Every year at Christmas, there are voices on the Internet to boycott Christmas, but this year's boycott feels particularly excessive, and it actually links Christmas with the time when the Eight-Power Alliance entered Beijing, which is obviously a lie, because the Eight-Power Alliance captured Beijing on August 14, 1900, and the burning of the Yuanmingyuan was done by the British and French coalition forces, which occurred on October 18, 1860, in the Qingxianfeng Decade (1860), and these times were not around Christmas. It is foolish to incite populism with such lies.
So how did Christmas end up? There are already many online research articles in this regard, combined with these articles and the "Escher's Theory of Unity", it can be considered that Christmas originated in ancient Egypt, that is, the winter solstice festival of ancient China. The Winter Solstice Festival was considered by the ancient Egyptians to be the festival of the revival of the sun god. Because on this day the sun directly hits the Earth's Tropic of Cancer, in the Northern Hemisphere, the day is the shortest, and after the winter solstice, the day time gradually increases and everything recovers.
Current research proves that the cult of the sun god originated in ancient Egypt, about 4800 years ago, starting from the Second Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, the second king of this dynasty first introduced the symbol of the sun, this king was later called "Emperor Tianhou Soil" in Chinese Taoist literature, the name of the last king of the Second Dynasty is Quao, and there is an idiom passed down in China called "Quao Father Chasing the Sun". By the time of the third king of the Fourth Dynasty, Regidev, he had already had the morning sun god Capri (i.e., the scarab). By the time of the Fifth Dynasty, the sun god had become the supreme god of ancient Egypt, and each king of this dynasty built a temple for the sun god. Later, with the spread of ancient Egyptian culture and the migration of ancient Egyptians, the cult of the sun god spread all over the world, including the West Asian region.
From the Middle Kingdom to the New Kingdom, successive pharaohs continued to build and expand the Karnak Temple in Thebes. The layout of the temple building is very similar to the Forbidden City in Beijing, which can be called the earliest Chinese Forbidden City. From the comparison of the Karnak Temple with the satellite map of the Forbidden City in Beijing, both are arranged according to the central axis and multiple gate courtyards and the front and back palace partitions.
(Satellite map of the Temple of Calnak, Thebes)
(Central axis of the Great Pillar Hall of the Temple of Karnak)
However, unlike the central axis of the Forbidden City in Beijing, which has a standard north-south direction, the central axis of the Karnak Temple takes the Nile River as a reference and is basically perpendicular to the Nile River in a northwest-southeast direction. When the extended central axis crosses the Nile, it is found that it crosses exactly at the entrance to the Valley of the Kings on the west bank of the Nile. This central axis azimuth is 1161/2°, which is designed according to astronomical alignment, consistent with the direction of sunrise on the day of the winter solstice. The rays of the sun rising early in the morning of the winter solstice can shine through the large corridor of the central axis of the Karnak Temple to the Valley of the Kings. The Temple of Karnak is located on the eastern side of the river and represents the Yang, while the west side of the river represents the Hades. This layout contains the profound connotation of Chinese civilization on the issue of life and death (rebirth), and is also the soil for the production of Chinese feng shui culture.
(Illustration of the central axis of the Karnak Temple)
The winter solstice occurs between Approximately December 21 and 23 of each year. On the day of the winter solstice, the ancient Egyptian pharaoh and his subjects held a "sun festival" celebration on the winter solstice day at the Karnak Temple to welcome the rise of the sun and the rebirth of the sun god Ra, which is the original source of "Christmas". Since the day of the winter solstice represents the rebirth of the sun god, that is, Christmas, the day of the winter solstice is particularly valued by the ancient Egyptians. Many temple buildings are meant to embody the sacredness of the day of the winter solstice.
But the worship of the winter solstice day may be traced back to the historical origins of the higher latitudes. Buildings that embody the day of the winter solstice are found all over the world from neolithic to bronze age. Passage graves (known in China as stone sheds) in the Neolithic period were scattered all over the world, with narrow burial passages made of large stones, with one or more burial chambers, which were covered with earth or stone blocks. Similar to the A-shaped tomb of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties in China. In many notable examples, at an important time of the year, such as at sunrise on the winter solstice or at sunset at the spring equinox, the sun's rays were able to shine directly into the main cemetery. Tombs with burial mounds are widely distributed on the Atlantic coast of continental Europe, such as Ireland, Britain, Scandinavia, northern Germany and the Netherlands, but also in the Iberian Peninsula around the Mediterranean Sea, the northern coast of Africa, and some areas of the Mediterranean. Many of the large tombs with burial passages are built on the top of the hill and can be seen from a great distance.
