The Vegan Lifestyle

Colorful pyrotechnic displays and fireworks usually usher the first minutes of the New Year. Children and adults alike enjoy watching the colorful pyrotechnics and the crackling fireworks during Christmas and New Year’s eve. People gazed upon the sky with awe and admiration,  and loud shouts of applause mixed with the explosions of firecrackers and the noises of merriment of the season.

Indeed, watching pyrotechnic display is enjoyable. It brings happiness and joy to everyone. But it has its disadvantage too.  Like firecrackers, they pollute the air with toxic chemicals that are harmful to our body. The cracklings, and loud explosions of firecrackers are very exciting, but they cause more accidents that rip, blind, paralyze, maim, and kill more lives every year.

Nowadays, firecrackers are mostly used to drive away bad spirits and bad luck. The more firecrackers, the better, and the louder the explosions, the more effective in expelling evil spirits and warding off bad luck. But these are superstitious beliefs with not an iota of truth in them.

There is a better way to show our grateful appreciation of the manifold blessings that God has given us throughout the year. It is not by the loudest explosions of firecrackers, nor by the most colorful pyrotechnic displays.  It is reciprocating God’s love toward us by loving our neighbor as God has loved us.

God sees us from above. He surely regrets the wasteful spending of money on firecrackers, and pyrotechnics. The amount could have been spent in buying food for the hungry, in buying clothes for the destitute that lay asleep on cold barren sidewalks, to provide  the homeless with shelter against floods and typhoons, to buy medicines for the sick and the afflicted,  to alleviate the sufferings of the poor, and to give justice to the oppressed.

Do not overeat on New Year’s day to avoid strokes and heart attacks. Some people spend their New Year in hospitals because of strokes and heart attacks triggered by lots of food intake in the body. New Year is a time of merriment with the family and loved ones; it should not be spent in problems such as sudden heart attacks brought on by excessive eating of fatty foods.

Most people work a lot to save money for Christmas and New Year celebrations. Some worked on holidays and on weekends to save more money, and this will affect their health. All work makes  one dull. To be healthy you need enough rest. What is the use of working to have more money, when all these money will only go to doctors, medicines, and other hospital bills. It is useless!

During Christmas celebration, people prepare a lot of food for the “noche buena”: cakes, roasted turkey, bread, cheese, hams, bacons, roasted pigs, and other sweet delicacies. All of these are dangerous to our health especially when our blood pressure is high, and our blood sugar level is on the boundary line. We should eat with caution during Christmas and New Year. Otherwise, we will have painful joints, stabbing pain in the chest, painful nape, headaches and feelings of dizziness or even strokes and heart attacks  during the happy celebration. And we will miss the moment which we had  so worked very hard to save money. We will surely regret having to spend Christmas or New Year on the bed, or worse still, in hospitals.

So let us not overeat during the New Year’s eve celebration. Let us practice temperance;  let us eat moderately. Always remember that anything in excess is not good. Sweet and fatty foods are harmful to the body, and should be avoided if possible.

What is the real meaning of Christmas? Is it just a day of celebration to commemorate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ?

The real meaning of Christmas is giving out of love. It is giving love to all and all of it. The real essence of Christmas is love.

Christmas is not in the Bible nor enjoined by God to be celebrated yearly. It is a pagan holiday dedicated to the Persian god Mithras, and to Sol Invictus, the sun god of the Romans.

Christmas is of pagan origin. It was not and is not a Christian holiday. December 25 used to be a festival where sun worshippers celebrated the nativity of their sun god, Sol Invictus or the “unconquered sun”.  In the Julian calendar, December 25 was reckoned as the winter solstice. This was the day of the year, in the Southern Hemisphere, with the longest daylight. And it was for that reason, the day being the longest and the sun being brighter on that day that the sun worshippers of ancient Rome thought that their sun god was born on that day, hence their festival in December 25.

The festival was not named Christmas originally. During the mid fourth century, December 25 was a pagan holiday celebrated to commemorate the giving birth to a son by Astarte, the Semitic goddess of love and war, to a son. It started in Syria and Egypt, and eventually spread and became popular in the whole empire when Emperor Aurelan proclaimed it as a holiday for the commemoration of the birth of their sun god Sol Invictus, and the giving birth of a son by Astarte to be be celebrated by both the pagans and the Christians. The church fathers and elders of the early Christian church refused to celebrate December 25 as the date of birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. But as time went on, and as many pagans were converted  to Christianity, December 25 gradually began to be celebrated as Christmas. And the pagans brought all the colorful Christmas decorations in the churches, in public places, and in our homes.

We are all guilty of worshiping God on the wrong day. We may be ignorant of the facts, or the motives in our heart are genuinely good, but they do not justify us from our sin in committing idolatry.

