Reflections on Yule Part One-The Lie of Christmas (the Dating)

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stele_Sol_Invictus_Terme.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Stele_Sol_Invictus_Terme.jpg

Baths of Diocletian, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

 

This series of essays originated as a reaction to the recent and sudden emergence of 'Christian Nationalism' in the United Kingdom, which is yet another unwanted and unasked for import from that loony bin of religious nutters, the United States. 'Tommy Robinson's' recent public promotion of Christianity is causing a third nationalist force or movement to arise in this country: 'Christian Nationalism', which as I have argued in my earlier essay, The Dangers of 'Christian Nationalism' Arising in the United Kingdom is a relatively new nationalist movement and 'Robinson' is one of its key architects. The other two nationalist movements being Civic Nationalism and Ethnic Nationalism or Ethno-nationalism.

'Christian Nationalism' is not only a nationalist movement in its own right but has the potential to unite the other two factions, Ethnic Nationalism and Civic Nationalism. If this is allowed to happen then it would exert a powerful influence upon any future government of a 'nationalist' sentiment, such as a potential government led by Reform Uk Ltd. We have seen how 'Christian Nationalism' has, during Trump's two terms in office, exerted an influence upon policies flowing from the 'Oval Office'. If this were to happen in this country, one can envisage how 'Christian Nationalism' may quickly shed its snakeskin and transform into a fully ledged 'Christofascist' movement. Once given temporal power, the Church, as in the past, misuses this power for its own ends. In such a society, anyone with diverging political and religious views may face a certain amount of persecution.  

Having established my reason for starting this series of essays, I must now move on to discuss how the Church gradually transformed the ancient pre-Christian feast of Yule by superimposing an artificial Christian veneer. Let us start with the date of 'Christmas', 25th December. As anyone who has ever read the gospel accounts in the New Testament can affirm, there is no evidence in those accounts of the 'birth' of 'Jesus' to substantiate such a date, and to be fair, the vast majority of Christians, both real and imaginary ('Christian Nationalists') would readily agree with that. So what is the significance, if any, of that date? Quite simply, in the Roman Empire, the 25th December was commemorated as the day of the 'birth of the sun', being the winter solstice in the Roman calendar. The calendar of Antiochus of Athens, a notable Greek astrologer, who lived between the late first and the mid second century CE marks that date as the 'birthday of the Sun'. From 274 CE, the Roman festival of dies natalis Solis Invictus (the day of birth of the invincible sun) was held on 25th December. Please note that Latin words should never be capitalised, even at the beginning of a sentence, the only exception being that of proper nouns, and Sol Invictus is a proper noun. The emperor, Aurelian (Lucius Domitius Aurelianus), c. 214-275 CE, revived the cult of the sun god, and raised Sol Invictus to being the primary god of the empire.

Now the question may be asked, did the tradition of celebrating Christ's 'birthday' precede the dating of dies natalis Solis Invictus? There is no evidence that it did: the earliest evidence for the dating of the 'birthday' of 'Jesus' is the Filocalian Calendar, produced in 354 CE for a wealthy Roman citizen, Valentinus by Furius Dionysius Filocalus, an illustrator, mapmaker, scribe and stone engraver, who became the official engraver of Pope Damasus (304-384 CE). Of course, one may legitimately argue that 'lack of evidence is not evidence of absence' and they would be perfectly correct, but as the primary texts of Christianity, namely the gospels, do not specify a date, and given that the winter solstice was already an established festival in Europe, known in the Germanic lands as Yule, then it would be equally legitimate to argue that this date was chosen by the Church in order to provide a Christian veneer to a clearly pagan festival. The symbolism of the birth of the infant sun and its growing light in a dark world would not have been lost on the likes of Augustine in the fourth century CE, who commented on this in his sermons. Conveniently for the Church, the winter solstice festival is a nice and neat nine months from the date of the spring equinox in the Roman calendar, 25th March and known as the 'Annunciation', the conception of the Christ child by the 'virgin' Mary.   

