proof that December 25 was regarded as Sol Invictus's birthday. The problem is when that source comes from. The first source to attest to this is the Chronography of 354, which mentions that. But that same source also mentions (in a separate section) that the birth of Jesus was celebrated on December 25. So if there was any "borrowing" of festivals, it could have easily gone the other way, with the pagans deciding to assign Sol Invictus's birthday to December 25 because Christians had already done that with Jesus.
"Chief of which"? If it's so "chief", then why doesn't it show up in any record prior to 354?
Santa Claus is simply an anglicization of "Sinterklaas," a Dutch word that referred to Saint Nicholas. The term "Santa Claus" first shows up, as far as I can find it, in the 18th century. Kind of late for some kind of pagan origin.
Even if all of these ruminations on Lupercalia are correct (and from what I can tell, some are not), trying to connect the romantic ideas associated with Valentine's Day with a much earlier pagan holiday are rendered moot by the fact that there weren't romantic connotations with the holiday until around the 14th century, long after Lupercalia had been abrogated.
This is what I noted at the start. You can't try to point to similarities between two holidays to demonstrate borrowing if the holidays are separated by this amount of time.
Others have covered this one, but it needs to be hammered home. The idea that Easter is somehow derived from Ishtar is principally based on two things: The phonetic similarity between it and Ishtar, and a bunch of alleged similarities between it and Ishtar festivals. The latter similarities, some of which you mention, are simply made up and you won't find them in any primary sources, but the phonological similarity is especially bad, as the phonetic similarity really exists only in English (and even there, contrary to what you'll claim, they are not pronounced the same).
When the early Christians were celebrating Easter, they referred to it in Greek as Pascha (which also could mean Passover). Pascha, needless to say, sounds nothing like Ishtar. If you were to try to propose this "Easter comes from Ishtar!" to someone in basically any other language, they'd be confused as all heck; most languages take their name for Easter from Pascha. For example, it's Pascua in Spanish and Paques in French. Even languages that don't take their word for Easter from Pascha sound nothing like Ishtar; in Japanese the word for Easter is fukkatsusai (which means "Resurrection Festival"), and in German it's Ostern.
For more information on the rest, see these links (the first is the most important, the second two are just expansions)
AS BEREANS DID: Easter FAQ
AS BEREANS DID: History of Easter - part I
AS BEREANS DID: Easter History - part II
What?! "The people of Europe"? What people of Europe? The Fourth of July (Independence Day) isn't a European holiday, but an American one! Americans living in Europe will obviously celebrate the Fourth of July, but regular Europeans don't. Where in the world does this claim of "the people of Europe" celebrating anything on July 4th come from?!
That aside, while I can see various problems with the convoluted explanation that is advanced to try to get this "Old Midsummer's Eve" to July 4, even if you could somehow manage that, it still proves no pagan origin for the Fourth of July. The reason Independence Day is on the Fourth of July is because that's when the Declaration of Independence was... well, declared. It is hard historical fact that it happened on that date, and that is why the date got chosen as an American celebration. So even if it is on the same day as some pagan festival, which is still a dubious assertion, it would be simple coincidence.
I'm surprised more people didn't point out the problems with the Fourth of July thing... maybe they considered is so blatantly ridiculous there was no need.
Well, now I know not to take them seriously.

I might add in German the Christmas figure is called Sant [pronounced Sahnt] Nicklaus which sounds a lot like Santa Claus.

 

[Jipsah]

EDIT: Please do your own research concerning these holidays.

Preferably not from youtube sites run by people who have a nonsensical doctrinal tub to beat.

Christians the first two or three hundred years. It was picked up afterwards from
paganism in the fifth century when the Roman Church ordered it to be celebrated as
an official "Christian" festival".

"picked up afterwards from paganism" is rubbish. Read real church history.

Scripture does not tell us when Jesus was born but
gives clues that He was not even born in winter.

Irrelevant. 25 December is when we in the West observe our Lord's birth. In the East it's January 7th. Neither is claimed to be the date of His birth.

December 25th is not the day of the Lord's birth

Could be, no one really knows.Buit it's irrelevant in any case.

but is actually the birthdays of the Roman gods Sol Invictus

Sol Invictus was a holiday, not a god.

