Christmas isn’t your holiday, or my holiday, it’s everyone’s holiday
Some people know, Christmas is by far my favorite holiday of the year. I love this time of the year, I love the festive atmosphere, the decorations, the lights, the cheer, the generosity, the food, the egg nog, the music (especially the old religious carols), I love getting gifts and playing Santa (not in costume) to friends and family. I just love Christmas.
Because of this, I really cannot stand it when the whole "Culture War" rears its ugly head and people start to get all exclusive about Christmas being "their holiday". What do I mean; well I was in a fine mood until I came across this piece of self-righteous trash. Once you get past the rather transparent anti-Semitic diatribe, you get to the core of the "opinion piece", that so many people today actually believe:
"Christmas is a Christian holiday -- if you're not in the club, then buzz off. Celebrate Yule instead or dance around in druid robes for the solstice. Go light a big log, go wassailing and falalaing until you fall down, eat figgy pudding until you puke, but don't mess with the Messiah."
The tremendous irony here is that not only this moron think that Christmas should be for "true Christians only" in his religious version of Jim Crow nostalgia fantasy, but he actually thinks that Christmas is and has always been purely Christian holiday.
Of course for Christians, Christmas is all about the birth of Jesus Christ, the messiah and Son of God. This is based on the story from the gospels of Luke and Matthew. Most are familiar with the story; Gabriel the angle comes to Mary and tells her she will give birth to Christ, she gives birth in the Inn’s manger nine months later and he is named Jesus. What the Bible doesn’t tell you is when Jesus was born. The only clue is passages about the Shepard's in the fields with their flocks, hinting at a spring birth.
So why the 25th of December? One idea is that Sextus Julius Africanus, a Christian theologian of the 2nd-3rd century popularized the idea of December 25th because he suggested Jesus was conceived on the Spring Equinox. Others point out that the pagan people of pre-Christmas Europe already had important religious holidays at that time such as Yule and Saturnalia and that by choosing the same time as the birth of Christ, the church could more easily assimilate the pagan population and convert them (this is the same theory behind Halloween). Whatever the case, early Christians celebrated the holiday as part of Epiphany as far back at the 4th century. Although some early Christians then (and now) claim that celebrating a birth was "pagan" and true believers should abstain.
Christmas didn’t become important on its own until the High Middle Ages and by this time, the "pure Christian holiday" was already borrowing heavily from Europe’s pagan traditions such as feasting, the Yule log, holly and ivy, decorating evergreens, and gift giving. In fact various writers of the time condemned the holiday as giving an excuse for people to drink, gamble, dance, and otherwise party hard, because for the average Medieval Joe and Jane, it was a chance to put aside their very difficult and hard working life and let totally loose, and boy did they ever (wouldn't you?).
Because Christmas was at this point mainly about revelry, the spiritual forefathers of today’s "Christmas is all about Christ and keep yer’ hands off our holiday" religious conservatives were ironically anti-Christmas. As the Reformation came to Europe, it came with it the idea of condemning and riding society of anything "too Catholic" or "too Pagan", often seen as the same thing, and that included Christmas. When Puritans (ever a fun lot) under Oliver Cromwell came to power in England, they even banned the holiday, as they saw it as a waste of time, too “popish” and even immoral (Guess how popular that idea was).
Meanwhile here in America, our first Puritan colonists were just as hard-core in their suppression of anything fun, and made celebrating a crime until 1681. Still as more people arrived from even increasing diverse backgrounds, Christmas became popular again in the Colonies (except in the still Puritan New England). However because of the American Revolution, the holiday fell out of favor nation-wide, it was seen simply as "too English". It became a regular work-day for most folks, heck even Congress would stay in session during Christmas Day (imagine that now).
