Constantine, Egyptian Sun Worship And Epiphany
Source : candlegrove.com website
Winter solstice is when, because of the earth's tilt, your
hemisphere is leaning farthest away from the sun, and
therefore: The daylight is the shortest. The sun has its
lowest arc in the sky. When it's winter solstice in the
Northern Hemisphere, the sun is directly overhead at noon
only along the Tropic of Capricorn, on which lie such places
as Sao Paulo, Brazil, southern Madagascar, and areas north
of Brisbane, Australia.
Constantine - Early Ecumenist
A fascinating book "Holy Blood, Holy Grail", [ Baigent,
Michael, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln. Holy Blood, Holy
Grail. New York, Delacorte Press, 1982], discusses the
pragmatic political motives of the fourth-century Roman
emperor Constantine, who first moved the celebration of
Christmas to December 25. The authors claim that Constantine
followed the cult of Sol Invictus, a monotheistic form of
sun worship that originated in Syria and was imposed by
Roman emperors on their subjects a century earlier.
"His primary, indeed obsessive, objective was unity -- unity
in politics, in religion, and in territory. A cult or state
religion that included all other cults within it obviously
helped to achieve this objective...In the interests of
unity, Constantine deliberately chose to blur the
distinctions among Christianity, Mithraism [another Sun cult
of the time] and Sol Invictus..."
That's why Constantine decreed that Sunday -- "the venerable
day of the sun" would be the official day of rest. (Early
Christians before then celebrated their holy day on the
Jewish Sabbath -- Saturday.)
That's also why -- by his edict, the book claims -- the
celebration of Jesus' birthday was moved from January 6th
(Epiphany today) to December 25, celebrated by the cult of
Sol Invictus as Natilis Invictus, the rebirth of the sun
(confused yet? don't be!)
And are you wondering about the concept of the 12 Days of
Christmas? The midwinter festival of the ancient Egyptians
celebrated the birth of Horus (the prototype of the earthly
king) son of Isis (the divine mother-goddess). It was 12
days long, reflecting their 12-month calendar. This concept
took firm root in many other cultures. In 567 AD, Christians
adopted it. Church leaders proclaimed the 12 days from
December 25 to Epiphany as a sacred, festive season.
January 6, 2000
Today is Epiphany, the feast of the Three Kings, also known
as Twelfth Night. It's the final day of the 12 days of
Christmas.
From The Encyclopedia Britannica:
In Egypt during the 5th millennium BC, astronomers in the
Nile Delta region associated the annual inundation of the
river--which covered wide areas with fertile soil--with
celestial movements, especially that of the star Sirius
(i.e., Sothis) and the sun. From such observations the
Egyptians developed a solar calendar of 365 days, with 12
months of 30 days each and five festival days at the end of
the year.
Though priests assumed important functions at the festivals
centred about the fertility of the soil irrigated by the
Nile and the life-giving warmth of the sun, the pharaoh, the
sacred king, embodied the continuity between the realm of
the sacred (i.e., the transcendent sphere) and the realm of
the profane (i.e., the sphere of time, space, and cause and
effect). The pharaoh was believed to be the son of the sun
god Horus of the Horizon (Harakhte), symbolized by the
falcon; the sun god was also known as Re, among other names.
The eastern horizon was viewed as the meeting point of the
underworld of the dead and the world of the living. The sun
god also was known as Atum, which means "to be at the end,"
or the west. Osiris, the god of the afterlife (the world of
the dead) was believed to be embodied in the recently
deceased pharaoh, who passed on his sacred powers and
position to the new pharaoh, his son. At the sd festival,
the new pharaoh, as the son of Horus and of Re, as well as
of Osiris, was invested with both kingly and priestly
powers. At his coronation festival the pharaoh was believed
to gain the power to restore ma'at after the death of the
previous pharaoh, and also to restore economic prosperity.
During the royal festivals--i.e., ascension to the throne,
the coronation, and the sd festival--feasting presumably
occurred. Festivals associated with seasonal renewal,
however, involved sacrifices, eating, drinking, and
sometimes dramatic or carnival-like events.
Some scholars hold that the Egyptian terms for festival,
however, contain concepts that became extremely significant
in later Hellenistic (Greco-Roman) religions--e.g., the
mystery, or salvatory, religions, such as those of Mithra,
Isis, and the Eleusinian mysteries--and Semitic-based
religions--e.g., Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
According to this view Egyptian terms for festival, such as
hb, h', and pr.t, all contain concepts of resurrection and
epiphany (i.e., the manifestation of a god). In Eastern
Orthodox Christianity, for example, the festival of the
Epiphany (January 6) celebrates Christ's manifestation to
the Magi of the East (presumably followers of Zoroaster, a
6th-century BC Iranian prophet) and his Baptism in the
Jordan River.
The usual Greek designation for Epiphany is "the day of the
light" (he hemera tou photou), in reference to the words in
the Bible, in John 1:4, that Jesus is the "light of men."
Under the influence of the Christian Catechetical school at
Alexandria (led by Clement and Origen in the 2nd and 3rd
centuries AD), the earlier religious speculations of the
Egyptians concerning their festivals were enhanced by
further mystical and spiritual interpretations that affected
Christian worship, piety, doctrine, and iconography,
especially in Eastern Christianity.