Islam, an Abrahamic religion which also acknowledges 'Jesus' as a prophet, contends that his birth occurred sometime between June and October, giving plenty of scope for the Jesus freaks to make their argument that he could have been born in any of one of six months: plenty to choose from! Of all the various Christian sects, only the Jehovah's Witnesses have, in my opinion, the correct view. They view 'Christmas' as a later addition by the Church, pointing out that the earliest Christians did not celebrate his birth and that the concept originated in the fourth century CE, using the Roman feast of Saturnalia as its template. The feast of Saturnalia, as the name suggests, was held in honour of the Roman god, Saturn. It was celebrated on 17th December according to the Julian calendar. The Julian calendar was a solar one, proposed by Gaius Julius Caesar in 46 BCE, replacing an earlier lunisolar one. This remained the predominant calendar in the western hemisphere until the introduction of the Gregorian calendar, introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 CE.  The Jehovah's Witnesses argue that as the shepherds would have been unlikely to be out in the fields in December, they propose that early October would have been a more logical time.

Sol Invictus is not the only god to be 'born' on 25th December: he is accompanied by a host of other deities who share the same birthday: Horus, Osiris, Attis, Zoroaster, Heracles, Mithra, Krishna, the Buddha, Tammuz, Adonis, Bacchus, Hermes, Prometheus and Dionysus. My sincerest apologies to any deities whom I may have inadvertently omitted to mention! 

The Dangers of 'Christian Nationalism' Arising in the United Kingdom

 My readers will note that I have placed 'Christian Nationalism' in inverted commas, the simple reason being is that this ideology is an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms, as anyone familiar with the New Testament knows:

                              "There is neither Jew, nor Greek, there is neither bond, nor free,

                                there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ

                                Jesus." (Galatians 3:28, KJV)     

The aforementioned quotation is an echo of sorts of the words of the fictional and mythological construct, 'Jesus':

                                "But he willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who 

                                 is my neighbour?" (Luke 10: 29, KJV)       

                                

After relating the parable of the 'Good Samaritan', 'Jesus' made it clear to the man that all whom he encounters should be viewed as his 'neighbour'. This thinking is at sharp contrast with those who espouse the nonsensical ideology of 'Christian Nationalism', which like all bad ideas is an import from the United States. As an aside, my late mother, a practising spiritualist predicted the rise of 'Christian Nationalism' and its spread from the United States to the United Kingdom. Bearing in mind that she died in 1989, this is an incredible prediction which has since come true.

In recent months, I have seen the rise of new channels and old channels on Youtube dedicated to spreading 'Christian Nationalist' propaganda, always without exception, linked to anti-Islamic sentiment and mass immigration. There is nothing particularly new in this as this drivel began to be spouted by the British National Party in the early 2,000s. Realising that directly attacking mass immigration on racial grounds was legally problematic and not conducive to electoral support, they swiftly began to take up the banner of 'Christian Nationalism', although they did not, as far as I remember, use that expression. They attacked Islam while hiding behind the banner of a fake Christianity. With the demise of the BNP, this strategy was taken up by the Britain First Party, who would often parade on the streets behind a large wooden cross. There is nothing remotely 'Christian' about the politics of these two parties. As we have seen, this became a failed strategy at the time and helped neither party electorally.

With the rise of Reform UK Ltd and its little sister, Advance UK, and bearing in mind the rising popularity of both organisations, it seems pertinent to me to examine their stated stance on the issue of Christianity and its relationship to the United Kingdom. I shall start with Advance UK first as their statement is unambiguous:

                                         "The Party promotes and celebrates the Nation's

                                           Christian constitution, roots, traditions, culture,

                                           and values."  (https://www.advanceuk.org.uk/mission 

                                           accessed on 12/11/25).

Note the use of the verb 'promote'! Interestingly, its current leader is a businessman, Benyamin Naeem Habib, a British citizen of Pakistani Muslim paternal heritage. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbXBX4c8_Wg ) . His mother was an English Anglican and Habib himself is not a Muslim. I am not sure what the relevance of Advance UK is apart from its potential to split the Reform UK Ltd vote! 

The real worry comes from Reform UK Ltd. Very wisely, they have decided not to mention their stance on Christianity in any of their policy documents ( Reform UK Policy Documents ). Therefore, in order to ascertain their position on the subject of religion, we must delve far deeper. One Reform councillor has reportedly told Northumberland County Council 'that children should only be taught Christianity in Religious Education because exposure to other religions might 'brainwash' them.' (Quote taken from the website of Humanists UK https://humanists.uk/2025/09/17/reform-councillor-demands-christian-only-re-to-end-brainwashing/ See also the story reported online in the Northumberland Gazette: https://www.northumberlandgazette.co.uk/news/politics/council/reform-councillor-in-northumberland-claims-studying-non-christian-religion-could-brainwash-children-5317274

