December 25th - Christ-mess Unwrapped

Hotep Brothers and Sisters,

Many of us have been raised to believe, as an article of the Christian religion, that Jesus Christ was born on December 25th, or Christmas day. But, not many of us are aware of the ancient Kemetic (Egyptian) origins of the December 25th religious festival, or what it truly represents, and the fact that it has nothing to do with the Christian religion, or Christmas. In fact, December 25th, is not, nor has it ever been, the birthday of the Christian god, Jesus Christ!
The verifiable historical facts surrounding the 25th. of December are as follows:

“In Egypt (Kemet) three thousand years ago, the birthday of the Sun-god (Ra) was celebrated in the temples on the 25th of December; it was the first day to lengthen obviously after December 21st (typically the shortest day of the year) the day of the Winter Solstice.”1 {Please understand that the ancient Kemites (Egyptians) have always believed in one Supreme “God”, as they have stated in their Book of the Coming Forth From Darkness Unto Light, written in revised state 6,000 years ago. Nevertheless, they believed that the spirit of life from the Creator existed in all things, and they therefore honored this manifestation of the Creator’s life-force (spirit) in the Sun, which they called Ra}.
“At the midnight hour, on the very first minute of the 25th of December, the birth of the Sun was commemorated.”1 (Beginning on the 21st , the period of sunlight in each day increased, thus the Sun appeared to have been “born” again from the short periods of daylight in the preceeding months.)
“At this time the Sun was in the zodiacal sign Capricorn, which was known as the Stable, so the infant Sun was said to have been born in a stable. Shining brightly on the meridian was Sirius (the Star from the East); while rising in the East was Virgo (the Virgin), the line of the horizon passing through her center. To the right of Sirius was Orion with three stars in his belt. These stars lie in a... line and point toward Sirius, and in ancient times they were known as The Three Kings. We meet them in the (Christian) gospels as The Three Wise Men, or Magi.1.

(Text shown in brackets, parenthesis or underlined is mine throughout)
This accounts for the origin of the Sun festival in ancient Kemet (Egypt) on the 25th of December, but how did this festival get translated into Christmas, or the Christian event called the birth of Jesus Christ?

“The birth of Jesus Christ has been set at Christmas... But up to the fourth century, the birth of the Christian Savior was celebrated on the sixth of January.” 2.
“Certain it is that the winter solstice, which (was)... assigned to the twenty-fifth of December, was celebrated in antiquity [by the ancient Kemites (Egyptians)] as the birthday of the sun, and that festal lights or fires were kindled on this joyous occasion. (The) Christian festival is. . .a continuation (corruption) under a Christian name of this old solar festivity; for the ecclesiastical authorities saw fit, about the end of the third or beginning of the fourth century, arbitrarily to transfer the nativity of Christ from the sixth of January to the twenty-fifth of December, for the purpose of diverting to their Lord the worship (recognition) which the (ancient Kemites) paid on that day to the Sun.” 3. As an aside, Christmas celebration on the 6th of January was also known as the “old Christmas.”

But who were these “ecclesiastical authorities”?

“Pope Julius I (fourth century) fixed December 25th as the birthday of Christ, but we know that Christ had no vital statistics, no one knows when (or if) the date of his birth. What could have inspired Pope Julius I to choose that date... unless it be the Egyptian tradition perpetuated by the Roman calendar? This becomes evident when the idea of a tree is associated with the birth of Christ. That would seem arbitrary if we did not know that Osiris (Asr, whose birthday was December 26th) was the (deity) of vegetation. Sometimes he was even painted green in the image of that vegetation, whose rebirth he symbolized. His symbol was a tree with cut branches set up to announce the resurrection of... life. Such then could be the remote origin of the Christmas tree. Once again we see, on retracing the course of time, that more than one feature of western civilization... loses its enigmatic (puzzling) character when linked with its... African source.” 4.
Further, “the Nativity itself is an Egyptian import. In the Temple of Amon (A-men) at Luxor (in Egypt,”Waset”) first built around 1700 BCE (Before the Current Era), there is a panel of four vignettes (carved in stone) depicting the birth of the infant pharaoh.” 5.

The Temple scenes show all of the essential elements of the ancient Kemetic (Egyptian) birth of the infant pharaoh, which would, 1700 years later be unfaithfully copied by the Christian event called Christmas. The scenes show:

- the announcement of the impending birth by Thoth, the messenger, of the Creator to the Mother-To-Be named Mut-em-ua, which means mother of one to come to rule over Kemet (Egypt). Christians call this the Annunciation;
- the holding of the Sacred Ankh (the ancient Kemetic symbol of Divine Life) to the mouth of the Mother-To-Be, called The Immaculate Conception;
- the Mother sitting on the birthing chair next to her Royal Child; The Birth;
- the Heavenly Host of the Kemetic pantheon gathering around the Child to pay homage, and the Three Divine Personnages offering gifts to the new born Child, called the Adoration of the Child.

You can travel to Egypt today and see these scenes for yourself, as I have done. Remember, these scenes were carved into the walls over 1700 years before the Christian event called the birth of Christ! 

We have seen and documented how all of the components of the ancient Kemetic spiritual festival including the date (December 25th), the Stable, the Star in the East, the Virgin Mother, the Three Kings, the Tree and Lights, gift-giving, and all of the elements of what is called the Nativity, have been stolen and corrupted by western culture from their original meanings to an event called Christmas! 

Further, western culture/racism/white supremacy has used our own forgotten traditions to cause us to dishonor our own history, and our ancestors, ourselves, and our ancient conceptions of The Creator! As Dr. Marimba Ani said, “The deep spirituality that we have inherited from the Motherland encourages us to practice a religion that demeans our heritage.” 6
 
This is true! As an Afrikan proverb says, “The higher the monkey (western culture) climbs into the tree, the more he shows his ass.”

One of the most destructive things done to the Afrikan by European colonization is that, "they colonized the Image of God. (but) With this knowledge we can change the world, if first we change ourselves.” -Dr. John Henrik Clarke 

SHM HTP! (May You Go In Peace) 
Kwasi Imhotep (kwa708@aol.com) 

REFERENCES:
Jackson, John G. “Introduction to African Civilizations”
Jackson, John G. “Christianity Before Christ”
Fraser, Sir James George. “The Golden Bough”
Diop, Cheikh Anta. “The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality”
Finch, Charles S. III, MD. “Echoes of the Old Dark Land”
Ani, Marimba “Let the Circle Be Unbroken-The Implications of African Spirituality In the Diaspora”