Christmas
What is the true meaning behind Christmas?
I will attempt to explain how we came to celebrate Christmas and some of the meanings
behind the decorations and ornaments we use today.This information comes from research
that I have done. I am writing what I feel to be the truth.
Christmas Traditions
Christmas time is in the air. It is time to decorate the Christmas tree, give gifts, and
send out Christmas cards. Waiting to see what Santa Claus is going to bring.
Other customs have to do with decorating evergreen trees, lights, wreaths, and holly; the
sending of cards.We sing Christmas carols and other songs.
With all of these traditions, have you ever wondered where and how it all began?
Definition
The word Christmas comes from the Old English term Cristes maesse, meaning "Christ's mass."
This was the name for the festival service of worship held on December 25 to commemorate the
birth of Jesus Christ.
Long before the spread of Christianity, pagans believed that the forests would turn green in
spring only if people paid homage to the evergreen throughout the winter. Evergreens, they believed,
contained mystical powers that enabled the tree to stay green year-round. Unable to persuade the people
of northern Europe otherwise, Christian missionaries adopted the practice of bringing evergreens indoors
in winter.
"The fact that December 25 was chosen [to celebrate Christ's birth]," explains historian Francis Weismer,
"does not seem to rest so much on historical findings as in the desire to replace the popular pagan celebration
of the winter solstice by the festivities of a truly Christian holiday."
Among the most popular of the early Christian ceremonies were plays written by the clergy and performed on
church steps to teach townspeople the Bible. One of the most popular of these plays was the story of Adam and
Eve and the Forbidden Fruit. Since fruit trees were barren in the North at Christmastime, the actors represented
the Tree of Paradise in the Garden of Eden by tying apples, representing Original Sin, to evergreen boughs.
The custom of decorating evergreens with apples, and, as time progressed, with candles, flowers, religious
ornaments, and candy and cookies, grew into a Christmas tradition in Germany in the 1500's.
The traditional Christmas is not a single day but a prolonged period, normally from 24th December to 6th January.
This included the New Year, thus increasing the festival value of Christmas.
Christmas--with deeply-rooted traditions--is the most significant holiday of the year in Western culture. Although
Christmas is celebrated all over the world, nowhere is it such a significant holiday as in Central and Northern Europe.
Especially in the Alpine regions, where the Christmas observance has incorporated pre-Christian traditions as well. Of
these the "Mitwinternacht" (mid-winter night or winter solstice) and the 12 Rauhnächte (the harsh nights) are the most important.
Pagans had traditionally decked their halls with boughs of holly, evergreens and mistletoe to symbolize winter's inability to prevent
the renewal of life. Merrymaking came to have a share in Christmas observance through popular enthusiasm. The medieval secular celebrations
lasted for a "season," extending from Christmas eve to Epiphany, and in some localities even from St. Thomas' Day, Dec. 21
(honoring the "doubting Thomas," disciple of Jesus) to Candlemas (February 2).
There was some dispute about the proper date of the birth of Christ and not everyone agrees even to this day. It was not until
A.D. 350, that December 25 was declared the official date for celebrating Christmas by Pope Julius I. When the fathers of the church
decided to settle upon a date to celebrate the event, they wisely chose the day of the winter solstice, since it coincided with some
rival religions' celebrations and the rebirth of the sun, symbolized by bon-fires and yule logs. December 25 was a festival long before
the conversion of the Germanic people to Christianity, it seemed fitting that the time of their winter festival would also be the time
to celebrate the birth of Christ. The darkness that had frightened and threatened to defeat the ancient pagans, was forever defeated by
the coming of Christ.
Because of changes in man-made calendars, the time of the solstice and the date of Christmas vary by a few days. As Christianity spread
among the people of pagan lands, many of the practices of the winter solstice were blended with those of Christianity. In the dead of
winter a celebration of rebirth of life was symbolized in the birth of Christ. The time of the winter solstice, when days grew longer
again--the return of the light--became the hope of the world in the birth of Christ, "the light of the world."
In "Merrie England," from the 11th to the 17th century, Christmas had become increasingly the great festival of the year with observance
from Christmas Eve (December 24) to Twelfth Night (January 6). By 1252 Henry III was slaying 600 oxen to go with the salmon pies and
roasted peacocks. In the holly-decked great halls of the feudal lords, wassailing, feasting, singing, and games, dancing and masquerading,
mummers presenting pantomimes, and masques were all part of the festivities. The Christmas feast was brought ceremoniously into the hall,
headed by the chief cook carrying in the boar's head, followed by servants bearing an incredible number of dishes.
But the wild license of these celebrations, with no semblance of the inner vision and meaning of Christmas, came under the disfavor of the
Puritans. In Scotland, John Knox put an end to Christmas in 1562. In England the observance of Christmas was forbidden by act of Parliament
in 1644. When Oliver Cromwell was Lord Protector, Puritans declared Christmas was "an extraeme forgetfulnesse of Christ, by giving liberty
to carnall and sensual delights." So the House of Commons sat on Christmas day and sheriffs were sent out to require merchants to open for
business. Pro-and anti-Christmas factions rioted.
Charles II revived the feast. While the Scots adhered to their Puritan view, England gradually found Christmas again. However, in some places
abolition was more permanent than in others. Prince Albert is credited with having brought Christmas from his native Germany and created the
"Victorian Christmas" with the decorated tree and all the trimmings. When the term "Victorian Christmas" is used, it refers to the lavish customs
and style popular at the time of the reign of Queen Victoria. Prince Albert himself was one of the greatest authorities for the reinvention of
the English Christmas, for in his native Germany Christmas had never disappeared. He introduced the first Christmas tree at Windsor, and this
quickly became an institution throughout England and Wales. He also helped to popularize carol singing. People living in the new industrial
communities had lost touch with the half forgotten customs of their rural past, so while new symbols like the Christmas trees and carols were being
imported, other customs were being created.
