A
Brief Study of the Origins of Modern Christmas Celebrations
by
Kathryn
Capoccia
©
Copyright Kathryn Capoccia 2002. This file may be freely copied,
printed out, and distributed as long as copyright and source statements
remain intact, and that it is not sold.
When
December comes ‘round on the calendar we see decorated evergreen trees
in homes, shop windows and town squares, buildings wreathed in evergreens
and holly, neighborhoods and business areas bedecked with lights and ribbons
and all manner of decorations. We hear carols playing on our radios and
in our malls and workplaces. The malls are crowded with people. What time
is it? Its Christmas time, the most popular holiday of the year, observed
the world over as either a religious holiday or secular festival. This
bustling season is associated with the birth of Christ, good cheer, family
gatherings and feasts, gift giving, and Santa Claus. While most of us observe
some type of Christmas traditions, how many of us know of their origins?
For example, how many of us know why we call this season “Christmas?” Do
we know why we celebrate it on the 25th of December? And why
do we feast? Why do we cook the foods we do at Christmas? Why do we exchange
gifts? What do wreaths and garlands of evergreens and holly have to do
with it? Why have a Christmas tree? What is the significance of the Christmas
lights that decorate our trees, homes and city streets? Who is Santa and
how does he fit with the birth of Christ? For answers to these questions
and more we must look to the past because Christmas is rooted in history,
both in the pagan world and in ancient Christianity. For Christians it
is especially important to know the origins and meanings of our traditions
because we want to “worship in spirit and in truth” (JOH 4:23). With the
exception, perhaps, of Easter, what historical event is more appropriate
for us to extol than Christmas? Therefore, we need to look at our customs
and determine whether they are valid expressions of our faith. Exodus 20:5,
34:14 and Isaiah 42:8 remind us that our God is a jealous God who will
not give His glory to another; without knowing the truth we may, in ignorance,
give glory to that which is idolatrous, honor lies, and perpetuate pagan
rituals. We may offend God at a time when we are attempting to exalt His
grace toward fallen man through the birth of His Son, the Savior, Our Lord
Jesus Christ. Read and consider the following facts:
“Christmas”
celebrations are foreign to the pages of Scripture: Biblically, “Christmas”
does not exist. There is no account of Christians gathering to celebrate
the birth of Christ to be found anywhere in the New Testament. Even the
wise men of Matthew’s account, who came in response to the appearance of
His birth star in the sky, did not celebrate together about His birth (MAT
2:1-13); they traveled from their own country bearing gifts in order to
worship the child (and the Scriptures indicate that this occurred long
after Jesus was born—his family was living in a house, not a stable, and
Jesus could have been as old as two years of age). Christians did not begin
to celebrate the birth of Christ until the 2nd century AD, two hundred
years after the fact. The Roman Catholic Church did not begin its “Feast
of the Nativity” until AD 336.
Even the
word “Christmas” itself is not Biblical: it comes from 4th century
AD Roman Catholicism. The “mas” of Christmas comes from the Mass, or eucharistic
service of western Catholicism. That rite was concluded with the words, “Ite,Missa
Est” (“Go, as it is ended”), with
Missa (dismissal) eventually becoming the name of the rite itself.
The Old English word, “Christmas” dates from 1050 AD; it was derived from
the phrase, “Christes Maesse,”
or “Mass of Christ.” “Xmas”
is a 13th century form of shorthand representing the full word “Christmas”
(“X” is the Greek abbreviation, chi, from Khristos, Christ).
The word, “Christmas,” did not find full usage until the 9th century AD.
December
25th is not the true birth
date of Christ. This day was apparently chosen to coincide with pagan mid-winter
festivals in order to unify pagan and Christian worship celebrations within
the Roman Empire. The Empire encompassed a vast territory encircling the
Mediterranean Sea, stretching from Europe (England, Ireland, Spain, France,
southern Germany, Italy, Sicily, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Yugoslavia,
Bulgaria, Albania, Macedonia, Greece), to Asia Minor (southern Russia,
Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey, Crete), to the Middle East (Syria, Iraq,
Iran, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, Israel), and to Africa
(northern Egypt and the Nile Valley, northern Libya, Tunisia, northern
Algeria, Morocco). The mystery religions of the Near East, India and Egypt
had been spread to Europe by the Roman legions, and the Norse, Teutonic,
and Celtic beliefs had spread eastward by the same means, so that various
religious festivals were observed throughout the Empire at the same time.
December
was an exceptionally important religious month. In Egypt, December 21st
marked the date of the celebration of the death and resurrection of Osiris,
the god of the underworld and judge of the dead, the husband of Isis. The
end of the month saw the observance of the birthday (Dec. 26th) of Horus,
son of Isis, the sun god and proto-type of human rulers, with a twelve-day
festival conspicuous for its decorations of palms with twelve shoots (for
the twelve months of the year). In northern Europe the Norse held a twelve-day
feast of the solstice at the end of December. Jews throughout the Empire
observed Hanukkah, or
“the feast of lights” during December. Greeks worshipped Apollo, Attis,
Dionysus, Helios, Herakles, Perseus, and Theseus in December. December
also encompassed the celebration of the Roman Saturnalia,
or “Saturn (god of the grain harvest) Festival,” a seven-day fair and festival
of the home which began on December 17th (Saturn’s birthday) and ran through
the 23rd. It was an emotional time of feasting open to everyone, celebrated
with the exchange of gifts, merry-making, and decorating with boughs of
laurel and evergreens. Lamps and candles burned continually, and a feeling
of “goodwill” towards man prevailed. Schools were closed, the army was
“at ease,” slaves were let off their duties and allowed to “supplant” their
masters, friends visited each other, processions of people danced through
the streets in masks, hats or blackened faces—there was a Lord of Misrule
who presided over the festival—and each household chose a mock king to
preside over the festivities. Another popular holiday on the Roman calendar, Kalendae
or Kalends (literally, “the first of the month”), or “New Year’s Day,”
was only a few days beyond the Saturnalia.
Kalends was dedicated to the two-headed god, Janus, who looked forward
to the future and backward to the past. It was celebrated with a feast,
garlands of evergreens and the exchanging of small gifts, particularly
of lamps with which to light one’s path into the future. December 25th,
the winter solstice by the Julian calendar, the day of the least sunlight
of the year, was the day on which day many sun-worshiping pagans worshiped
the sun (lest the sunlight should disappear altogether); they also held
festivals shortly thereafter in gratitude for lengthening days. This date,
December 25th, had early been identified with both the Persian sun-god,
Mithras, the god of light, truth and righteousness (represented by a bull)
and the Syrian god, Sol Invictus,(the
unconquered sun)—celebrated
with feasting, masquerades, a relaxation of order and temporary role reversals.
December 25th was also the birthday of the lesser known Phoenician sun
and fertility god, Baal (who was also represented by a bull). After AD
274/5, the Emperor Aurelian combined the nativity/god-men/savior cult observances
of Apollo, Attis, Baal, Dionysus, Helios, Hercules, Horus, Mithra, Osiris,
Perseus, and Theseus, into one, the Dies
Natilus Invictus Solis (“Birthday of the Unconquered Sun”) celebrated
on December 25th and concerned with the death and rebirth of the sun.
Though
Christians themselves didn’t begin to celebrate the birth of Christ until
between AD 127 and 139, by AD 320, after the last of the Christian persecutions,
the Roman Catholic Church had made December 25th the date of its Nativity
celebration. Why December 25th? Secular speculation postulates that because
the deeply rooted Sol Invictus had
not been eradicated by Christianity, the Catholic Church purposefully chose
to turn December 25th, the Natilis
Invictus (“the birth of the sun”), into “the birth day of the
Son,” that is, of Jesus Christ, the son of God. Others would hold that
this date was arrived at by a different line of reasoning: the Catholic
Church, aware that March 25th, the Spring Equinox, a pagan feast-day, had
long been regarded as the “birth of Spring” among pagan peoples, therefore
appropriated that date to mark the “Day of Announcement,” the day that
the Virgin Mary conceived the Lord Jesus; adding nine months to March 25th
made December 25th the birthday of Christ. Either way, in one move, the
Church assigned a specific date to the birth of Our Lord that introduced
a Christian holiday into the pagan celebrations occurring in December that
supplanted the Natilis Invictus.
