Are You Giving Thanks to Ceres or God?
My friend, xHWA, has been posting a great series of posts on Samhain over at the blog As Bereans Did. As my readers know, this blog has pushed back on an unfortunate phenomenon which began during the Protestant Reformation - a claim that has been advanced by certain over-zealous and mostly well-meaning folks that most of the holidays we celebrate are rooted in pagan practices of the past. And, as xHWA and others have pointed out, most of these claims are based in whimsy and apophenia (seeing connections or patterns in data which do NOT exist and consequently lead to false conclusions).
Now, while this phenomenon has focused more on traditional holidays (like Christmas, Easter, and Halloween), there are a few rabid individuals who have even attempted to paint the American Thanksgiving holiday with this pagan brush! Don't think so? Try typing "pagan origins of Thanksgiving" into your search engine and see what happens!
My Bing Copilot picked up this: "Thanksgiving has roots in ancient pagan harvest festivals, reflecting traditions of gratitude and celebration of the harvest season." It continued:
Historical Context
Thanksgiving, as celebrated in the United States, is often traced back to the 1621 feast shared by the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag tribe. However, the concept of giving thanks for the harvest predates this event and is deeply rooted in various pagan traditions. Many ancient cultures held harvest festivals to honor their deities and celebrate the abundance of the season.
Pagan Harvest Festivals
Cerelia: In ancient Rome, the festival of Cerelia was dedicated to Ceres, the goddess of agriculture and grain. This festival celebrated the harvest and involved various rituals and feasting, similar to modern Thanksgiving practices.
Lughnasadh and Samhain: The Gaelic Celts celebrated Lughnasadh around August 1st, marking the beginning of the harvest season, and Samhain on November 1st, which signified the end of the harvest. These festivals included feasting and community gatherings, reflecting the themes of gratitude and abundance.
Harvest Home: In Britain, the tradition of Harvest Home evolved from pagan customs, where communities would celebrate the completion of the harvest with feasts and festivities. This practice continued even after the Christianization of the region, blending pagan and Christian elements.
The information was then summarized by noting paganism's "Influence on Modern Thanksgiving:"
The modern Thanksgiving celebration incorporates many elements from these ancient harvest festivals. The act of gathering with family and friends to give thanks for the harvest mirrors the communal feasting of past cultures. While Thanksgiving is now a secular holiday, its roots in pagan traditions highlight the universal human practice of celebrating abundance and expressing gratitude.
In summary, while Thanksgiving is often viewed through a contemporary lens, its origins are intertwined with ancient pagan customs that celebrated the harvest and the changing seasons. These traditions have shaped the way we observe Thanksgiving today, emphasizing gratitude and community.
Google's AI Overview offered much of the same information. Their lead paragraph read:
Thanksgiving has roots in ancient pagan harvest celebrations from various cultures, which honored the earth's bounty through feasting and rituals. Examples include the Roman Cerelia festival for the harvest goddess Ceres and the Celtic Harvest Home, which featured parades and feasts for the final harvest. Modern Paganism, specifically Neopaganism, observes a similar celebration called Mabon, which marks the autumnal equinox with feasting and gratitude for the harvest.
"Well, they must be right! Thanksgiving is nothing but a pagan celebration to honor Ceres! True Christians shouldn't be partaking in this pagan holiday!" If that was your reaction, you may want to examine the AI sources behind these statements.
The actual history of this celebration is drilled into every school-aged child in America! Most Americans will tell you that the first Thanksgiving was celebrated by the Pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians in the fall of 1621. Surprisingly, many of them will also be able to tell you that Abraham Lincoln was the first president to make it an official national holiday. In other words, the genesis of the holiday is clearly found among a group of Christian people who wanted to give thanks to God for their survival and a bountiful harvest at the conclusion of their first year on this continent. The truth is that these humble folks didn't have a pagan thought in their heads at the time!
It is my hope that in pointing out just how absurd this notion about pagan origins can be - that it will give some of my Armstrong Church of God and Jehovah's Witnesses brethren some pause about our other holidays which have been painted with this brush. The real truth is that almost all of our current holiday traditions were founded in the Christian era and do NOT have pagan origins. The fact that pagans observed harvest festivals devoted to their gods and goddesses does not mean that we borrowed our celebration from them. If anything, this entire exercise should generate a little intellectual curiosity. and a willingness to dig a little deeper and engage our brains in some good old critical thinking and common sense! What do you think?
Miller Jones/Lonnie C Hendrix
34 comments:
It's not just Thanksgiving that's the problem. How many of you reading this are regular eaters of cereal ? Every time you eat a bowl of cereal you are offering your obeisance to Ceres. Pagan to the core!
Thank you Millar/Lonnie for this post.
Non American here. I always thought of Thanksgiving as a purely innocent celebration with no pagan connotations attached to it. Should be celebrated as a way to be grateful. Talking about pagan. The annual Lord Mayor of London Parade has just being held. Once more pride of place went to Gog and Magog, the lord protectors of London town. A ceremony that dates back centuries and is a pointer to ancient British roots which as we know are not semitic. This ancient pagan land and its roots, with its many celebrations, are on display regularly throughout the year and readily available to view on YT. Cheers.
