The True Story of Christmas
Christmas, as many believe, is a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. But is that really what the celebration is about? What really happened when Jesus was born? Where did this celebration of ours come from? Well, you are about to find out.
December 25, as we celebrate it, is Jesus Christ's birthday, but according to scripture the sheep were in the fields, and the mangers were empty, so this tells us that Jesus was probably born in the spring or summer. When the wisemen got the word of the birth of the messiah (or messiach as it was called in those days) they most likely think that King Herod had gained an heir to his throne, because at the time the word "messiah" was used in place of the word "king". When King Herod had hear that there was the king of Jerusalem had been born, out of the fear of having a rival king, sent his men out to slaughter all the babies in the area, thus to rid the land of the possible enemy. So Imagine if we kept to celebrating the holidays as it originated, by going into the next town and killing all the babies... the joys of christmas.
The vision of the nativity scene that we have is a very sterile form of the reality of the times. Mangers were not hay filled barns, they were actually caves. The caves were used for generations and generations, and the floors were covered with sheep manure from years of sheep storage. There was no hay, just a dark, smelly, unsanitary, dung filled cave. By the time the wisemen reached Jesus, he was probably out of the cave and into a house. So the entire christmas scene we know is false. A lot nicer though, I couldn't imagine going to anyone's house who had an authentic nativity scene. Yuck.
So where did this wonderful tradition we know as christmas come from? Sometime around 336 CE (340 A.D.) in Rome there was a very popular celebration of Saturn (god of harvest) and Mithras (god of light). This celebration included a feast of special foods, decorating your home with greenary, singing and gift giving. The ruler of Rome at the time, being a Christian, wasn't fond of the dominating pagan force, stated that December 25 was Christ's birthday, in attempt to undermine the pagan tradition.
During the reformation, many Christians turned against the celebration of Christmas due to it's pagan roots. In the 1600's because of the growing dislike of the pagan origin, Christmas was outlawed in England and most areas of the American colonies. Over time, the traditions of feasting and gift giving returned, but with a more Christian theme.
Other Christmas Facts
Saint Nick/Santa Claus
Saint Nicholas was a bishop of what is now Turkey. He was known for helping out poor kids, and other kids in need. After his death he became the patron saint of children.
In Europe, on December 5th kids put their shoes and stockings out in hoped saint Nick will come. On the 6th, they rush out to see what gifts they may have gotten. There is a catch though, Saint Nick has a helper who deals with the bad kids, he leaves switches for the naughty ones so their parents can beat them. If they are really bad, they will be kidnapped and held by the helper until they learn to be good. When the Dutch settled in America, they continued the European traditions, and their word for St. Nick, Sinterklaas was eventually changed into Santa Claus.
What we think of as Santa Claus, the old fat guy in the mall, wasn't what the traditional Santa looked like. If we think of the Christmas tale T'was the night before Christmas, it refers to Santa as a tiny elf. Thanks to Coca-Cola, Santa is a big man who has tiny elves working for him.