Emperor
Constantine, a pragmatic politician and “Christian,” recognized the need
to unify the diverse elements within his realm under the mantle of Christianity.
An article entitled, “Sacaea-Saturnalia,” quotes the authors of the book, Holy
Blood, Holy Grail, in the following commentary on Constantine,
“His
primary, indeed obsessive, objective was unity—unity in politics, in religion,
and in territory. A cult or state religion that included all other cults
within it obviously helped to achieve that objective…in the interests of
unity, Constantine deliberately chose to blur the distinctions among Christianity,
Mithraism and Sol Invictus…”
After
the Council of Nicea in AD 325 (that body of 250-318 Church leaders convened
by Emperor Constantine to set Christian doctrine), Constantine allowed
Christianity to effectively become the recognized religion of the Empire.
In AD 336 he declared Christmas an official holiday of the Roman Empire,
and Roman Catholicism’s “Feast of the Nativity” became the only approved
Christmas activity. Even the city of Rome itself was celebrating Christmas
by AD 354, Constantinople by 380, and Alexandria by 430. By AD 391 Christianity
formally became the state religion; however, in the eastern sections of
the Roman Empire Christmas observances weren’t adopted until the middle
of the 5th century AD. The Council of Agde, in AD 506, exhorted all Christians
to take Holy Communion at the Feast of the Nativity. In AD 529 Emperor
Justinian declared Christmas a civic holiday, suspending private and public
business activities for that day. By AD 1100 Christmas was the greatest
holiday observed in Europe. During the 16th century the Reformation banned
much of the excesses of pagan customs which had been incorporated into
“Christian” Christmases. (As an interesting footnote on Christmas celebrations,
Jan. 6th is the date of the Church of Jerusalem’s observance; and the Eastern
Orthodox Church, while holding to the December 25th birth date, has held,
since the end of the 4th century AD, that Christ’s baptism on January 6th
is the more important holiday. Also, the Armenian Church waited until after
WWII to adopt the December 25th date.)
The
Feast of Epiphany or Appearance (“to
show forth upon”), held on January 6th, was established by the Roman Catholic
Church in the 4th century AD to separate the celebration of Christ’s birth
from the commemoration of his “appearing.” January 6th had earlier been
used by the heretical sect, the Basilideans, as a festival of Jesus’ incarnation,
His “appearing,” at His baptism (thus denying the incarnation at Jesus’
birth); the Church, therefore, ordained that Christ’s “appearing” was that
of His epiphany to the Gentile world, as represented by the Wisemen at
Bethlehem. It also declared that the interval between Christmas and Epiphany
was a sacred holiday season. (This led to a perpetuation of all the practices
and excesses of the Saturnalia.) In medieval times, usually on the Eve
of Epiphany, January 5th, masked or costumed cross-dressing merrymakers,
“mummers,” visited friends and neighbors to test them as to their identities
by singing short songs or dances; in return they would receive small cakes
and wine or spiked eggnog. On Twelfth
Night itself (Jan. 5th) a special “King’s Cake,” in honor of
the Magi, was baked with a secret bean inside; whoever received the piece
containing the bean became “Bean King” who could order his “attendants”
to serve him.
The
Nativity of Christmas is the
truest and purest part of the Christmas celebration, a depiction of the
birth of Christ. In the Gospel of Luke, the second chapter, we read,
So
Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Judea, to Bethlehem the
town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went
there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was
expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to
be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in
cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in
the inn. And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping
watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them,
and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But
the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great
joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior
has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you:
You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Suddenly
a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising
God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men
on whom His favor rests” (LUK 2:4-14, NIV).
Luke
records the date of this event as follows…
“In
those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken
of the entire Roman world. This was the first census that took place while
Quirinius was governor of Syria. And everyone went to his own town to register
(LUK 2:1-3, NIV).”
Scholars
believe Jesus’ birth took place between 6-4 BC. We know that this event
occurred no later than 4 BC because King Herod, who had sought to kill
the baby Jesus (MAT 2:1-18), died in March/April of 4 BC. It could probably
not have happened earlier than 6 BC because the governor of Syria, Publius
Sulpicius Quirinius (LUK 2:2), though ordered to conduct a census of Palestine
in 8 BC, did not accomplish that task until 2-4 years later, perhaps because
of political conflict between Rome and Herod. (A second census of Palestine
was also taken by Quirinius in AD 6-9.) While the readers of the Gospel
of Luke would have been able to pinpoint the date, we, however, do not
have enough information to determine the actual anniversary. We cannot
even ascertain the season of Christ’s birth. The traditional view of the
season has always been that our Lord was born sometime in the fall when
the sheep were brought down from the high country to the fields near the
towns, or perhaps in the spring when the flocks were being moved out of
their winter shelters for the upper pasturelands. Recent scholarship, though,
has shown that sheep for the Temple sacrifices were pastured all year in
the fields surrounding Bethlehem, so the fact that shepherds and sheep
were present at the time of Christ’s birth is not helpful in fixing the
date. However, in the eternal scheme of things the date of our Lord’s birth
is of relatively little significance—what is of importance is the fact
that He did, indeed, become flesh as the first-born son of the virgin Mary,
born in humble circumstances, wrapped in swaddling and laid to rest in
a feeding trough.
According
to A Book of Christmas,
by William Samsom, all Catholic countries build manger scenes
to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ, from Europe to Africa to North
and South America. This practice may stem from the AD 1223 nativity celebration
of St. Francis of Assisi, who staged the first “Nativity Scene,” a living
nativity with live people and animals. St. Bonaventure, writing in the
13th century, described the circumstances of this first Nativity scene:
“That
this might not seen an innovation, he [St. Francis] sought and obtained
licence from the supreme pontiff, and they made ready a manger, and bale
hay, together with an ox and an ass, he brought unto the place…The man
of God (St. Francis) filled with tender love, stood before the manger,
bathed in tears, and overflowing with joy. Solemn masses were celebrated
over the manger, Francis the Levite of Christ chanting the Holy Gospel.”
Before
that century was over Europe had embraced the nativity crèche and
carved nativity sets were available with the figures dressed in contemporary
styles. The nativity evolved from there: during the Renaissance the crèche
scene was dramatized with landscaped backgrounds, and bystanders, richly
bedecked figures and pageantry were added as well. But by the 17th and
18th centuries the trappings of the overwhelmingly ornate spectacle had
almost eclipsed the spiritual significance of the event. However, the Christmas
nativity is still popular among Christians today; many churchyards and
private homes display static manger scenes with figures ranging from lifelike
plaster or plastic sculptures to mere silhouettes outlined in lights. Inside
church and home can usually be found scaled down sets as well, some extremely
elaborate and complete and some consisting of just the holy family and
a stable. The “Living Nativity,” a silent drama about the birth of Christ
and the salvation message, is becoming an accepted means of evangelization
among Protestant American churches to broadcast the true meaning of Christmas
to the unsaved world.
Christmas
plays are an offshoot of the
static nativity; these seem to date to the 12th century at the cathedral
at Rouen. There, an image of the Virgin and Child was placed behind an
altar in a stable, a boy played the part of the herald angel and others
the heavenly host, a choir portrayed the shepherds, and two priests (representing
women) took the roles of prompts and narrators to explain the significance
of the advent. (Curiously, on Christmas Eve, Dec. 24th, apart from the
Church, medieval minstrels always performed the “Paradise Play,” a drama
which reenacted the fall of man.)
