Lauri Friberg, Mon Dec 23 19:19:21 2019 (Edited on the Christmas Eve the 24th
of December 2019 at 5:40PM-6:08PM. This text is Creative Commons and copyright
by Lauri Friberg 2019):

This is a short essay I wrote about Middle Eastern religions (Zoroastrianism,
Hinduism, Paganism (yes - Paganism originated in the Middle East, believe it
or not), Christianity (birth of Christ), Judaism and Islam (an Abrahamic
religion with its roots in the Arabic world, has some of its own rituals,
beliefs and traditions and some are common with Judaism and Christianity).

I wrote the essay about Christmastime ("Yuletide", "jultid", "joulun aika"),
on the 23rd and 24th of December 2019. Judaism is also mentioned as the
religion of Jesus Christ of Nazareth and of the folk (the people) the Jews
(also known as the Hebrews) who have a Jewish nation-state called "Israel" in
the Middle East, West Asia.

THE ASTROLOGY IN "ZOROASTRIANISM":
Interestingly enough there is astrology in Zoroastrianism, as supposedly is or
at least was in Hinduism. Zoroastrians had a god, called "Tishtrya" that is
the Northern Star - "Tish"="Taivas" and "Trya" is "Tyr" (one-handed
Scandinavian-Germanic god), and "Tir" (Persian name for "arrow", the "archer
in the sky", the sky-star-god). It would be "Taivaannuoli" in Finnish, and the
equivalent for it in Finnic Paganry and Shamanism is "Taivaannaula" ("the Nail
of the Sky"), aka "Pohjantähti" ("The Northern Star"). Zoroastrianism competed
with Vedaism that became Hinduism later.

THE THREE WISE MEN IN THE BEGINNING OF THE NEW TESTAMENT OF THE BIBLE, THE
BIRTH OF JESUS - THE INTERSECTION OF THE RELIGIONS "ZOROASTRIANISM",
"JUDAISM", AND "CHRISTIANITY":
I had a Christian book that claimed that the Three Wise Men who came to
Bethelehem to behold the birth of Jesus Christ of Nazareth were Zoroastrian
astrologers -Zoroastrian mages, that competed with the religion "Judaism" that
still exists to these days, especially in Israel, the nation-state of the
Jewish folk/people.

WHO WAS *THE* "JESUS CHRIST" OF NAZARETH?
Jesus was an Aramaic Jewish person who was a teacher to Jewish and non-Jewish
(Pagan, Hellenic, etc.) people; he was born about 3 B.C. - 1 A.D. and he died
about 30-33 A.D. Jesus was 30 years of age when he died under shady
circumstances. He was also a Prophet, according to the New Testament and
according to some Islam's writings, perhaps the Koran or some such. I am not
that interested in Islamic writings. One can Google it or not, it is not a
very interesting nor important topic in my humble opinion.

ABOUT THE RELIGION CALLED "ISLAM" AND ITS VARIOUS SECTS:
Islam is on the other hand a religion that has spread all over the world, as
has Christianity, and thereare lots of sects in Islam. The main ones being:
"Sunna" and "Shia". There is also something called Sufism, and then there is
Alawite Islam, and those also are dispersed into various cults and sects, of
which Salafism (a part of Sunni Islam) is one, and Wahhabism can also be
considered a part of Salafism.