Ashtyn and I have been tossing around the idea of learning Ancient Greek. One of the most common types of Ancient Greek that actually has Ancient documents is Koine. This is also the language the original New Testament was written in. While the Greeks do not have any religious book that is to them what the Bible is to the Christians, the Torah is to the Jews, and the Koran is to the Muslims, it is said that during the Byzantine conversion, many religious texts were believed to have been destroyed.

We must rely on history to follow Hellenismos (the polytheistic, ancient, Hellenic religion). We can only do that by what texts are available. One way to access these texts in their original form is by learning Greek. This is why learning Greek is important to us. Since the original New Testament is one of the few books we have, whether we believe in it or not, the source material is a teaching tool we can use. Not only that, but this is the original Biblical text. This does not contain all the dogmatic connotations that the past 2,000 years of leadership (both church and state) have applied to the text. I would rather learn through this kind of text (and take the New Testament for what it is - a bunch of fables/stories) so I can be able to read other Greek documents that have managed to have been preserved.

To learn Greek, I’ve joined a Yahoo Group that accesses a University of Houston online class website to self-teach Greek. The class is an Introduction to Ancient and Biblical Greek. I look forward to learning this way, but I’m also looking into purchasing a course in Ancient (Koine) Greek that Ashtyn & I can teach our son.

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It’s Christmastime again. The tree is up and the lights are lit. The house is filled with decorations that sparkle and shine. The presents are wrapped (for the most part) and the celebration is ready to begin. The celebration, for many these days, is now something that is entirely commercial in nature. I, like many, have never viewed the Christmas holiday as something that was supposed to be about Jesus or any of the stories behind the Christian faith.

While there are stories of the birth of Jesus and the relation to Christmas trees because of Saint Boniface, I realized that even if these myths were true (they aren’t by the way)the spirit of Christmas really has little to do with these ideas. Christmas trees are decoration and presents are material goods that do not make a person’s life better or worse.

As a believer in Hellenic faith, I am not one to consider Christmas my celebration. It’s mainstream. I tend to celebrate Winter Solstice instead because that makes more sense to me. The Christmas tree and decorations may be considered a Christian concept, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, much like Jesus’ December birthday, it’s a fallacy.

Some believe that Jesus really was born on December 25 and others have looked to January 6. Others tend to look towards the spring and feel that those dates are more relevant. The Bible does not offer an actual date. However, I find December 25 and January 6 interesting for a number of reasons.

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I have been thinking a lot about the holidays lately. The more research I do into the subject of religion and celebrations, the more I realize that Christianity has taken over polytheist celebrations. It is said this was done to try and wipe out polytheist celebrations and make those who were not so keen to convert to consider changing religions or participating in the new religion more actively.

As Christmas approaches, I find that I want to celebrate actual Christmas, less and less. You see, the Greeks were not the first to observe the Winter and Summer Solstices. The Winter Solstice occurred on the shortest day of the year. The date of the solstice was recorded by astronomers in Babylon and Africa, who were able to find out when it was by observing it as the darkest day of the year. The day is the shortest on the solstice. So, when the Ancients celebrated, they did so in honor of their Sun God. By appeasing the Sun God, the sun wouldn’t disappear for too long and spring would come with plenty of crops to feed the hungry populations after the winter had ended.

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