Thus, Christmas as we now know it in America really began in the early 19th century, and it wasn't some great religious revival that did it either, but Victorian attempts to remake the holiday into a family-centric celebration in contrast to a church based one. The idea of the holiday being about goodwill and charity is really due to A Christmas Carol, which introduced a new secular imprint on the holiday, that which we see today as sacrosanct traditions: Christmas dinner with the family, games, seasonal food and drink, and so forth. It was this era Santa Claus became who he is today, thanks to A Visit From St. Nicholas (popularly known by its first line: Twas the Night Before Christmas), that popularized gift giving and started our commercialization of the day (its the American Way!).
Finally Protestant churches, seeing the writing on the wall, decided to again embrace Christmas. Not because they suddenly loved the holiday, but because people were going to celebrate it anyway. They didn’t want to lose the day completely to secularism (dun dun DUN!), or to the fact their congregations would go to the Catholic and Episcopalian church for their religious fulfillment for the holiday instead, as the latter two never dropped Christmas celebration.
So there you have it in a nutshell. Christmas isn’t anymore a Christian holiday then Halloween. Yes, our name for it is from "Christ’s Mass" and it is to some degree about the birth of Christ to most people, because most people are Christian (using the broad term here). Today though, many of those wonderful aspects of the holiday are either Pagan in origin, such as Yule, holly, Christmas tree, mistletoe, Christmas lights, and feasting, or is secular or secularized, such as Santa Claus, Frosty, Rudolph, gift giving, family gatherings, Christmas cards, Carols, and wrapping. Heck it isn’t even just Christmas, we call it “the holidays” because it is tied with New Year’s, and let’s not forget there is also Boxing Day (for the Commonwealth), Hanukkah, and yes people celebrate Yule and the Solstice too.
Christmas is always evolving, changing. Our Christmas isn’t like 19th century Christmas, and that is a lot different from the 17th century, which wasn't like the day during the Middle Ages, which is far removed from Christmas of the 4th century. It doesn’t matter if you believe in Christ or not, if you are Christian, Jewish, Pagan, Atheist, Deist, or whatever, it is that one time of the year where anyone can get "into the spirit" and enjoy the day. Christmas transcends a single religion, a single culture. Christmas in the end, is what you make of it. So one can whine and be an ass, or one can be kind and generous and fun on the holiday, it is our choice.
Because of this, I really cannot stand it when the whole "Culture War" rears its ugly head and people start to get all exclusive about Christmas being "their holiday". What do I mean; well I was in a fine mood until I came across this piece of self-righteous trash. Once you get past the rather transparent anti-Semitic diatribe, you get to the core of the "opinion piece", that so many people today actually believe:
"Christmas is a Christian holiday -- if you're not in the club, then buzz off. Celebrate Yule instead or dance around in druid robes for the solstice. Go light a big log, go wassailing and falalaing until you fall down, eat figgy pudding until you puke, but don't mess with the Messiah."
The tremendous irony here is that not only this moron think that Christmas should be for "true Christians only" in his religious version of Jim Crow nostalgia fantasy, but he actually thinks that Christmas is and has always been purely Christian holiday.
Of course for Christians, Christmas is all about the birth of Jesus Christ, the messiah and Son of God. This is based on the story from the gospels of Luke and Matthew. Most are familiar with the story; Gabriel the angle comes to Mary and tells her she will give birth to Christ, she gives birth in the Inn’s manger nine months later and he is named Jesus. What the Bible doesn’t tell you is when Jesus was born. The only clue is passages about the Shepard's in the fields with their flocks, hinting at a spring birth.
So why the 25th of December? One idea is that Sextus Julius Africanus, a Christian theologian of the 2nd-3rd century popularized the idea of December 25th because he suggested Jesus was conceived on the Spring Equinox. Others point out that the pagan people of pre-Christmas Europe already had important religious holidays at that time such as Yule and Saturnalia and that by choosing the same time as the birth of Christ, the church could more easily assimilate the pagan population and convert them (this is the same theory behind Halloween). Whatever the case, early Christians celebrated the holiday as part of Epiphany as far back at the 4th century. Although some early Christians then (and now) claim that celebrating a birth was "pagan" and true believers should abstain.
