Category Archives: Holidays
Christmas Mythology IV: Matthew’s Christmas Story
Matthew 2’s Christmas story, no part of which is found elsewhere in the New Testament, contains some of our most dramatic and enduring Christmas images: the magi following a moving star to visit and venerate the young child and future king … Continue reading
Christmas Mythology III: Jesus and the “Birth of the Hero” Mythological Motif
Myths and legends feature countless hero figures, and even real history features many people whose lives have been mythologized, being elevated into larger-than-life figures. Scholars have long recognized that Jesus as portrayed in the New Testament and its apocrypha is … Continue reading
Christmas Mythology II: What is History and What is Myth in the Nativity Stories?
This post is the first of several leading up to this Christmas dealing with the mythology lurking behind our Christmas stories, rituals, and holiday celebrations, starting with the stories of Jesus’s birth and leading up to our modern day. It … Continue reading
Living the Mythological Character of the Olympics
In ancient Greece the Olympics held at Olympia were not simply a set of athletic contests, but more fundamentally and broadly were a religious holiday festival observed in a sacred religious sanctuary (likewise the games at Delphi and elsewhere). They … Continue reading
May Day, Beltane, Easter, and their Fires
This year in Russia and other Orthodox Christian countries, both Easter and May Day fall on this Sunday, May 1st. This coincidence calls us to consider the similarities in mythological, religious, and psychological meanings behind these spring seasonal holidays. Easter … Continue reading
The Mythology of Easter III: The Mythical Meaning of the Resurrection
In yesterday’s post I first concluded that the story of Christ’s resurrection would not have originated by transferring the earlier motif of dying and rising gods to form the epilogue to Christ’s death, but in the end concluded that they, … Continue reading