Christmas
Feasting is that time
of warm fellowship and enjoyment afforded by Christmas cooking and especially,
the Christmas table. What do we think of when we envision the groaning
abundance of appetizing and delicious foods? Well, George Washington once
hosted a Christmas dinner at Mount Vernon that featured onion soup, shellfish,
broiled fish, roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, mutton chops, roast suckling
pig, roast turkey, beef and ham, lima beans and squash, candied sweet potatoes
and cranberries, mincemeat pie, various savory pies and puddings, cakes,
ice cream, fruits, nuts, raisins, and wines. However, Christmas feasting
is older than colonial America—it’s a more ancient practice, carried out
by many cultures. The origins Christmas feasts may be traced directly to
the practices of paganism.
When
the Romans observed the Saturnalia,
the festival of Saturn, on about December 17th, it was characterized by
unrestrained feasting on the fruits of the harvest (grains, fruit, nuts,
wine, etc.). On December 25th, as they observed the “Birthday of the Unconquered
Sun,” they dined on sacrificial beef. At Kalends, the New Year celebration,
they gorged themselves on apples, nuts, honey, cakes, breads, meat and
wine. Baal worshippers celebrated the birth of their god with a feast of
slaughtered bullocks. Egyptians feasted at Horus’ birthday celebration.
At the winter solstice pre-Christian Norsemen feasted on boar offered to
their Norse god, Freya. From about the 4th century, early Christians celebrated
the Feast of Epiphany on January 6th; later, after the last persecution
(AD 320) the Roman Church set another holy feast day, the “Feast of the
Nativity,” on the 25th of December. The extent of feasting grew until the
peak of nativity feasting occurred between the 12th-16th centuries, and
it was a time of indulgent excess in gluttony, drunkenness, and lawlessness.
However, in the 17th and 18th centuries, under the influence of the Protestant
Reformation, Christmas feasts assumed more modest proportions.
Most
of the foods we think of as the traditional European Christmas feast—the
boar’s head, “baron of beef,” haunch of venison, fish, fowl (including
chicken, turkey, goose, peacock), plum pottage or plum broth (which became
mincemeat pie), plum pudding, special breads, and free-flowing wines, can
be traced to pagan repasts. In the medieval period many forbidden “pagan”
dishes made their way to the table “sanctified” for holy celebrating. For
example, Henry VIII reintroduced previously “pagan” roast boar to the Christmas
feast by dressing it in a rosemary and laurel wreath for “remembrance”
and “glory,” with a lemon in its mouth as a symbol of plenty. Mincemeat,
with its savory mixture of nuts and fruits, once regarded as a pagan dish,
became, in medieval times, became a symbol of the variety of gifts given
to Jesus by the wise men. Christmas breads, an integral part of heathen
expressions of worship toward the gods of harvest, were transformed into
the “bread of life,” complete with a letter “J” on top.
Generally,
today’s lavish meals are served on Christmas Day, though some prefer a
Christmas Eve celebration. The most popular meal in the United States of
America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand is turkey, with all the fixings.
(Henry VIII gets credit for making turkey a Christmas dish.) In the British
Isles it is normal to serve roast goose. Austrians and Norwegians sup on
baked carp and lutefish (dried cod) respectively; other cultures preserve
their own particular preferences. Vegetables and other dishes always accompany
the main course. Many cultures also maintain the custom of Christmas baking.
The four Sundays of Advent see baked goods like babkas,
sugary loaves, yeast buns and fruit-packed loaves proliferate. Baked goods
like German Stollen
(a rich bread filled with dried fruits and nuts), Springerle
(a rolled cookie), Lebkuchen (honey cakes), Danish
Kringle (an Advent loaf in the shape of a pretzel), French Buche
de Noel or “Christmas Log” (a loaf shaped like a Yule Log), Panettone
(an Italian Christmas bread filled with raisins and lemon flavor), English
“figgy pudding” (a dark fruit cake), and Spanish Roscon
de Reyes or “Three King’s Bread” (a sweet yeast bread filled
with candied fruits and almonds), to name a few, demonstrate the international
continuance of this tradition.
After
the feast Americans like to eat pumpkin pie, mince pie and fruitcakes.
In the British Isles and Canada the customary dessert is plum pudding.
Mexico and other Latin-American countries serve pastries called bunuelos,
usually eaten with cinnamon and sugar.
A
popular Christmas beverage in the U.S. today is eggnog; Swedes traditionally
drink glogg, a hot, spicy, alcoholic punch. In Olde England wassail the
drink of choice and this is still a favorite with the British; ancient
Norse drank mead, a fermented brew of water, honey, malt, spices and raisins.
Gift
Giving is a tradition that
finds its origin in ancient customs as well. The Romans gave gifts of small
candles, lamps, fruit, cakes, incense and clay figures at Saturnalia;
at Kalends, the day of the new moon and the first day of the month and
the New Year, everyone gave each other sweet gifts (fruits, honey and cakes)
as well as evergreen branches (called strenae),
clay doll-figures (called sigillaria, these
replaced human sacrifices),
small lamps, and among the wealthy, possibly gold coins. Meg Crager, author
of The Whole Christmas Catalog,
wrote of this period, “Everyone gave gifts: children gave to their teachers,
slaves gave to their masters, and the people gave to their Emperor.”
Early
Christians did not practice gift giving because they did not want their
religion to be associated with pagan festivals or practices. The Middle
Ages mark the point at which gift-giving became a part of Christian Christmas
celebrations: kings demanded gifts from their subjects and common people
exchanged gifts with one another. St. Nicholas’s Day (Dec. 6th) became
gift-giving time for children. Christmas gifts were not emphasized in colonial
America but children expected small gifts and the wealthy were expected
to give to the poor: Christmas was regarded to be more a time of joy than
of gift giving. In the 19th century the Christmas-gift custom became widespread
in America, accepted by both children and adults. Today the Christmas season
is characterized by lavish gift giving. Individual households expend thousands
of dollars each year on tokens of love, making Christmas the major retail
sales season of the year. 1999 saw shoppers lay down a staggering $186
billion dollars for gifts. More than ever, Christmas shoppers are tempted
by advertisers and retailers to spend ever more on this and that expensive
Christmas “must-have” item. And marketing is pushing “Christmas” earlier
than ever; this year, 2000, is the first when retailers have displayed
Christmas merchandise before Halloween. Neiman Marcus stores began to sell
Christmas decorations in the middle of September. While 1999 brought in
a 7.3% increase over the previous year’s sales, retailers are anxiously
anticipating an uncertain buying season ahead, so they are starting earlier
and pushing harder. It seems greed, not “goodwill toward man,” has become
the motivation of the season.
Christmas
lights may be traced to
the ancient practice of lighting Christmas
candles and fires. Ancient Norse kept bonfires blazing during
the Yule season; Romans fastened candles to trees during the Saturnalia
as symbols of the sun’s return to the earth. Throughout that celebration
they also kept lamps burning in their homes to ward off evil spirits, and
candles burning in their windows to call back the sun. At Kalends they
lit candles to symbolize enlightenment for the new year. The Jews also
employed candles in their December celebration of Hanukkah,
“The Feast of Lights.” As early as AD 492, a day for candles, “Candlemas
Day” (40 days after Christmas), was established as a memorial
to the time when Jesus was presented in the Temple as “a light to bring
revelation to the Gentiles…” (LUK 2:32). In the Middle Ages, both in churches
and homes, it was the custom to set up and light one large candle on Christmas
Eve in remembrance of the Star of Bethlehem, which announced the coming
of the true light (John 1:9). Some allowed the flame only to burn until
sunrise, when it was to be extinguished by the father or oldest member
of the household; others let the flame burn through Twelfth
Night (Jan. 6th), encompassing the entire Christmas season.
Martin Luther is credited with inaugurating the tradition of lights on
Christmas trees when he placed lit candles in the branches of his tree.
Since that time candles, and their electric counterparts, have adorned
trees, windowsills, mantles and eaves as a testimony to Him who is “a light
to the Gentiles” (LUK 2:32) and the “light of the world” (JOH 8:12).
