Origins of Christmas

Why do we celebrate Christmas?

Christmas, is the annual festival of Christ's birth. Christmas Day falls on December 25 and celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem as recounted in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. It is, after Easter, the most important feast in the church's year. Since the Gospels make no mention of dates, it is not certain that Christ was born on this day. In fact, Christmas Day did not officially come into being until 354 when Pope Gregory proclaimed December 25 as the date of the Nativity. In doing so, he was following the early church's policy of absorbing rather than repressing existing pagan rites which, since early times, had celebrated the winter solstice and the coming of spring.

The pagan festival most closely associated with the new Christmas was the Roman Saturnalia, which honored the god of the harvest, Saturn, on December 19 and was marked by seven days of riotous merrymaking and feasting. At the same time in northern Europe a similar winter festival known as Yule was celebrated in which giant logs, trimmed with greenery and ribbons, were burnt in honor of the gods and to encourage the sun to shine more brightly.

Having incorporated these elements, the Christian church subsequently added, in the Middle Ages, the Nativity crib and Christmas carols to its customs. By this time lavish feasting was the highlight of the festivities with large quantities of food, including a decorated boar's head, ceremoniously consumed over eight or nine hours by rich and poor alike. All this came to an abrupt end in Britain at least when in 1552 the Puritans banned Christmas, a move followed in Massachusetts seven years later. Although Christmas returned to England in 1660 with Charles II, the rituals all but died out until revived in Victorian times.

Christmas as we know it today is thus a 19th-century invention. The decorated Christmas tree, common in German countries for centuries, was introduced to Britain by Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's Consort. Carols were revived and many new ones written, often to traditional melodies. The custom of carol-singing, although with ancient origins, dates mainly from the 19th century. Christmas crackers were invented in the late 19th century by an enterprising English baker, Tom Smith, who, by 1900, was selling 13 million worldwide each year, and Christmas cards only became commonplace in the 1870s, although the first one was produced in London in 1846. The familiar image of Santa Claus, complete with sled, reindeers, and sack of toys, is an American invention which first appeared in a drawing by Thomas Nast in Harper's Magazine in 1868, although the legend of Father Christmas is ancient and complex, being partly derived from St Nicholas and a jovial medieval figure, the "spirit of Christmas". In Russia, he traditionally carries a pink piglet under his arm.

Today, Christmas is as much a secular festival as a religious one. It is a time of great commercial activity and for present-giving, family reunions and, in English-speaking countries, a "traditional" Christmas meal of turkey or goose, Christmas pudding, and mince pies. Midnight mass is celebrated in churches and cathedrals in the West. In many countries, including Germany, the custom of lighting the tree, singing carols around it, and opening presents is celebrated on December 24, Christmas Eve.

What is Saturnalia?

Saturnalia, in ancient Rome, a mid-winter festival celebrated from 17 to 19 December. Held at the darkest time of year, it was celebrated with the lighting of candles and torches, with feasting and drinking, and the giving of presents. Festivities began with a sacrifice at the Temple of Saturn at the foot of the Capitoline hill, the most sacred part of Rome, followed by public feasting to which everyone was invited. The Romans themselves associated Saturn with the pre-Hellenic god Cronus who was active during the Golden Age of the earth. During the feast of the Saturnalia, slaves were often freed temporarily from their duties and their roles reversed with those of their masters. Each household chose a mock king, similar to the later "Lord of Misrule" or "Bean King " of Twelfth Night festivities. Gradually, these customs extended through to New Year's Day, and thus were absorbed into the Christian festival of Christmas.

What is Twelfth Night?

Twelfth Night, the twelfth night after Christmas; it is celebrated on January 5, the evening before the Feast of the Epiphany which commemorates the visit of the Three Wise Men to the Christ-child in Bethlehem. In Britain and other English-speaking countries, it is also remembered as the day for taking down Christmas cards and decorations - traditionally, to avoid bad luck in the coming year. Once, it was a day of great merrymaking, for which a rich fruit cake was baked, since it marked the end of the Christmas festivities. Hidden in the cake were a bean, a pea, and small silver coins; whoever received the slice containing the bean became the Lord of Misrule or "Bean King" for the evening, in charge of the Twelfth Night revels during which, in the Middle Ages, all manner of outrageous behavior was allowed. Later, masked balls and plays were often included in the revels and Shakespeare's play of the same name is reputed to have been commissioned by the lawyers of the Middle Temple, London. We know certainly that Shakespeare's company performed before Elizabeth I in her palace at Whitehall in the new year of 1601 and that the guest of honor was an Italian nobleman, Don Virginio Orsino - the name Shakespeare later gave to the Duke in his play.

In Britain, the Twelfth Night Cake became incorporated into the Christmas cake in the late 19th century but in France a special cake, the Galette des Rois is still eaten on Twelfth Night.

There is another curious Twelfth Night custom which took place until fairly recent times in Devon and Somerset. This was apple-tree wassailing, a ritual of undoubtedly pagan origins, where cider was drunk from the wassail bowl, and what remained of it was sprinkled on apple trees to ensure fruitfulness during the coming year. The wassail bowl or cup was a large receptacle of wood, pewter, silver, or even gold filled with spiced ale or mulled wine, from which a toast was drunk, especially on Christmas Eve or Twelfth Night, to the salutation of "wes hal" (Old English, "be in health").

What is Epiphany?

Epiphany (Greek, epiphaneia, "appearance"), feast celebrated on January 6 by the Anglican, Eastern, and Roman Catholic churches. The feast originated, and is still recognized in the Eastern church, as the anniversary of the baptism of Christ. In the Western churches, Epiphany commemorates principally the revelation to the Gentiles of Jesus Christ as the Savior, as portrayed by the coming of the Three Wise Men or Magi (see Matthew 2:1-12) bringing with them gold, the gift bestowed on kings, frankincense, used to worship at the altar of God, and myrrh, to prepare the body for embalming after death. In both the Eastern and Western churches the feast additionally commemorates the marriage at Cana (see John 2:1-11), at which Christ performed his first miracle. Epiphany, known to have been observed earlier than AD 194, is older than Christmas and has always been a festival of the highest rank. The eve of Epiphany is called Twelfth Night, and the day itself is sometimes referred to as Twelfth Day. In England, the sovereign commemorates the day by offering gold, frankincense, and myrrh at the altar in the Chapel Royal at St James's Palace. In the Eastern church, at Epiphany, the holy water is blessed, a ritual customarily taking place on Holy Saturday (the day before Easter) in the Roman Catholic church.

What is Advent?

Advent, in the Christian Church, the four weeks before Christmas beginning on St Andrew’s Day (November 30) or the Sunday nearest to it. The word comes from the Latin "adventus", meaning "arrival", and the period is one of preparation before celebrating the birth of Christ at Christmas. It marks the beginning of the Church’s year and is a solemn season that, in the past, used to be observed with the same strictness as Lent; the Roman Catholic Church, for example, forbids the solemnization of marriage during Advent.

Various customs are associated with Advent. One that still survives in parts of Europe, notably in Germany, is the hanging of Advent wreaths. These are rings made up of sprigs of evergreens such as holly and ivy, into which are fixed four red candles. They are hung from the middle of the ceiling and on each Sunday of Advent one candle is lit so that by Christmas all four are burning. In Britain in Victorian times, the Christmas pudding had to be made before Advent commenced. This was always on Stir-up Sunday, the last Sunday before Advent, when the pudding was solemnly stirred in an anti-clockwise direction by every member of the household before it was boiled (with silver charms or coins hidden in it) for several hours, then left to mature until Christmas Day.