The Pagan Roots of Christmas
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- čas přidán 22. 12. 2017
- It’s Christmastime everyone, as you can tell from the name, it has a lot to do with Christ and Christianity, after all, Jesus was born on the 25th of December, right? Well, not quite. Most of what we do at Christmas time has little or nothing to do with Christianity and is rather rooted in the ancient pagan pasts of both Europe and other places. In this video I’m going to explore the aspects of Christmas that come form the traditions and beliefs of the Northern Europe Germanic or Nordic Pagans as this is what I know the most about and what interests me the most. This isn’t to say there are more explanations for where certain traditions come from or that there were other groups who contributed aspects of our modern Christmas celebrations. Things like Carol Singing, Christmas Trees, Christmas Lights, Yule Logs, Christmas Dinner, Santa Claus, the Elves, New Year’s Resolutions and Kissing under the Mistletoe can all be traced back to the pagan times of our forefathers and to various characters of Norse Myth and Legend like Odin, Freyja, Baldr and Thor.
Music Used:
We Wish you a Merry Christmas - Kevin MacLeod
Rites - Kevin MacLeod
Teller of Tales - Kevin MacLeod
Silent Night - Kevin MacLeod
Deck the Halls - Kevin MacLeod
Living Voyage - Kevin MacLeod
“Living Voyage” - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
All images are from the Public Domain of Wikimedia Commons and Pixabay.
The Dutch Tradition of Sinterklaas:
• Dutch "Christmas" Trad...
Zwarte Piet:
• Why Zwarte Piet is NOT...
How did the Vikings Discover Iceland?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxZEr...
Irish/Gaelic Monks in Iceland, The Faroe Islands and the Scottish Isles:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ5Y9...
How Vikings Names Work:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=73gqG...
Viking Raids - History Visualised:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b3pp...
The Great Heathen Army - History Visualised:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWMXv...
Norse and Anglo-Saxon Paganism:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1jPj...
A Guide to Dark Age Irish Politics:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=akWnk...
A Guide to Dark Age British Politics:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHNdQ...
Who Were the Anglo-Saxons?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bP1eX...
Old English:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kw6dI...
Anglo-Saxon Shields:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXIzd...
Patreon:
/ historywithhi. .
Vid.me Channel: (RIP)
vid.me/HistoricHilbert
Twitter:
/ historywhilbert
Facebook: / history-with. .
Send me an email if you'd be interested in doing a collaboration! historywithhilbert@gmail.com
Fun fact - in scandinavia we still call it Jul ;) The name has never changed
Mathias we have the same name spelling!
SkepTic Mathias or jul? 😜
+Mathias Caspersen both!
SkepTic Where are you from??
+Mathias Caspersen, Skåne in Sweden
In Iran we celebrate December 21st in the form of a festivity called Yalda which is exactly about the winter solstice and the victory of light over darkness. I’ve tried to find the roots of this word and seemingly it comes from Aramaic and means something like “birth” (of the Sun) but the etymological similarity between Yalda and Yule is uncanny.
Wow interesting.
Both are Indo-European languages.
Awe man that's cool never heard of that.
That's pagan too. It's worship of the sun from Babylon.
Birth of tammuz
So Yule oaths were basically the ancient equivalent of "Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut."
Yes, or it would make one a legend!
i really like learning about my ancestors, i wish i got this in school.
I too am fascinated by the ideas of what life was like for them and what they believed :)
History classes could be so interesting. But all you get to do is memorize boring numbers. But there are plenty of good books, if you look around
@@SupersonicMojoJojo It really does depend on the teacher, I had a great history teacher for a year and he made it really easy to remember dates because he vividly described the events and the consequences and even got us to imagine what would have happened if events went another way. We all kept a timeline and recorded things in it ourselves as we learned so we all had our own visual record of the history and could see how it all fitted together, after that dates were never a problem.
@@jafarthebarmecide3677 Then you do have a good teacher, seemingly. But it depends on the students too, i guess. I still think history should be less about years, for the people like myself, who get confused when being confronted with a shitload of numbers.
Same
Happy Solstice! Merry Christmas! God Jul!
And to you all!
Hahaha born as bastred from holly spirit of Roman soldier called pandira !!!
Another realm of thought for why they brought the trees inside, was to have somewhere warm for the forest spirits to stay for the winter
It's kind of weird how the early church redefined the meanings of all these pagan items and traditions. Especially Christmas trees, the star on top became the star the wise men followed, the evergreen tree now represents the everlasting life, the lights also representing the stars of the universe and light as well.
Survival was never assured, thus omens that the sun will return so things can grow has always been extremely important. Gods of nature, omens and magick were important in ensuring that we all could survive. This is a common theme throughout many cultures all over the world. The names of the gods and specific beliefs and rituals varied, the underlying theme is the same.
This is a very nice presentation of the topics and stories. Good job!