Of course this is only one councillor and does not necessarily reflect the official views of the party to which he belongs. One Reform UK Ltd parliamentary candidate acknowledged on Premier Plus radio that 'many Reform supporters see the party as aligned with Christian principles.' ( https://www.premier.plus/inspirational-breakfast-with-esther-higham/audio-series/clips/audio-items/is-reform-uk-representing-christian-values )

I am not aware that Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK Ltd has made any overt statements on the subject of religion but he has not entirely ignored the subject either. Declaring at a speech in Blackpool in 2024, he reportedly said that 'Judeo-Christian values' are at the root of everything in 'Britain.' Speaking at the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship this year he reportedly stated: "We've kind of forgotten that what underpins everything is our Judeo-Christian culture and that's where we need to start ." ( https://www.issacharpeople.org/Articles/715854/How_Christian_is.aspx ) It should be remembered that the Chairman of Reform UK Ltd, Zia Yusuf is himself a Muslim. The influence of affluent Muslims in Reform UK Ltd causes me to question how deep these supposedly 'Christian' sentiments go. To me it sounds like political opportunism, playing to a particular demographic but in politics perception is everything  and there is an increasing perception that the policies of that party align with the hopes and aspirations of Christian voters.

Another rising star to watch is the new leader of the 'one trick pony' UKIP, Nick Marcel Tenconi who is also the Chief Operating Officer of the right-wing Turning Point UK which in itself is an offshoot of Turning Point USA, a conservative students pressure group which advocates capitalism and reactionary politics. According to the website novaramedia.com Tenconi describes himself as a 'Defender of masculinity, Christianity and conservative values.'

One rather unusual character who is starting to make waves in the 'Christian Nationalist' movement is self-styled 'Bishop' Ceirion Dewar, age 49. I can find no public record of his ordination as a priest or his consecration as a bishop in the Anglican church. It is thus unclear as to how and from whom he derives his consecration but he is not recognised by the Church of England.  He is, however, listed on the 'Confessing Anglican Church' website. See https://confessinganglican.church/cac-bishop-cei-dewar-leads-prayer-at-uk-rally/ What is particularly important here is the fact that he opened the 'Tommy Robinson' 'Unite the Kingdom' rally. Mr Dewar does not identify himself as a 'Christian Nationalist' but he is certainly associated with people who are.

 Unlike the United States, up until now, religion has never been an element in British politics but is this about to change? Anti-Islamist campaigner, 'Tommy Robinson', who is an Irish and British citizen of Irish parentage appears to have recently jumped onto the 'Christian Nationalist' bandwagon, whose 'Unite the Kingdom' march in September was marked by his supporters wearing crusader outfits, carrying life-size crosses, banners with biblical verses and Union flags featuring a crucified Jesus. Mixed in with all this fake religiosity were the usual anti-Islam and anti-Starmer pejoratives. Knuckle-dragging civic nationalism has now been given a fake Christian veneer. Last month he went on a much publicised pilgrimage to the 'holy land'. 'Robinson's support for Zionism is a matter of public record and the number of times that he has declared himself a Zionist are too many to mention in this short article. Now he appears to be combining this new found 'love of da lord' with his active support for Israel, his opposition to Islam and making connections between various nationalist groups across Europe. Indeed, he has only just returned from Poland after attending nationalist events to mark Polish Independence Day.

The demographic which all of the aforementioned parties and movements draw active and/or vocal support from (according to my interactions with them) appear to be poorly educated, working class (blue collar worker), middle aged, white men who have an inborn prejudice against the 'other' and a resentment towards all organs of the state, id est the government, (sometimes) the royal family, the police, the judiciary, local authorities and the civil service, with the exception of the military which they appear to unthinkingly worship and whom they regard as being beyond criticism or judicial accountability. This reflects a militaristic attitude among many native English members of the aforesaid demographic. Due to the lack of critical thinking skills and poor education of much of this demographic, they are ripe for reactionary indoctrination.

If this is an indicator of the rise of militant Christianity in the United Kingdom then this is not good news for anyone who resists that religion, regardless of whether they be a humanist, a member of a different Abrahamic religion, a less illiberal form of Christianity or a heathen such as myself. There may be a spiritual thirst among the less cynical English people but that thirst cannot be quenched by an intolerant and alien religion, imposed upon our ancestors by force and deceit and maintained that way for centuries. In summing up, a resurgent and militant Christianity should be as much of a concern to us as militant Islamism!