What follows is a section from the Commentary on Galatians. The simple answer is that Paul's opponents were teaching an eclectic calendar which was about the issue of idolatry and apostacy, and not the Biblical holy days.

Here is the Greek text:

4:10 hmeraV para threisqe kai mhnaV kai kairouV kai eniautouV

Here is the English Translation:

10 days aside^a ye observe, and months, and seasons, and years!

Note a: 4.10a. Note "aside ye observe," which in Greek is para threisqe. I have divided the text differently to emphasize the fact that these days were from an ecclectic calendar.*

§1. This text allows us to identify Paul's opponents as Essenes (see 1.9-10 §2). This was a Judeo-pagan sect with adherants in "every city of Palestine" (Deception [2], pg. 165). The Essenes were the only major sect to paganize the normal scriptural calendar. They observed a 364 day year. The year had 4 equal seasons of 91 days each, and the seasons were composed of 3 months of 30 days each plus 1 extra day at the end of each season. The first day of each season was always a Wednesday. Their feast days never fell on a Sabbath. The Essene months began on Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday repectively. The Essene Passover always began on a Wednesday as opposed to the scriptural Passover, which began on the evening of the 14th day of the true lunar month nearest to the spring equinox. All their other feasts began on the same day of the week every year.

Copies of the Essene calendar were found at Qumran and Masada, and also in the book of Jubilees. According to this calendar Tabernacles would also fall on Wednesday. The first day of the first month was their New Year day, and it fell on a Wednesday. Pentecost was on Sunday contrary to usual Judean practice. The first of each month was called, "[A] Day of Remembrance." The Calendar began on Wednesday because the sun, moon, and stars were created on the 4rth day. E.R. Leach demonstrates how the Jubilees calendar could be intercalated. E.R. Leach, Vetus Testamentum, (October 1959): 392.

The Essene calendar was essentially a cross between the Egyptian solar calendar and the holidays God ordained in the Law. The Eqyptian calendar has 360 days composed of 12 months of 30 days each, and then they add 5 days on to the end of the year to keep approximate pace with the sun, i.e. 30 x 12 + 5 = 360 + 5 = 365. They never bothered to adjust their calendar by 1/4 day every 4 years, so their months drifted through the seasons in what is known as the sothic cycle.

§2. Paul does not accuse the Galatians of returning to their outright former idolatry. Not even the Essenes would have tolerated that. But he does accuse them of wanting to return that way. The adoption of the Essene Judeo-pagan calandar was good evidence they were sucumbing to the elemental spirits which aimed to overthrow the scriptural calendar.

The "elements" in Gal. 4:9 refer to the elemental forces of the kosoms. These were not merely limited to our western idea of "elements," i.e. "weather." The Greek idea of elements included the heavenly bodies, the sun, moon, stars, and planets. It was also used of the signs of the zodiac (BAG [3], stoiceion no. 4, heavenly bodies pg. 769). Pagan Greeks associated spiritual powers with the heavenly bodies and signs.

The Essenes were "trained in the arts of divination" according to Josephus (Deception [2], pg. 166). One of the major forms of divination is astrology, and in the Hellenistic period it was very popular. The Essenes believed that "fate governs all" (J. Ant. [20], XIII, V, 9). This doctrine predisposed them to astrology which governed the fates. "One document among the Scrolls has been interpreted as astrological in nature" (Zond. [15], Vol. A-C, pg. 394). Could this be one of the secret doctrines that initiates were not to divulge to outsiders mentioned by Josephus? (See J. War [20], II, VIII, 7). See also J. Carmignac, "Les Horoscopes de Qumran," Revue de Qumran, 18 (April 1965): 199-217.

Whatever the Galatians' former idolatry consisted of, Paul is suggesting that their adoption of the Essenian Judeo-pagan calendar and doctrines reflects a desire on their part to return to idolatry. The context certainly supports this thought in 4:8-10. The Essenian doctrine was extremely legalistic. For example, they expelled those who committed mortal sins from their community; some even died doing penance for their sin. But if they were readmitted before they died, the penance was considered "sufficient punishment for the sins they had been guilty of" (J. War [20], II, VIII, 8).