Emmy Lou No not at all.The underlying themes of northern European polytheistic faiths are vastly different than southern European and eastern European polytheistic faiths.I can go into the afterlife differences between Greek and Germanic just to illustrate my point
Warren Ayala She claimed one theme - singular - to be the same : survival. With rituals and beliefs being different. The experience of seasonal differences and changes, and different natural disasters to be expected, would make for very different views of life and death and religion. Survival itself was very different.
Very well put, it's essential to understand the mindset of our ancestors and the people living in the past to at all begin to understand history :)
I would say that it even goes beyond whats presented here. In essence Yule has to do with reincarnation and lifting the veil of amnesia, aswell as reassuring the cyclical nature of life on several levels.
God Jul, Heill Skaði and the Yew tree!
..and also the old original myths are rooted in the biology of birth and death.
love for this channel. Keep up the great work please.
Great wee lesson... Keep the videos coming they are brilliant..
Thanks man!
It is called Koleda (kolyeda,koledar..) amongst Slavic people. All native European people have same solar festivals and religion, we just use diferent names (Perun=Thor=Zeus..etc.). Since your channel is history oriented, it would be nice to cover all of that.
Didn't Odin's eight-legged horse Sleipnir also essentially become Santa's eight reindeer?
Actually I’m Christian myself, and my denomination doesn’t celebrate Christmas at all. We recognized that in reality Christmas isn’t Christian at all and IS in fact pagan. (Also, in the Bible it is constantly shown that the time of Jesus’ birth would be around spring or summer. It literally has said that the Shepard’s were out in the fields with their sheep. It wouldn’t add up if it were winter in Bethlehem.)
Yessssss!!! See Jeremiah 10:1-5 which God forbid his peoples as it is the pagan festival.
Here in the U.S., we have the same tradition with the mistletoe - what happens under the mistletoe remains under the mistletoe! Now many hide a pickle in the Christmas tree - a tradition I hear goes back to Germany.
Wotan's time on the tree is the reason why the Northern tribes were unimipressed with Jesus. "Three hours? What a wuss! Our god lasted NINE DAYS!"
For a great take on the character of Balder, read Brom's novel, "Krampus, the Yule Lord". He came up with a great explanation for what happened to Balder - and Krampus. Hint: they aren't gone. :)
Love your Videos, Merry christmas
In Scandinavian:
Christmas = jul
wheel = hjul
Pronunciation is identical since the "h" is silent.
So true
And in Old Norse the h wasn't silent. The conflation he makes of wheel/yule is, frankly, bollocks.
Very interesting, thanks! In Saterland Frisian the word for wheel is still "jool" which is another link to the Scandinavian languages and the old religion.
History With Hilbert jool is probably a reborrowing of ON hjól (Anglo-Frisian not having hj, although it was often borrowed into English as sh cf. Hjaltland>Shetland). From what I can see the Saterland Frisian cognate of wheel and hjól is Wäil although I think the meaning has narrowed there
And on /r/badlinguistics, they say that the two words are unrelated, and just happen to sound similar. redd.it/7lxboz
Interessant.
Het meeste hiervan had ik wel zo'n idee van, maar nu het allemaal gezegd is begrijp je t wel weer wat beter.
Fijne kerst nog!
What you have to remember is that Christianity especially Catholicism is very closely related to Roman tradition. The Romans had a habit of incoperiting other religions into their holiday.
And catholics hated pagans with a passion. Wtf
God Jul! 🎄 Greetings from Sweden.
Same to you!
God Jul to you!🎅🎄🌌
Hyvää Joulua sinne Ruotsiin!!! :)
A really interesting video, very appreciative! Thank you
Fantastic! Thanks for the info, I learned so much. And I love hearing you pronounce the norse words 🥰 happy yule!
czcams.com/video/K-X0YrHhgq0/video.html
Happy Yule Hilbert!!
Hyvää joulua from Finland!
Thanks for making this video, I read stories about this but you explained it very well.
czcams.com/video/K-X0YrHhgq0/video.html
Your pronunciation of "Fröhliche Weihnachten" is dead on, could you do a video with more German in it?
Thank you! And yes at some point I should 😂
Merry Christmas Hilbert. And have a cracking new year.👍🎅🏻🙈🙊🙉🎅🏻
This is great. Merry xmas to yall
10:20 I really appreciate the art we get on this channel
Thank you! I really enjoy making it so I'm glad you like it!
@@historywithhilbert146
The best person to KNOW when is the Birthday of Jesus is His own mother, Mary.
Towards the end of his stories of Jesus' infancy. Luke describes Mary's remembrance of these events, "And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart (Luke 2:19)." From this indication, Luke thereby revealed Mary as his first eyewitness from the beginning. From her story to Luke, therefore we can derive when Jesus was born.
Luke 1:5-9
Luke 1:10-25
The incensing in the Temple indicated a specific feast was being celebrated, the Feast of Tabernacles or Dedication of the Temple. This feast originated from the first dedication of the Temple by King Solomon who timed the dedication with the feast of Booths (in Hebrew Succoth or Sukkot).
