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swsojourner
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Joined: 2003/10/3
Posts: 167


 America's First Christmas Card

America's First Christmas Card
By Mike McCormack

When was the first Christmas message printed in America? It had to come with European Christians, but who were the first Europeans in America? Did they come with Columbus, or did they come earlier with the Vikings; or even earlier with a band of Irish monks? The Navagatio, Saint Brendan's account of his travels across the Atlantic, certainly predates the Viking voyages by some 400 years and establishes Irish visitors as early as the Sixth Century A.D., but no evidence had ever been found to support that claim. That lack of hard evidence led author Timothy Severin to duplicate the voyage of Brendan in 1977, in a leather-covered boat built to Brendan's specifications, but unfortunately, that did little to convince the sceptics.

However, while the sceptics argued that possibility and probability do not offer proof, startling discoveries were being made in the New England states of New Hampshire and Vermont that altered the entire subject. A complex of ancient stone buildings, burial tombs, and oracle chambers, which had been under study for some time, were revealed to be Celtic — not from the time of Brendan, but as far back as 800 B.C.!

The evidence was overwhelming. Scores of inscriptions found at the sites were identified as Ogham — a system of cypher used by the Celts over 2500 years ago. Using the science of epigraphy — the study of ancient carvings on stone — Dr. Barry Fell, Harvard professor and president of the Epigraphic Society, not only identified the inscriptions, but translated them. Some identified graves, while others, taken from an oracle chamber, contained religious writings, and still others concerned land boundaries. Together, they indicated a Celtic settlement in America when that form of Ogham was in use, sometime after 800 B.C.

Further, great standing stones, surrounding one of the sites, are geometrically aligned for viewing such celestial events as the summer and winter solstices and seasonal star and lunar patterns. The parallel to Newgrange and similar structures in Ireland is remarkable. In addition to local Indian words and place names with Celtic roots, the defining and dating of pottery, tools, and implements found at the site, also confirm the settlement to be Celtic, matching items produced in the Celtic regions of western Europe during the Bronze Age.

The conclusion that a Celtic society existed in America before the time of Christ is indisputable, but what has that to do with a Christmas Card? Well, Dr. Fell released a book on his initial discoveries, entitled America B.C., and a sequence of events followed which immensely added to the evidence of another group of early settlers, and the Christmas Card they left behind.

Ida Jane Gallagher, a native West Virginian working as a free-lance historian in Connecticut, forwarded to Dr. Fell an article that she had received from the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce. The article described a stone carving in Wyoming County, West Virginia, similar to the ones she had photographed in New England. Discovered by two amateur archeologists in 1964, the carving was examined in 1970 by a Geological survey team, who concluded that the inscription — whatever its meaning — was the work of early Indians or aborigines, and of no significance, since many such undeciphered carvings existed, whose origins are shrouded in mystery. The find was forgotten for a decade until archeologist Robert Pyle learned of its existence from his assistant Tony Shields.

Shields, a former Wyoming County resident, told Pyle of carvings near his home that were similar to old runic writings. When he produced photos of the carvings as proof, an excited Pyle estimated that they had been carved between 500 and 800 A.D. Beginning in March 1982, Pyle and Shields recorded every detail of the carving in eighteen separate visits. Convinced of its importance, Pyle gave the story to a local newspaper; the editorial and photo that subsequently appeared was clipped by a reader who sent it to the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce magazine. They, in turn, sent it to Ida Jane Gallagher. She immediately arranged to visit the site.

In November 1982, Pyle led a small group up a steep bank in West Virginia to a rock ledge, and Gallagher took her first look at the 10-foot inscription carved on a recessed portion of a cliff face beneath a natural rock overhang. Convinced that it was a major find, she contacted Professor Fell, and he agreed to attempt a translation.

When Dr. Fell saw the petroglyph, he immediately recognized it as an advanced form of the Ogham script he had seen in Ireland and on the New England carvings. He began a translation from Ogham into Old Irish, from Old Irish into modern Irish, and then into English.

The message thus deciphered read:

At the time of sunrise, a ray grazes the notch on the left side on Christmas Day, the first season of the year, the season of the blessed advent of the savior Lord Christ. Behold he is born of Mary, a woman.

According to the translation, the carving was a solar calendar bearing a Christmas message! But how could a Christmas message be carved in America, in an Irish script, between 500 and 800 A.D.? Was there a mistake? The small group decided to verify the translation. Calculating the difference between the Julian calendar (used until the 16th Century) and today's Gregorian calendar, they met at the petroglyph just before sunrise on December 22, 1982. Quietly they waited as the sun climbed in the east, spilled over the mountains, and streamed its rays toward the cliff face before them. They watched in amazement as the first shaft of sunlight funnelled like a flashlight beam through a 3-sided notch in the cliff overhang and struck the center of a sun symbol on the left side of the panel. As they watched in awe, the beam pushed the shadow from left to right, slowly bathing the entire message in sunlight like a prehistoric neon sign announcing yet another Christmas, as it has done for centuries. Before their eyes, they had received a message across the ages.

Subsequent visits showed that the phenomenon only occurred at the winter solstice; and at other times of the year the sun only partially lit the message. In 1985, the distinguished Celtic scholar, Professor Robert T. Meyer visited the site and responded to a question regarding its authenticity in these words:

Nobody could have faked this sort of thing unless they had a very deep knowledge of Celtic philosophy, for this is very archaic, and probably from the sixth or seventh centuries. This, for Celtic scholars, is probably at least as important as the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls . . . because it shows that Irish Monks, I suppose, came here, I would say, about 1500 years ago.

