The nature of Christmas

The nature of Christmas

     Christmas is a hodgepodge of celebrations, personal behaviors and attitudes, rituals of worship, the selling and buying of a lot of gifts, and public and private gatherings that are brought together from ancient pagan festivals, a variety of ethnic traditions, the biblical stories of Jesus’ birth, historic religious traditions and practices and beliefs, and secular business strategies that are all focused around December 25th.
     There is a lot of personal and collective controversial opinion regarding whether or not Christmas is a Christian holiday, a pagan festival that should be rejected by Christians and ignored by enlightened citizens of the modern world, a set of nice stories and traditions about love and giving that are worthy of being emphasized once a year, or just a very agressive business strategy to get millions of people to buy and give a lot of goods.

A brief history of Christmas

     It was common in ancient cultures for people to gather together in festivals at the time of the Winter Solstice on December 22nd. These gatherings were associated with the worship of sun gods, as with the Stonehenge community and the Romans. In Europe the festival was associated with the slaughter of cattle that could not be fed during the winter months and the subsequent feasts and relaxing social activities. Yule logs were burned in German and Scandinavian countries, and candles were burned in many of these festivals. Fruit was tied to the branches of trees to encourage the return of the warm sun in Spring.
     In regard to the influence of the biblical stories and the birth of Jesus in these celebrations, the accounts are not without pagan comparisons. “The Hindu god Krishna, Gautama Buddha and Zoraster were reputedly the product of virgin births. Alexander the Great, Constantine and Nero claimed to have virgin births....In the ancient world virgin birth was a sign of distinction.” 1
The date of December 25th for the birth of Jesus is not biblical. “December 25th was celebrated worldwide for thousands of years before Jesus was born....” 2 “This date was first officially recognized on Roman calendars about 336 A.D. having been decreed by Pope Sylvester in 320 A.D. to coincide with the sun-god feast, Saturnalia.” 3 It is generally recognized that if the visiting shepherds had been out in the fields with their flocks (as reported by Luke in the New Testament book of Luke 2:8), the birth of Jesus would not have been in December.
     The biblical story of the Magi (Matthew 2:1- 12) has been interpreted and illustrated in various Christian legends, artistic drawings, songs, and children’s pageants since Medieval times. Three gifts are mentioned, but it is not certain that there were only three Magi. Other details regarding the Magi have been given unsupported interpretations, such as their races and ages.
     The features of Saint Nicholas, Santa Claus, and the giving of gifts also have their particular histories. Saint Nicholas became a bishop at the age of 17. At the age of 30 he served as the bishop of Myra (the city of Demre in Turkey). After being jailed by the rulers of the Eastern Roman Empire for ten years, he was released by Constantine. Later he helped him in Constantine’s conflict with Arius that produced the Nicene Creed in support of the unity of the trinity at the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D.
After this victory, Saint Nicholas became the subject of many legends. One of these including a poor family with three daughters who had no wedding dowries and were faced with the prospect of having to become prostitutes. He threw bags of gold through a bedroom window for two of the daughters and another bag down the chimney, which landed in a stocking that the third daughter had hung by the fireplace to get dry. He was noted for his generosity with children, and became the patron saint of Greece and Russia.
     The veneration of his legends was abolished by Luther in many European countries, but not in the Netherlands. In Germany the figure of Saint Nicholas was replaced by “a tall Christ child” (Christkindl) who was known as Kris Kringle in English-speaking countries. 4 “The transformation of Saint Nicholas to Santa Claus happened largely in America -- with inspiration from the Dutch. In the early days of Dutch New York, Sinterklass became know among the English- speaking as ‘Santa Claus’ (or ‘Saint Nick’).” 5 In 1809 Washington Irving created a tale of a “chuppy, pipe-smoking little Saint Nicholas who road a magic horse through the air visiting all houses in New York. The elfish figure was small enough to climb down chimneys with gifts for the good children and switches for the bad ones.” 6 The poem “The Night Before Christmas”, reputedly by Clement Moore in 1823, “replaced the horse with a sleigh drawn by eight flying reindeer” and an “elf”who brought children only presents without any switches. 7 Thomas Nast, head cartoonist for Harper’s Weekly magazine, “depicted Santa Claus from 1863 to 1886 as an unaging, jolly, bearded fat man who lived at the North Pole....” 8 He had a red suit trimmed with white fur. “The first department store Santa Clause was at J.W. Parkinson’s store in Philadelphia in 1881.” 9