To us Christians, Christmas belongs to Christ. We believe that Christ was born in a manger in Bethlehem on that day, and we celebrate it every year to show our joy and happiness that God, in spite of our being a sinner, sent his only begotten Son to redeem us from sin. It is our way of reciprocating the wonderful love that God has given us through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Christmas is for everybody. It is for the children, for the young, and for the elderly. It is for all the people on this Earth, whether rich or poor, weak or strong, slave or free. Christmas is not giving gifts or love in a day, but giving throughout the year. Christmas is loving our neighbors as God has loved us. Christmas is sharing our food with the hungry. Christmas is giving justice to the oppressed. Christmas is removing the yoke and the heavy burdens of our loved ones, relatives, friends,and  neighbors. Christmas is forgiving one another as God has forgiven us. Christmas is drawing our souls to the afflicted ones and relieving their sorrows and miseries. Christmas is loving God above all with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all mind.

Was Christ born on December 25? Does the Bible say something about the exact date of Christ’s  birth?

Most people  celebrate Christmas on December 25. Even non-Christians celebrate it too. But Christmas is not mentioned in the Bible. We cannot read mistletoe and  Santa Claus too. Where did these all come from?

Christmas is a pagan holiday that began to be celebrated in the 336 A.D.  It was  based on the polytheistic religions of ancient Rome and its predecessors. December 25  is the nativity date of Mithras, the Persian God, and Sol Invictus, the unconquered  sun god. In the Julian calendar, the twenty-fifth of December was reckoned as the winter solstice, and it was regarded as the nativity of the Sun, because the day begins to lengthen and the power of the sun to increase from that turning-point of the year. The ritual of the nativity  have its origin in Syria and Egypt, and eventually a Roman emperor Aurelan decreed that December 25, the winter solstice be celebrated as a feast day and dedicated to the Roman sun god, Sol Invictus.

Jesus Christ wa not born on December 25. In Luke 2: 6-8, it was mentioned that when Mary delivered her firstborn Son, there were shepherds out in the field tending their flocks. These verses prove that Jesus was not born on December 25, because the shepherds could not have withstood the piercing cold of winter which usually falls  from December up to February.

Most Bible scholars are more inclined to believe on an earlier date of Christ’s  birth.  More data from astronomy point to the more probable date of Christ birth on September 11, 3 B.C.

The ancient Israelites usually celebrated the Feast of Tabernacle on the first day of Tishri which may fall on August  or September depending on the appearance of  the new moon.

Some  Bible scholars believed that Christ was born during the Jewish year 3759, which corresponded to the fall of 3 B.C. In 3 B.C., the 1st of Tishri occurred on September 11. This belief is strengthened by a  Bible verse in John 1: 14, which says that the Word (Christ) became flesh and tabernacled among us. They believed that the word “tabernacled” signified and indicated the Feast of the Tabernacle. Also, in 1 Corinthians 15:45, it says of a second  Adam (Christ) as a life-giving spirit. Most Jewish rabbis believed that the first Adam was born on the 1st of Tishri, and so it is not a coincidence that Christ being the second Adam must also be born on the 1st of Tishri.

And records in astronomy showed a phenomenon that ocurred on September 11, 3 B.C. On that year, the sun entered into the “mid body” of the constellation Virgo for twenty days starting from August 27 to September 15, 3 B.C. The sun and its planets were in special alignment  with the constellation Virgo in September 11, 3 B.C.

In Revelation 12:1, it says that “… a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and with a crownlike garland of twelve stars on her head”. And this ‘woman” could be the constellation Virgo, being the only constellation of the Zodiac that represents a woman. And Virgo or the woman was “clothed with the sun” from August 27 to September 15. And on September 11, 3 B.C, the sun and the moon set at 6:18 p.m., and 7:39 p.m. respectively – literally, the moon was under the woman’s feet, and it happened on that day only.

Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior was not born on December 25. Christmas day, or December 25 is a feast day dedicated to the Roman sun god, Sol Invictus. The pagan Rome during the era of the empire worshipped the sun as their god, and Emperor Aurelan proclaimed that day for the sole purpose of worshipping their sun god.

The Bible does not say anything about the birth date of Jesus Christ. Evidences from astronomy, supported by Bible verses point to September 11, 3 B.C. as our Lord’s birthday. But nobody can actually say with absolute certainty that it is so. Nobody had recorded the date of Christ’s birth, and if ever somebody did record it,  it could had been irretrievably lost in time.

The most important thing is to be thankful to God for giving us his only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ to redeem us from the curse of sin. And he has given us eternal life through Him. Whether He was born on September 11 or any other day, is not so important for our salvation. What is very important is to obey His commandments, and to love Him above all things with all our heart , with all our mind, with all our soul, and with all our strength. And to love our neighbors too, as we love ourselves.

I have fond childhood memories of Christmas and New year celebrations in the island. When I was about five years old, my mother sister, and aunt baked delicious rice cakes for our noche buena. Many carolers came and relished the oven-fresh rice cakes. Our neighbors came also and we gave then rice cakes too. They gave us their delicacies in return as well — biko, suman, muron, maja, leche flan, etc.
We enjoyed eating all these native delicacies. All were so satiated after the noche buena. (more…)

"Island Of No Return"

I am Apo. In our locality, my name means “grandchild.” My family tree reckons its roots from the Spanish conquerors that came to the Philippines in 1521 together with Fernando Magallanes.
I was born in a beautiful, peaceful island in Eastern Visayas. So beautiful indeed that people from other places who visit or work in that island never leave the place again, thus it being called “The Island of No Return.” (more…)