1 Kings 8:1-2
All the men of Israel assembled before King Solomon during the festival in the month of Ethanim (the seventh month). In the original Roman calendar this would correspond to the month of September, so that if we calculate the time of the feast, it would have been around September 18-24. Then when Zechariah returned home and Elizabeth conceived, it would have been around September 25.
Luke 1:26-38
The time in the story of the Annunciation to Mary and her subsequent conception of Jesus is mentioned twice: in v. 26 "In the sixth month," and in v. 36, "she whom people called barren is now in her sixth month."
To determine this date of Mary's conception of the Lord, we simply have to add 6 months to September 25, exactly the date celebrated by the church.
Ethanim, the name of the seventh month of the Canaanite calendar corresponding to the later Hebrew Tishri or to our September - October (1 Kings 8:2).
The Israelites, like the Orientals in general, followed the lunar month, beginning with the new moon. In Hebrew month is yerah, which means moon, and hodes, which means new moon. The months had alternatively 29 or 30 days. To distinguish the different months the Canaaneans names, which are related to the seasons of the year, were used.
In the Bible occur the months Abib, which means green ears of corn, and stood for March-April (Exodus 13:14; Deuteronomy 21:1); Ziv, meaning flower, equivalent of April-May (II Kings 6:1,37); ETHANIM, meaning constant waters, for September -October (1 Kings 8:2) and Bul, which means rain, for October-November (1 Kings 6:38). 😊
Just listen to the Christmas carols themselves: "join the joyous *Yule* tide carol".
I love it i adore learning about some of my ancestors.
Lots to learn about the Northern Europeans 👍
Having moved only about 500 km northwards from the Netherlands to Denmark, I can already clearly notice the difference of how the days are shorter in the middle of the winter and equally longer mid summer. No wonder that Yule was so important to the Norse peoples. Very interesting video!
BTW Was that a Danish or Norwegian "glædelig jul" at the end? We need to talk... ;-)
czcams.com/video/K-X0YrHhgq0/video.html
its verry interresting i hope you can do more of these video about tradition and fun fact of history
merry christmas evryone
🌲 A Christmas Story 🎅
Ahh, Pagan time is here.
I could just smile, and tickle your ear
and tell you what, you want to hear
about this wonderful, time of year.
But I'd be remiss, to tell you this
this holiday, is not His.
What you keep, what you observe
is not Holy, not in His Word.
"They honor Me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from Me"
What does He mean? Let us see:
Santa's Workshop, at the North Pole
covered snow, and very cold.
Elves working hard, at making gifts
preparing Santa, for his trips.
Fairytale stories, to disguise
the Truth behind, these pretty lies.
Traffic jams, and verbal brawls
crowded stores, and shopping malls.
Push and shove, punch and fight
to make this Christmas, a special night.
Buy the latest, Christmas themes
decorations, and Nativity scenes.
Gotta get, the popular toy
to give your child, Christmas joy.
Competing with, all of their friends
computer games, and latest trends.
Going in debt, and lay-aways
praying for, your next paydays.
Rushing around, feeling stressed
credit cards piling debts.
Christmas, didn't even start
wishing it, was already gone.
A Christmas tree, strung with lights
twinkling on, these Christmas nights.
Gold and silver, adorn this tree
beautifully dressed, for all to see.
Hanging ornaments, a star above
perhaps an angel, or turtle dove.
Stockings stuffed, hang on the mantles
garland dressed, and burning candles.
Milk and cookies, for a man in red
coming to visit, on a magical sled.
Santa Clause, flies on his sleigh
Rudolph's nose, leads the way.
Landing on, the building tops
he's bringing gifts, at every stop.
Down the chimney, leaving toys
bringing gifts, to girls and boys.
Checking his list, and checking it twice
who's been naughty, who's been nice
but he discriminates, against the poor
there are no gifts, on the floor.
Children grieved, and wonder why
Santa Clause, wasn't by.
He didn't make it, to their house
there wasn't a sound, not even a mouse
to bring them gifts, when they tried
to be real good, as they cry.
Mistletoe, above a door
demands a kiss, and kiss some more.
Christmas wreaths, and home decor
Elf on a Shelf, you have been warned.
Parents love, this little savior
he controls their children's, bad behavior.
Songs of cheer, and merry time
sing alongs, and catchy rhymes;
🎶 Jingle Bells, Batman smells,
Robin layed an egg
Batmobile lost its wheel
and the Joker got away, Hey 🎶
🎶 Dashing through the snow
on a one horse open sleigh
O'er the fields we go
laughing all the way, ha ha ha 🎶
Crackling sound, of a Yule time log
sipping a cup, of fresh egg nog
friends and family, gather round
listening to, familiar sounds
of the songs, this time of year
bringing, Merry Christmas cheer.