Since that time, other Ogham carvings have been discovered in West Virginia at Bears's Fork in Fayette County and Horse Creek in Boone's County; as well as at Red River Gorge in Kentucky; Shell Rock Canyon, Colorado, and Newfoundland!

As for the Wyoming County petroglyph, it remains for all to see: America's first Christmas message, left between 500 and 800 A.D., by Irish Christian missionaries. We may never know the identity of the person or persons who carved the message, but the fact that it exists, provides important proof of the old claim that Irish monks sailed to America to spread the gospel long before Columbus and the Vikings. An Irish monk named Brendan wrote of that in the Sixth Century, but no one believed him. Now, in view of the earlier settlements found in New England, it should be obvious that the Irish had the map all along.



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Karsten Nordmo

 2007/12/9 21:56Profile
Compton
Member



Joined: 2005/2/24
Posts: 2732


 Re: America's First Christmas Card

Hi swsojourner,

This is fascinating stuff. It's credibility goes to show how deeply fallible the intelligentsia of our secular universities really are.

MC


_________________
Mike Compton

 2007/12/9 22:16Profile
crsschk
Member



Joined: 2003/6/11
Posts: 9192
Santa Clara, CA

 America's First Christmas Card

Took the words right out of my mouth MC, truly fascinating ...


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Mike Balog

 2007/12/9 22:27Profile
tjservant
Member



Joined: 2006/8/25
Posts: 1658
Indiana USA

 Re: America's First Christmas Card

I...uh...

Wow.

This really is something. I have never heard anything about this. This is truly remarkable.


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TJ

 2007/12/9 23:50Profile
Compton
Member



Joined: 2005/2/24
Posts: 2732


 Re: America's First Christmas Card

Hi again swsojourner,

After reading your post about Martin and Mary I felt obliged to return and investigate more about this article.

Without much trouble I found the article at this [url=http://www.catholicism.org/mike-mccormack.html]link[/url].

The mission of the website, Slaves of the Immaculate heart of Mary, is clearly stated.

The Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary are a Congregation of religious brothers and sisters dedicated to a two-fold Crusade: the propagation and defense of Catholic dogma — especially extra ecclesiam nulla salus (there is no salvation outside of the Roman Church) — and the conversion of America to the one, true Church. Our congregation consists of First Order Brothers, Second Order Sisters, and Third Order members dedicated to furthering these goals.

I'm not quite sure how 1500 year old Celts help with the conversion of America to Catholicism...but I'm starting to feel like a fish on a hook here.

swsojourner, is [url=http://www.catholicism.org/home.html]this[/url] what you are about? I'm not presuming, just asking.

For what it's worth, there is also this related [url=http://www.aislingmagazine.com/aislingmagazine/articles/TAM17/Columbus.html]article[/url], and [url=http://allsaintsbrookline.org/celtic/saints/brendan.html]this one as well[/url], if anyone is curious.

And Dr. Barry Fell, emeritus of Harvard, seems to apear in a variety of articles dealing with unorthodox theories of ancient civilizations. For instance, [url=http://hnn.us/articles/23662.html]here is an interesting one[/url].

MC


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Mike Compton

 2007/12/10 0:09Profile
crsschk
Member



Joined: 2003/6/11
Posts: 9192
Santa Clara, CA

 Re: Christmas Card

MC, good research here, am sharing in this discomfort as well ...

Quote:
swsojourner, is this what you are about? I'm not presuming, just asking.



Fair question in light of the other mentions, something held back momentarily ... swsojourner is a long termed brother here, more than the benefit of the doubt, nonetheless the things being brought forth have stirred the curiosity.

Quote:
After reading your post about Martin and Mary I felt obliged to return and investigate more about this article.



Carefully and hesitatingly started then shelved a response there;

Quote:
It seems to be a
natural human tendency for latter-day followers to
project back onto the founder of a movement their own
prevailing viewpoints.



Quote:
It appears, once again, that the truth about important
historical figures is almost invariably more complex
than the "legends" and overly-simplistic
generalizations which men often at the remove of
centuries - create and accept uncritically.



Two true statements and would have to conclude they apply to this article just as well. It shouldn't be too surprising that what Luther wrote was part of the prevailing thinking of the time. Have wondered that it is often forgotten in a great sense that before Luther and others came along there was the prevailing thought to begin with, that which they began protesting against.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That was as far as I got, but those two quotes were bookends to the article itself, one at the beginning, the other at the end. I am quite reluctant to start a forest fire here ... There is a matter of [i]looking[/i] at history without having an axiomatic assimilation or propagation of whatever constructs may be contained in it. It's what it is and as has been mentioned before, the times and atmosphere ... the prevailing thinking of the times ... much to consider.

Yet for all that there seems to be quite a bit of double speak and even mischievousness shot through much of these things. As MC noted and noticed and began further investigating, something of an agenda back of these things it seems (not you, swsojourner). Indeed even the very much in your face and up front agenda linked there, in a strange way almost could be applauded for not hiding anything in their efforts albeit sheer insanity i.e. [i]extra ecclesiam nulla salus[/i]. Reading through the "Our Status in the Church" is quite something. In a nutshell '[i]not formally recognized by the church[/i]' is "proved" out in semblance of acceptance by absence of censure? Curious logic!

There is just too much hyperbole in so much of this, extremes taken, 'back reading' into things ... Honesty as a prerequisite for a Christian, whatever their stripe or muddled confusion, if this is not a first order of business it all seems a colossal waste of time and effort.


_________________
Mike Balog

 2007/12/10 8:50Profile





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