The Romans held a festival on December 25 called Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, “the birthday of the unconquered sun.” The use of the title Sol Invictus allowed several solar deities to be worshipped collectively, including Elah-Gabal, a Syrian sun god; Sol, the god of Emperor Aurelian (AD 270-274); and Mithras, a soldiers’ god of Persian origin. Emperor Elagabalus (218-222) introduced the festival, and it reached the height of its popularity under Aurelian, who promoted it as an empire-wide holiday.

December 25 was also considered to be the date of the winter solstice, which the Romans called bruma. It was therefore the day the Sun proved itself to be “unconquered” despite the shortening of daylight hours. (When Julius Caesar introduced the Julian Calendar in 45 BC, December 25 was approximately the date of the solstice. In modern times, the solstice falls on December 21 or 22.)

Pagan Scandinavia and England celebrated a winter festival called Yule in the late December to early January period on a date determined by a lunar calendar. With the coming of Christianity and the adoption of the Julian calendar, Christmas was placed on December 25 in order to correspond with Yule. Christmas, a minor Christian festival in the Early Middle Ages, owes much of its popularity and character to Yule. The twelve-day celebration characteristic of Medieval Christmas may have originated with the twelve-day Yule celebration. Pagan Yule traditions survive in the form of the Yule log. In England, Yule was the common name for Christmas in Medieval times. Jul is still the common name for the holiday in Scandinavia.

Maybe we’re just better off cloistering ourselves off from the world, but making sure that we’re not silent (because that could lead to contemplative prayer, you know)…

If we’re going to use Ken & amy’s measuring stick here, perhaps we should no longer celebrate Easter, either:

The English name, “Easter”, and the German, “Ostern”, derive from the name of a putative Germanic Goddess of the Dawn (thus, of spring, as the dawn of the year) — called Ä’aster, Ä’astre, and Ä’ostre in various dialects of Old English. In England, the annual festive time in her honor was in the “Month of Easter” or Ä’ostur-monath, equivalent to April/Aprilis. The Venerable Bede, an 8th Century English Christian monk wrote in Latin:

“Eostur-monath, qui nunc paschalis mensis interpretatur, quondam a dea illorum quae Eostre vocabatur et cui in illo festa celebrabant nomen habuit.”

Translates as: “Eostur-month, which is now interpreted as the paschal month, was formerly named after the goddess Eostre, and has given its name to the festival.”

* The word “YOGA” (and other associated words) is Sanskrit. Sanskrit is the prayer language of Hinduism and is to Hinduism what Latin is to Christianity, or Hebrew to Judaism or Arabic to the religion of Islam.

* The word “YOGA” translates into “Spiritual Union” which is the identical meaning of the word “RELIGION.” (Therefore it is an “obvious” fallacy that “yoga” is not “religion.”)

Let’s apply this logic to another scenario. In Arabic “Muslim” means “submission to Allah.” “Allah” is not only the proper noun for the name of the Islamic god, but also the generic word for God/god. Therefore, a believer in the Trinitarian God of the Scriptures could call themselves a “Muslim” since that would fit all the technical definitions of the words.

Of course, to do so would require ignoring connotations and context – but, hey, let’s not quibble about details…

Neil

Yawn…

Most intelligent Christians know the difference between the stretching and the “religion” and most do not practice the “religion” or they at least adapt it to a “christian version” meaning, they pray to God, in Jesus Name as the “breathe” and “stretch”.

It seems people who address this as others are integrating the “religion” with the exercise miss that others are smarter than they give them credit for…

Blessings,
iggy

You hit it right on the head… if we did the exercises and called it something else, Ken probably wouldn’t have a problem with it. I dunno though, he might actually be suggesting that putting your body in a certain stretch opens your soul to Hinduism. With his logic, anything goes.

Thank you, James, for the apt comparison…

* The word “YOGA” translates into “Spiritual Union” which is the identical meaning of the word “RELIGION.” (Therefore it is an “obvious” fallacy that “yoga” is not “religion.”)

http://www.classicalyoga.org/Page31.html

there is nothing wrong with the meat (yoga, a real form of exercise) but dont be involved with the sacrifices(Hinduism). Of course, let’s be careful not to offend our weaker brothers and sisters. : )