That scene of the groom carrying his bride in his arms, of which American screenwriters are so fond, is straight out of Roman customs; namely, the reenactment of the Rape of the Sabin Women that took place in Roman weddings.
Lots of common words
cereal – from the goddess Ceres
*volcano *-- from Vulcan
Most of the constellations, for that matter, the main exceptions being the modern ones such as Antlia, the Air Pump.
The names of all the planets and their moons, although they are now starting to branch out of Western paganisms into other polytheistic traditions such as Hinduism and various indigenous American traditions (viz. Sedna, Quaoar).
The Catholic terms basilica and pontifical were lifted directly from Roman pagan religion. A basilica was a major Pagan temple and a pontifex was a leading Pagan priest.
Volcano from the god Vulcan, martial from the god Mars, venereal from the goddess Venus… mercurial, jovial, saturnine… no shortage of things to choose from off the top of one’s head.
Not to mention the Papal title Pontifex Maximus, a title originally held by the high priest of Jupiter.
One article I read once said that the peasants were a jolly lot (when they weren’t starved and oppressed) and generally the Catholic church did not completely tear them away from their pagan roots. Hence they co-opted feasts like the winter solstice celebrations - pine tree, Yule log, mistletoe and all that; maypole dancing; and more lively drunken rampages like Octoberfest go back before the Christian church.
What apparently did in a lot of this amoral carousing was actually the boring, stern no-nonsense morality of the reformation Protestants.
I also worked with a fellow years ago, whoused to spend his winters (in simpler times) smoking stuff on the beach in southern Mexico, before the revolutions and gangs made that untenable. He mentioned that a lot of the remote areas were never fully “civilized”; they often did not get full-time parish priests; and that large elements of the local indian religion had been simply given a veneer of Catholicism. For example, yellow is still the “colour of death” somewhat akin to black in European tradition (and IIRC similar to Chinese tradition?).
It’s nearly impossible to find any quasi-religious aspect of Western society that isn’t pagan in origin. Even most core beliefs and practices of Western churches existed in earlier pagan forms. E.g., the virgin mother of god, the clothing styles of Roman Catholic bishops, etc.
Yet another example: 12 was a favored number among pagan groups. Hence 12 jurors and such.