THE HISTORY OF CHRISTMAS
"Solar Holiday"
By Asa Rhinehart
[12/2004]
December 25th occurs about the time of the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year. The shortening days were taken as a sign that the Sun was getting weaker. After the Solstice, the days begin to get longer ... and pagan peoples thought that was an indication that the Sun was getting stronger. Thus, the Winter Solstice became the "birthday" of several gods: Attis, Frey, Thor, Dionysus, Osiris, Adonis, Mithra, Tammuz, Cernunnos and so forth. It is a "solar holiday," marking the time that the sun becomes apparently stronger day by day.
In 272 the Emperor Aurelian had established the feast, the "Commemoration of Emesa" dedicated to the Syrian sun god. It was on this day that the sun was at its lowest point on the horizon from which it would be "reborn" to again return throughout spring. (The Julian calendar by this time was four days off from the actual winter solstice.)
These Pagans believed that as the days got shorter the sun was going away, and if it did not come back, all of humanity would die. So out into the forest they would go in search of the largest living things they could find. The largest living thing was an evergreen tree, proof that life still existed even in the dark of winter. In addition to the great tree, the celebration to bring back the sun involved getting as much light as possible. So, a large fire burned non-stop while torches lit the homes of the pagans, and the living evergreens were decorated with lights to woo the sun back into existence.
The Roman's celebrated their god Saturn. Their festival was called Saturnalia, which began the middle of December and ended January 1st. With cries of "Jo Saturnalia!" the celebration would include masquerades in the streets, big festive meals, visiting friends, and the exchange of good-luck gifts called Strenae (lucky fruits). The Romans decked their halls with garlands of laurel and green trees lit with candles. Again the masters and slaves would exchange places. "Jo Saturnalia!" was a fun and festive time for the Romans, but the Christians though it an abomination to honor the pagan god.
The custom of decorating an evergreen with lights and ornaments is ostensibly Christian, but its roots lie deep in the Pagan past. Many ancient cultures perceived trees to be symbols of rebirth and renewal, and trees were often associated with the many pagan solar deities whose birthdays were celebrated during the winter solstices. Evergreen trees in particular were seen as symbols of divinity and immortality, because they do not 'die' as other trees do.
In ancient Greece, the God Attis, the consort of the Mother Goddess Cybele, was believed to have died and been reborn. His birthday was celebrated on December 25th, and decorated evergreens were carried in processions in his honor. The evergreen tree has also been long associated with gift giving- Roman citizens celebrated the Saturnalia, a week long December festival honoring the God Saturnus, by exchanging gifts attached to evergreen branches. These branches, called Strenae, were part of a week long festival that was so popular, it was adopted largely intact by Christianity. In an old Norse tradition, evergreens were burned to encourage the return of the sun. A direct descendent of this practice, which is still carried out in remote parts of Europe, is the Yule log. These same Norse traditions also inspired the popular notion of stealthy nocturnal gift giving by sleigh-riding elves!
This custom of burning a tree was eventually replaced with trees or wooden pyramids decorated with burning candle, which are still common in many households in Europe. A similar practice, which is the ancestor of the modern Christmas tree, took place in Pagan Germany- the twelve 'raunacht,' or wild nights, was commemorated with a decorated tree.
The history of Christmas dates back over 4000 years. Many of our Christmas traditions were celebrated centuries before the Christ child was born. The 12 days of Christmas, the bright fires, the Yule log, the giving of gifts, carnivals (parades) with floats, carolers who sing while going from house to house, the holiday feasts, and the church processions can all be traced back to the early Mesopotamians to signify the celebration of Christmas.
Many of these traditions began with the Mesopotamian celebration of New Years. The Mesopotamians believed in many Gods, and as their chief God - Marduk. Each year as winter arrived it was believed that Marduk would do battle with the monsters of chaos. To assist Marduk in his struggle the Mesopotamians held a festival for the New Year. This was Zagmuk, the New Year's festival that lasted for 12 days, which we now celebrate as Christmas.
