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History of the holidays - History of the holidays |
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Written by Dan England
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Friday, 21 December 2007 |
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Page 3 of 3
TRADITIONS COME TOGETHER AT CHRISTMAS
McClatchy-Tribune
Lighted trees, midnight masses, advertising blitzes — we know Christmas when we see it, hear it, smell it and feel it.
And in the glowing goodwill of the season, it’s easy to believe that’s the way it has always been.
But with all due respect to Father Christmas and Baby Jesus, that’s nothing more than a chestnut roasting on an open fire.
Christmas has changed dramatically over the last two millennia to become much more than the sum of its parts.
Today Christmas is as important to the economy as it is to spirituality.
But if you could go back in time, you’d find numerous occasions when Christmas was a minor holiday dwarfed by Easter, years when it wasn’t celebrated at all and times when it was outlawed by members of the same faith who now venerate it. Some even argue that if it weren’t for the consumerism many bemoan this time of year, Christmas wouldn’t be what it is today.
The truth is our contemporary Christmas is a holy hodgepodge of sacred traditions, literature, charity, history, art, chronological calculation and marketing magic.
So as people put up trees, hit the stores, deck the halls and fold their hands, it might be worth pausing for a yuletide moment to consider how we got here.
Why now?
Let’s start with Dec. 25.
On this day an estimated 2.1 billion Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, whom they believe to be the son of God.
It’s as good a day as any to celebrate, but scholars agree that Dec. 25 is almost certainly not Jesus’ birthday. A better guess is sometime in February during the lambing season when shepherds would have watched their sheep at night.
So how did Dec. 25 become the holy day? There are many theories. Here’s the most common.
For about 300 years the earliest Christians did not celebrate Christmas. Because pagans often celebrated the miraculous births of their gods, early Christian thinkers opposed the celebration of birthdays on principle.
But by the fourth century they overcame their reluctance and became willing to honor Jesus on his birthday. There was only one problem.
Nobody knew Jesus’ birthday.
The Bible gives neither day nor date.
Most researchers believe Christian leaders set the day as Dec. 25 to compete with pagan rituals celebrated around the same time.
One of the largest Roman festivals, Saturnalia — which honored Saturnus, the god of seed and sowing — took place around the winter solstice, or the shortest day of the year. On the calendar used by ancient Romans, the winter solstice fell on Dec. 25.
That was also the date sun-god worshippers (devotees of Sol and Mithra) celebrated the Birth of the Invincible Sun. During the fourth century, Christianity was still trying to fully establish itself. By putting Christmas on Dec. 25, leaders tried to supplant the celebration of the birth of the sun with a celebration of the birth of the Son.
Sometime in the middle of the fourth century, researchers believe, either Pope Julius or Pope Liberius officially adopted Dec. 25 as the Feast of the Nativity. During the next several centuries the feast spread throughout other Christian communities, taking various forms.
DIES NATALIS DOMINI
Christmas is so ingrained in our consciousness it’s hard to believe there was a time that word didn’t exist.
But Christmas is an English word that didn’t enter the lexicon until centuries after the official adoption of the holiday.
Because Latin was the official language of the early Roman Church, leaders originally called the festival Dies Natalis Domini, or the “Birthday of the Lord.” The more formal name for the holiday, according to The Encyclopedia of Christmas, was a holiday mouthful — Festum Nativitatis Domini Nostri Jesu Christi, or the “Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ.”
The earliest recorded mention of any word resembling Christmas is contained in documents that date to the 11th century. It is written in Old English as “Christes Masse.” (Among other spellings). Experts say the specific word “Christmas” didn’t enter the English language until between the late 16th and early 17th centuries.
THANKS TO DICKENS
Christmas wasn’t made an official holiday in the U.S. until 1836 and then only in Alabama. It didn’t become a federal holiday until 1870.
One of the most powerful influences in changing the attitude of those still resistant to the full celebration of Christmas was Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” published in 1843. Many historians say the transcendent work may have been the single most important factor in popularizing attitudes toward what would become our contemporary Christmas.
The moving work succeeded in effectively demonizing anyone who would dare oppose such a season of joy and giving.
As Dickens wrote of the changed Scrooge at the end of the story:
“And it was always said of him that he knew how to keep Christmas well if any man alive possessed that knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, ‘God bless us every one.’”
WHO IS THIS SANTA GUY?
The legend of Santa Claus traces its roots to St. Nicholas, a minor saint from the fourth century.
He was said to have carried a sack of toys for children and to have performed many kind and generous deeds in secret, expecting nothing in return. Historians disagree on the truth of such stories.
True or not, they inspired the creation (over a long period of time) of Santa Claus, whose magical and generous nature spread throughout the arts and popular culture.
Of course, Santa was not always jolly or plump. In colonial days he was often thin and beardless. Santa’s modern image formed thanks to imaginings by Washington Irving and “The Night Before Christmas” by Clement C. Moore.
It grew stronger thanks to numerous Christmas songs, artwork by cartoonist Thomas Nast (which depicted Santa as a jolly plump man with white beard in a red suit) and through iconic Coca-Cola ads drawn by Haddon Sundblom, which further refined the image of our modern Santa.
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