Christmas cookies, and candy canes
walking down, memory lanes
Hallmark movies, Hallmark cards
Hallmark magic, touching hearts
Christmas miracles touching lives
powdered sugar, covered lies.
The abominable snowman, and the Grinch
children watching, Christmas flicks.
Ugly Sweaters, they're so much fun.
Who this time, has been out done?
Christmas parties, where all can mingle
drawing names, in a Kris Kringle
gather round, for this reason
hypocrites, in their season.
A Nativity scene, makes it right
for a baby born, not on this night
a visual worship, upon a savior
in the midst of all, this bad behavior.
But you believe, it's the price to pay
to celebrate, this special day.
Jesus Christ, is not the reason
and Christmas time, is not the season
you think His Birth, to celebrate
allow me to, elaborate.
It wasn't winter, when He was born.
It was sometime, in the Fall.
September or October, was about the time.
If you read the Scriptures, you'll know why.
Flocks were in the field, not yet cold.
Consider everything, you have been told.
Never once, does He say
to worship Him, in that way.
Passover He said,
"Remember Me by doing this"
He never once, mentioned Christmas.
And never is, an Easter time
but that's reserved, for another rhyme.
Before you worship, another way
listen to what, He has to say.
Your celebration, contradicts.
Truth and lies, do not mix.
He already told you, what to do.
Read His Words, and think them through.
He gave His Times, His Years, His Days.
He's not impressed, with your ways.
He gave His Feasts, Commands, and Laws.
He's not impressed, with any of yours.
You disobey, seems you forgot
He is God, and you are not!
Written by Sharon Ellis
Monday, November 11, 2019
Inspired by the signs of the times.
You are so incredible! Wow God blessed you with such a beautiful gift of writing and poetry. That's amazing and I loved reading your poem. It was informative and just amazing to read, I don't even have words to describe it. Thank You for sharing the truth and using the gift God gave you.
@@ariellecarroll6386 So humbling. Thank you for your comment and sweet words.
@@childofthemosthigh5219 I'm 18 I hope one day I can write as well as you. I already love to write but your gift is on a whole different level! God bless you Sharon! You are welcome I'm just speaking truth.
@@ariellecarroll6386 18 years old?! Wow, you sound so mature. You've overwhelmed me with your compliments. You'll be a great writer! I was inspired by the words of the Holy Spirit [Scripture] for this poem. He inspires me and He'll do the same for you. God bless you too 😘 sweetie. I'm glad you enjoyed it. If you have Facebook and would like to read some more, look up "POEMS by Sharon Ellis".
Ive just shared this poem everywhere and hope it enlightens as many as possible. Currently fighting christmas off, pray for me and my family. Its hard for people to wake up and realize their entire childhood traditions have been lies. Some fear not to be accepted in their own families anymore, for breaking the traditions.
I love your videos.
Muchas gracias!
No me importa un cojone ;)
Great video, thank you!! Happy Yule.
Thank you! And you too!
Nice work, as ever, Hilbert. Gladsome Yule!
Didn’t realise there was so many pagans celebrating the birth of the saviour of the world Jesus Christ😱
Didn’t realize so many Christians celebrate the pagan holiday
@@waltergrove2657 We took it from the pagans, baptised it and made it about Jesus and if the pagans don’t like that then we’re coming for the winter solstice aswell
@@Mickyboi1 Then why did you say. 'didnt realise there were so many pagans celebrating the birth of Jesus christ'?
Biblical scholars mostly agree that Yehoshua of Nazareth (Jesus) was born during the fall holy day of Sukkot, or the Feast of Tabernacles in English.
That would be around September-October
Merry Paganmas everyone!
The headbanging real ale maniac Haha..
*Yule or Jól or Juul or Jul dude, that's its real pagan name.
Christmas is actually a Chistian Holiday. Its Pagan roots are a Historical Myth, not a reality.
and happy blot and Oath day
@@CommanderM117 Wintr solstice is on the 21st, not the 25th.
I LIVE FOR THIS!!!
Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!!!! I got it now! I was always assuming that Odin was referred to as Old Father but as you refer to it as Jöl Father! That makes absolute sense now, THANKS!
And Yuletide greetings and blessings to all! Skål!
Skol friend
despite my complaints.
good video, as always
keep up the good work.
great video
Cheers man, and Gleðileg Jól!
Great video. We have mistletoe here in the US as well with the same tradition of kissing underneath it.
czcams.com/video/K-X0YrHhgq0/video.html
Thank you Hilbert, good video.
Hello! Im really enjoying your videos. Im studying history and thinking about writing my dissertation on Viking age Britain. Could you tell me more about Ragnar’s drunk oath ? Or any source pls ? Thank you and I learn a lot by watching your videos
czcams.com/video/K-X0YrHhgq0/video.html
Hail Sunna! Bring on those longer days.
