| Christmas Without Christ | |
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Pre-Christian Traditions
It is not, however, clear that this dating was done for wholly Christian reasons. I don't think that it is entirely coincidental that in 274 CE, when the winter solstice fell on December 25th, pagan emperor Aurelian proclaimed this day as Natalis Solis Invicti, the festival of the birth of the invincible sun. Throughout pagan Europe, Christianity was known for supplanting pagan celebrations and holy places in an effort to speed conversion, and it is easy to see this as another example of the same.
But there was more involved than just the date. Pagan Rome at this time of year was deeply involved with celebrations. It was the important festival of the old vegetation-god Saturn who (as a god) died or was displaced by Jupiter, the sky-god (depending on how you looked at things).
For an entire week, from December 17th to 24th, no work was done and the only law was for everyone to be in good cheer. And, of course, the exchanging of gifts played an important role.
Does any of this sound familiar?
It is important to note the fact that celebrating the memory of a person on the day of their birth isn't normal to Christianity. Typically, a saint's "day" is placed on the date of their supposed death - and in the early days, their martyrdom. It was in the pagan and especially in the Roman world where celebrations on the anniversary of a person's birth is more likely to be found.
We shouldn't forget the heavy Germanic element - the nations of the north also had their greatest festivals of the year in mid-winter. Evergreen trees and holly became important symbols, because they tenaciously held on to their green colors despite the harshest winters. It is thus from these Nordic traditions that we get the use of an evergreen Christmas tree and decking the halls with holly.
Another important Nordic tradition was the Yule Log. The origins of the word yule seem to be somewhat in dispute, but one lineage traces it back to the name of the chief Germanic deity Yolnir, called Jol in Old Norse and Geol in Old English. In his name people celebrated a 12-day festival of eating, drinking, and general merriment.
Curiously, Yolnir (later named Wodan and later still Odin) is described in one legend as hanging himself on a tree and piercing himself with a spear, suffering through nine nights. At the end, he drinks some mead and cries out the runes of the Norse alphabet (thus their origin). Sound familiar?
Christian Traditions
The most important Christian aspect to modern celebrations of Christmas is probably the figure of Santa Claus. This character can be traced back to Saint Nicholas, a patron saint of children on whose day (December 6th), gifts were traditionally given to kids.
Nicholas was the bishop of Myra in Lycia (in Turkey) at some point before 350 CE. Nothing outside of legends is really known about him anymore, but the most persistent symbolism for him his is devotion to children. The American association between him and presents stems from the Dutch, who still give gifts to kids on his feast day. The American "Santa Claus" appears to be a mispronunciation of the Dutch "Sinter Klaas," colloquial for Saint Nicholas.
Beyond the idea that this is the day that people are supposed to be celebrating the birth of Jesus, there just isn't much else that Christianity has directly contributed. This is acknowledged by many Christians, and some denominations don't celebrate Christmas at all, regarding it as little more than a dressed-up pagan holiday.
In fact, Christmas was banned in some areas. The Scottish Presbyterian Church banned it in 1583 and James I had to reinstitute it by force of arms. The Massachusettes Bay Colony legally prohibited the celebration of Christmas for a long time, and other protestant-dominated areas generally frowned upon it.
Sometimes, Christmas was dangerous: in 1706, a mob of Puritans surrounded an Anglican church in Boston hurling stones and shouting threats at the people inside who dared to celebrate the Nativity. Puritan mobs in England were also known to attack people celebrating Christmas.
In their book 'The Making of the Modern Christmas, J.M. Golby and A.W. Purdue examined the December issues of The Times from 1790 to 1835. Would you believe that in twenty of those forty-five years, they found no mention of Christmas? And when Christmas was mentioned, it received only the scantest of attention - nobody really cared.
Even into the late 1800's, Christmas was not a generally popular holiday, nor was it an officially recognized state holiday. It wasn't such an odd thing, then, that Scrooge might require poor Cratchit to work on Christmas day - even the US Congress seems to have met on some Christmas days in the nineteenth century.
Next page > Post-Christian Traditions > Page 1, 2, 3, 4
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