Fifth Generation

I always hear immigrants talk about how boring white Anglo-Saxons are and how they lack a culture. They usually do this while walking by a Christmas tree or looking at a cute Easter bunny. They will tell of about strange superstitions as if we don’t have anything like that ourselves. On the news you hear of people suing to get rid of “Christian” symbols like the Eater bunny or the Christmas in order to lower the power of the White Christian hegemony. Here is a little secret, your average white American is superstitious and is connected to ancient old traditions that have nothing to do with Christianity. Many of us are the direct descendants of people who fought in wars naked with painted bodies and did human sacrifices. There are even stories of our ancient ancestors that practiced cannibalism and would hang the heads of their slain around the necks of their horses. Yes, it is true, many of us “civilized” white folk tend to ignore our pagan past. (or we glorify it, think Wagner) Think about that the next time you protest a Christmas tree or see a white hippy hug a tree. These traditions are now commercialized but are old traditions from our Pagan heritage, that honestly make us cringe. Our ancestors were scary, but misunderstood folk. As much as we try to ignore them, we still knock on wood, wear rabbit feet, and find pennies lucky.

The United States of America is a nation whose primary culture is based on Protestant Christian values. The majority of colonists were Protestant Christians from Western Europe. Those settlers brought their culture with them to the America’s, the bad and the good. They brought strong work ethics based in Calvinism. However, they also brought over superstitions held over all the way from before Christian times. These superstitions survived Catholicism and later Protestantism. It is amazing how these old beliefs survived despite the many attempts to stomp these old beliefs out.

In some ways, the Catholic traditions started new superstitions that replaced the pagan ones. Read any hagiography and you will hear a story of a saint getting rid of something dangerous or evil simply by doing the sign of the cross. I believe in Russia some people still do the sign of the cross when they hear something bad. Growing up Mormon, I never used the sign of the cross or wore a cross. Because of the sign of the cross turning into some kind of magic almost pagan like charm, members of the LDS church do not wear crosses. I am sure if people think their CTR ring will ward of evil, that also would be banned.

Well, these old superstitions still carry over into America. I still hear of people knocking on wood. That came from an old Pagan belief that fairies lived in the wood and knocking on wood would prevent the fairies from hearing what you planned to do, so that they could not ruin your plans or desires. Another variation is to wake up the wood sprite so that the sprite could protect you. The pagans believed that the Gods lived in the trees. Ancient pagans had groves for worship. These forests were not to be cut down and bothered. Tacitus writes about these groves and says that the old Germans did not worship idols, but worship ideas of these Gods and worshiped them in these woods. Human sacrifice was done at times. Archaeologists are still finding these victims of human sacrifice. They would usually strangle the victim and then drown them in a bog for the god or goddess.

It is interesting that trees were special for the old Pagans as we in America still decorate trees for Christmas. The cutting of a tree and putting it in your home for decoration was not from the ancient Germans because the tree would be too sacred to cut down. I did hear a story though from my grandmother that as a child they decorate trees with food (I think she said nuts, I can’t quite remember) on Christmas to feed the birds. I don’t think that has much to do with Paganism though but a very Christian idea of being kind to all creatures. The Roman pagans were more likely to put boughs of evergreen trees in their home to celebrate the winter solstice. The American version of Christmas trees came from German immigrants and has since became a “Christian” symbol. The Christmas tree is one of many pagan symbols that have turned into “Christian” symbols.

Halloween is an old holiday of the ancient Celts. Any reading of the ancient Celts make modern day Christians’ skin crawl. Have you seen the movie “Wicker Man”? Many consider it one of the scariest movies ever. I am of course talking about the original not the new version which is based more on the works of Strabo than on the 1973 movie. This is a movie that brings the old Celtic practices into the modern world. Here is a link to Strabo’s Geography. It is not known how accurate Strabo was, but it is a fact that the Celts did practice human sacrifice. The customs of cutting up a pumpkin and putting a candle in it, trick or treating, and dressing up in scary costumes all come from the ancient Celts. The Christians changed this celebration into All Saint’s Day, a holiday not widely practiced in the USA. I don’t know anyone who celebrate All Saint’s Day and I lived all over the USA my entire life!

Easter is the most Christian of holidays, but now it too has some Pagan elements. The Easter Egg is the symbol of a mother goddess. White rabbits were the symbols of witches and magic. We still connect white rabbits to magic. Easter falls on a Sunday which “is derived from the name of the Scandinavian sun Goddess Sunna.” “Easter celebrations were held hundreds of years before Christ was born as festivals of spring honoring Eostre, the great mother goddess of the Saxons. This name was fashioned after the ancient word for spring, Eastre. The goddess Ostara was the Norse equivalent whose symbols were the hare and the egg. From this comes our modern tradition of celebrating Easter with eggs and bunnies.”

Simply put, the pagans had celebrations at each season. There is even a Midsummer’s festival no longer celebrated by Americans except by a few immigrants. On Midsummer’s Eve you light a bonfire. I guess Americans have Independence Day as their summer festival to replace the Midsummer’s Festival. The Christians, still wanting to celebrate these holidays at the seasons, replaced them with Christian holidays. When you are are serf, and the only days you have to look forward to are the seasonal festivals, you aren’t going to give them up. Seasonal festivals are not just a European tradition. I know Asians also have huge festivals and holidays at the season changes. (The one in October is very huge!) Since I am terribly ignorant of Africa, could an African please enlighten me about their holidays? I would love to learn about them!

There are so many other traditions that come from the old. I laugh when people from other countries think that Americans have no culture because we most certainly do! Eat a cake at a party, that came from the old pagans too! My grandmother still believes that cats and dogs suck the breath out of infants. She is not an immigrant from the old country either. Her family has been in America for many generations. She remembers stories about her grandmother planting by the stars. Her CHRISTIAN grandmother! Or that coming into a house after being hot and drinking cold water will kill you. She sometimes tells me things that her mother told her that she thought was weird, but I don’t remember any. I will ask her to see what she remembers.

I notice that I do strange things without any explanation. I always pray when I drive over a bridge. Was that learned behavior or something I picked up on my own? I don’t like to step on cracks. To me stepping on cracks ruins the logical flow of my walk and yes I admit, I fear bad luck. I am a Christian!! Why on earth do I fear bad luck? I don’t like the number seven and I don’t like to drive during a full moon. When I walk into a room and hear someone talk about me, I say that I knew my ears were burning. I get nervous when someone sweeps near me. I am now over the Friday the thirteenth superstition. I actually usually have a good day on that day I guess because I am more aware.

It is true that believing in Christ frees you of being afraid of superstitions. The more religious you become, the less superstitious you are. Being a good Christian doesn’t mean that you can’t celebrate old pagan festivals! Festivals bring the community together and generally are good times. If you want to use those days to bring out Christian virtues, so much the better. Even Halloween is positive. It is an excuse for me to visit and get to know my neighbors. I think that is why the old Pagan holidays never died out.

So the next time someone wants to take down a Christmas tree, tell the person that it is not for Christians, but it is a Pagan symbol meant to bring Christians and pagans in the community together in peace, just like Christ would want us to. It is a symbol for fun and friendship. It is for Muslims, Christians, Jews, and Pagans! The Nativity Scene on the corner IS actually for Christians to remember the birth of our Savior. It reminds Christians how we should live and reminds us to be kinder to our Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist neighbors. So if I were you , I would leave the symbols alone. I would have a happy Christian neighbor who is reminded to be kind to their neighbor, over a bitter one who is stripped of anything positive in their life over a fear of being sued. If you keep being kind, maybe eventually Americans will eat rice cakes in October or wear an evil eye around their necks!