Deck the Halls?

We (the Christian Community) have become so "dumbed down" that we often do things without ever questioning or examining anything--without thinking; and, then with uneducated consciences we hold very strong convictions about our own practices and traditions.   To send the point home; how many of us sing right along with "Deck the Halls" during this time of year, clueless to what we are actually joining in?  Take a listen.

Deck the halls with boughs of holly,
Tis the season to be jolly,
Don we now our gay apparel,
Troll the ancient Yule tide carol,
See the blazing Yule before us,
Strike the harp and join the chorus.
Follow me in merry measure,
While I tell of Yule tide treasure,
Fast away the old year passes,
Hail the new, ye lads and lasses,
Sing we joyous, all together,
Heedless of the wind and weather,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.


The following is from a Wiccan Website to educate those people seeking to correctly celebrate December 25th, in order that they understand the meaning, history and tradition correctly:

Sabbats, Yule celebrates the rebirth of the Sun, the Sun God, and honors the Horned God. Yule is the longest night of the year, when balance is suspended and then gives way to the coming light. It is a time to look on the past year's achievements and to celebrate with family and friends. In ancient times, the Winter Solstice corresponded with the Roman Saturnalia (Dec. 17-24), pagan fertility rites, and various rites of Sun worship. This day is the official first day of winter. The Goddess gives birth to the Sun Child and hope for new light is born. The origins of most of the Christian Christmas traditions come from the Pagan Yule celebration, such as the Christmas tree, the colors red and green and gift giving. Yule is also known as the Winter Solstice, Midwinter, Alban Arthan, Finn's Day, Festival of Sol, Yuletide, Great Day of the Cauldron, and Festival of Growth.


At the Winter Solstice, the two God-themes of the year's cycle coincide. Yule, which according to the Venerable Bede, comes from the Norse Iul meaning "wheel", marks the vanquishing of the Holly King (Dionysus), God of the Waning Year, by the Oak King (Apollo), God of the Waxing Year. The Goddess, who was Death-in-Life at Midsummer, now shows her Life-in-Death aspect; for although at this season she is the "leperous-white lady", the Queen of the cold Darkness, yet this is her moment for giving birth to the Child of Promise, the Son-Lover who will re-fertilize her and bring back light and warmth to her kingdom.


An extraordinarily persistent version of the Holly King/Oak King theme at the Winter Solstice is the ritual hunting and killing of the wren - a folklore tradition found as far apart in time and space as ancient Greece and Rome and today's British Isles. The wren, "little king" of the Waning Year, is killed by his counterpart, the robin redbreast, who finds him hiding in as ivy bush (or sometimes in Ireland in a holly bush, as befits the Holly King). The robin's tree is the birch, which follows the Winter Solstice in the Celtic Tree calendar. In the acted-out ritual, men hunted and killed the wren with birch rods.


As for traditions, the modern personification of the Christmas Spirit known as Santa Claus was at one time the pagan God of Yule. To the Scandinavians, Woden was once known as "Christ on the Wheel", an ancient Norse title for the Sun God who was reborn at the time of the Winter Solstice. St. Nicholas, in early folklore, rode not a reindeer, but a white horse through the sky - like Woden.


The burning of the Yule Log stems from the old custom of the Yule Bonfire that was burned to give life and power to the Sun, which was thought to be reborn at the Winter Solstice. In later times, the outdoor bonfire custom was replaced by the indoor burning of log and red candles etched with carvings of solar designs and other magickal symbols. As the Oak Tree was considered to be the Cosmic Tree of Life by the ancient Druids, the Yule Log is traditionally Oak. Some Wiccan traditions use a Pine Yule Log to symbolize the dying God Dionysus.


Mistletoe was considered very magickal by the Druids, who called it the "Golden Bough". They believed it possessed great healing powers and gave mortal men access to the underworld. The living plant, which is actually a parasitic shrub with leathery evergreen leaves and waxy white berries, was at one time thought of as the genitalia of the great God Zeus, whose sacred tree is the Oak. The phallic significance of mistletoe stems from the idea that its white berries were drops of the God's Divine Semen in contrast to the red berries of the Holly, which were equated with the Sacred Menstrual Blood of the Goddess. The life-giving essence which mistletoe suggests provides a symbolic divine substance and a sense of immortality to those who hang it at Yuletide. In ancient times, ecstatic sexual orgies frequently accompanied the rites of the Oak King; in modern times, however, the custom of kissing under the mistletoe is all that remains.


The relatively modern tradition of decorating the Christmas tree is a custom that evolved from the silver fir and pine groves associated with the Great Mother Goddess. The lights and ornaments hung on the tree as decoration are actually symbols of the Sun, Moon, and Stars as they appear in the Cosmic Tree of Life. They also represent departed souls who are remembered at the end of the year. Sacred presents (which evolved into modern day Christmas gifts) were also hung on the tree as offerings to various deities such as Dionysus.


There is an ancient Egyptian ritual involving Isis and Osiris, and his brother/enemy Set, who kills Osiris and is driven away by the shaking of Isis' sistrum, to bring about Osiris' rebirth. For the festival, people decorated the outside of their houses with oil-lamps that burned all night. At midnight, the priests emerged from an inner shrine crying, "The Virgin has brought forth! The light is waxing!" and showing the image of a baby to the worshipers. Osiris and Horus, his son/other-self, represent at the same time the solar and vegetation God-aspects; Horus is both the Sun reborn (the Greeks identified him with Apollo) and "Lord of the Crops". The lamps burning all night on the eve on Midwinter survive, in Ireland and elsewhere, as the single candle burning in the window on Christmas Eve, lit by the youngest in the house, and as the modern lights that are strung on the outside of houses.


Placing cakes in the boughs of the oldest apple trees in the orchard and pouring on cider, as a libation was an old pagan Yuletide custom practiced in England, and known as "Wassailing the Orchard Trees". It was said that the cider was a substitute for the human or animal blood offered in primitive times as part of a Winter Solstice Fertility Rite. After offering a toast to the health of the apple trees and giving thanks to them for producing fruit, the farmers would then enjoin the trees continue producing abundance.

The above is not some "bah hum bug" puritan or reformers' words; but the actual pagans who love this day and want to make sure they have a full and complete pagan worship.

In fact, once you study all of the most legitimate historical sources available, you can quickly understand the reason most reformers and puritans saw the celebration of Christmas as an abomination.  In fact, even as late as Spurgeon and A.W. Pink, men were aware of these things.  What has happened, church?