(Monga Stone Shed, Ruins of the Porta des Antequera, Spain, Dolmen of Menga. Antequera Dolmens Site, the central axis of the cemetery coincides with the direction of direct illumination at sunset on the winter solstice. ）
In the Pomeranian region on the south coast of the Baltic Sea, in what is now the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern region of Germany, there are more than 5,000 megalithic tombs, built by people belonging to the Funnelbeaker culture of the Neolithic funnel cup culture. More than a thousand are preserved to this day and protected by local laws. Schuldt described the area's 1,048 megalithic tombs in 1972, and although the megalithic tombs face differently, many have south-facing entrances. Of the 99 gates studied by Schulte, 46 were oriented toward the sun at noon on the summer solstice (north-south); 14 toward the sunrise on the summer solstice (northeast-southwest); 26 were oriented toward the sun on the vernal equinox (east-west); and 13 were toward the sunrise on the winter solstice (southeast-northwest). The axis of the megalithic tomb overlaps with the direction of direct sunlight on the winter solstice, and this design is the same as the axis of the Temple of Hatshepsou-Karnak temple in front of the Valley of the Kings of Thebes and the direction of direct sunlight on the winter solstice.
The world's most famous Stonehenge should belong to Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England, which has become one of the most famous landmarks in the UK and is even regarded as a symbol of "British culture". Archaeologists believe its construction dated between 3000 BC and 2000 BC, and its construction went through several stages. The site contains sediments of human skeletons, and radiometric dating dates back to 3000 BC.
(Computer simulation floor plan of the Stonehenge site in Wiltshire, UK, Wiki Images)
Stonehenge, Wiltshire, UK)
Mike Parker Pearson of the University of Sheffield proposed that Stonehenge was an area for the dead, and he was the first to propose that Stonehenge was used as a cemetery. Possible links between prehistoric Stonehenge and paleontology have also been studied, and the axial orientation of the site coincides with the direction of sunrise on the summer solstice and sunset on the winter solstice. Now, it has become a new celebration for the British people to go to Stonehenge to welcome the winter solstice.
(On December 22, 2014, local time, in Wiltshire, England, people greeted the arrival of the winter solstice day at Stonehenge.) Image source: CFP)
(British people celebrate the arrival of the winter solstice at Stonehenge in 2015)
(In 2017, the British people celebrated the arrival of the winter solstice at Stonehenge)
According to experts, the Site of Shi'a, which has been discovered by Chinese archaeology in recent years, also has the phenomenon of the winter solstice line. "Before the construction of the East Gate, the Shi'ewu Wuqin should have formulated the calendar of the Shi'e people, in which the dates of the spring equinox, the autumn equinox and the summer solstice, the winter solstice, and their corresponding sign constellations, the sunrise azimuth angle should have been basically determined, otherwise there would be no buildings like the East Gate. (Lv Yufei)"
(Shi'an Imperial City Terrace) (Shi'e "Imperial City Platform" East Parapet North Section)
As for the so-called "Tao Temple Observatory", there are also winter solstice-summer solstice solar observations, and this circular foundation is likely to resemble a tomb such as a megalithic tomb, not an "observatory".
(Forged so-called Tao Temple "Observatory")
Later, the Persian Empire conquered Egypt twice. The ancient Egyptians (ancient Chinese) were regarded as pagans, and in order to rule over the pagans, the Persians also regarded the winter solstice festival of ancient Egypt as the birthday of Mithra, the Persian sun god (i.e., the god of light). Later, the Roman Empire ruled Egypt, influenced by the ancient Egyptian-Persian cultural heritage, according to relevant research, in 336 AD, the Roman Church designated December 25 as "Christmas", and the sun god also became one of the gods of the Roman state religion. This day is the winter solstice festival of the Roman almanac, and the "pagans" who worship the sun god regard this day as the hope of spring, the beginning of the revival of all things. Probably for this reason, the Church of Rome chose this day as Christmas. This was one of the early measures of the Church to try to Christianize the customs and habits of the pagans.
Later, although most churches accepted December 25 as Christmas, the specific date could not be unified according to the almanac used by the churches in different places, so December 24 to January 6 of the following year was designated as the Christmas festival, and the local churches could celebrate Christmas within this period according to local conditions. Since December 25 is recognized as Christmas by most churches, the Original Epiphany on January 6 commemorates only the baptism of Jesus. With the wide spread of Christianity, Christmas has become an important holiday for Christians of all denominations and even the vast number of non-Christians. The above is based on some network data.
Customs related to Christmas can be found in ancient Egyptian culture, and the so-called prototype of the Christmas tree can be seen in the relief of the Karnaka Temple, representing the return of the sun god, the revival of all things, and the beginning of the growth of the tree of life.
(Relief of the south wall of the Great Pillar Hall of the Temple of Karnar, Pharaoh and the "Tree of Life", prototype of the Christmas tree)
In ancient Egyptian mythology, the sun god was driving a chariot, and this image can be seen in the Chinese sun god Xihe driving, and the ancient Greek and Roman sun gods driving chariots can be seen. The image of Santa Claus doing the elk pulling sleigh may also be related to this.
Therefore, Christmas was originally an ancient Chinese festival, that is, the winter solstice festival of Chinese, and was later quoted by Christianity. Christmas was not originally a Christian tradition, but was only used by Christianity. The same origin of world civilization was born from the same root, and it was too urgent to fry each other.
(Restored Chinese Winter Solstice Festival)
Merry Christmas to all!
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