The history of Christmas
Christmas is a time to celebrate, give and receive gifts, eat lots of favorite food and most importantly to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is believed to be the savior of the world according to the Christians (that is the origin of the name). However, the history of Christmas, the 2,000-year-old holiday is one that is a little complex and interesting at the same time.
Different Christian denominations celebrate the festival at different times of the year some on Dec 24, Dec 25, Jan 7 and Jan 19. There are billions of followers around the world.
The celebration follows the season of Advent that ushers the 12 days of Christmas. This date was first fixed in the western calendar by Dionysius Exiguus who was a Scyuthian monk that worked as an abbot in Rome. According to his research of the old text, it was decided that Jesus birth occurred on December 25, CE. At the time, there were many arguments on the actual date of birth. However, Exiguus’s date prevailed all other arguments.
Saturnalia
Before Christian celebrations came to be, the Roman pagans used to celebrate a festival called Saturnalia. This was a week of raucous celebrations that happen between December 17 and 25. During this period, the Roman courts were closed. The law dictated that no citizen could be punished if he damaged property or injured during the celebrations. The Romans believed that when they chose a victim for the celebration, force him or her to indulge in food and other festivities and then murder him/her at the end of the festivities, they will have destroyed the evil forces on the last day of the festival. This date was December 25.
During the 4th century, many Christians were successful in converting several pagans to Christians by allowing them to continue their celebration of Saturnalia. However, unlike the traditional ritual, this celebration was connected to Jesus. However, since the festival had nothing to do with the birth of Jesus, the celebration about Jesus was put on the last date of the celebration. The Saturnalia became embedded in the history of Christmas.
For several years down the line, the contemporary Christians allowed celebrations to continue in a lawless manner. There was a lot of drinking, sexual indulgence and singing while strip naked on the streets.
The pagan way of life died out as many pagans were converted to Christianity. However, the Christian celebration continued to take place years down the line. Puritans do not celebrate the holiday as they regard the history of Christmas as from a pagan holiday. However, many more Christians continued to celebrate Saturnalia and Christmas.
In 1466, under the watch of Pope Paul II Saturnalia was revived and made to coincide with the Christmas celebrations. This came to be with the hand of the Romans. Romans forced Jews to run naked on the streets of their cities as part of the celebrations. This kind of abuse continued for centuries. Matters became worse in the 1800s when Christian leaders and other religious communities started a widespread Semitic abuse of Jews in Europe including Poland and Rome. Authorities allowed rape, murder, and maiming of the Jews in celebration of the birth of Jesus.
In the dark ages, Saxons and many other German tribes in Europe converted to Christianity. They brought the word, Yule. The word meant mid-winter and was included in Christmas traditions. As centuries passed, Yule became synonymous with the birth of Jesus. However, the term was not used until later 11th century. In the centuries that followed European Christians continued to celebrate the Christmas season by burning the Yule log at fireplaces and light a Yule Candle. Much of the Christmas tradition such as decorating trees, giving cards and carolling became part and parcel of Christmas celebrations in the 19th century.
Santa Claus
Santa Claus is one of the most recognized Christmas traditions. It was also added to the traditions in the mid-19th century. The tradition traces its roots from Nicholas, a Turkish bishop who lived in Turkey between 270 CE and 325 CE. He was very popular (almost treated like a cult). He was one of the bishops that translated the New Testament texts to English.
In 1087, a cult was formed by sailors who enshrined his bones in a sanctuary in Italy and replaced the local deity with his name and used to give gifts to children on his behalf. The cult celebrated his life on every December 6.
Soon the cult reverence of Bishop Nicholas spread among German and Celtic pagans. They created a wooden figure of him just like their gods. His appearance looked like one with a long white beard, riding on a winged horse and wearing cold weather clothing. When the Catholic church started converting these communities to Christianity, they accepted St. Nicholas celebrations in Christianity but moved them to December 25. He became part of the history of Christmas.