& Mithras.

Mithras wasn't born, but emerged from a rock. He had no"birthday" observed by his worshippers. Rubbish.

The pagan festival with its riot and merrymaking

Which pagan festival?

was so popular, that Christians were
glad of an excuse to continue its celebration with little change in spirit and in manner.

Pure conjecture, with little or no evidence.

Christian preachers of the West and Near East protested against the unseemly frivolity
with which Christ's birthday was celebrated, while Christians of Mesopotamia accused their
Western brethren of idolatry and sun-worship for adopting as Christian this pagan festival.

Fiction.

But remember, these people had grown up in pagan customs, chief of which was this idolatrous
festival of December 25th. It was a festival of merrymaking, with its special spirit.

Conjecture being passed off as history again.

hey didn't want to give it up. The recognition by Constantine, of Sunday, which had been the day
of pagan sun-worship

And conincidentally, the first day of the week, when Christians customarily gathered.

, and how the influence of pagan Manichaeism which identified the Son of God
with the physical sun, gave these pagans of the fourth century, now turning over wholesale to
"Christianity," their excuse for calling their pagan-festival date of December 25th (birthday of
the sun god, the birthday of the Son of God.

Baloney.

And that is how Christmas got into Christianity. We may call it by another name, but it's
the same old pagan sun-worshipping festival.

Which is why millions of Christians gather in churches around the world to worship our Lord Christ at Christmas.

Also Santa being an obvious anagram of Satan.

"Obvious"if you're a semi-literate with an ax to grind. "Santa" means "saint", and "holy". "Santa Cruz", for instance,means "holy cross", and "Santa Maria" means "Saint Mary. To associate "Santa" with "Satan" is simply idiotic.

The ancient Romans believed that every month had a
spirit that gained strength and reached its peak or apex of power in the middle or ides of the
month. This was usually the 15th day, and it was a day when witches and augurs, or soothsayers
worked their magic.

Pure fiction, and borderline inappropriate contentographic fiction at that.

The earliest Halloween celebrations were held "not by the inspired early Church, but
by the Druids in honor of Samhain, Lord of the Dead, whose festival fell on November 1".

Except there was no Druid Lord of the dead. This is another piece of arrant lying, or if you'd prefer to be charitable, fiction being peddled as fact.

This festival is an old pagan holiday

Invented by 20th century "Christians" who didn't mind at all lying through their teeth to appear holier than thou.

, masquerading as though it was one of the customs of
the Church.

Halloween was never a custom of the Church, either. Another bald-faced lie.

EASTER
The name "Easter" is merely the slightly changed English spelling of the name of the
ancient Assyrian goddess Ishtar

A claim as simple minded as it is false.

This is simply a patent lie used to prevent Christians from observing the most important event in the history of the universe, the resurrection of our Lord. If that isn't diabolical then what is?

pronounced by the Assyrians exactly as we pronounce "Easter"

Even if it were true, so what? "Easter" is an English word. Most of the world Christians call the observance of Christ's resurrection "pascha" or siome variation thereof.So call it "Resurrection Day" or something akin to it.

So once again, we're faced with a brazen lie.

Also Jesus observed no Lent.

SAs He hadn't died and been resurrected then, that's hardly surprising. Maybe the people who publish this offal didn't know that.

The forty days abstinence of Lent was directly borrowed from
the worshippers of the Babylonian goddess.

Another shameless lie.

4TH OF JULY
In short, July 4th is actually the pagan celebration of "Old Midsummer's Eve" which is
based on solar (sun) worship, which we know is really just Satan worship. sun=Satan

This is simply illiterate. July 4th was when the American Declaration of Independence was signed, and is of no particular significance to anyone but Americans.

Credit to "Last Trumpet Ministries International" for some quotes/information in this post.

Credit? Blame would be more appropriate. The whole thing is a tissue of lies. Shame on whoever perpetrated this load of unalloyed excrement.

 

[Jipsah]

I'd consider it sinful to celebrate these once you know the truth of their true origins/purpose.

You're not going to get any truth at all from the OP. It's a mass of knowing falsehoods.

 

[Jipsah]

Everything can be verified through thorough research

Verified as a poisonous pack of lies.