Origins of Christmas--and your traditions
By JC1969
@JC1969 (1224)
United States
November 30, 2006 2:01am CST
With the up and coming holiday season approaching quickly, I thought it would be nice to do a little history discussion on the origins of Christmas.
I find it fascinating that many do not know that the origin of the Christian Christmas has deep roots stemming from paganism and other older and ancient celebrations. Most of these celebrations had to do with winter solstice, which is the shortest day of the year when the sun is considered to be at its lowest and weakest point. There are also various pagan gods that have birthdays on December 25, and interestingly there is no conclusive record of the date for the date of birth of Jesus Christ (Yeshua of Nazareth). In fact, if we were to interpret the biblical accounts of the birth of Jesus, it would conclude the only fact that Jesus Christ was indeed born to Mary and Joseph in Nazareth during the Fall circa 4 BCE. However, in order to market Christianity, many of the old pagan celebrations and holidays were given a makeover, which helped convert many to the religion. Now don’t take this wrong, this is not bashing the holiday by no means at all, because customs and traditions have to start somewhere, and we all could use a specific time to reflect and acknowledge goodwill and kindness to others.
Many of the traditional symbols that are associated with the celebration of Christmas, again, can be traced back to paganism. For example, mistletoe, decorating trees, candles/lights, holly, ivy, Yule logs, and more have all been traced to pagan celebrations.
Regardless of this brief lesson on the origins of Christmas, what are some of your ancestral or family traditions and customs that you incorporate into your holiday season?
1 response
@momofvma (71)
• United States
27 Dec 06
Well I have been involved in many discussions on the origins of Christmas and how Christ really was not born on December 25th. Well for one how do we know for sure?? There was no written or standard calendar at that time so what we have is basically guess of man through the years. All religion can to me be taken at face value because man, be it an apostle, a monk, a spirtualist etc.. they are the ones who wrote things down, there was no written books way back then and so we have to take into account that even our Bible was written in the words of man and there view of how things happened. So I take out of my faith the basic belief tht Christ was born to Mary and Joseph to come and teach us something and he did and I believe in him and God and an afterlife and I live my life to the best that I can. A great book to get and read is Sylvia Browne's book "The mystical life of Jesus" my mom just got it for Christmas and I am going to read it. Her view on the afterlife and the Catholic faith is a lot of how I believe. I love my church and I have a deep faith and relationship with God but I do not always agree with the "rules" men have set down through the years.
As far as customs and traditions religous wise for us is the fact that we always have the manger scene under our trees I have two of them one under my tree and one on my china cabinet. We take at Christmas mass or any masses during the holy time, we take a piece of hay from the manger scene and it is supposed to be kept in your wallet and God will provide for you all through the year, not give you money but make you aware of ways to survive when things are tough financially. This is something I have always done. My family and I go to the church and help to decorate the church for Christmas the week before so that is a tradition also.
I just love this time of year I have a strong faith and that is what keeps me going every day.
@JC1969 (1224)
• United States
27 Dec 06
I love your passion for your faith, and you in my heart and mind have always practiced it with the true intent that faith is supposed to be practiced upon. It brings you that comfort, that peace, that connection, and it is personal for you.
You are right, according to biblical scholars, there is no actual data that indicates Christ's actual birthday. However, if you dissect certain accounts in the bible they have been able to point out that Jesus was not born in the winter, but rather the fall. It has been proven that at the Nicene Council certain decisions were made to help the church make this new religion more respected, and easy to convert others too by taking the older religions of the time (paganism) and renaming many of their holidays as the new Christian ones. This also meant that they needed a big celebration to happen on December 25th which was already a big holiday in the pagan calendar.
I don't think anyone will dispute that Jesus was born--and the good he tried to do with his life. I for one believe he was a wonderful philosopher and teacher, and he should have a day to be celebrated.
I love the traditions and customs you and your family embrace. One year I'll get to celebrate with you...*smile*