Lonnie, Delusional Boy wants you to stop glancing at him in services. He knows you're out to get him.
It's a function of individual intent! If you observe Thanksgiving, and in your mind, you are focussing on and thanking Father YHWH God, then it's not about Ceres. Somebody with a paganism jones does not get to pull the rug out from under you and accuse you of worshipping Ceres!
I'm sure the Native Americans who celebrated with the Pilgrims were focussed upon their traditional deities or spirits, and certainly not Ceres! Do a Jay Leno man on the street survey on Thanksgiving Day and ask people if they ever heard of Ceres, if Ceres is what they think about. What is up with these people who want to revive all the pagan "gods" and bring them back into peoples' consciousness and lives? These things have all been sublimated, conquered, corrected and focussed on Father God and Jesus Christ for hundreds of years. What kind of idiot even wants to change it back to paganism and and then shun it???
Cue Dana Carvey's "Church Lady!
BB
Do the Armstrongist “churches” pay any attention to the fact that, “...the names given to the seven days of the week (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday) are derived from the names of the seven heavenly bodies (the Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn) which were in turn named after contemporary Hellenistic deities.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_the_days_of_the_week
If the Armstrongists want to be free from the supportive use of Hellenistic diety names, why haven’t they mandated the use of the Hebrew names for each day of the week? I was, tragically, a Worldwide Church of God “member” for 13 self-sinning years and every Saturday (Oops, how could use that pagan name?) I “attended.” The Sabbath started at sundown, Friday evening, and extended until sundown on Saturn’s day.
Hypocrites.
I thought the days of the week in biblical Hebrew times were named by numbers and ' preparation day', the Sabbath being the 7th day.
Why all the hate ?
As well as "pagan hunting," a member told me of a WCG sermon whereby many innocent words similar to golly were condemned because historically they had evil connotations. It's the Pharisaic trait of focusing on trivia in order to feel righteous.
Dude! (10:55). You've perfectly illustrated a living dynamic! My question for HWA and his lackies would be what was Nov. 27 (or its Hebrew equivalent on whatever calendar was used back then) BEFORE the pagans profaned that day by worshipping their made up god "ceres"? It was a day that God created, and saw that it was good, like any other day. The pagans misappropriated and misused just about anything that has ever existed, most likely even life sustaining things such as air and water!
As for your misapplication of the term "hate"' Quiet, Piggy! š©tip to DT.
Giving the game away now.
You're too gullible.
The COG's views on "everything is pagan as we chosen people know to avoid" reminds me of the little kid I watched at the meat counter walking along putting his finger on every piece of pork in the display. "Pork..pork..pork...pork...pork" he said as he walked down the line. Then, "Man! Everything on a pig is pork!" So it is with the COG's. Everything but the Holydays are pork, not understanding that Sabbath and holydays had their origins in Non-Jewish Sumerian Creation and Harvest practices. Nothing, well accept particles, arise in a vacuum and neither did any not pagan practices no matter how much spin was put to them, by the Hebrews, to clean them up as of the true God.
Even the Apostle Paul noted, "we know the idol (or food offered to it) is nothing but in all men is not that knowledge" (I Corinthians 8:4-7) Here he was taking a shot at the Jewish Christian Apostles Peter, James and John and their edicts in Acts 15. While he said he would abide by it, he rethought it and ultimately didn't. "In al men is not that knowledge" seems the fitting explanation of most things church hierarchies inflict on the faithful without a valid and unnecessary reasonings.
12:08 In Sweden there is a saying: " Den som sa're, han va're" which meand " the one who said it, she's/he's it."
Suiting here....
Everything but the Holydays are pork, not understanding that Sabbath and holydays had their origins in Non-Jewish Sumerian Creation and Harvest practices.
I'm waiting for someone here to counter with the idea that Satan cleverly pre-counterfeited the Sabbath and Holydays in non-Hebrew cultures, because he knew what God would do and wanted to pre-undermine Him.
What's interesting is that I wonder if eating turkey is in the bible? I wonder if turkey is a food offer to an idol (what would that idol be)? Perhaps our belly, Philippians 3:19. We know what the ministers say about the football tradition on Thanksgiving, but let's sit back and watch Cowboys vs Indians I mean Redskins, I mean Commanders.
Cowboy
Ceresly?
Good comments.
https://godcannotbecontained.blogspot.com/2018/06/where-have-you-been-and-what-have-you.html
RSK,
From now on, I will be staring at DB throughout the Sabbath Service! ;)
Maybe we should audit his tithing records too lol. Does UCG still do that? I forget now.
This year, it's "Chiefs." Small local efforts in Kansas City to change that name have gone nowhere.
The truth is that these humble folks didn't have a pagan thought in their heads at the time!
How do we know that? The Puritans might have had things to say about those folks.