Christmas
Greens like
mistletoe, holly, and ivy
decorate homes and public places at Christmas. These are also ancient customs
stemming from folk traditions and mythology. Winter was a fearful time
for the ancient pagans. The nights were dark and cold and evil spirits
were thought to be especially active at Christmas time. The evergreens
of mistletoe and holly, thought to be magical, were used to combat these
forces of evil. Mistletoe,
a Celtic word meaning “all-heal,” was the sacred plant of the Druids, the
priests of the Celts, because it grew on sacred oak trees. It was used
in their sacrifices to their gods and was also believed to cure diseases
and infertility, to render poisons harmless, to protect homes from evil
spirits and to bring good luck. The ancient Greeks regarded mistletoe as
a charm against evil; Virgil called it the “Golden Bough” whose branches
enabled Aeneas to descend into hell and return without harm. The practice
of kissing beneath a sprig of mistletoe comes from a Norse myth: Frigga,
one of the gods, gave her son, Balder, a charm of mistletoe to protect
him from the elements; another god used an arrow made of mistletoe to kill
Balder. Frigga then cried tears of white berries to bring her son back
to life, and vowed to kiss anyone who rested beneath the plant. Druid priests,
who worshiped Baldar, cut the mistletoe from its tree with a golden sickle
and distributed it to their people with the words, “All heal.” The people
would then hang it over a doorway or in a room to offer the blessing of
Frigga to others. Vikings hung it outside their homes as a sign of peace
and as a symbol of welcome to visitors. Kissing under a branch of mistletoe
was seen as a pledge of friendship. Victorians, ever the romantics and
enamored with the concept of a “magical” kiss, expanded the Frigga/Baldar
legend to allow unmarried males to steal kisses from unattached females
found beneath the mistletoe. Some modern Europeans, though, still practice
the custom of kissing beneath the branches of mistletoe to receive from
Frigga the blessings of life, fertility, peace and freedom from disease
that she promised.
Holly
was also believed to have magical powers and to drive demons away. The
Romans used it in their processions at the Saturnalia. Primitive tribes
believed that holly was attractive to friendly spirits, so they hung it
inside their homes and over their doorways, especially at Yuletide. To
ward off witches and to ensure protection against severe weather, thunder
and lightning, they planted it near their homes. In Olde England unmarried
women were told to tie a sprig of holly to their beds to guard them from
evil spirits and witches, especially on Christmas Eve. Celtic women put
sprigs of holly in their hair when they went out to watch their priests,
the Druids, cut the sacred mistletoe from sacred oak trees. Germans considered
holly to be a good luck charm against nature. Because of its sharp thorns
and blood-red berries most Christians thought it symbolized the crown of
thorns. Ivy was the
ancient symbol of Bacchus, the Roman god of wine and revelry; it was used
in pagan festivals. Once it was banned from the interiors of Christian
homes (where the decorations told of Christ’s Advent) and was only used
to decorate exteriors. There its feeble appearance reminded some of man’s
feebleness and need to “cling” to God’s strength; thus as a symbol of mortality
it became an acceptable part of Christian celebrations.
Other
Christmas foliage: Laurel or bay
evergreens were thought to be emblems of triumph, and thus fitting symbols
for the Christ who came to triumph over sin and death. In England, the
common cherry laurel or box is sometimes substituted when true laurel cannot
be found. Yew was regarded
as a symbol of death, yet as a durable cut evergreen was used to symbolize
eternal life as well. Rosemary,
purple and scented, once thought to be extremely offensive to evil spirits,
was the most prized of Christmas decorations until mid-nineteenth century,
“for remembrance.” Fir,
with its sweet fragrance, was used as a natural incense to honor the newborn
Deity. In northern and central Europe it is customary at the beginning
of Advent (the period including four Sundays before Christmas) to bring
a branch of a cherry tree indoors where warmth and water will
make it bloom at Christmas time and bring good luck. Christmas
flowers are a symbol of joy in midwinter, thought to honor Christ’s
birth. The Christmas Rose,
or Snow or Winter Rose, is a plant whose beautiful pink blossoms appear
in midwinter in Central Europe. North Americans have used the South American
shrub, the Flower of the Holy Night, or Poinsettia
plant, as a decoration at Christmas time since its introduction
to America in 1828, by Joel R. Poinsett.
Christmas
tree decorating is symbolic
of the Christmas season to people in North America, Germany and parts of
Europe. The modern practice stems from Germany; the first historical mention
of this practice comes from Strasburg, Germany, in 1605. Germans decorated
their trees with dolls, sweets, apples and wafers, gold foil, and paper
roses. The first wave of German immigrants in the 1700s brought the custom
of the Christmas tree to America; they decorated their trees with animal
cookies, apples, strings of popcorn and brightly colored paper. Hessians,
the German mercenaries of the American Revolutionary War, decorated Christmas
trees. Some German sects, such as the Moravians, put lighted candles in
the branches of their trees (and later in their windows) as early as 1752.
Christmas trees appeared in Cambridge, Philadelphia, Rochester, Richmond,
Wooster, and Cleveland between 1832 and 1851. From America the custom spread
to England; by 1841 Prince Albert used a tree at Windsor, decorated with
candles, sweets, fruit and gingerbread, as an official symbol of the season.
By the 1890’s manufacturers were producing ornaments in Germany for American
and European trees. By the early part of the twentieth century, after the
invention of the electric bulb, community trees appeared all over North
America illuminated for days on end.
The
custom of Christmas trees may find its origins in paganism. Pagans used
evergreens and tree decoration during the winter. The Vikings of northern
Europe saw evergreens as the symbol of hope that Spring would return after
the cold, dark winter; Druids (England, France) decorated oak trees with
fruit and candles to honor their gods of harvest and light. Romans decorated
trees with trinkets and candles during Saturnalia,
the midwinter harvest festival and revelry of Mithras, the Persian god
of light and truth.
Legends
surround the Christmas-tree custom. One legend says that St. Boniface,
an English monk who organized Germany’s and France’s Churches, stopped
a pagan human sacrifice by slamming his fist into the sacrificial sacred
oak tree and felling it with that blow; in its place grew a tiny fir, which
he said was the Tree of Life representing eternal life in Christ. Another
says that Martin Luther, founder of the Reformation, was walking through
the woods one clear and cold Christmas Eve when the starlight glimmering
through the trees awed him so much that he wanted to recreate the sight
for his family: so he cut down a small tree, took it home and put candles
in its branches to imitate the forest. A third, more fanciful tale concerns
a poor woodsman who encountered a lost and hungry child in the woods one
Christmas Eve. He gave the child food and shelter for the night; in the
morning he found a beautiful glittering tree outside his door as a reward
from the disguised Christ Child for his kindness.
Christmas
trees may also be dated to the Medieval Ages when decorated trees were
used in plays with Biblical themes that were performed all over Europe.
In the “Paradise Play,” performed on December 24th, an apple tree was a
necessary prop in the fall of man, but winter apple trees were bare so
evergreen trees were hung with apples instead.
The
Twelve Days of Christmas, or
“Christmastide,” is an ancient European, but mostly English, tradition
of Christmas celebration. The ancient festival began Dec. 17th and ended
as late as Jan. 17th. After the Council of Tours (AD 567) declared the
twelve days between Christmas and Epiphany (Jan. 6th) to be sacred, a more
modern festival took place, ending with “Twelfthnight,” the Feast of Epiphany
on January 6th. It was celebrated with great enthusiasm with a mixture
of pagan and holy practices. The celebration of feasting, merrymaking and
gift exchanging mirrored the Roman festivals of Saturnalia-Kalendae.
