It is usually said to have originated as a pagan festival celebrating the arrival of summer, fertility, or both.

There have been claims that it is a pagan festival, however, these claims are unfounded.

She told herself she was only satisfying her curiosity regarding the debauchery of a pagan festival.

The fiestas intertwine some of the great pagan festivals with Catholic ritual and tradition.

"What's Christmas anyway, but a pagan festival stolen by the Church for its own purposes?"

It is also the eve of a pagan Celtic festival of the dead, a time when spirits were thought to walk the earth.

Christmas was condemned as a pagan festival.

During a pagan festival, they refused to sell their wares for use in these celebrations.

But we don't have evidence of Christians adopting pagan festivals in the third century, at which point dates for Christmas were established.

The Talmud states that this festival was later turned into a pagan festival.