Paganism is a different kind of religion which has its
roots in the ancient ages. It was there before Christianity and other religions.
For this reason, Paganism is out of the religions such as Christianity, Judaism
and Islam. It is deeply concerned with the Earth and nature, which I really
appreciate. Pagans believe that there is nothing more powerful than the energy
which exists in the nature. Nature is
very significant for them. So, their biggest aims are to protect it and
maintain the cycle of events that occur in the nature. Paganism does not have
only a holy book. It is an independent and individualistic religion because
there are many different beliefs in Paganism. Paganism can be put into three
kinds of categories about religion. These are polytheism, pantheism and
atheism. Some Pagans have faith in many gods and goddesses. Some claim that
nature itself is the religion itself because it is fantastic. Lastly, some
Pagans do not think that there are gods or goddesses. However, they all respect
for the nature and know that there is something miraculous in our green and
blue environment. According to those who believe in gods and goddesses, the sky
and sea gives us power and courage. The colour blue is so important that most
of their clothes and other things are all blue. Green symbolizes trees and
plants, so Pagans love the colour green. Trees have glorious spirits as their
beliefs point out. Other preferable colours among Pagans are red, white and
golden. I agree that colours may affect people in terms of their moods to some
extent. Most people think that Paganism is a dark and evil sort of religion
which is practiced by witches or wizards. I think it is wrong to have such a
general idea about it because Paganism is actually a pure religion based on
nature. On the other hand, I cannot deny the fact that there are some bad
believers who confuse people’s minds by their behaviours and strange rituals. Briefly,
Paganism and Pagans should be considered without any judgment or prejudice because
it is worth seeing their sensitive approach to our nature.
VIDEO REFLECTION: Christmas is a Pagan celebration
Watching documentaries is one of the things that I do
with pleasure in my free time. I like learning new and interesting facts about
history and science. Hence, I have put this short video taken from a part of a
great documentary. It tells the origins of celebrating Christmas. However, it is
not very surprising for me to learn that Christmas comes from the Pagan
traditions because Paganism is an old religion. Pagans celebrate the changing
seasons for ages. They have lots of rituals, customs and spiritual days. The
winter solstice is one of them. It is also known as the Yule and Christians
celebrate it as Christmas. Oaks and mistletoe was precious for Pagans and they
are still indispensible even today for both Pagans and Christians. You will
find more about similarities in the video. The visual quality of the video is
not prefect but I like the way it is presented. It is informative and very
clear. Lastly, I recommend that you do some research on Samhain, which is
another important celebration of Pagans and the Halloween if this video awakens
your enthusiasm. You will face with many common things between the two and
understand that Paganism has a great influence on Christian traditions.
Dear Emel,
YanıtlaSilI really, really loved your journal! Such an interesting topic is this! I did some research both while reading and after reading it. I was thinking same as you about Paganism before reading your journal. I liked your way of mentioning the subject. The way you deal with it is objective, which makes you a very good critic. I learned from your journal that Christmas comes from the Paganism. This was a surprising fact for me. However, there is a very little mistake, which is "..the sky and 'sea' gives us power and courage." I suppose that you mean 'sea'. Except for that, this is a brilliant work. You know what I mean by saying 'brilliant'. ;) I find your journal very effective, informative, and successful. I am really looking forward to read your journals! :)
Dear Buse,
YanıtlaSilThank you for your comment. You made me realize my mistake. Thanks to you, I wrote "sea" instead of "see". I am really happy that you liked my entry. I will go on sharing interesting subjects with you. Keep reading! :)
Dear Emel,
YanıtlaSilI found your article interesting since you speaked of something that normally one does not dare to speak in our society.This article is really eye opening for me because before I read this text I had some ideas about what paganism is or what a paganist’s aim is but when I read your article, I saw that what I thought about paganism is wrong .It helped me to understand what they think about nature or Gods. I found their symbols for some kind of meanings fantastic such as green which symbolizes trees and plants and Blue which as far as I understand , symbolizes power and courage.Thanks for your beneficial article :)