Thank you for including some of my ancestors The Frisians!! Very rarely do I come across a video about the Frisii!! Or even anyone who knows who they are. Especially here in the U.S.
czcams.com/video/K-X0YrHhgq0/video.html
Merry Christmas Hilbert!
1. I believe December 25 came from the beginning of the Roman festival, the Saturnalia. Presents were given during the Saturnalia, I think.
2. Celtic druids worshiped under oak trees. Mistletoe is an epiphyte that grows on the holy oak trees of the Celtic Druids.
Mistletoe would be taken off the tree in a religious rite, and the mistletoe would have magical properties. Plus, people were married under the oak tree, which would have mistletoe in it, thus "kissing under the mistletoe".
3. Now Easter is a Celtic goddess of fertility - hence eggs & bunny rabbits being symbols of Easter.
1; No. Saturnalia ended on December 23rd, and given the shifts in cvlenar, woudl end on the 20th today as it ends a day before the winter Solstice.
2; No comment.
3; Easter had notign to do with a fertility goddess. THe Easter bunny was a Protestant invention frm the 1600's, and no one had heard of it till then. Easter Eggs were invented n the 1200's.
Most palces call it Pascha. It means Passpver. Its origins are actually Jewish.
@Anthony Mitchell You're right. It's so annoying how many people don't go study up on something before claiming it as fact. Lol we are on the internet.
Glad someone explained this that Christians hi-jacked this Time of Year. It was at this time the Pagans would have feasts to eat up ALL of their fresh food. After the solstice it was a question of living on the preserved foodstuffs until spring. As for 25th. Dec. being JC's Birthday, this was all down to a Pope in 300odd-400oddAD. On the wine with his Cardinals one day, this Pope said, "JC's Bithday is 25th. December." & that was that.
//*Long, controversial post warning*//
As a Christian, it does irk me how a lot of Christians don't know about these things. However, it's just another symptom of not knowing why they believe what they believe.
A few take it off radically in the other direction, and think that only religious holidays expressly mentioned in scripture should be celebrated by Christians. And a few smaller and even more radical "Christian" groups think that the religious holidays in the Bible absolutely must be celebrated, and no other holidays of any kind, religious or secular.
I'm here to tell everyone that the real answer is that for Christians, holidays have what meaning you give them, and Colossians chapter two leaves religious holidays as a matter of conscience and Christian liberty. If you think you ought to celebrate, then you should. If you think you ought not, then you shouldn't. To do contrary is to sin against your own conscience. As long as you're worshipping YHWH and not some other god, man, beast, or other creation, you're good to go! God sees the heart, and what's truly in it can only be known with absolute certainty between you and Him.
As far as secular holidays go, there's nothing wrong with giving honor where honor is due, so long as you are not giving them the honors that belong to God.
For those who aren't Christians who are reading this, the issue of conscience is all that applies for you. Don't feel pressured into celebrating Christian holidays; but at the same time, no Christian should make you feel unwelcome to celebrate alongside them. The *only* celebration that is reserved solely for the participation of believers is taking communion - nothing wrong with you being present at it, though.
I observe the solstices by cleaning our water well system filter, and checking our vehicles to make sure they're ready for the coming season's extremes. I observe the equinoxes by checking our individual, family, and vehicle emergency equipment and supplies. When I see the grandeurs of space and time, I am thankful to God for creating them, and glorify Him for His qualities that made the design and installation possible.
Richard Sabo Good comment.
Well I'm not a Christian, though the way you treat Christmas where the "only" celebration that is reserved to Christmas is communion is kinda BS, you are missing the entire point of the Advent period before Christmas and the "obligations" attached to it.
G-Rex Saurus
I'm sorry, I don't understand what you're trying to say. Could you please elaborate a little more? I am interested in hearing what you have to say.
I'm just saying that there is, historically at least, more than just the communion as part of the actual practices that have a religious meaning.
G-Rex Saurus
Ok, I think that my choice of words may have given you the wrong idea. For that, I do apologise.
The other things besides communion do have their due religious significance, and I did not mean to give the impression that I'm diminishing them at all. What I was trying to say, is that all those other things are open for those who haven't believed yet, too. God wants to include everyone who wants to be included, without any qualifications, because no one _is_ qualified.
There are a couple reasons why communion is the one thing that is undebatably reserved for believers only. Firstly, partaking in communion is to proclaim the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, until He returns. So, for a person who is openly an unbeliever to take communion is essentially to openly mock Jesus. Secondly, 1 Corinthians 11:27-32 contains the description of taking communion in an unworthy manner, and lists it as a sin against the body and blood of Christ. Included in this is Christians who are in engaged open rebellion. In both cases of the unbeliever and the Christian in open rebellion, it's not the sin that's the problem, but their attitude towards their sin. We all sin, and we all have human frailties and weaknesses. The difference is for someone who is truly a Christian is that there is an attitude of repentance; and with that comes the forgiveness that Jesus bought with His life, death, and resurrection.
