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Showing posts with label Paganism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paganism. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 24, 2025

The Holy Myrtle of Paliani and the Continuation of Tree Worship in Crete

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The most characteristic case of tree worship, which has been preserved for centuries in Crete, concerns the Sacred Myrtle of Paliani. By Ele...
Friday, June 13, 2025

Walnut Leaves at Pentecost and the Souls of the Dead

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Popular Belief According to a popular Greek Orthodox Christian folk belief, the souls of the dead in Hades ascend to the upper world every E...
Friday, March 15, 2024

The Real Origins of Carnival (which has nothing to do with Ancient Paganism)

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The Fight between Carnival and Lent , Pieter Bruegel, 1559 By John Bossy Sin required penance from the individual, as Dante had expounded it...
Wednesday, February 14, 2018

Does Valentine's Day Have Pagan Origins?

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An English Victorian era Valentine card in the Museum of London Who is St. Valentine? Numerous early Christian martyrs were named Valen...
Saturday, June 24, 2017

The Birth of John the Baptist and the Summer Solstice

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By John Sanidopoulos The summer solstice occurs some time between June 20 and June 22. As seen from a geographic pole, the sun reaches its...
Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Saint Anthony's Encounter With the Satyr and the Centaur

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In the Life of Paul the Hermit by Saint Jerome, written in the year 374 or 375 during Jerome’s stay in the desert of Syria, we read how Sa...
Thursday, March 17, 2016

Saint Patrick and the Druids of Ireland

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By Jim Wies Saint Patrick’s Day is the only national holiday that is regularly and continuously celebrated beyond the boundaries of the na...
Monday, February 22, 2016

A Cinema of Evil: Hollywood’s Love Affair with Witchcraft & the Occult

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"The Witch" It's not often Christians read a pagan perspective of topics like this, which I think is important, so with ...
Friday, April 10, 2015

"Pascha" or "Easter" or Both?

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Many Orthodox Christians insist "Pascha" or any derivitive of the word Passover is the only correct name for the celebration of t...
Sunday, April 5, 2015

Was Easter Borrowed From a Pagan Holiday?

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The historical evidence contradicts this popular notion. Anthony McRoy Thursday, April 2, 2009 Christianity Today Anyone encountering...
Thursday, March 19, 2015

Nature is Not God

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By Th. I. Riginiotis  (trans. A. N.) In our day and age there is a noticeable increase in people who have been unearthing from oblivion an...
Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Saint Patrick's Confrontations with Demons and Druids

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By Jim Wies Patrick was as fully aware as the Celts that the power of the druids was real, but he brought news of a stronger power. There ...
Tuesday, December 23, 2014

The Date of Christmas Does NOT Have Pagan Origins

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The Star indicates the exact spot, according to tradition, where Christ was born in Bethlehem. Did Christians "christianize" th...
Friday, October 31, 2014

Ten Things I Won't Do On Halloween

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By John Sanidopoulos Last year (2009) I wrote a controversial piece about Halloween titled " Orthodoxy and Halloween: Separating Fact...
Thursday, October 30, 2014

The Christian, Not Pagan, Origins of Halloween

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The following excerpt is from the book The Stations of the Sun by Ronald Hutton (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1996). This is to suppl...
Thursday, October 9, 2014

The Origins of Idolatry (Agapius the Syrian)

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By Agapius the Syrian It is written that when the languages of the tribes of the children of Shem, Ham and Japheth, son of Noah, were divi...
Monday, October 6, 2014

Book Review: "Very Short Introduction to Paganism"

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Christopher Howse September 16, 2011 The Telegraph The new Very Short Introduction to Paganism (Oxford, £7.99) would be scarcely a pam...
Thursday, October 2, 2014

The Life of Saints Cyprian and Justina the Martyrs

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Sts. Cyprian and Justina (Feast Day - October 2) Sts. Cyprian and Justina are the patron saints of those afflicted from spells, curses, wi...