The Mesopotamian king would return to the temple of Marduk and swear his faithfulness to the God. The traditions called for the king to die at the end of the year and to return with Marduk to battle at his side. To spare their king, the Mesopotamians used the idea of a "mock" king. A criminal was chosen and dressed in royal clothes. He was given all the respect and privileges of a real king. At the end of the celebration the "mock" king was stripped of the royal clothes and slain, sparing the life of the real king.
The early Christians were more interested in the resurrection than the birth of Jesus. So Easter was their central holy day. Christmas was not yet celebrated by the very first Christians. However over the next hundred or so years in the Eastern part of the Roman empire (Turkey, Syria, Palestine, etc) a new Christian feast emerged, Epiphany, which was celebrated on January 6. And obscured in the gray years of antiquity which are the origins of the two feast days, Theophany (Epiphany), which the Church celebrates on January 6. Both of these feast days originated in the Eastern Roman Empire as evidenced by the Greek words used to describe them. The word, THEOPHANY (Theos - God; epiphaneia - manifestation) means in literal translation, "Manifestation of God". The literal meaning of EPIPHANY (Epi - above; epiphaneia - manifestation) is "Manifestation from above". The Early Church recognized four such manifestations, herein called THE FOUR MANIFESTATIONS, wherein the Lord appeared to mankind in glory and divinity. They are 1) THE NATIVITY OF OUR LORD; 2) THE VISIT OF THE MAGI; 3) THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST; and 4) THE MIRACLE OF THE WEDDING FEAST OF CANA. Early the Nativity and the Baptism of Christ were celebrated on January 6. Later the Nativity was moved to December 25 in an effort to accommodate and eventually replace the heathen festival centered on the winter solstice, called The Birth of the Invincible Sun God.
So why do we celebrate it on December 25th?
Basically the Christians simply adapted a pagan feast day. This says that the Christians simply decided to "overprint" the pagan feast of the return of the sun. Perhaps they even used this competing feast for evangelistic purposes claiming the Lord Jesus and the True Sun who was truly resurrected and will some day truly return. Whatever actually happened, Christmas won the competition. The pagan feast disappeared and we continue to celebrate the birth of Jesus on December 25 to this day. Christians decided that they needed a more aggressive recruiting technique to generate more Christians. During the early days of Christianity, while the faith was trying to spread from its base in the Mediterranean to the far reaches of Europe, the Christians noticed that it was easier to gain converts if they had holidays similar to those of the people they were trying to convert. Thus, as missionaries wandered into the Pagan wildernesses of what is now France and Germany they found people who celebrated the winter solstice.
Pope Liberius of Rome, in 354 A.D., ordered the date of December 25th be observed from that time on as the birthday of Christ, citing the Pagan festival of Saturnalia.
After the early Christians spread to Rome they adopted December 25th as Christmas day to increase the probability of converting the believers of Mithras, a god of soldiers, sailors, and merchants, who celebrated his birthday on the 25th of December. Thus, it was not terribly difficult to show the natives to the north that they too had a winter solstice holiday. In an effort to be even more appealing to these Pagans, they to cut down large green trees and incorporated them into the worship of Christ.
The early Christians wanted to keep the birthday of their Christ Child a solemn and religious holiday, not one of cheer and merriment as was the pagan Saturnalia. But as Christianity spread they were alarmed by the continuing celebration of pagan customs and Saturnalia among their converts. At first the Church forbid this kind of celebration. But it was to no avail. Eventually it was decided that the celebration would be tamed and made into a celebration fit for the Christian Son of God.
Some legends claim that the Christian "Christmas" celebration was invented to compete against the pagan celebrations of December. The 25th was not only sacred to the Romans but also the Persians whose religion Mithraism was one of Christianity's main rivals at that time. The Church eventually was successful in taking the merriment, lights, and gifts from the Saturnalia festival and bringing them to the celebration of Christmas.
The exact day of the Christ child's birth has never been pinpointed. Traditions say that it has been celebrated since the year 98 AD. In 137 AD the Bishop of Rome ordered the birthday of the Christ Child celebrated as a solemn feast. In 350 AD another Bishop of Rome, Julius I, choose December 25th as the observance of Christmas.
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