December 23, 2002

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  The Day Before The Day Before Christmas

  
  

  Are you ready for Christmas?  Do you have your tree trimmed, your presents wrapped, cards sent?  Why do you celebrate?  I was curious what information I could find about the beginnings of Christmas and they are fascinating.  Many Christmas traditions derive from mutiple ancient practices of the season.  The origins of this season are far older than the birth of Jesus.  December 25 is almost assuredly not the date of Jesus birth.  Biblical hints surrounding the birth account of Jesus lead most scholars to place his arrival sometime in September.  

  
  

  In Roman Catholic tradition, saints are honored on the day of their death.  The Latin "masse" means death.  Catholic "mass" is the liturgical remembrance of Christ's death.  By the time the term Christmas was first being used in Medieval Europe the compound meant "the mass for Christ" as opposed to "Christ's death." 
  
  Christmas Day

  
  

  Winter celebrations of the solstice have been documented in cultures thousands of years prior to the birth of Jesus.  Feast celebrations focused on the hope of the coming spring, after the long harsh winters.  These included Saturnalia,the great Roman holiday in remembrance of the supposed "Golden Age"; Sigillaria, the Feast of Dolls, in which dolls and other toys, mostly earthenware, were given to children; and Brumalia, otherwise Dies Natalis Invicti Solis, The Birthday of the Unconquered Sun, when the days became longer after the solstice. Finally, there was Kalende Januarii, the New Year's Day, when everyone exchanged gifts and also tied in Juvenilia, the special festival of Childhood and Youth.
  

  According to Egyptian mythology and tradition, following the untimely death of Osiris, his wife, Isis, propogated the doctrine of the survival of Osiris as a spirit.  She claimed a full grown evergreen tree sprang overnight from a dead stump, symbolising the new life of the Osiris spirit from his death. On each anniversary of Osiris re-birth as spirit, Isis would leave gifts around this tree.  Osiris later became, through the translation of the Phoenicans, Baal the Sun-god. The "mother and child" became chief objects of worship by the Babylonians, and spread over the world under various names, such as, Cybel & Deoius in Asia, Fortuna & Jupiter in pagan Rome.
  
  For Christianity since its infancy, Easter and the days leading up to it have been set apart as the most holy time on the church calendar.  It was only in the fourth century, that the churches began to celebrate the birth of Jesus and observe the same as a holiday.  According to the historical record, Christmas was first celebrated as an official Roman holiday on January 6, 534 A.D. according to the old Julian calendar. This annual date didn't change until Europeans switched to the Gregorian calendar in 1743.  Pope Julius I chose December 25 to be the date of Christmas. According to the popular belief, he chose this date in an effort to adopt, absorb and unite the traditions of ancient Pagan festivals under the umbrella of the liturgical calendar.
  

  A century  earlier a wave of religious reform threatened to change the way Christmas was celebrated. While the Roman Catholic church was embracing traditional custom and giving it alternative Christian significance, Protestant reformers opposed any Christian association with the solstice observances.  In 1645 Oliver Cromwell and his Puritan troops triumphed over the English monarchy and banned Christmas celebrations. But, when Charles II was restored to the throne, he restored the popular holiday.
  

  Christmas had a late arrival in America, and faced early hostilities.  The first English settlers, Pilgrims, didn't celebrate Christmas but neither did they condemn it calling it a matter of individual conscience.  With the second (larger) wave of immigrants, the Puritans, this attitude of tolerance changed.  Between 1659 and 1681 the celebration of Christmas was banned in Bostonwith fines levied against those who violated the prohibition.  As an immediate result of the American Revolution, English customs fell out of favour and celebrating Christmas was among them. Though some places like the Jamestown settlement did celebrate Christmas with all the related gaiety, they remained an exception.
  

  But with the beginning of the nineteenth century, desire for a winter festival, led Americans to embrace Christmas as a perfect family holiday. Christmas was declared a national holiday on June 26, 1870. (Almost 30 years after the first publication of Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol.)  But, Americans re-invented the old Christmas celebration and transformed it from a carnival into a family-oriented day.
  

