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 While a large percentage of the world is celebrating Lent, therefore giving up something, I thought I would take this chance to speak a little bit about ancient religious practices that believed in indulgence more then sacrifice. Most of these are goddess worshiping religions, and while commonly practiced in ancient times, they are still widely practiced by many modern day pagans. Many of these religions included orgies in their sexual ceremonies. The word orgy actually comes from the Greek word orgia, meaning “sacred worship,” and had noble, spiritual connotations, instead of the debased meaning it has taken on today. Sex was considered uplifting and would take you closer to god or the gods, rather than placing you in her or his disfavor. It is widely believed that the Judeo-Christian holidays we celebrate today come from ancient pagan rituals. The name "Easter" originated with the names of an ancient Goddess and God. It was actually a Christian Scholar, the Venerable Bede, (672-735 CE.) who first asserted in his book De Ratione Temporum that Easter was named after Eostre (a.k.a. Eastre).  Eastre was the Great Mother Goddess of the Saxon people in Northern Europe and was a teutonic dawn goddess of fertility. This goddess was also known variously as Ostare, Ostara, Ostern, Eostra, Eostre, Eostur, Eastra, Eastur, Austron and Ausos. The name for eastre derived from the ancient word for spring: "eastre."Christmas was taken from Saturnalia, the original celebration of the time of death, when the earth was cold and the sun was beginning to overcome the power of death and giving us the hope of spring when life would be renewed. During this time Bacchus, the Roman god of wine, reigned over the ceremonies. Everything was upside down, masters waited on servants, every sexual prohibition was lifted, men and women exchanged dresses and erotic dances were performed. Valentines Day is taken from the pagan holiday of Lupricalia, festivals noted for wild, sensual dances with, of course, sausages. This upset the Christians so much that in the Fourth and Fifth Century Christian emperors outlawed both dancing and sausages. Man, what other reasons are there to live? But the most phallic of all pagan holidays was May Day with the dance around the May Pole and then the retiring in the fields to have sex with everyone and anyone to ensure the fertility of the land. May was the month of sexual freedom, even marriage bonds were suspended and resumed in June. This is why we have so many June weddings. In ancient cultures, sex was an important part of celebrating holidays. Most priestesses practiced sacred prostitution and every man was encouraged to purify himself by sleeping with the priestesses. Venus is perhaps the most infamous of the goddesses of love. Sacred prostitution was practiced in her name and she was the patroness of the prostitutes. In Western Asia the love and sexuality goddess was Astarte; in Egypt we have the cat-headed Bastet; Inanna was the great lady in Sumeria and Mave was a Celtic/Irish goddess whose service was concerned with wanton sexuality and sacred prostitution. So if you are giving up something for lent—more power to you. As for me, I'm going to trace back my roots and discover what sort of debauchery my foremothers were up to! 
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