Christmas
Christmas is the biggest holiday in Christianity, regardless if someone is Catholic or Protestant, and it is also called Christ’s Nativity or the birth of Christ. It is commonly known as the day commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ. The date is generally December 25, but some churches, including the Russian Orthodox Church which observes the Julian calendar, celebrate it around January 7 of the solar calendar. The Bible does not specify the birth date of Christ. The custom of celebrating Christmas on December 25 came from Mithraism (the worship of the sun god) which originated in ancient Persia. While Christianity was being secularized around the 4th century, December 25, the birthday of the sun-god Mithra, began to be celebrated as the birthday of Jesus.[1] Christmas is a compound word of Christ and Mass, which is a shortened form of Christ’s Mass.[2] It is called Noël in French, Navidad in Spanish, and Natale in Italian.
Christmas Is Not the Birthday of Jesus
The commemoration of Jesus’ birth on December 25 has no basis at all in the Bible. The records of Jesus’ birth can be found in the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke.[3][4] As for the time of His birth, there is a hint in the Gospel of Luke. According to the Gospel of Luke, when Jesus was born in a private family house in Bethlehem, shepherds were out in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks at night.[5] Israel's climate is hot and dry in summer and relatively cool and humid in winter. There are large regional differences in precipitation and temperature, but the rainy season is from November to April, and December belongs to the winter season. Bethlehem is located in the highlands of the eastern Mediterranean, so the temperature is low even in summer and it even snows in December. Based on the record that shepherds tended the sheep at night, most scholars generally accept that the time of Jesus’ birth was not winter but spring.[6][7]
The Origin of Christmas
December 25 is the birthday of the sun god Mithra, which is the shortest day of the year on the Roman calendar. In the Roman Empire, Mithra was called Sol Invictus, which means the Unconquered Sun.[8] Sol Invictus was regarded as a patron deity of the emperor in 274 by the Roman Emperor Lucius Domitius Aureliauns, who was a former army officer. That year, he built a temple dedicated to Sol Invictus in Rome and proclaimed December 25 as the Day of the Sun.
It was in the fourth century that December 25 was appointed as the birthday of Jesus Christ. In the time of Liberius, the bishop of Rome (present-day pope), the church in Rome celebrated Christmas on December 25, 354, as a festival in the church. The Philocalian Calendar (Chronography of 354) supports this fact. It is also said that December 25 began to be celebrated as Christmas in 336, and it became an official festival of the church in 354.[9] According to church history, three festivals were held in December in ancient Rome: Saturnalia, Sigillaria, and Brumalia.[10]
- Saturnalia refers to a festival where sacrifices were offered to Saturn (or Saturnus in Latin), the god of agriculture, which was worshiped in ancient Rome. It lasted from the beginning of December to the end of the month. During this festival, all the people indulged in pleasure, regardless of wealth or social position, as slaves pretended to be their owners. People brought an evergreen tree into their homes for decorations and exchanged gifts.[10][11]
- Sigillaria was a festival held in late December. People exchanged small statues of gods and distributed dolls to children.[10][12]
- Brumalia was a winter solstice festival that celebrated the rising of the sun. They held the festival with the belief that the power of the sun increases as the days get longer again from the winter solstice when the length of a day is the shortest.[10]
Christians in Rome, who could not join these popular festivals at that time, made a justification that it was reasonable to celebrate the birth of Jesus after the rising of the sun, and then set December 25 as the birthday of Christ to enjoy the festivals.[10]
During the 16th-century Reformation, the Puritans criticized Christmas as a pleasure-seeking pagan custom. In the 17th century, England legally banned Christmas,[13] and Presbyterians tried to enact a ban but failed.[14][15]
In the 18th century, however, Christmas began to be celebrated as a holiday in England again. From the mid-19th century, as customs of Christmas trees, cards, carols, and Santa Claus were added, Christmas rapidly expanded as a global festival.
