On a trip to Colorado years ago, we visited a site with replicas of ancient American cliff dwellings. The site is commonly decried as fake, but we enjoyed the opportunities to climb through the semi-accurate replicated dwellings, and we particularly enjoyed all the...
It usually does not take a lot of historical investigating to find a pagan origin to many of the most sacred Christian holidays. Don’t get me wrong, I believe Easter is a tremendously important and holy celebration. But the timing of the holiday and traditions such as...
Today we celebrate Epiphany, commemorating the moment when the three kings/wise men/magi knelt before the manger to pay homage to baby Jesus. The message of the story is tremendously important, even if most of the historical details are questionable. Were There Three...
The Romans were the first people on record to celebrate Christmas on December 25. Why? After all, many scholars believe that the incidents around the nativity indicate that Jesus was most likely born during spring or late fall, rather than the darkest days of winter....
Halloween originated with the Celtic pagan rituals of Samhain, so it is not a Roman holiday. However, Romans celebrated two days in honor of the dead, and when the Catholic Church started imposing their own holidays on top of existing pagan holidays, they ended up...
When I first started working at the local chamber of commerce, my boss told me the most common question I’d get from people is “What day is the 4th of July?” It wasn’t that people couldn’t count, but they wanted to know whether the parade and fireworks were being held...