There was a Festival of Fools, led by a Lord of Misrule, where masters
served servants, sexes exchanged dress, all wore disguises, and even boy
bishops presided in churches (until the Reformation.) There were pagan
horn-dances and bull dances (to honor fairies and Celtic horned gods);
the decorating of houses with mistletoe, holly, rosemary, and evergreens;
the lighting of tapers and fires to celebrate the sun; clay dolls given
as gifts and boughs cut to honor the goddess Strenia; wassailing of apple
trees; feasting on fresh goose, turkey, hog, wine, mincemeat, plumb porridge,
apples and wassail; and times of gorging and relaxation. Puritan Cotton
Mather described it in 1712 as,
“[T]he
feast of Christ’s Nativity is spent in Reveling, Dicing, Carding, Masking,
and in Licentious Liberty…by Mad Mirth, by long Eating, by hard Drinking,
by lewd Gaming, by rude Reveling…”
Though
Christian commemorations were interspersed within the Christmas season—Mass
was held on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day feasting commemorated the birth
of Christ, the feast of St. Stephen’s Day on Dec. 26th honored the poor,
and the Feast of Epiphany on Jan. 6th –the original style of Christmastide
celebrations remained basically untouched for 400 years, until a calendar
change in 1752 moved the festival to a date eleven days earlier. Under
Protestantism many of the overtly pagan traditions, called “Fooltide,”
were done away with and Christmastide was shortened to twelve more somber
days. However, emotionalism rose again in the nineteenth century, influenced
by the writings of Charles Loring Brace and Charles Dickens, and the “goodwill”
of Christmas, which had marked the Saturnalia celebrations, became prominent.
At that time also, Christmas trees and Christmas “decking” were embraced
as necessary and recognized parts of the observance.
Noel
(“Nowel,” OFr.) is a term dating from the Middle Ages, associated with
the New Year festival, meaning “new birth.” Webster’s
Dictionary traces the word to the French noel,
from the Latin natalis,
“pertaining to birth, a birthday.” The term carried pagan expectations
of a new year’s birth when Chaucer wrote of Christmastide,
Janus
sits by the fire with a double beard
And
drinketh of his bugle horn the wine:
Before
him stands the brawn of tusked swine,
And
‘Nowel’ cryeth every lusty man.
Paganism
was deeply intertwined in the Christmastide celebrations as Chaucer noted:
Janus is a Roman god, the “tusked swine” is a sacrificial boar’s head,
and “Nowel” is the cry of “every lusty man” in solstice carousal. However,
according to Webster’s
the term “noel” came to be, “an expression of joy used in Christmas carols”
(which did not become vehicles of holy thought until the 13th century).
Advent on
the Church calendar,is the four
Sundays prior to Christmas. It is a period dedicated to contemplation of
Christ’s “Advent,” or Christ’s Incarnation and Second Coming. The first
week is for meditating upon Christ’s flesh, or humanness; the second, the
Holy Spirit; the third, death; and the fourth, Christ’s judgment of the
dead. The Advent Wreath
of Northern Europe, with five candles which symbolize the four Sundays
of Advent, made of evergreen boughs trimmed with pinecones, ribbons, sprigs
of holly and mistletoe, and artificial snow. Advent Wreaths date from the
fourth century, the time when the church began to celebrate the “Advent,”
or Christ’s coming to earth as the babe in the manger. The corresponding
Advent Season was regarded to be the time to reflect upon His coming and
to search one’s heart, repent and rededicate oneself. In the Christmas
tradition, the Advent Wreath’s candles are lit in each successive week
of the Advent Season in anticipation of the coming Light of the World.
The Wreath’s three outer candles are lit on the first three Sundays of
December (to symbolize “the penitent heart’s yearning for Christ’s coming);
the large central candle is lit on the Sunday prior to Christmas Day to
symbolize the “incarnation of perfect God in man;” the colored candle on
the wreath is lit on Christmas to celebrate the anticipated Second Coming
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Sometimes ribbons of blue, purple
and white and a vine of thorns are woven into the wreath as “threads to
remind us of God’s mysterious and gracious plan” of Christ’s suffering,
our repentance, and God’s victory over sin.
The
origin of the Advent Wreath seems to be with the German Lutherans, perhaps
inspired by the Swedish Crown of Lights, a crown of evergreen boughs and
four candles worn by young Swedish girls on December 13th, St. Lucia’s
Day. St. Lucia was reputedly a young Christian woman who gave her entire
dowry to feed the poor; she arrived with a shipload of food to feed the
hungry and poor in Sweden. She suffered martyrdom for her beliefs and the
crown of lights symbolizes her halo. In Sweden, on December 13th, the oldest
Swedish daughter, wearing a white dress and crown of candles, brings a
breakfast of saffron buns and coffee to her parent’s room to commemorate
St. Lucia.
The
Advent Calendar is a cardboard
device, like a house, with windows, which may be opened each day of the
Advent weeks to reveal an appropriate Scripture verse or toy to emphasize
the importance of Christ’s Advent.
Candy
Canes, candies in the shape
of a shepherd’s crook, have been long associated with Christmas. There
is a legend which dates to 1670 which says that the choirmaster of Cologne
Cathedral had specially crook-bent sugar sticks made to hand out among
his young singers to quiet them during the Living Crèche ceremony.
Later, another legend has it, August Imgard of Wooster, Ohio, a German-Swedish
immigrant, used candy canes to decorate a small blue spruce tree in 1847.
At the turn of the twentieth century hand-made mint flavored, red and white
striped candy canes became the norm. In the 1920s a candy maker named Bob
McCormack began making striped, peppermint flavored Christmas treats by
hand for his children, friends and local shopkeepers in Albany, Georgia.
In the 1950s Gregory Keller, Bob McCormack’s brother-in-law, invented a
machine that automated candy cane production and made Bob McCormack’s candies
accessible to the world at large.
A
charming legend associated with the candies is one, which says that candy
canes were the creation of a candy maker who longed to glorify Christ.
The story goes that he wanted his candy to be a witness to Him, so he chose
a hard candy to remind people that Christ is the Rock of all Ages; he shaped
it in a “J” for Jesus (or upside down as a crook to represent the Great
Shepherd); he made it white to symbolize the purity of Christ; he added
a red stripe to represent the blood of Christ shed for sinners and three
smaller red stripes to symbolize the stripes He bore from His scourging
(sometimes a green stripe is added as a reminder that Christ is a gift
from God); peppermint, a flavor similar to hyssop, was chosen as the flavor
of the cane to remind the world that Christ sacrificed Himself and purified
sinners by His body. The message of salvation was thus incorporated into
the sweets concocted by that pious candy maker; every time we eat those
canes at Christmas we can be reminded that Jesus Christ is the sweet gift
of salvation from God.
The
Yule Log is a custom brought
to America from England. It is a large stump, root, or part of a tree used
as the foundation for a ceremonial Christmas-Eve fire. The word “yule”
most likely comes from jul,
an old Norse word associated with a twelve day feast at the end of December.
Some scholars believe it stems from the old Germanic word Iol (Iul, Giul,
etc.), meaning a turning wheel; this then would refer to the rising of
the sun-wheel after the winter solstice. Another guess is that it is derived
from the Anglo-Saxon word geol
(feast), which would then refer to the pre-Christian month long feast of geola
(feast-month) held to celebrate the December solstice. Yuletide is
the season of the Yule. The ancient Yule season lasted for weeks, sometimes
until the frozen ground thawed. Among ancient Teutons and Norse Yule was
celebrated the night before the winter solstice with a feast of roast boar.
The tradition of burning the Yule log originated among the Germanic tribes
as a pagan celebration of Thor, the god of the Yule (who chased away frosts
and commanded gentle winds and spring rains to come to bless mankind).
For this celebration each family chose the largest tree in the forest they
could find to be burned as a symbol of the victory of light over the darkness
of winter and over evil spirits. The wood was carried into the house with
great ceremony; the master of the home placed it on the hearth and sprinkled
it with libations of oil, salt and mulled wine, while prayers were said
over it. Its fire was not to go out lest some evil should befall the home.
It was believed that the burning log magically made the sun burn brighter.