I dont tithe because i have never wanted to pay for your perks Hypocrites. I'm not afraid of you rebels from within UCG ministry.
Whooopss what a mistake !!!! RSK comnent to Lonnie gives game away that they are indeed both in UCG. Ha!
Now now, DB, dont you know? As the Shadow Apostle of the Rebel Faction, we are smuggling the secret plans of the UCG's proposed Death Star to friendly hands. Because UCG really wants to zap the Billings, MT congregation. Why? Because the ushers there keep forgetting the hymnals and GOD IS NOT THE AUTHOR OF CONFUSION!! SAVE BILLINGS WITH YOUR TITHES AND OFFERINGS!!!
The worst carry-over of paganism in the Armstrongist denominations is not some manner or custom or some artifact. It's not Christmas or wedding rings or paisleys. It is the form of church government that they have.
The Matthew account is explicit:
24 When the ten heard it, they were angry with the two brothers. 25 But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. 26 It will not be so among you, but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave, 28 just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.”
An authoritarian, top-down government that regards people as a resource (like a tithe base) is something that Jesus regards as a Gentile machination. The Way emphasizes service not military-like discipline. Like worldly religious observations, authoritarianism bleeds into everything. Sermons and sermonettes, which should be a service, become exercises in discipline. Soon the ministry believes that if they are controlling your life for the benefit of the denomination that this is a service to you.
Some might argue that this comparison does not work because authoritarianism does not involve religious manner and custom but is a form of government. But all authoritarian church governments involve religious ritualism. The authoritarianism bleeds into the religious "service" that they advance.
Scout
Oh yes, of course. Lonnie and myself, high ranking, fleet car driving, suit wearing UCG mucketymucks that we are, are so stupid that we'd just let it slip so obviously in such a nonsensical and illogical manner. Yup. Were you born stupid or is this is a more recent development?
Correct Scout, and when one reads to Jesus's own words in a speech or sermon, he does it in the form of service (also included with miracles and signs). The only time He goes in on individuals it's the religious leaders of His day and like the verse you mention above. Kicking people out of the church (even for disagreeing with the minister) isn't out of service, it's out of authoritarianism. I like how Christ chose people doing ordinary things and related it to service other than the obvious giving sermons/sermonettes on the Sabbath (good samaritan, washing His feet with her hair, Zacchaeus repaying others). Yea, their authoritarianism is baked into their religion. And if you have a minister in a real ego trip, it can get real ugly.
Exactly. In Fevelation 20:12, two books are opened. One is the book of life, which is the bible.. All will be judged by the standards of this book. They will not be judged by Herbs church culture which is inherently tyrannical. HWAs ministers should be shaking in their boots, but they are too blinded by Herbs delusion.
Let it get ugly.
Sermonettes in particular these day have gone so awful it's like sitting through a parody.
One wonders how the speakers of these sermonettes really feel delivering such dry, parched products. Have sermonettes had their day ? Some of them are not even based in the bible!
Most importantly what does God think of these dry sermonettes ? Does God appreciate the hollowness of them ?Sermonettes as a training product for speakers? but is it working for the listeners? One wonders.
Any minister who thinks their "controlling members lives through sermonettes and sermons" these days are living in a fantasy world of their own ego. In COG world all speakers are NOT equal. Never have been. It has always been in the members domain..speakers who are taken notice of as men of God, inspired to preach by God, and speakers the members endure and glean what crumbs they can. Nowadays it's more the latter than the former.
Awww are you upset that female members from church have discovered your double life... so your fake name RSK is to bully me, every single time i dare post....awww dee dums to you. Bring it on RSK. Whos afraid of you ????noone ever.
Female members from church? Now I have church hoez too when I'm not being a mean ol' bully? Man, UCG is more exciting than I ever realized. These hoez better have my money, Imma make it rain on they asses after we save Billings!
The Armstrong genre is passe! Sabbath services are meetings for nostalgia groups consisting of members and ministers who can't acknowledge that they have wasted their entire miserable lives and will soon die!
By the way, these religious conspiracy nuts and persecution groupies have opened a huge door. We haven't done this yet, but we really ought to actually move forward and infiltrate the UCG and other groups, and to post our activities here as proof! Shakin' in your boots yet, Dude?
I think I will start my own religion. It will have a strong resemblance to those that came before it. Of course, that does not mean that any of the others influenced me.
Suppose that Thanksgiving is not pagan at all. Easter and Xmas are still clearly pagan.
WRONG!
https://godcannotbecontained.blogspot.com/2024/12/santa-claus-christian-or-pagan.html
https://godcannotbecontained.blogspot.com/2020/12/the-plain-truth-about-christmas-trees.html
https://godcannotbecontained.blogspot.com/2021/12/the-ancient-origins-of-christmas.html
https://godcannotbecontained.blogspot.com/2022/03/paganism-and-christianity.html
https://godcannotbecontained.blogspot.com/2025/04/happy-easter-christians.html
Aren't you glad the pilgrims and Indians weren't out shooting Bobcat instead of turkey?
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