§3. The Jubilees calendar was not the only attempt to mix paganism into the worship of Israel. Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, changed the tabernacles feast from the seventh month to the eighth (I Kings 12:32). He appointed non-levitical priests (I Kings 12:31). This change of the calendar was the tool he used to introduce idolatry into Israel. Jeroboam set up sanctuaries in Bethel and in Dan (I Kings 12:29) to draw them away from the worship of God in Judea.

Like Jeroboam and the Essenes, most Christians use a Judeo-pagan calendar. For example the birth of the Anointed One occured in September 3 B.C. (The Birth of Christ Recalculated [10], 136-152). But its celebration has been combined with the feast of the winter solstice. The selection of the date of December 25th, and the use of the green tree, were motivated by pagan interests in the Church. The date was orginially the birth of Tammuz, son of the "Queen of Heaven" (Jeremiah 44:25). Also it was known as, "dies natalis Solis Invicti," "the day of the birth of the invincible Sun" (Bacchiocchi [21], 257).

The old syncretism in Israel was a cultic form of religion which mixed the worship of Yahweh, ruler of heaven and earth, with paganism, i.e. Baal worship, which in the deeper doctrines was monotheistic sun worship. Baal was said to be the offspring of the supreme deity El (Hebrew for "God") and his consort, Ashtoreth, the "Queen of heaven" (Zond. [15], Vol. H-L, pg. 207).

§4. Modern Christianity is merely another combination of this old mixture of truth and error. It is Judeo-paganism. The modern variation is perhaps more subtle than the ancient, but only because our religious thinking patterns easily justify the modern cult with which we are familiar. Yeshua has become Tammuz, the "sun of heaven"; Mary has become the Queen of Heaven, Semiramis, comediatrix between God and man. Passover has become Easter, a new feast on a different day, Sunday (the venerable day of the Sun). "Easter" according to Bede (De Ratione Temporum, XV) derives from Eastre, a Teutonic spring goddess, to whom sacrifices were offered in April (Zond. [15], Vol. D-G, pg. 180).

So Christians today follow a calendar which is in essence but a mixture of Jewish and pagan elements. It is the pagan elements which are objectionable. For the scriptures command God's people not to mix the customs of the nations into the worship of the true God. "You shall not enquire about their gods, saying 'How did these nations serve their gods? even so I will do likewise.' You shall not do so unto the Lord your God: for every abomination to the Lord, which he hates, have they done unto their gods" (Deut. 12:30b-31a). This command is not merely to avoid idolatry. It is also to avoid the forms and rituals which are used in idolatry, or which have their orgin in idolatry.

A good rule of thumb is, if God did not invent a religious ritual, the Enemy probably did. And the scripture commands us not to add any ritual's in the worship of God beyond what he commanded, "What thing soever I command you, observe to do it; you shall not add thereto, nor diminish from it" (Deut. 12:32). Some celebrations have virtually no pagan influence in them, i.e. Independence day, Thanksgiving day, and memorial day and vetrans' day, Hanakkuh, and Purim, but other days such as Christmas and Easter are loaded with idolatrous influences.

One simple reason for not observing Christmas is that it is not the anniversary of Yeshua's birth. To observe Christmas is to perpetuate historical error. One simple reason for not observing Easter is that it takes away from Passover, which is the day God commanded to be observed, and which we do observe.

God simply does not wish to be worshipped with pagan customs. He was already told us how to worship in the scripture. And he does not particularly desire to be reminded of the competition through the use of customs invented by the Enemy. He is a Jealous God (Ex. 20:5).

Christians, however, still complain that they are not idolators. If that is true, then it only means they are not overt idolators; still they show in what direction they lean by whose marks and emblems they adopt. This leads me to question them. Will they be prepared to reject the ulitimate mark of the Enemy?