This superstition extended to ancient Christians who chose a stump, root
or entire tree for their Yule log, preferably of ash, and ignited it on
Christmas Eve by a faggot from the previous year’s log; they kept it burning
for a minimum of twelve hours to insure good luck. Some modern Europeans
still light the Yule log on Christmas Eve and keep it burning until Epiphany,
Jan. 6th, then select a new log on Candlemas (40 days after Christmas)
to be burned the following winter. Some follow the custom of retaining
bits of the burned log or ashes from its remains to rekindle the next year’s
fire, thus ensuring good luck (according to ancient lore it would charm
against lightning [Thor’s weapon] and against chilblains during that winter.)
Modern descendants of the Vikings in the Shetland Islands burn a thirty-foot
long Viking ship at the Up-Helly-Aa
(“end of the holiday”) celebration towards the end of January.
“Wassail” refers
to a drink of warm ale or spiced cider, which contained sugar eggs, nutmeg,
cloves and ginger, and roasted apples. The concoction was also called “lamb’s
wool” and “old man’s beard” because of its smoothness and softness. It
was the beverage imbibed on the Twelfth Night of Christmas. “Wassailing”
was to drink to the health of someone. Custom called for a bowl of wassail
to be kept steaming throughout the Christmas season; someone would offer
a toast of the drink saying, “Wassail” (be whole) and another would reply,
“Drinkhail” (your health). In some parts of England “wassailing” came to
refer to a party at which carols were sung and wassail was drunk, or to
the practice of traveling from house to house with a bowl of wassail decorated
with ribbons, garlands (and sometimes a golden apple), caroling, giving
blessings and a drink of wassail in exchange for some small gift of money
or food. The following is an except from a famous carol…
Here
we come a’wassailing among the leaves of green
Here
we come a wand’ring so fair to be seen.
Love
and joy come to you, and to you your wassail too.
And
God bless you and send you a happy New Year
And
God send you a happy New Year…
In
ancient usage, “wassail” is derived from the Anglo-Saxon wes
hal, “be whole;” at old Twelfth Night Eve (Jan 17th) the ancient
practice called for cider and cider-soaked toast to be thrown on the branches
of apple trees while invocations to the gods of trees and fruit were sung
to insure “good health” and a good crop for the coming year. The oldest
ritual was conducted on Old Christmas morning with a procession of carolers
or mummers traveling from orchard to orchard and to the major trees in
each orchard; incantations were said; great noises were made by the blowing
of a bullhorn, the firing of a gun or shouting; libations on the trunk,
roots and branches of the trees were poured out; and dancing around the
trees was done to ensure future blessings.
Bell
ringing: traditionally, late
on Christmas Eve church bells are rung to announce the call to Christmas
Mass, a practice which is fading. However, the custom can be traced to
antiquity when loud noises were habitually used to frighten away evil spirits.
Interestingly, in medieval Ireland, Scotland and England, during the hour
prior to midnight on Christmas Eve a continuous mournful tolling of bells
marked “the devil’s funeral,” (for it was thought that he died when Christ
was born); at midnight the bells rang a joyous clamor to mark the birth
of the One who broke the power of Satan and death, Jesus Christ.
“Boxing
Day,” the day after Christmas, December 26th (also known as
the Feast of Stephen), comes from medieval times when priests were supposed
to empty their alms boxes and distribute gifts among the poor; also the
left-over feasts of the wealthy were “boxed” and given to their servants.
In Victorian England, Boxing Day was very popular, and in England, Australia
and Canada Boxing Day is still the date on which gifts are given to tradesmen,
servants and friends.
Christmas
“carols” come from the
Greek word choraulein
(choros, the dance and aulein,
to play the flute); in France and England it meant a ring dance accompanied
by singing. Gradually the meaning of the word “carol” came to be of a simple,
joyful or playful song, though dancing to the accompaniment of singing
was popular through the 14th and 15th centuries in Europe and in England
through the Reformation (in Spain even longer). From AD 400-1200 Latin
hymns were composed that dwelt on the supernatural aspects of Christmas,
but the first true joyful carol, as we know it, is attributed to St. Francis
of Assisi in the 13th century (though it too was only written in Latin).
The first Franciscan friars, following St. Francis’ lead, composed joyful
carols in Italian and these spread to Spain and France and then to the
rest of Europe. Here is one a translation of one of those 13th century
carols,
In
Bethlehem is born the Holy Child,
On
hay and straw in the winter wild;
O,
my heart is full of mirth
At
Jesus’ birth.
By
the 14th and 15th centuries carols were exceptionally popular in Europe,
when minstrels traveled from castle to castle with both secular and sacred
carols; by the 16th century carols were associated with songs of joy sung
at Christmas. Their popularity waned, however, in the first part of the
19th century but revived through the publication of old and new carols
and caroling festivals at Truro, Cornwall, in 1880 and at King’s College,
Cambridge in 1918. Those
who caroled from house to house were called “waits.”
(Originally “waits” were minstrels of the king’s court who were responsible
for calling out the hours as they kept watch.)
Christmas
Cards are a modern addition
to Christmas. They were developed in England in the 19th century. In 1843,
1,000 copies were made of a card bearing this inscription, “A Merry Christmas
and Happy New Year to You.” The first American Christmas card dates from
the mid 19th century from Albany, New York, which read, “Christmas Greetings
from Pease’s Great Variety Store in the Temple of Fancy.” However, Louis
Prang of Boston, Mass., is credited with introducing the cards into American
mainstream life in 1875. His designs included the Nativity, the visit of
Santa Claus, children, young women, flowers, birds, and butterflies. These
cards were relatively expensive so primarily the wealthy sent cards at
first; however, around 1890, inexpensive cards from Germany made the practice
accessible to all classes.
Santa
Claus is, in our modern world,a
major focus of the holiday season. His roots can be traced back to a man
named Nicholas,Bishop
of Myra, who lived in the end of the 3rd century and the early
part of the 4th century AD in Patara, Lycinia (modern Turkey). Though he
was a historic figure, he is shrouded in myth. The factual information
we have about him is that Nicholas was born in AD 271 to a wealthy Christian
couple whose names were Epiphaneos and Nona. When Nicholas was a young
teenager, an epidemic struck Patara and both Epiphaneos and Nona were killed;
Nicholas went to live with his uncle, Nicholas, who was Father Superior
of a monastery in Xanthos, a town seven miles upriver from Patara. Disposing
of his worldly goods, he joined the monastery. He studied for the priesthood
and, after his uncle’s departure for a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, became
the priest of Patara. Sometime after his own pilgrimage to Jerusalem he
became the Archbishop of Myra, the capital of Lycia. According to Greek
Orthodox tradition, he was a defender of orthodoxy, imprisoned during the
persecution of Diocletian and freed under Constantine’s general amnesty.
In AD 325 he was one of the church leaders to attend the Council of Nicea.
He died of natural causes in his old age on December 6th, AD 342 or 343,
and was buried in his cathedral in Myra. In 1087, his bones were transferred
to Bari, Italy, after Myra fell to the Moslems.
By
the time of Justinian, in the sixth century, he was considered a “Saint”
and his feast day was celebrated in Myra; his image appeared on Byzantine
seals and artists painted him as a miraculous benefactor; by the 8th century
invading Normans had spread tales of his gift giving and “miracles” throughout
Scandinavia as they encountered the Roman Empire; by the 9th century he
was canonized by the Catholic Church. His feast day, December the 6th,
St. Nicholas’s Day, was celebrated all over Europe by the 12th century.
During the Middle Ages four hundred churches were dedicated to him just
in England. The Russians adopted St. Nicholas as their patron saint; the
Greeks thought of him as the patron saint of sailors; the French thought
of him as the patron saint of lawyers; Belgians thought of him as the helper
of children and travelers.