Whether believer or unbeliever, we all need Jesus, and for the same reason. Communion is for believers only, not because we deserve the privilege, but because we don't and we acknowledge it. That's grace - free, pure, and simple.
One of the most popular gods in roman europe was Mithras, it is said that he was born on the 25th of December and his mother was a virgin familiar story for every one just older
Yes! That is where the 25th comes from. Mithras, another “sun god,” was “born” on 12/25, so the Roman Catholic Church flipped it to the “Son of God,” and here we are. God tells us never to worship Him in any way that false gods were worshipped, and since every single tradition of Xmas originated from false god worship, Xmas is blasphemy. Tore me up when I learned this after heavy research and intense Scripture study years ago. Same concept for Easter…..the church flipped up fertility goddess worship for something Jesus related, when history makes it clear Jesus was crucified during Passover. The lies we have inherited run deep, and it is up to us to uncover them. Modern Christianity promotes them sadly. (We are also warned in Scripture about traditions of men we are to stay away from)
Another excellent video. Groeten uit Brabant!
God jul!
Axel Johnsson God Jul!😀
Axel Johnsson god jul och gott nytt år!
God jul og godt nytår min ven!
Dutch is pretty spicy too. I enjoyed the rambly nature of this video.
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it ;)
Have a really nice time. Best wishes.
Nice vid bro. Here's a question for you. Can you see the northern lights in Scandinavia...if so..are there any legends about the lights in pagan mythology?
Nice! your Dutch pronunciation sounds freakishly accurate (to this German). Are you bilingual or just really good/meticulous? Your Old Norse (or whatever it is) sounds pretty good too.
I just got to the point where you do German. You're an accent genius!
he's natively dutch
Hilbert is of Frisian Dutch descent and was born in the Netherlands, but his family moved to England when he was very young. I am quite sure they speak Dutch at home, which of course helps, but still I have to agree that his language skills are very strong.
Though I am probably gonna have to help him with Danish. :-)
Phrenomythic
I think that your B D G show up in Spanish words like abogado and bodega.
Hi there, I generally liked this video and I don't want to nit pick BUT. It just this thing about Baldur, Freyja is not his mother, she is actually from a different family of gods (Vanir) and joined the Æsir along with her brother Freyr and father Njördur. Baldur is the son of Odin and Odins wife Frigg 🙂 Ceep up the good work, love the episodes.
I understand that there is many different versions of the story. But when I was small it was always told that Sköll, one of Fenrirs sons would be the one to swallow the sun at the start of ragnarök. And his brother Hate would devour the moon. Fantastic video though!
Also Balder is the son of Oden and Frigg in the swedish version. Freja her brother Frej and their father Njord are the only examples of the other god-race vanir, while Balder and all the rest are aesir.
I've read into the Norse gods a little and there seems to be a strong movement indicating that Freyja and Frigg are in fact the same Goddess or were collated at some point. Yes you are right about his sons eating the sun and moon and stars respectively! Forgot to mention that in the video! In the village across from mine in the church there is actually an Anglo-Danish stone with a carving of a wolf swallowing a disc - so most likely a depiction of this at Ragnarok, especially given the closely situated carving of a figure blowing into a large horn which is most likely Heimdallr with the Gjallarhorn.
blod452 historian Alf Henriksson had the explanation that Frigg was a Vanir and Niord's sister
That sounds true enough :) Truer than what I just vaguely remember from when I was 6 or 7 years old. I love how alive history is. You always find new things and come up with new theories and interpretations! God jul :D
Ragnarok won't start until three roosters(Fjalar in Jotunheim, an unnamed red-soot rooster in Hel, and Gullinkambi in Asgard) announce it to the Giants, the dishonorable dead and the gods.
Also the romans have a day where they celebrate the sun and give gift to each other; Sol Invictus, and it was celebrated on the 25th of December
cyberpenance.wordpress.com/2016/12/08/no-christmas-is-not-based-on-a-pagan-holiday-2/
White Christmas, Black Friday, Santa's white beard, Rudolph the reindeer's bright red nose lighting up the night, January white sales--all modern day riffs on the battle of light vs. dark.
This video is amazing! Do you have any print sources on these subjects? I'd love to read more!
czcams.com/video/K-X0YrHhgq0/video.html
Hey...... don't forget Ratatoskr. He had to fill in for Santa Claus a few times when he was drunk.🎅🐿️
Hey man great video I was just wondering if your going to make a video about indentured servitude in early America ?
Great videos Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas!
Great video man, lots to think about
Hely HIlber. I love everything you have so far. Yes, we have mistletoe in the US
Even though it's not northern European in origin, you should have talked about Saturnalia (Roman pagan festival at the same time), since early Christianity was mostly organized around Roman culture and traditions, so likely Saturnalia if not the original reason for the use of December 25th as Christmas day, it's probably the major reason (of course, in general, it's the Winter solstice and its symbolism as regeneration/renewal... So, many pagan traditions around this time ended up contributing)
How ironic that on 21th of December 2017 Saturn passed behind the Sun...
