The Invention of Christmas

           

               

 Santa’s  Depiction, 1881 
  

Hear’s a shocker, it seems that there’s actually a savior born on a regular basis right here in the United States.  A December 2013 publication in the British Medical Journal reported that roughly 1 in 200 pregnant young American women claim to have become pregnant without experiencing sex; and to add creditability to that assertion; nearly 31% of those women claiming to have had a virgin pregnancy, had signed a chastity pledge.  In other words, you might want to stock up on frankincense and myrrh; could be we have a lot of virgin birth ceremonies to attend.

The moral of the study seems to be that the legendary virgin birth reported a little more than 2,000 years ago by Mary and Joseph is more common than we thought.  Otherwise approximately ½ of 1% of the new American mom’s referenced above, to put it bluntly: Tell lye’s, great big lies.

The birth year of Jesus is estimated among modern historians to have been between 7 BC and 2 BC; however the exact month and day of his birth remain unknown.   Never-the-less, his birth is referenced in two of the four gospels of the New Testament. By the late 4th century (354 AD), the Western Christian Church had decided Christmas, (December 25), a date later adopted in the East, was the day of the year Christians was to celebrate the birth of Christ.  Prior to then, “Epiphany” was celebrated on January 6, although technically this festival emphasized the celebration of the baptism of Jesus instead of his birth.

The date of Christmas is generally believed to correspond with one or more of the ancient pagan festivals that occurred near solstice (i.e., the Roman winter solstice festival of Saturnalia). So it’s not surprising to learn that in those early days the birthday of Mithras, the ancient Persian Sun god, was celebrated on December 25^th.

The truth is that prior to and throughout the early Christian centuries, “winter festivals”—especially those centered on the winter solstice—were the most popular of the year in many European pagan cultures.  Therefore, it’s of little wonder that the leadership in the Christian Church recognized the importance of having a Christian Holiday during the same time frame; what better candidate to fill the void that Jesus.

Since then, many modern Christmas customs have been directly influenced by such festivals; including gift-giving, merrymaking, greenery, lights, and Yule logs, plus various foods from Germanic feasts.  Pagans in Scandinavia celebrated a winter festival called Yule, held from late December to early January.    Many Scandinavians still call Christmas Jul (“the Danish Christmas”). Because northern Europe was last to Christianize, its pagan traditions had a major influence on Christmas as well; an example being the Koleda (an ancient pre-Christian winter festival), which was incorporated into the Christmas carol (also called a noël) .

“Christmas”, has been known by various other names throughout its history.  For example the Anglo-Saxons referred to the feast as “Midwinter” or, more rarely, as Nātiuiteð, a Latin term meaning “nativity” or “birth” which is from the Latin term nātīvitās.   In Old English, Gēola (“Yule”) referred to the period corresponding to January and December, which eventually paralleled with the Christian Christmas. “Noel” (or “Nowell”), yet another name for Christmas, didn’t entered the English language until the late 14^th  century and is from the Old French term noël or naël, which came from the Latin terms nātālis diēs, meaning “birth day”.

In addition to all that, many popular customs associated with Christmas developed independently of the remembrance of Jesus’ birth, with certain elements having roots in pre-Christian holidays that were celebrated around the winter solstice by pagan populations who, as time marched on, were converted to Christianity. As may have been noted above these customs included, but are not limited to, the burning of the Yule log from Yule and gift giving from Saturnalia over the centuries.

You may also be a bit surprised to learn that the atmosphere of Christmas has frequently evolved since the holiday’s beginnings, ranging from a sometimes unruly, drunken, carnival-like festival in the Middle Ages, to a tamer family-oriented and children-centered theme introduced in the 19th-century.  In fact, the celebration of Christmas was banned on more than one occasion by certain Protestant groups, such as the Puritans, due to fears that it was simply too pagan or unbiblical.

It’s January now and far too many of us are just beginning to recover from the economic hardship associated the post Christmas gifting.  Perhaps we’ll recover this year in time to do the same thing next year.  

Could it be that the early Romans had this holiday right, after all during Saturnalia (also the most popular Festival of the year), it was a time of celebration (from the 17^th through the 23^rd) and visits with friends & family were frequent.  But then too, in those days, gift-giving was common-place.  The only saving factor to that time honored tradition is that traditionally wax candles, and earthen ware figurines were given.  Everyone participated in those days, even slaves, so common sense suggests that such gifts were most likely affordable.

Sources . . .

http://www.care2.com/causes/its-a-miracle-virgin-births-are-happening-all-over-the-united-states.html#ixzz2qp1Nd9YD                                                  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas#History               http://tgsfree4allinfo.blogspot.com/2011/06/roman-colosseum.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Claus

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