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Christians generally regard Easter as the most important festival of the ecclesiastical calendar. It is also the oldest feast of Christianity, and connected to the Jewish Passover. Many terms relating to Easter, such as paschal are derived from the Hebrew term for passover. In many non-English speaking countries the feast is called by some ...
The Triumph of Christianity over Paganism, a painting by Gustave Doré (1899). Paganism is commonly used to refer to various religions that existed during Antiquity and the Middle Ages, such as the Greco-Roman religions of the Roman Empire, including the Roman imperial cult, the various mystery religions, religious philosophies such as Neoplatonism and Gnosticism, and more localized ethnic ...
The modern English noun Yule descends from Old English ġēol, earlier geoh(h)ol, geh(h)ol, and geóla, sometimes plural. [1] The Old English ġēol or ġēohol and ġēola or ġēoli indicate the 12-day festival of "Yule" (later: "Christmastide"), the latter indicating the month of "Yule", whereby ǣrra ġēola referred to the period before the Yule festival (December) and æftera ġēola ...
In 2025, the holiday just so happens to fall on the Friday ahead of a long weekend for most. Monday Feb. 17 is President's Day. Why is Valentine's Day on February 14th?
In the modern pagan movement of Heathenry there are a number of holidays celebrated by different groups and individuals. The most widely observed are based on ancient Germanic practices described in historical accounts or folk practices; however, some adherents also incorporate innovations from the 20th and 21st centuries.
Not all historical pagan traditions were pre-Christian or indigenous to their places of worship. [ 36 ] Owing to the history of its nomenclature, paganism traditionally encompasses the collective pre- and non-Christian cultures in and around the classical world ; including those of the Greco-Roman, Celtic, Germanic, and Slavic tribes. [ 40 ]
The scholar Jacob Latham has suggested that in late antiquity the Kalends of January was no longer solely a pagan holiday but had been reinvented as a holiday that openly fused together Christian and pagan traditions and symbolism. [9] All of the countries with the earliest accounts of the Yule log also were once part of the Roman empire. [4]
As a result of the close proximity of dates, many Christians in western Europe continued to celebrate traditional Saturnalia customs in association with Christmas and the surrounding holidays. [ 105 ] [ 110 ] [ 14 ] Like Saturnalia, Christmas during the Middle Ages was a time of ruckus, drinking, gambling, and overeating. [ 14 ]