December 9, 2006
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Holiday Histories: Christmas
History:
Christmas started in Europe as a pagan winter solstice festival. When the Europeans were converted to Christianity, they refused to give up their pagan festival, so the Catholic Church made it into a day to celebrate the birth of Christ so that at least they would be celebrating a “Christian holy day.” December 25 was the date of the winter solstice. The mass said on this day was called Christmas. Jesus could not have been born on that day because shepherds in Palestine only watch their flocks by night (Luke 2:8) in the spring, during lambing season.
During the Protestant Reformation, Christmas was condemned as being idolatrous, popish, and superstitious. It was forbidden in England by Oliver Cromwell’s followers, and gradually grew out of practice. The Puritans, when they came to the New World, forbade it. People soon got out of the habit of celebrating Christmas. Christmas died in the mid-nineteenth century.
Then, in the Victorian era, Charles Dickens wrote his Pickwick Papers and Christmas Carol. He wrote nostalgically and sentimentally of Christmas traditions he had just made up; this is equivalent to the president of Ford making commercials that reminisced of the mini-van his grandfather used to drive him in! A Christmas Carol was not an immediate success until Dickens started reading it aloud on tour. Then his invented nostalgia of newly fabricated traditions swept all of England and America, and the new imitation Christmas was accepted with open arms.
Traditions:
Feasting has agrarian roots. Herding peoples had to slaughter their livestock during the winter when there was not enough provender- at about the same time the drinks fermented from the summer’s crops were ready to drink. During the winter, farm chores were at their lightest so time could be given to feasting. Feasting was also done by the Romans, who never knew if the days would stop growing shorter, since they believed that the universe is subject to the whims of the gods. They lived it up while they could with a time of ecstatic revelry, celebration, eating, and drinking. While wassailing traditions have faded, drinking is still connected to Christmas.
Evergreens symbolized immortality and the continuity of life to the ancient Europeans because they retain their leaves during the winter. During the winter, evil spirits were supposed to roam the land (later to be associated with Halloween) and the coniferous plants were used as protection against them. Ancient Egyptians viewed the evergreen tree as a fertility symbol. During the winter solstice, they decorated their homes with palm fronds, using them as Romans would later use boughs of fir. The Germans first experimented with indoor trees, and when Queen Victoria married a German husband, the royal family had a tannenbaum. When pictures of their family and tree were published, the Christmas tree took England and the New World by storm.
Mistletoe is a tree parasite that spends its whole life in the branches of oaks, sucking their sap. It has been long associated with magic and fertility. The Druids used it for pagan ceremonies.
Yule log traditions originated in Northern Europe. Men would go into the woods, find an immense log, and bring it home with great ceremony. It would be set alight with a fragment from the past year’s Yule log. A proper log would burn for days and the holiday would last as long as it burned. A pig would be roasted on its flames. When it burned out, that would mark the end of the holiday season. Some people drew a small chalk figure on the log, perhaps a link to dimly-recalled traditions of human sacrifice.
Gift-giving originated in Rome. Roman subjects used to give strenae of evergreen branches to their rulers. Gradually these gifts shifted to art objects and finally to gold or currency. Roman patricians also gave money in little clay boxes to tradespeople and artisans. This is the origin of the British Boxing Day.
Carols began as medieval rounds that were danced and sung. In medieval times, most were lewd. Caroling used to be done with flute accompaniment on all holidays. It has since become a cappella and only at Christmas.
Should Christians celebrate Christmas? Christmas is of pagan origin and is permeated with pagan customs. We are warned not to love the world (1 John 2:15) or its pagan customs. It was made into a “Christian” holiday by the Catholic Church. If Christmas is to be celebrated at all, it needs to be the celebration of the birth of Jesus; the pagan traditions must go.
