> A Brief History of Christmas > By John Steele Gordon > 21 December 2007 > The Wall Street Journal <javascript:void(0)> > > Christmas famously "comes but once a year." In fact, however, it comes > twice. The Christmas of the Nativity, the manger and Christ child, the > wise men and the star of Bethlehem, "Silent Night" and "Hark the > Herald Angels Sing" is one holiday. The Christmas of parties, Santa > Claus, evergreens, presents, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and > "Jingle Bells" is quite another. > But because both celebrations fall on Dec. 25, the two are constantly > confused. Religious Christians condemn taking "the Christ out of > Christmas," while First Amendment absolutists see a threat to the > separation of church and state in every poinsettia on public property > and school dramatization of "A Christmas Carol." > A little history can clear things up. > The Christmas of parties and presents is far older than the Nativity. > Most ancient cultures celebrated the winter solstice, when the sun > reaches its lowest point and begins to climb once more in the sky. In > ancient Rome, this festival was called the Saturnalia and ran from > Dec. 17 to Dec. 24. During that week, no work was done, and the time > was spent in parties, games, gift giving and decorating the houses > with evergreens. (Sound familiar?) It was, needless to say, a very > popular holiday. > In its earliest days, Christianity did not celebrate the Nativity at > all. Only two of the four Gospels even mention it. Instead, the Church > calendar was centered on Easter, still by far the most important day > in the Christian year. The Last Supper was a Seder, celebrating > Passover, which falls on the day of the full moon in the first month > of spring in the Hebrew calendar. So in A.D. 325, the Council of Nicea > decided that Easter should fall on the Sunday following the first full > moon of spring. That's why Easter and its associated days, such as Ash > Wednesday and Good Friday, are "moveable feasts," moving about the > calendar at the whim of the moon. > It is a mark of how late Christmas came to the Christian calendar that > it is not a moveable feast, but a fixed one, determined by the solar > calendar established by Julius Caesar and still in use today (although > slightly tweaked in the 16th century). > By the time of the Council of Nicea, the Christian Church was making > converts by the thousands and, in hopes of still more converts, in 354 > Pope Liberius decided to add the Nativity to the church calendar. He > also decided to celebrate it on Dec. 25. It was, frankly, a marketing > ploy with a little political savvy thrown in. > History does not tell us exactly when in the year Christ was born, but > according to the Gospel of St. Luke, "shepherds were abiding in the > field and keeping watch over their flocks by night." This would imply > a date in the spring or summer when the flocks were up in the hills > and needed to be guarded. In winter they were kept safely in corrals. > So Dec. 25 must have been chosen for other reasons. It is hard to > escape the idea that by making Christmas fall immediately after the > Saturnalia, the Pope invited converts to still enjoy the fun and games > of the ancient holiday and just call it Christmas. Also, Dec. 25 was > the day of the sun god, Sol Invictus, associated with the emperor. By > using that date, the church tied itself to the imperial system. > By the high Middle Ages, Christmas was a rowdy, bawdy time, often > inside the church as well as outside it. In France, many parishes > celebrated the Feast of the Ass, supposedly honoring the donkey that > had brought Mary to Bethlehem. Donkeys were brought into the church > and the mass ended with priests and parishioners alike making donkey > noises. In the so-called Feast of Fools, the lower clergy would elect > a "bishop of fools" to temporarily run the diocese and make fun of > church ceremonial and discipline. With this sort of thing going on > inside the church to celebrate the Nativity, one can easily imagine > the drunken and sexual revelries going on outside it to celebrate what > was in all but name the Saturnalia. > With the Reformation, Protestants tried to rid the church of practices > unknown in its earliest days and get back to Christian roots. Most > Protestant sects abolished priestly celibacy (and often the priesthood > itself), the cult of the Virgin Mary, relics, confession and . . . > Christmas. > In the English-speaking world, Christmas was abolished in Scotland in > 1563 and in England after the Puritans took power in the 1640s. It > returned with the Restoration in 1660, but the celebrations never > regained their medieval and Elizabethan abandon. > There was still no Christmas in Puritan New England, where Dec. 25 was > just another working day. In the South, where the Church of England > predominated, Christmas was celebrated as in England. In the middle > colonies, matters were mixed. In polyglot New York, the Dutch Reformed > Church did not celebrate Christmas. The Anglicans and Catholics did. > It was New York and its early 19th century literary establishment that > created the modern American form of the old Saturnalia. It was a much > more family -- and especially child -- centered holiday than the > community-wide celebrations of earlier times. > St. Nicolas is the patron saint of New York (the first church built in > the city was named for him), and Washington Irving wrote in his > "Diedrich Knickerbocker's History of New York" how Sinterklaes, soon > anglicized to Santa Claus, rode through the sky in a horse and wagon > and went down chimneys to deliver presents to children. > The writer George Pintard added the idea that only good children got > presents, and a book dating to 1821 changed the horse and wagon to > reindeer and sleigh. Clement Clarke Moore in 1823 made the number of > reindeer eight and gave them their names. Moore's famous poem, "A > Visit from St. Nicholas," is entirely secular. It is about "visions of > sugar plums" with nary a wise man or a Christ child in sight. In 1828, > the American Ambassador Joel Roberts Poinsett, brought the poinsettia > back from Mexico. It became associated with Christmas because that's > the time of year when it blooms. > In the 1840s, Dickens wrote "A Christmas Carol," which does not even > mention the religious holiday (the word church appears in the story > just twice, in passing, the word Nativity never). Prince Albert > introduced the German custom of the Christmas tree to the > English-speaking world. > In the 1860s, the great American cartoonist Thomas Nast set the modern > image of Santa Claus as a jolly, bearded fat man in a fur-trimmed cap. > (The color red became standard only in the 20th century, thanks to > Coca-Cola ads showing Santa Claus that way.) > Merchants began to emphasize Christmas, decorating stores and pushing > the idea of Christmas presents for reasons having nothing whatever to > do with religion, except, perhaps, the worship of mammon. > With the increased mobility provided by railroads and increasing > immigration from Europe, people who celebrated Christmas began > settling near those who did not. It was not long before the children > of the latter began putting pressure on their parents to celebrate > Christmas as well. "The O'Reilly kids down the street are getting > presents, why aren't we?!" is not an argument parents have much > defense against. > By the middle of the 19th century, most Protestant churches were, once > again, celebrating Christmas as a religious holiday. The reason, > again, had more to do with marketing than theology: They were afraid > of losing congregants to other Christmas-celebrating denominations. > In 1870, President Ulysses S. Grant signed into law a bill making the > secular Christmas a civil holiday because its celebration had become > universal in this country. It is now celebrated in countries all over > the world, including many where Christians are few, such as Japan. > So for those worried about the First Amendment, there's a very easy > way to distinguish between the two Christmases. If it isn't mentioned > in the Gospels of Luke and Mark, then it is not part of the Christian > holiday. Or we could just change the name of the secular holiday back > to what it was 2000 years ago. > Merry Saturnalia, everyone! > --- > Mr. Gordon is the author of "An Empire of Wealth: The Epic History of > American Economic Power" (HarperCollins, 2004). >
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