How Pagan Traditions Became Christian Holidays‼️

Baruch Hashem

 Shalom dear readers. I hope this blog finds you in high spirits. 

Every year, people across the world celebrate January 1st as the beginning of a new year with fireworks, parties, resolutions, and fresh calendars. But did you know that this date originates from the worship of Janus, the Roman god of beginnings and endings? January was named after Janus, the two-faced deity who looks both backward and forward (past and future).The Romans set this date specifically to honor him. (See image.)

In my previous post, I explained how the seventh day (Shabbat) was replaced with Sunday in the calendar . In a similar way, the Hebrew calendar, which was the earliest calendar system, was replaced. The Hebrew calendar was given to the people of Israel to calculate months, appointed times, and festivals according to the Lord’s instructions. When the Roman Empire rose to power, they created their own calendar system, which later became the Julian calendar under Julius Caesar. The Romans never adopted the Hebrew calendar.

After Judea fell under Roman rule, the Temple was destroyed, and Jews were forbidden from publicly observing their festivals. Yet they continued to keep the Hebrew calendar in secret, preserving it through generations. Centuries later, Pope Gregory XIII reformed the Julian calendar, creating what we now know as the Gregorian calendar. While it is officially claimed that this reform was to correct leap-year errors, the actual reason was the complete imposition of the Roman calendar and Roman feast days upon the people.

By the 4th century, the early Roman Church fixed:

• December 25 as the birth of Yeshua, aligned with the birth festival of Sol Invictus, the “Unconquered Sun,” a major Roman solar deity.

• Easter in alignment with fertility celebrations associated with Ostara deity(Goddess of Fertility)

• January 1 as New Year, honoring Janus.

  These dates were not derived from Scripture but from Roman pagan worship.

  Daniel prophesied this very thing: “He shall think to change times and laws” (Daniel 7:25)

  This points to the alteration of the Lord’s appointed times, Shabbat, the feasts, and Hebrew  calendar. 

  

                              

  
  

  Then & Now : The Evolution of Holidays

  How did the Roman Church form if its roots were pagan?

  (Fact : All the other Christian denominations we see today originated from the Roman Catholic Church)

  Yeshua and His first followers were all Jewish.
  They observed the Torah, the feasts, Shabbat, and the Hebrew calendar.
  The apostles went out proclaiming the Good News of the Messiah, while Israel remained under Roman occupation.

  Yeshua of Nazareth was executed under Roman authority during the time of Pontius Pilate. Not long after, the Roman Empire entered a period of intense political unrest. The execution of a righteous man and the rapid spread of belief in Him caused riots, division, and fear of rebellion throughout the empire.

  By the time Emperor Constantine came to power, the Roman Empire was facing:

  • Internal political corruption

  • Power struggles among emperors

  • A growing population of people who believed in the Messiah

  • Increasing tension between pagan Romans and Messiah-believers

  Constantine feared that continued conflict would divide and weaken the empire (because Roman Empire was the strongest and greatest at that time). To stabilize his rule, he made a calculated political decision, he publicly accepted the Messiah not out of repentance or faith, but as a strategy to unify the empire.

  However, Constantine did not abandon paganism. Instead of removing idol worship, he rebranded it.

  Roman priests resisted abandoning their gods and festivals. They wanted to continue worshipping as before, without disturbance. Constantine accommodated them by taking the same pagan deities and assigning them new names and meanings under the umbrella of the Roman Church.

  • To worship the sun god, on Sunday  called ‘the venerable day of the Sun,’ people were told that Yeshua rose on Sunday, replacing the original Shabbat observance.

  • Pagan spring fertility festival was  renamed as the “resurrection day” Easter

  • The birth festival of Sol Invictus was renamed as the birth of Yeshua

  • Rosh Hashanah (New year according to scripture) was replaced with January 1, honoring Janus

  The worship itself did not change, only the labels did. 

  To understand this strategy, we can look at a modern example from Kerala. Some Communist leaders in Kerala have participated in Ayyappa devotion, organized Pookkalam, or joined Shobha-yathras. They do not do this because they became religious or abandoned their secular beliefs. They do it as a political strategy, to connect with the people, protect their support base, and maintain influence and of course for the vote bank. The Roman Empire did the same thing. They also taught people, “It is the same god; only the name is different.”

  This idea all gods are one allowed pagan worship to continue while appearing unified under a new religious identity.

  Over time, this Romanized faith spread across the empire. It eventually became institutionalized as Catholicism from the Greek word katholikos, meaning “universal.” The goal was not covenant obedience, but wide control or to spread this kind of faith universally and uniformly. 

  Later, divisions occurred within this system, giving rise to branches such as the Latin (Roman) Catholic Church, centered increasingly in Italy and separated administratively from its earlier roots.

  Pagan priestly models replaced the priesthood defined by Scripture ‼️

  After the Roman Empire merged pagan traditions with the faith of the Messiah, the leadership and priesthood that Scripture ordained were replaced by hierarchies and titles modeled after pagan priests, rather than the Biblical model.

  Levitical Priesthood (when the Temple existed):

  • Appointed by Lord Himself (Exodus 28)

  • Lineage-based (sons of Aaron)

  • Functioned strictly according to Torah instructions

  • No political authority

  • No self-exalting titles

  Post Temple / Through Salvation :

  • Believers are a “royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9)

  • After the destruction of the Second Temple (70 AD), sacrifices stopped

  • Yeshua became the once-for-all sacrifice

  • Yeshua is now the eternal High Priest (Hebrews 7)

  • Believers have direct access to Lord (no priest or pastors needed) 

  • No physical Temple is required (no need of churches or halls to worship) 

    1 Corinthians 3:16 “Do you not know that you are the temple of Lord and that the Spirit of Lord dwells in you?)

  • No earthly priesthood is needed to mediate salvation

  We have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Yeshua, the Son of the Lord.” Hebrews 4:14

   Pagan Priesthood : The one we see today

  •  Priests were connected to the state or emperor. They weren’t just spiritual leaders, they had political authority too.

  • They used grand titles like High Priest or his Highness to show status above ordinary people.

  • Priests decided how people worshipped, controlled it and ran Sunday worships and festivals, and followed traditions instead of Lord’s instructions.

  • Only certain people could become priests, often by family or political choice. Ordinary people couldn’t approach the gods directly.

  • Priests combined different gods and practices, telling people “all gods are one” to unify everyone under their control.(Including some Hindu customs made way for idol worship).

  Thus, the Roman Catholic Church did not emerge from the original faith of the Messiah (Jew) and His followers(Jews), but from a political fusion of Roman power, pagan tradition, and rebranded belief. Your ancestors were put in jail and forced to follow it, made to worship a pagan god, without having a choice or a voice and that is what many have continued to follow even today, despite having the freedom to choose. Just like in the earlier days, Muslims also used kill and force to make people follow their religion, showing that history often repeats when power and religion are combined. 

  So now ask yourself, what have you truly been following? 

  Seek and you shall find the truth! Like I did and let it set you free. 

  Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, But to Your name give glory, Because of your mercy, Because of your truth”.  Psalms 115 :1 

  Toda Aaba.