We don;'t have any evidence that Christians took rom Paganism the holiday or most of he customs. And the actual Saturnalia festical actually ended on the 23rd of December.
@@skwills1629 incorrect
@@theyeticlutch3486 - If what I said is incorrect, then show actual evidence.Because I'm tired of people defending Historical Claims that simply aren't True by doing nothing more than telling me that I'm wrong.
Show evidence that I am incorrect. Don't just say I'm incorrect.
@@skwills1629 you said there is no evidence christianity took from pagan holidays. How and why is it that the birth of christ is celebrated on dec 25th?
I can see the similarities in ancient Latvian and Lithuanian pagan beliefs
The last European pagans am I right?
@@historywithhilbert146
One of the Baltics was indeed the last European kingdom (or nation or whatever) to convert to Christianity, but I can never remember which of them it was.
@@JK-ml2rc Thanks.
Freya is not the godess of love. Only one stanza of the Edda says something like that, but never was there any form of worship of her as the godess of love. She's more sort of a great godess of the world and of anything mysterious and unexplained, and even death.
Reading Maria Kvilhaug's Seed of Yggradsil is a really good way of understanding what paganism was all about. Not just the 'cool viking battle-shit' most people think paganism is about
Thanks Hilbert. Informative and entertaining as always. It's a good feeling to know that the old ways are still celebrated, despite the best efforts of Christianity to subsume them. Merry Christmas to you and all your followers (including myself).
Not all the Christians celebrated Sunday/Christmas & Easter.
Just those who unknowingly follow the Pope do.
@@elliotu9268 The pope is part of the same monster as the priest (pacifier). And the outstanding evangelist is similar to a paid actor, in terms of their role (stir shit up).
in poland christmas is on the 24th starting around 6pm and then you go look for a christmas star and then magically you get presents under the christmas tree
Good video. I'm glad you steered clear of one of the biggest myths about Christmas: that is, that the Church chose that date specifically to coincide with the pagan festivals around that time. While it's possible that was a factor, I'm yet to find any evidence to support it. The evidence we do have shows that the early Church chose the date because they believed that due to Jesus' perfection, he would have been conceived on the same day of the year that he died. This would mean, if conceived on March 25th, his birth date should be December 25th. They didn't have any evidence for when he was actually born, so this is the date they selected. Now, they certainly hated pagans, so it's quite possible this was also a factor that was simply never documented, but as far as I'm aware there's no evidence to support it. That said, it's also obvious to everyone that intentional or not, the pagan festivals were rapidly absorbed and overshadowed by Christmas, helping the Church brush aside pagan beliefs in favor of their own.
Plenty of evidence they stole a lot of other things so one would assume they also stole Christmas.
very nice ...i did not know much about the northern roots of xmas ...i thought it had more to do with mythra and more ancient religions
So happy to know MANY are awakening
Skyrim for the nords
Merry Christmas Hilbert
God/Glædelig Jul fra Danmark :)
I love the Swedish flag present at 2:30
Another great video, Hilbert. Observation: Given your description of Jolfadr it makes one wonder if that might have been what J.R.R. Tolkien, had in mind when he created his character of Gandalf: hat, cloak, a staff that doubles as a spear, long white hair, beard, bringing people 'gifts', etc? Just a thought. Anyone else reading this have the same thought?
Given that Tolkein was Catholic when I look at Gandalf fighting a Balrog & apparently dying it's hard not to see parallels with Christ Himself.
Brilliant video, I’m subscribing
All of us in Northern Europe and with access to a window *KNOW* why people in the past at this time of the year decided to stay inside and make it warm and light and nice(*) and have a party :)
(*Hygge / gezellig / gemütlich etc... )
Jole, Wheel... would that be Tsjil in Frysk? That's the only link I can make between Dutch English and Frysk... there's jil (jole) in there so it's something.
Also Hilbert, I wonder if you can make a video about funerals.
Here in Fryslân we have the tradition of doing the following: Once the part of the funeral is done and we go to the graveyard (usually surrounding the church) we walk with the diseased in the front (on a baar, basically a cart) and do 1 full lap around the church. I don't know if that's specific to Fryslân but my father was bode for my village and he said that's a pagan relic as well, to drive out bad spirits.
There's more of those type of things though, not so much pagan but you know how in the 16h century there was the beeldenstorm? Our church (from 1335) was also struck by that, my father found a note to the koster (guy that keeps watch over the church from a day to day basis) with the assignment to get rid of the altar in the church. Ours was never found, but I asked around on the internet where it'd probably lay buried (as they're heavy, they won't have been carried far) and a guy online said how there's a specific spot where it's probably buried. It's all about symbolism, so they buried it under the entrance to the church, so that people literally and figuratively walked upon the old belief. Quite funny that.