His
legend concerns his piety, benevolence and miracle working power. Legend
says when he was born he stood up in his bath with his arms upraised; as
a nursing babe he would refuse to suck after sundown on Wednesdays and
Fridays (the fast days of early Christians). He was said to have disposed
of his wealth by anonymously distributing it to the poor. One story has
him taking some gold and secretly giving it to the three dowry-less daughters
of a destitute nobleman. He is supposed to have tossed a small bag of gold
through an open window for the first daughter, where it fell in either
her shoe or stocking (this act may be the origin of the custom of hanging
up stockings or putting out shoes for gifts). The next night (or occasion)
he brought gold for the second daughter in the same way. The third night
(or occasion) he brought gold for the third daughter in the same way, but
as he left, he was chased and caught by the girl’s father. Nicholas asked
that his philanthropy be kept anonymous, but it was not; he became known
as the author of secret acts of generosity. Another story, set when he
was Bishop, concerned a ship he appeared to and rescued during a raging
storm in answer to prayer. He also was said to have brought back from three
dead three boys who had been killed and pickled for food; he was supposed
to have successfully prayed that the empty holds of merchant ships would
be filled with grain during their trip from Myra to Alexandria as a reward
for their acts of kindness. He was reputed to have saved his town from
starvation. After his death, his tomb was believed to have exuded a “curative”
fluid, the “Manna of Nicholas,” that was said to work miraculous healings;
and so on, as chronicled by his biographers. He is especially associated
with children in the mind of the world.
(How
are we to regard these “miracles” attributed to St. Nicholas? Were they
real? In 1968, when the Catholic Church reformed its calendar, St. Nicholas’s
Day was dropped because it was felt that his reputation was fraudulent,
being based on legend more than on historical fact. The Dominican friars
who care for his tomb in Bari would like to see him reinstated and are
confident that they can find hard evidence of his miracles, but this has
not happened yet. But if these “miracles” were truly fraudulent, why did
his reputation exist? If they were the work of supernatural forces how
did they happen? Did God work those miracles? Can Satan work miracles too?
Does Satan work his miracles to deceive people?
First
of all, Nicholas lived in the 3rd and 4th centuries, long after the age
when godly men were doing attesting miracles. The great miraculous healings
of the New Testament tapered off in the first century AD. We see this in
1TI 5:23: here, Paul writes to Timothy in c. AD 63-65 that he should begin
taking some medicinal wine for a stomach disorder. If miracles were still
in effect why didn’t Paul, who had worked miracles, just send a handkerchief
to heal Timothy as was done in Acts 19:12? The answer is that miracles,
which attested to the authenticity of revelations from God, ended as the
Scriptures were being recorded; there were no new Scriptures written past
the first century AD, so no attesting miracles were needed. Another point
is that, “godly men do the works of God” (JOH 9:32,33). Bishop Nicholas
was known to have been a brawler: he lost his temper and punched another
bishop (Arias?) over a disagreement of doctrine at the Council of Nicaea
in AD 325 (this council was convened by Constantine to settle the Arian
controversy), and was subsequently censured and imprisoned.
Secondly,
miracles do not always originate with God. Satan can do miracles. In the
book of Job, Satan brings miraculous disasters upon Job, even sickness.
In the Gospels, Satan afflicts people with epilepsy, madness, dropsy, crippling.
In the book of Revelation, Satan is shown performing many miracles (REV
13:13-15). The book of Matthew says Satan does miracles, “to deceive even
the elect, if that were possible” (MAT 24:24). Revelation says that Satan
will go out to deceive the nations (REV 20:8.). He is called “the Devil”
[slanderer] and “Satan” [adversary] who deceives the whole world” (REV
12:9; 2JO 1:7). Why? In the story of our Lord’s temptation in the wilderness
prior to his ministry Satan shows his ambition to be worshiped; he offered
Jesus the world and all that was in it if He would “fall down and worship
me” (MAT 4:9). Satan wants worship and he will steal it through deception
if he can get it no other way.)
The
legend of St. Nicholas was
brought north, not only by returning Norse invaders, but by traders from
Spain
after Southern Italy and the Netherlands fell into the hands of the Spanish
kings of Aragon, in AD 1442. The Medieval Spanish Bishops who came as clerical
appointees with these traders wore long cloaks and tall hats (mitres) and
carried curled staffs. Coincidentally, the Nordic people had long worshiped
a pantheon of gods, one of whom, Odin (Woden, Woten), had similarities
to the legendary bishop, St. Nicholas. Odin was the wisest and most knowledgeable
of the Norse gods, able to see all that occurred on the earth; he was old
with a long gray beard; he wore a cloak and a tall, wide-brimmed hat, and
he carried a long spear. With a horde of others he rode a supernatural
gray horse across the sky, land, and water during the winter solstice,
giving gifts to the poor and bringing children fruits and nuts. Sint
Nicolaas or, Sinterklaas, combined the characteristics of Odin
with St. Nicholas: he is an old man with a long white (or gray) beard;
he wears a red bishop’s dress and cloak and a tall hat, and carries a long,
crooked staff; he rides a supernatural white (or gray) horse across sky
and rooftop; and he has an assistant, Black Peter (Zwarte Piet), who travels
north with him from Spain and accompanies him in his travels across the
Northlands. Black Peter may be called “black” because he is St. Nicholas’s
Moorish servant, or because he is “sooty” from sliding down chimneys; but
in some European countries he is believed to be a devilish creature who
is kept in submission by the power of Sinterklaas. He functions as Sinterklaas’s
arm of favor or discipline: he slides down chimneys to reward or punish
each child from the contents of his sack. Good children receive presents
in their shoes or stockings; bad children receive a switch (or coal in
Germany). In ancient lore Black Peter would put extremely bad children
in his sack and then drown them; later he was said to spirit them off to
Spain.
Sinterklass
is believed to spend most of the year in Spain compiling a ledger of good
and bad deeds about the Dutch children, but he returns north some time
in December. In port cities he is believed to arrive by ship two weeks
before St. Nicholas’s Eve, December 5th. On St. Nicholas’s Eve, he is expected
to ride over the Dutch rooftops on his white horse with Black Peter, giving
the good and bad rewards to the children of the North. In the weeks before
the 5th of December Dutch children leave hay and carrots out for Sinterklass’s
horse in their wooden shoes; in the morning after Sinterklass has called,
these have been replaced by presents, such as chocolate letters, colored
marzipan shaped like animals or fruit, or chocolate figures of St. Nicholas.
For small children December the 6th is even more important than Christmas
itself. December 6th became the traditional time for presents to be given
to children and to the poor, not only in Holland, but in Belgium, Germany
and France as well.
St.
Nicholas may have become associated with Christmas first in England. At
the end of every year the English celebrated a “Feast of the Fools,” a
Saturnalian feast of plenty beginning on St. Nicholas’s Eve. In this riotous
twenty-three (23) day celebration, St. Nicholas, the Boy Bishop, and Old
Father Christmas (a white bearded figure who rode a horned goat) were the
three figureheads of a topsy-turvy festival ending December 28th (where
all order was reversed as in the Saturnalia).
In
France, Father Christmas (Pere Noel) or
Christ Himself brought gifts on the night before Christmas; in Austria
and Switzerland the Christ Child brings gifts; some children await the
Holy Child, others a beautiful girl angel sent from heaven with gifts.
In Finland, on December 21st gifts were once thrown through open windows
anonymously, like St. Nicholas’. In Sweden the gift giver is known as Jultomte,
in Iceland, as Jola Sveinar,
and in Norway and Denmark as the Julenisse (“nisse”
being the old form of Nicholas), a tiny elf-like person dressed in red
with a pointed cap, roughly translated as “yule goblin.”
The
Dutch colonists to the New World brought St. Nicholas to America. They
said that St. Nicholas would come as a magical gift giver on either a white
horse on December 5th, or in a small wagon on December 24th. The Pennsylvania
Germans called the Christmas gift-giver Chriskindlein or Kris
Kringle, who brought gifts on Christmas Eve, December 24th.