  Santa Claus

  
  

  The true story behind many of the customs associated with Christmas is as fascinating as the modern mythology which explains them.  The tradition of Santa Claus derives from the life of Saint Nicholas, who was renowned for his munificence to the poor. In 303 AD, Roman emperor Diocletian commanded that St. Nicholas be honored as a god. The conscience of Christians in Rome would not allow the serving of another god, and this angered Diocletian so that he imprisoned even Nicholas himself, for refusing to be served as the emperor wished. He remained in prison until Constantine came to rule in 313, and returned to his position as Bishop of Myra. It is said he continued his wise and caring ways throughout his life, which ended on December 6, 343.  In one apocryphal tale, Nicholas is supposed to have dropped a gift of gold for a poor man's daughter down the chimney so that she coudl be dowered and wed.  With the passing of time, St. Nicholas became Santa Claus.  Some countries separate the day of St. Nicholas from Christmas with his arrival scheduled for December 6, the date of his death.
  

  Christmas Tree
  

  The year 1841 was a significant year for the Christmas celebration in England. Prince Albert, the German husband of British Queen Victoria, brought the first Christmas tree in England to the royal castle of Windsor.  Just a year later, Dr. Charles Frederick Minnegerode, professor of Greek at the College of William and Mary, brought the first Christmas tree to Williamsburg, Virginia, America.
  

  The green tree has significant importance almost all over the world. In Britain, for Pagans, the Yule log fire and the greenery used to decorate the homes were traditional at the time of the solstice.  Moreover, in Europe, Romans used green twigs for good luck talismans

  
  

  Mistletoe and Holly
  
  Two hundred years before the birth of Christ, the Druids used mistletoe to celebrate the coming of winter. They would gather this evergreen plant that is parasitic upon other trees and used it to decorate their homes. They believed the plant had special healing powers for everything from female infertility to poison ingestion. Scandinavians also thought of mistletoe as a plant of peace and harmony. They associated mistletoe with their goddess of love, Frigga. The custom of kissing under the mistletoe probably derived from this belief. The early church banned the use of mistletoe in Christmas celebrations because of its pagan origins. Instead, church fathers suggested the use of holly as an appropriate substitute for Christmas greenery.

  
  

  Poinsettias
  
  Poinsettias are native to Mexico. They were named after America's first ambassador to Mexico, Joel Poinsett. He brought the plants to America in 1828. The Mexicans in the eighteenth century thought the plants were symbolic of the Star of Bethlehem. Thus the Poinsettia became associated with the Christmas season. The actual flower of the poinsettia is small and yellow. But surrounding the flower are large, bright red leaves, often mistaken for petals.

  
  

  Xmas
  
  This abbreviation for Christmas is of Greek origin. The word for Christ in Greek is Xristos. During the 16th century, Europeans began using the first initial of Christ's name, "X" in place of the word Christ in Christmas as a shorthand form of the word. Although the early Christians understood that X stood for Christ's name, more recent Christians have mistaken "Xmas" as a sign of disrespect.

  
  

  The Candy Cane
  
  Candy canes have been around for centuries, but it wasn't until around 1900 that they were decorated with red stripes and bent into the shape of a crook. They were sometimes handed out during church services to keep the children quiet. One story (almost certainly false) that is often told about the origin of the candy cane is as follows:

  
  

  In the late 1800's a candy maker in Indiana wanted to express the meaning of Christmas through a symbol made of candy. He came up with the idea of bending one of his white candy sticks into the shape of a Candy Cane. He incorporated several symbols of Christ's love and sacrifice through the Candy Cane. First, he used a plain white peppermint stick. The color white symbolizes the purity and sinless nature of Jesus. Next, he added three small stripes to symbolize the pain inflicted upon Jesus before His death on the cross. There are three of them to represent the Holy Trinity. He added a bold stripe to represent the blood Jesus shed for mankind. When looked at with the crook on top, it looks like a shepherd's staff because Jesus is the shepherd of man. If you turn it upside down, it becomes the letter J symbolizing the first letter in Jesus' name. The candy maker made these candy canes for Christmas, so everyone would remember what Christmas is all about.

  
  

  Peace and Hope

  
  

  In my favorite of the anectdotal emails going around this year, a class of early elementary students is presenting a musical program called Christmas Hope.  Each child has a large card they hold up at appropriate moments to spell out the title of their program.  When the audience notices that the child holding the letter "M" has her card upside down, they begin to snicker.  Until the final moments when all the letters are raised and proclaim "Christ Was Hope."  Whatever your reason for celebration this season, I pray for you the blessings of peace and hope. 

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