§5. "Days aside you are keeping and months and seasons and years" (Gal. 4:10), Paul charges. It is just as when we find new believers adopting Christmas, Easter, Lent, Ash Wednesday, All Saints Eve (Halloween), Epiphany and other Catholic holidays. Then we also suspect them of adopting the Catholic doctrine of baptism for the remission of sin, penance for the payment of subsequent sin, the Eucharist for new grace after sinning, and the absolution of a priest apart from the atoning blood of the Anointed One. A good catholic who lives up to the norm (law) of the seven sacraments is said to inherit eternal life thereby.

And no sooner does one of God's prophets stamp out one heresy, then another rises up to replace it. Paul defeats the Enemy with the circumcisional regeneration, and then the Enemy switches his emphasis to baptismal regeneration. But the spirit of the heresy is the same, and Paul's teaching applies in spirit if not in form. Even if sectarians wish to pay for sin with horse dung, the error is still the same. It contradicts God's way: without the shedding of blood there is no remission. The way of Cain, is the way of the sectarians.

§6. The Essenes, then, have truly been said to be the precursor of modern Christianity. They were no minor sect. Although Josephus tells us they numbered 4000, he also tells us that the Pharisees numbered 6000. We should perceive that he is only telling us about the leaders of each of the sects. In the case of the Essenes, no doubt, multitudes of the common people followed their teaching just as multitudes followed in the Pharisees teaching. If one order of the Essenes was celibate, it would not be far fetched to suppose that it was the leaders which renounced marriage.

Recall that I have been using the term Essenes in a loose sense, only because those who held the monopoly on the scrolls propagated this theory (see 1.9-10 §2). When Josephus describes the Essenes, he may be describing only one small sect of them.

They also held to Platonic and Pythagorean doctrines of the immortality of the soul (Deception [2], pg. 166). Their doctrine of hell was essentially unending torment. And good souls went to heaven immediately upon death. They had their own holy places, with their own priests. The priest had to bless the bread before anyone partook of it. In a word Essenism was the catholicism of the Hellenistic period.

They were not vegetarians, nor were they pacifists. The discovery of a forge and weapons of war at Qumran besides the bones of animals have disproved this. Only some Essenes were celibate. The discovery of graves with woman and children at the sites confirms that they do marry. All property was held in common. Their probation period was 3 years; they despised wealth (Deception [2], pg. 165). They were not monks, and Qumran was not a monestary despite what Catholic Father de Vaux and others who worked on the Dead Sea Scrolls have said.

They called themselves, "the Keepers of the Covenant," "the Perfect of the Way," "the Way of Perfect-Righteousness," and the "Doers of the Law." (Deception [2], pg. 172). They also called themselves, "Congregation of the Poor" (Deception [2], pg. 134) which was shortened to the term "Ebionites" (poor ones). They should not, however, be confused with the Nazarenes who followed the scriptural calendar.

The Essenes who disturbed Paul's converts in Galatia were Judean Essenes who had adopted Christianity. They professed faith in "the Teacher of Righteousness" (Deception [2], pg. 134), who probably is to be identified with Yeshua. There can be no doubt that Yeshua's teachings had swept through all the Jewish world. And the Essenes were more predisposed to accept them. Later on, even the pagan mystery religions got into the act of watering down the faith when they added a Judaic element to their practice. These were those who claimed, "to be Jews" but of whom Yeshua said they were liars in the book of Revelation (Rev. 2:9, 3:9). They denied the divinity of Yeshua.

The key Essene doctrine was, "All members must enter into a 'Covenant before God to obey all His commandments'; and he who practices such obedience will be 'cleansed from all his sins'" (Deception [2], pg. 140). "There will be, the text affirms, 'no pity on all who depart from the way ... no comfort ... until their way becomes perfect'" (Deception [2], pg. 134). Compare this with Gal. 3:3, "Are you now perfected in flesh?" The doctrine of atonement by merits is an old pagan one, which is why Paul suggests the Galatians are giving heed to the weak and poor elements.

§7. Paul's adversaries probably evolved into what later were called "Ebionites." Philip Schaff writes "From the Nazarenes we must carefully distinguish the heretical Jewish Christians, or the Ebionites, who were more numerous" (Schaff [16], vol. II sec. 113). There were two groups of Ebionites. One was Pharisaic and the other Essenian.