Because of the Puritan influence, the festive aspects of Christmas, including the tree, were not accepted in New England until about 1875.
It will be somewhat of a shock to learn that in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, most Pennsylvanians did not celebrate Christmas either.
Puritanism is a thing of the spirit, and Pennsylvania's Puritans--who included the Quakers, Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, Baptists, and Methodists,
as well as the Mennonites and other plain groups, who were Puritans in spirit--shared New England's aversion to paying a special honor to the 25th of December.
The celebration of Christmas was made a crime in Massachusetts in 1659. That edict was repealed in 1681, but in 1686 the governor needed two soldiers to escort
him to Christmas services. In 1706 a Boston mob smashed the windows in a church holding Christmas services. Due to the early predominance of the Dutch in New York
(founded by them and first named New Amsterdam), New Yorkers celebrated Christmas from the 17th century on, but as late as 1874 Henry Ward Beecher, America's
most prominent preacher, said, "To me, Christmas is a foreign day."
The Puritans and other Protestant groups were right when they said that Christmas observations in December had their origins in pagan festivals of the
winter solstice, and that no one knew in what season Christ was born. Christmas customs have evolved from times that long antedated the Christian
period--a descent from seasonal pagan, religious and national practices, hedged about with legend and tradition. Although many of the customs of the
pagan feasts of the winter solstice were suppressed, they nevertheless, contributed much to modern observance.
Since the middle of the 4th century the church has celebrated Christ's birthday as December 25. From the Carolingian times (8th century) up until the
Reformation this was also the beginning of the new year in Germany. But the people still viewed the "Rauhnaechte," the twelve nights of Christmas,
as a time when ghosts appeared, and dead warriors swept through the night. People lit candles, locked their doors, and stayed at home. The church was
gradually able to give pagan customs Christian significance, but without completely replacing the old popular beliefs.
Details of the Christmas story are found in the new Testament's four books of the gospel. From this we have created a Jesus vita and a story that suits us,
but it ignores somehow the historical context. There are those who say that if shepherds really were tending their flocks that night, it must not have been
winter, for in the winter, sheep in Palestine were penned at night. The abode of Christ's birth was not the kind of stable usually pictured, but most likely
a hillside cave which sheltered livestock. Mary and Joseph may have camped in a livestock enclosure where the baby was born, wrapped and laid in a manger.
Rugged shepherds in the dark fields near the compound were frightened by heavenly music and voices about an occurrence of "great joy" for "all of the people."
Biblical evidence indicates that when the Magi or wise men visited the child Jesus, he was a toddler, about 2 years of age, not a new-born infant as typically
portrayed. The wise men from the East, are said to have found Mary and Joseph's house (they explicitly had a house by this time) and presented gifts.One brought
a casket of gold, One brought myrrh in a gold mounted horn, the otherone brought frankincense in a censer. Gold symbolizes Kingship, frankincense is a gift for
a high priest, and myrrh for a great physician. Tradition assigns the date of this visit to January 6, Epiphany, known as Twelfth Night.
[Christ's Mass], in the Christian calendar, feast of the nativity of Jesus Christ, celebrated in Roman Catholic and Protestant Churches on Dec. 25. In importance
it ranks after Easter, Pentecost, and Epiphany (Jan. 6). Christmas did not become widespread until the 4th cent. The date was undoubtedly chosen for its nearness
to Epiphany, which, in the East, originally included a commemoration of the nativity. The date of Christmas coincides closely with the winter solstice in the
Northern hemisphere, a time of rejoicing among many ancient cultures. Christmas, as the great popular festival of Western Europe, dates from the Middle Ages.
In England after the Reformation the observance became a point of contention between Anglicans and other Protestants, and the celebration of Christmas was suppressed
in Scotland and in much of New England until the 19th cent. Decorations with holly, hawthorn, wreaths, mistletoe, and the singing of carols (Christmas serenaders)
are all typically English. Gifts at Christmas are also English; elsewhere they are given at other times, as at Epiphany in Spain. In the mid 19th cent. Christmas
began to acquire its associations with an increasingly secularized holiday of gift-giving and good cheer. Christmas cards first appeared in 1846. The current
concept of a jolly Santa Claus was first made popular in New York in the 19th cent.The Christmas tree was a tradition from the Middle Ages in Germany. The crib
(crèche) with the scene at Bethlehem was popularized by the Franciscans. A familiar religious observance is the midnight service in Roman Catholic and some Protestant churches.
Advent
[Lat.,=coming], season of the Christian ecclesiastical year preceding Christmas, lasting in the West from the Sunday nearest Nov. 30 (St. Andrew's Day) until Christmas Eve.
In the Roman Catholic Church it is traditionally considered a season of penitence and fasting, to prepare for the holy day, and its liturgical color is purple. However,
the Roman observance has always contained an element of joyful anticipation of Christmas, a feeling that prevails during this season in Western churches today. Originally
Advent was seen as a time of preparation for the feast of Christ's nativity. But during the Middle Ages this meaning was extended to include preparation for Christ's second coming,
as well as Christ's present coming through grace.
Mistletoe
Sacred to ancient druids and a symbol of eternal life the same way as Christmas tree. The Romans valued it as a symbol of peace and this lead eventually its acceptance among
Christmas props. Kissing under mistletoe was a Roman custom, too.
© Copy right 1999
Created on December 11, 1999
Updated on July 28, 2002