Christmas Customs
Christmas Trees
Christmas trees are usually made by decorating evergreen conifers such as fir and pine with light bulbs, cotton, and ribbons. It is said that the Christmas tree originated from the custom of ancient pagan Europeans. The pagan Europeans worshiped trees. Even after converting to Christianity, they put a tree in their entrances or inside their houses to drive out evil spirits around Christmas.[16]
Christmas Cards and Gifts
Christmas cards were first introduced by Sir Henry Cole, British art patron and educator, who commissioned the painter John Callcott Horsley to design 1,000 cards. As postal systems around the world developed in the late 19th century, the custom of exchanging cards around Christmas became popular.[17][18]
The custom of exchanging gifts was handed down when people exchanged candles or dolls as gifts during the Saturnalia, the festival for the sun god in Rome.[19][20]
Santa Claus
Santa Claus was modeled after a real person named Saint Nicholas (270–343) who was the bishop of Myra, a city in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkiye) around the 3rd and 4th centuries. It is said that he had helped the poor and the unfortunate, giving alms. After his death, the Catholic Church appointed him as the patron saint of children, sailors, unmarried virgins, merchants, and pawnbrokers, and celebrated Saint Nicholas Day on December 6 to commemorate him. His legend, combined with the Nordic folktale about a magician who punishes naughty children and gives gifts to good ones, gave rise to the custom of putting small gifts under children’s pillows, shoes, or plates on the eve of St. Nicholas Day.[21][22] The Dutch who immigrated to the new continent of America followed the Catholic custom and called it Sinterklaas, which became the present English pronunciation of Santa Claus.[23][24]
Today’s overweight Santa Claus dressed in red was popularized through an advertisement for Coca-Cola, an American beverage company, in 1931.[25] As the sales of Coca-Cola declined in the winter, the company created a friendly image of Santa Claus wearing red, which symbolizes the color of the company’s logo, and growing a beard as thick as Coke's bubbles, and actively used it for marketing purposes.[23]
The red-nosed reindeer “Rudolph” which appears with Santa Claus is also a commercially created character in the United States. In 1939, a copywriter at a department store named Montgomery Ward in Chicago, IL, devised the character and used it for a department store advertisement.[26]
A Biblical View of Christmas
According to historical facts, Christmas is not the birthday of Jesus, but a pagan custom. Regardless of how many years it has been practiced in churches, it is nonbiblical and contradicts God’s will to commemorate day that originated from the birthday of the sun god. In the Bible, God warns us not to imitate those who worship other gods. In the Old Testament, God punished the Israelites when they ignored His decrees and laws and followed the customs of the Gentiles.
After they have been destroyed before you, be careful not to be ensnared by inquiring about their gods, saying, “How do these nations serve their gods? We will do the same.”
“You fear the sword, and the sword is what I will bring against you, declares the Sovereign LORD. I will drive you out of the city and hand you over to foreigners and inflict punishment on you. You will fall by the sword, and I will execute judgment on you at the borders of Israel. Then you will know that I am the LORD. This city will not be a pot for you, nor will you be the meat in it; I will execute judgment on you at the borders of Israel. And you will know that I am the LORD, for you have not followed my decrees or kept my laws but have conformed to the standards of the nations around you.”
See also
Related Videos
- Christmas is not the birthday of Jesus
References
- ↑ "Why Is Christmas in December?". Britannica.
- ↑ Origin of the words Christmas and Xmas, Jakub Marian’s Language learning, science & art
- ↑ "Matthew 2:1–11".
- ↑ "Luke 2:1–20".
- ↑ "Luke 2:6–8".
- ↑ Richard V. Barnett, The Case for Israel, Writers Republic LLC, 2020, p. 35
- ↑ John Schwarz, A Handbook of the Christian Faith, Bethany House, 2004, p. 76
- ↑ Minou Reeves, Mithras: The Invincible Sun God of Persia and the Conquering God of Rome, Garnet Publishing, 2023
- ↑ Christ is born?, THIS DAY IN HISTORY, DECEMBER 25, HISTORY.com
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 Saturnalia, The Free Dictionary
- ↑ Saturnalia, HISTORY.COM, September 13, 2022
- ↑ 16 Pagan Christmas Traditions that People Mistakenly Credit to Christianity, HISTORY COLLECTION, December 16, 2018
- ↑ How the Puritans Banned Christmas, In 1659 the Puritans banned Christmas in Massachusetts. But why?, December 8, 2021, New England Today LIVING
- ↑ Did Oliver Cromwell ban Christmas?, The Cromwell Museum
- ↑ When Christmas was cancelled: a lesson from history, The Conversation, November 13, 2020
- ↑ "Christmas tree," Britannica
- ↑ Christmas card, Britannica
- ↑ "The world's first commercial Christmas card is on sale for $25,000", CNN Style, December 5, 2020
- ↑ Saturnalia, Wiktionary
- ↑ How Saturnalia became Christmas: The transition from ancient to present and pagan to Christian, December 29, 2021, Academus Education
- ↑ St. Nicholas, bishop of Myra, Britannica
- ↑ "St. Nicholas Day," Britannica
- ↑ 23.0 23.1 How Santa Claus Has Changed Throughout History, Art & Object, December 1, 2021
- ↑ Santa Claus, HISTORY.COM, December 14, 2021
- ↑ "Haddon Sundblom and the Coca-Cola Santas," Coca-Cola Company
- ↑ "The History Of Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer", NPR, December 25, 2015