“Now Christmas is here,” go the lyrics of a popular song, “the most wonderful day of the year.” But how much do people really know about this wonderful day? Looking at the history of Christmas, we may discover things about the holiday which might surprise us.
First of all, most scholars do not believe Jesus was actually born on December 25. According to Luke, the night Jesus was born “there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock” (Luke 2:8). December in Palestine and other Mediterranean regions falls in the rainy season, so shepherds do not let their animals outside at night during this time. Therefore Christ’s birth probably did not occur in December.
Christmas was not celebrated for the first four centuries after Jesus’ death. Not until Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire in 380 AD was Christmas established as a holiday. December 25 was chosen as the date of Christ’s birth for the Western church. This day coincided with the Roman feast of Saturnalia, so converts did not have to feel that becoming a Christian meant an end to fun and games. Many Eastern Orthodox churches, though, go by the Julian rather than Gregorian calendar and observe Christmas at the beginning of January.
Following the Reformation, the various Protestant denominations took different approaches to Christmas. The Lutheran and Anglican churches continued to celebrate it. On the other hand, the Calvinistic faiths – Presbyterians, Puritans and so on – condemned the holiday as “Popish” (a derogatory term for Roman Catholic). Puritan leader Oliver Cromwell, for example, banned Christmas celebrations upon coming to power in England in the 1640s, though they were resumed when the British monarchy, whose members were Anglican, was restored. Interestingly, while most of us regard Christmas in the United States as an orgy of commercialism, due to the country’s Puritan roots the holiday was not officially recognized there until the late 1800s. Likewise, Christmas was not observed by Presbyterians in Scotland until after the Second World War.
Today Christmas is a legal holiday in virtually all Christian nations as well as many Islamic ones (while Muslims do not consider Jesus the Son of God, they honour him as a prophet). In addition, in recent years people in East Asian nations, like Japan, have begun to adopt some non-religious aspects of Christmas, such as exchanging gifts and Christmas cards.
The traditionally Christian countries have through the centuries developed their own customs to mark the holiday. My Norwegian relatives, for instance, would gather around the Christmas tree, light candles on it, and sing carols (that the house never went up in flames in the process seems like a minor miracle, though in those days perhaps people were more careful with candles). They also served lutefisk (dried cod), romegrot (a type of pudding), and cookies with cream inside them at dinner.
So have a Merry Christmas… but remember how the holiday got here!
Sphere: Related Content
0 Responses to “The Christmas Story”
Leave a Reply