By Sarah Smith
For the Daily Titan

It’s the holiday season and while some people will be out shopping, caroling, burning a Yule log with friends and family or shaking their groove thang at the nearest party, few people actually know why they’re celebrating.

Oh yes, the holiday season and the supposed cheer in the air are wonderful things to celebrate. Egg nog and good will toward man are superb. Christmas trees are beautiful and Hanukkah menorahs are striking.

But few know that most of these traditions have roots in ancient pagan festivals and activities.
“The devil comes from pagan iconography,” said Kristine Thune, 22, an illustration major. “When early Christianity was trying to convert people, they wanted to scare the pagans into becoming Christian so they made their god into the devil.”

In fact, many common practices are influenced directly by pagan traditions. Most major monotheistic holidays, particularly those followed by the Christian faith, were celebrated on the same days of then-current pagan holidays.

“Easter is really a fertility holiday to the pagans. It had nothing to do with Jesus. It was an ancient fertility holiday. That’s why there’s colored eggs and bunnies,” Thune said.

Christmas was once an ancient fertility festival celebrated by early Germanic people before it was absorbed by Christianity. This is where the tradition of burning a Yule log really comes from.
Even after learning about the roots of these holidays, animation major Marie Prophete, 22, said she’s, “not surprised.”

“Even if I hear that stuff, my faith keeps me going anyway,” Prophete said.

“Holidays are fun anyway. I like them. I still get presents on Christmas and have fun on Halloween. It doesn’t have to be about Jesus these days,” Thune said.

Spirituality and paganism are growing in America and around the world. But getting some of today’s spiritually-enlightened to reveal themselves can be quite a challenge, even at the time of year when religious fervor is at its peak.

“There have been a few art exhibits that have tackled religious issues but in an area that is so conservative, people might be scared to really show who they are, through art or otherwise,” said Joanna Roche, 54, an art historian and Cal State Fullerton professor.

In today’s world where entire wars can be started in the name of someone’s god, it’s easy to see why people who follow alternate paths may be a little hesitant to step out into the limelight. Memories of the Salem Witch Trials and even recent protests regarding aspects of popular culture such as “Harry Potter” and “Twilight” linger.

This may be why it is so difficult to find any pagans, even if you are one.

Women’s studies major Annora Borden, 20, has followed a pagan faith since she was in eighth grade. Now a junior in college, Borden recounts that from high school until today it has been hard to find a pagan community.

She said she feels less pagan sometimes because she is so uninvolved, which almost makes her doubt herself and her faith.

“Instead of connecting with the universe, you’re just some girl standing there in a silly dress. Without that community, you can never develop as full a spiritual awareness as you could,” Borden said.

Most people think of pagans as an obscure, devil-worshiping group that are constantly on the verge of sacrificing a virgin, or as a hodgepodge neo-hippie collective of people relentlessly attending protests and dancing naked under the full moon. For the most part, these assumptions are wrong.

“Paganism is so beautiful. It’s so accepting and doesn’t make you follow one specific doctrine. It doesn’t damn you for being different,” Borden said.

While a pagan is technically anyone who believes in more than a single, all-powerful being, some people believe pagans are anyone who is not a standard Christian, Muslim or Jew. An odd viewpoint considering that many traditions of today’s more popular religions are founded or even directly copied from ancient pagan traditions.

The original Jewish religion worshipped a pantheon. The idea of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit comes from ancient pagan tradition, and even the uplifting of the Virgin Mary is based in paganism. The sacred feminine, and with it much of the thought-to-be-dead pagan tradition, survived in some form or other.

“Man is a part of nature, not separate or above. A part. A steward. Pagans are simply people who are deeply connected with that idea and understand it,” Borden said.

“I think our society is so confined that it needs those things to help people let loose and reach out, to find themselves. I think paganism is sort of viewed that way: rebellious, even if that’s not really what it is,” Roche said.