Hi. Can someone please tell me how the dragons name at 4:13 is spelled? I keep trying to research it but my attempts are empty no matter how I spell it.
4:10 yggdrasil is pronounced "YGG-DRA-SIL"
also to replace Saturnalia
This! :D
The Finnish version is way more hardcore with the "Joulupukki" meaning "Yule Goat" which is what we still call the Santa Claus. Huge horned man who expects to get presents or he'll eat your kids. According to folk lore people lured him on to a large lake in the middle of nowhere and sank him there and piled A LOT of dirt on it and now there is a mountain where the coca cola Santa has his cottage on.
imgur.com/gallery/Z9bAv
Making oaths while drunk isn’t always the best idea.
Fijne kerstdagen!
I heard that if enemy Celtic warriors would meet and found themselves meeting under a tree with mistletoe in the branches, they would meet in peace and then go their separate ways.
Traditional Swedish farms are still centered around a "Vårdträd" that should be of an "ädelträd" species, such as oak, elm.
I do blót on the day of the wild hunt. Mead for Óðinn and carrots for Sleipnir.
The Celts also contributed. It was not all about the Germans.
*germanic
its hard to tell I think, but it seem like celts could have been one of many germanic tribes.
The whole celt/germanic thing. Doesn't really exist. They were more or less the same poeple. Its the romans that confused them.
@@leighjordine4031 the celts culture is different though
@@Erik-zd2oi yes it is different but not massively.
I scrolled through a lot of comments and didn't see any about this so I'll go. Seems to me you are intrigued by history and historical interpretations so i wonder if you have any thoughts about the Hasmoneans, Maccabeans and the whole Hannukah story? Not the miracle part, but the military bit. I don't think it's exactly in your area of specialization, but have you any comments?
Solitary Wiccan here! So happy to see this video! At times it feels like I'm the only one who remembers. I want to say as a neopagan that the pagan origins of Christmas in no way invalidate Christianity. I was raised Christian and have a great deal of respect for the teachings of Christ. When it comes to religion we focus way too much on all the ways that we are different, and I wish that equal emphasis was placed on our similarities because we all have so much in common.
Wishing everyone a blessed Yule during these trying times!
Wiccan is just cheap plastic
@@goldenerafanatic4042 More like Crowleyan buggery
Pagans ripped off Christmas, not the other way around: czcams.com/video/smYqXBzTfEk/video.html
blogs.ancientfaith.com/asd/2018/12/05/no-christmas-is-not-pagan-just-stop/
www.thegoodshepherd.org.au/why-christmas-not-pagan
@@Cobruh_Commander your saying its just a coincidence that Christians do things pagans have been doing much longer?
@@tommysullivan9290 It all depends on context, the things used in Christmas aren't pagan in essence, you can't claim trees for yourself.
The following is my reply to a CZcams video titled "The Truth About Christmas - The Start of the Tribulation." The video was posted on CZcams on Sunday December 11, 2022. Here's my reply:
The Canaanites were celebrating the winter solstice ritual in honor of Baal 5000 years ago. In each household they had a tree (phallus symbol), a wreath (vagina symbol), and they exchanged gifts. Many centuries later the ancient Romans were celebrating the ritual in honor of Saturn and doing it the same way (tree, wreaths, gifts). Their name for the ritual was 'Saturnalia.' In around 300 A.D. the Catholic Church priestclass renamed the ritual 'Christmas.' They did it as an evangelistic ploy to attract people away from Saturn worship. The majority of the Roman people were Saturn worshipers. The temple of Saturn was the biggest building in ancient Rome. The temple priests were very wealthy and the Catholic priestclass wanted to get in on the cash cow.
The spirit behind Christmas is Saturn (Old Testament Baal). The Apostle John called him 'The Spirit of Antichrist" (counterfeit Christ who seeks to mimic the Holy Spirit). He is the principality of idolatry, plus he is the spirit of top-down-control (seeks to manifest through men-at-the-top, e.g. leaders of nations, governments, religions, corporations, military, academia, medicine, media, finance, etc.). The ancient Babylonians and Assyrians called him Bel. The ancient Greeks called him Cronos. The ancient Hindus called him Indra. Same spirit going by different names in different cultures and in different time periods.
It was very important to him to implement the winter solstice ritual as he understood that when a person celebrates (honors) the ritual it gives him automatic rights of access to their human spirit (conscience, intuition, and the ability to commune with the Holy Spirit) and to have ongoing influence on their spiritual life (the kingdom of darkness is all about control).
Jesus was born on September 11, 3 B.C. by the Julian Calendar. Bethlehem is 2500 ft. above sea level so that in December there would've been no grass for the sheep to eat (see Luke 2:8-20 in the King James Version). Jesus had nothing to do with Christmas (never did and never will). You can verify this information online, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to find information that goes against the system narrative (propaganda/brainwash).
You deserve more subs