Christmas by Ira Schwartz

I thought I’d take a break this month from the normal political rhetoric and do a couple of articles about the holidays we are about to celebrate. I think over the centuries the real meanings and “founders of the feast” have been blurred and all but forgotten by the bright lights and holiday rush we all have become a part of. So let’s slow down for a moment and see where and how this all began. Today’s article will deal with Christmas.

The origins of our present day “Christmas” date back almost 4000 years, well before the birth of Jesus. According to “History.com” “Many of these traditions began with the Mesopotamian celebration of New Years as well as the Persian and the Babylonian celebration of a festival called the Sacaea.”

In Scandinavia, the Norse celebrated “Yule” from December 21, the winter solstice, through January. In recognition of the return of the sun, fathers and sons would bring home large logs, which they would set on fire. The people would feast until the log burned out, which could take as many as 12 days.

Early Europeans believed in evil spirits, witches, ghosts and trolls. As the Winter Solstice approached, with its long cold nights and short days, many people feared the sun would not return. Special rituals and celebrations were held to welcome back the sun. After thirty-five days of no sun scouts would be sent to the mountain tops to watch for its return. When the first light was seen the scouts would return with the good news. A great festival would be held, called the Yuletide, and a special feast would be served around a fire burning with the Yule log. In some areas people would tie apples to branches of trees to remind themselves that spring and summer would return.

Now we come to the Roman's who had more holidays and festivals then all today’s religions combined. The holiday we will be most concerned with is the celebration of their god Saturn. The 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, heavy drinking, 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. It was one of their biggest and raucous holidays, one no true law abiding Roman would dare miss. Several references in Roman lore suggest it took weeks for the Empire to “sober up” after Saturnalia. I’m sure the number of chariot accidents increased as well as DCUI’s (Driving a Chariot Under the Influence).

In the fourth century church officials decided to institute the birth of Christ as a holiday. Even though evidence in the bible* suggests Jesus Christ was born in the spring or at summers end Pope Julius I chose December 25th. Most believe this was done in an effort by the church to absorb the traditions of the pagan festival of “Saturnalia”. During the middle ages the poor would go to the houses of the upper class and demand their best food and drink. If the owners refused the visitors would most likely terrorize them with mischief. Christmas became the time of year when the upper class could repay their real or imagined debt to society by entertaining those less fortunate as did Scrooge in Dickens, “A Christmas Carol”.

Even the phrase “Peace on earth, good will towards men” has been molded to fit our times. The original in Latin is, “`et in terra pax hominibus, bonae voluntatis”. Translated verbatim is “Peace on earth to men of goodwill.” The ancients clearly felt differently than we do today.

Over the centuries the best of those ancient celebrations has been absorbed into the present Christmas holiday with some additions of our own. It wasn’t until the 1800’s that Americans began their love affair with Christmas. It was then that Christmas was changed from a raucous, carnival type holiday to one centered on family, reflection and the celebration of peace. That is, for better or worse, the holiday we celebrate today.

But in the rush and turmoil of the holiday we need to remember the basic root belief of all those ancient civilizations. It was a holiday associated with the joys of birth. Whether that birth be the sun returning to the sky or the son of God being born in Bethlehem, it was meant to be a merry celebration shared by all. A celebration meant to make us stop and think about “good will towards ALL and peace on Earth” if only for a little while.

PS. I have decided to hold true to my opening statement and not say anything about certain corporations (Target to name one) who have decided in their stupid, yet infinite wisdom to remove the word Christmas from all holiday references. Oops.

*according to St. Luke’s and St. Matthew Gospel

© 2009 by Ira Schwartz. All Rights reserved. Used by Permission.