Christmas didn’t become important on its own until the High Middle Ages and by this time, the "pure Christian holiday" was already borrowing heavily from Europe’s pagan traditions such as feasting, the Yule log, holly and ivy, decorating evergreens, and gift giving. In fact various writers of the time condemned the holiday as giving an excuse for people to drink, gamble, dance, and otherwise party hard, because for the average Medieval Joe and Jane, it was a chance to put aside their very difficult and hard working life and let totally loose, and boy did they ever (wouldn't you?).
Because Christmas was at this point mainly about revelry, the spiritual forefathers of today’s "Christmas is all about Christ and keep yer’ hands off our holiday" religious conservatives were ironically anti-Christmas. As the Reformation came to Europe, it came with it the idea of condemning and riding society of anything "too Catholic" or "too Pagan", often seen as the same thing, and that included Christmas. When Puritans (ever a fun lot) under Oliver Cromwell came to power in England, they even banned the holiday, as they saw it as a waste of time, too “popish” and even immoral (Guess how popular that idea was).
Meanwhile here in America, our first Puritan colonists were just as hard-core in their suppression of anything fun, and made celebrating a crime until 1681. Still as more people arrived from even increasing diverse backgrounds, Christmas became popular again in the Colonies (except in the still Puritan New England). However because of the American Revolution, the holiday fell out of favor nation-wide, it was seen simply as "too English". It became a regular work-day for most folks, heck even Congress would stay in session during Christmas Day (imagine that now).
Thus, Christmas as we now know it in America really began in the early 19th century, and it wasn't some great religious revival that did it either, but Victorian attempts to remake the holiday into a family-centric celebration in contrast to a church based one. The idea of the holiday being about goodwill and charity is really due to A Christmas Carol, which introduced a new secular imprint on the holiday, that which we see today as sacrosanct traditions: Christmas dinner with the family, games, seasonal food and drink, and so forth. It was this era Santa Claus became who he is today, thanks to A Visit From St. Nicholas (popularly known by its first line: Twas the Night Before Christmas), that popularized gift giving and started our commercialization of the day (its the American Way!).
Finally Protestant churches, seeing the writing on the wall, decided to again embrace Christmas. Not because they suddenly loved the holiday, but because people were going to celebrate it anyway. They didn’t want to lose the day completely to secularism (dun dun DUN!), or to the fact their congregations would go to the Catholic and Episcopalian church for their religious fulfillment for the holiday instead, as the latter two never dropped Christmas celebration.
So there you have it in a nutshell. Christmas isn’t anymore a Christian holiday then Halloween. Yes, our name for it is from "Christ’s Mass" and it is to some degree about the birth of Christ to most people, because most people are Christian (using the broad term here). Today though, many of those wonderful aspects of the holiday are either Pagan in origin, such as Yule, holly, Christmas tree, mistletoe, Christmas lights, and feasting, or is secular or secularized, such as Santa Claus, Frosty, Rudolph, gift giving, family gatherings, Christmas cards, Carols, and wrapping. Heck it isn’t even just Christmas, we call it “the holidays” because it is tied with New Year’s, and let’s not forget there is also Boxing Day (for the Commonwealth), Hanukkah, and yes people celebrate Yule and the Solstice too.
Christmas is always evolving, changing. Our Christmas isn’t like 19th century Christmas, and that is a lot different from the 17th century, which wasn't like the day during the Middle Ages, which is far removed from Christmas of the 4th century. It doesn’t matter if you believe in Christ or not, if you are Christian, Jewish, Pagan, Atheist, Deist, or whatever, it is that one time of the year where anyone can get "into the spirit" and enjoy the day. Christmas transcends a single religion, a single culture. Christmas in the end, is what you make of it. So one can whine and be an ass, or one can be kind and generous and fun on the holiday, it is our choice.