The
American folk-figure of Santa Claus was
transformed gradually through a series of articles and poems from an austere
Bishop to a jolly elf. Washington Irving, in his comic “Knickerbocker’s
History of New York” (1809), described St. Nicholas as “a plump and jolly
old Dutchman” who “traveled through the skies in a wagon” (like Thor).
Clement Clarke Moore, a professor of Greek and Oriental Literature at the
General Theological Seminary in New York, wrote a poem, “A Visit from Saint
Nicholas,” in 1822 described him like this:
He
had a broad face and a round little belly,
That
shook when he laughed, like a bowl full of jelly,
He
was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf…
In
1823 the poem, “A Visit from Saint Nicholas,” was published in the TroySentinel.
It became immensely popular when it was illustrated by Thomas Nast in the
1860s in Harper’s Illustrated
Weekly. It was Thomas Nast who pictured Santa making toys and
dolls, spying on children with a spyglass to discover their behavior, filling
stockings with toys, decorating a Christmas tree, and flying through the
skies on a magic sleigh. This image became popular in Europe, South America
and Japan. The book, “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens (1843), added
a selfless element to the Christmas celebration—a humanitarian generosity.
Santa
grew from these and many other international influences: a German artist
gave St. Nicholas the red fur trimmed Weihnachtsmann (the Christmas man)
costume; Scandinavia gave him his small stature (so he could fit down chimneys);
Russia gave him a flying sleigh and magic reindeer; America, through Nast,
gave him his large jolly appearance with white beard and furs, an image
that remains today. The 1947 Hollywood movie, “Miracle on 34th Street,”
humanized Santa as the man Kris
Kringle, but left the role of omnipotent gift-giver the same.
He
has become internationally popular as a symbol of charity and generosity,
but is it right? An Anglican vicar wrote this,
“Though
he appears to be a great giver, he is actually a thief. For he is stealing
the true value of Christmas. He directs our attention to selfish glitter,
money, and a spirit that comes out of a bottle. His bottomless sack feeds
our base emotions and he represents getting rather than giving.”
The
Reverend Del A. Fehsenfeld, pastor of the Argentine Baptist Church in Kansas
City, Kansas, said this,
“Some
people are more interested in teaching their children there is a Santa
Claus and an Easter Bunny than in teaching about the Virgin birth and the
Resurrection. To teach your children it is a fact that there is a Santa
Claus is to lie.”
Consider
the myth of Santa Claus: he
is all-knowing; someone who knows all the acts of children and supposedly
holds them accountable for the wrongs they do; he lives forever; he is
a creator of good gifts; he magically flies all over the world visiting
all the homes of all the children in a single night; he travels up and
down chimneys without aid; he lives in a secret place. Aren’t these the
acts of a supernatural person, like God? Doesn’t his folk tale detract
from the reality of Christ and the miracle of His birth? And aren’t we
guilty of lying and sinning against God when we repeat the tales of Santa
Claus to others and propagate his legend?
Evaluating
these and other Christmas traditions is essential if we wish to worship
God “in spirit and in truth.” We must deliberate about our Christmas traditions;
we must prayerfully and carefully sift through the pagan, folk elements
of our celebrations and keep only what is “good, acceptable and perfect.”
Some Scriptural considerations in examining our traditions are: Are they
true and honoring to God (PHI 4:8; 1COR 10:31)? Do they encourage our faith
in God and Jesus Christ (1THES 5:11)? Do they somehow honor idols (DEU
5:7)? Are they a “stumbling block” to others (ROM 14:20; 1COR 10:31; MAT
18:7)? Do they feed the desires of the flesh (GAL 5:19-21; 1JOH 2:16)?
In
doing this assessment of our traditions we may find, as the Puritans did,
that Christmas is altogether too profane and commercial in which to participate.
Or, we may find that we can retain the innocent parts of our traditions
and in purity of heart observe Christmas as the memorial of the time when
Jesus came as the babe in the manger. Certainly the meaning and message
of Christmas is untainted by Saturnalia/Yuletide traditions. And whether
we choose to celebrate it or not, all of us who name the Name of Christ
can take advantage of the fact that Christmas is the time when the whole
world wonders about the Nativity: all of us can be witnesses about the
incarnation to the lost. All of us can worship and praise the Creator for
sending His Son into the world to be the Lamb of God and Savior of the
World. All of us can share the message of “peace to men on whom His favor
rests” (LUK 2:14 NIV). To those of us who choose to celebrate the holiday
let the principle of Romans, chapter 14, be our guide—God is pleased when
we seek to glorify Him in what we approve. The Apostle Paul said, “everything
that does not come from faith is sin” (ROM 14:23).
NOTE: In all fairness and honesty to God and His Holy word - I think the lies, the myths and that which distracts from the facts of Jesus and His birth and what He came for GREATLY outweighs any good that some might imagine can come from the teachings of Christmas as held by the world. The vast majority of traditions are man originated - how can anything good come out of those who "have no good in them"?
DAS
Sources:
“An
Old-Fashioned Solstice,” www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/3217/Solstice.html.
Adkins,
Lesley and Adkins, Roy A., Handbook
to Life in Ancient Rome, Facts on File, Inc., N.Y., 1994.
“The
Christmas Story,” www.7thdaybaptistchurch.org/articles/christmas_story.html.
Coffin,
Tristram P., The Book of Christmas
Folklore, Seabury Press, N.Y., 1973.
Crager,
Meg and Grace, Margaret, The Whole
Christmas Catalogue, Courage Books, Philadelphia, 1986.
Crippen,
Thomas, Christmas and Christmas
Lore, Gale Research Co., Detroit, 1971.
Encarta
“98.
Encyclopedia
Britannica 1999.
“Feasting,” www.worldbook.com/fun/holidays/html/feast/htm.
Horovitz,
Bruce, “Uneasy retailers
need a little Christmas – now,”
USA TODAY, October 31, 2000.
Hottes,
Alfred C., 1001 Christmas Facts
and Fancies, A.T. Delamare Co. Inc., N.Y., 1937.
Ickis,
Marguerite, The Book of Christmas,
Dodd, Mead & Co., N.Y., 1960.
www.mylostbirthday.com/christian/enterprise/pagan-origins.html/.
“Sacaea
Saturnalia,” www.candlegrove.com/sacaea.html.
Sansom,
William, A Book of Christmas,
McGraw-Hill, N. Y., 1968.
“Seasonal
Holliday Attire: Christmas in the Netherlands,” www.histclo.hispeed.com/act/holiday/holxmashol.html.
Skarmes,
Nancy, The Traditions of Christmas,
Ideal Pub. , 1997.
“St.
Nicholas of Myra Bishop, Confessor C. 342, Feast: December 6,” www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/NICHOLAS.htm.
“St.
Nicholas the Miracleworker,” Orthodox Saints Vol 4, www.home.it.net.au/-jgraosas/pages/st_nicholas.htm.
Stevenson,
Rev. Alex, “Why is Christmas in December?” www.christmas eternal/christmas98.com.
“Thor’s
Gallery,” www.geocities.com/-jlhagan/thor/thor.htm.
“True
Stories About Christmas,” www.yahweh.com/pages/pw1298/christ.shtml.
Webster’s
New Twentieth Century Dictionary,
Collins World, 1975.
Weiser,
Francis X., The Christmas Book,
Harcourt, Brace and Company, N.Y., 1952.
Wernecke,
Herbert H., Christmas Customs Around
the World, Westminster Press.
“Winter
Solstice Celebrations: a.k.a. Christmas, Saturnalia, Yule,”
www.religioustolerance.org/winter_solstice.htm.
“Winter
Solstice: The Unconquered Sun,” www.shambhala.org/arts/fest/unconquered.
Html.
“The
Yule Log,” www.culture.fr/culture/noel/angl/buche.html.
Tony
Capoccia
Bible
Bulletin Board
Box
119
Columbus, New Jersey, USA, 08022
Our Websites: www.biblebb.com
and www.gospelgems.com
Email: tony@biblebb.com
Online since 1986