Christmas as a
holiday needs no introduction for most of us—it has so much
tradition that we may forget that the central event for Christians
is not Christmas but Easter. In the early church the birth of Christ
was commemorated, but not as a festival. As Christianity grew and
became organized as a church, and as its mission spread, interaction
with possible converts became important. The church then
acknowledged many pagan customs rather than opposing them.
The celebration of the birth of
Christ on December 25 was set in the 4th century, adopting the dates
of the Roman Saturnalia on December 17, and the birth of the Iranian
god Mithras on December 25, together with ancient celebrations of
the winter solstice. Other Christmas customs have origins outside of
church history: the Romans decorated their houses with greenery and
gave gifts in January (the custom was resurrected in 19th century
Germany and brought to England by Prince Albert). The Romans also
had a festival of family and children with exchange of gifts. The
singing of carols began with the singing popular religious folk
songs at all festivals.
Later Christian customs were crêches, invented by St. Francis of Assisi, and our present midnight
service on Christmas Eve, which is a relic of the medieval custom of
three masses, at midnight, dawn, and midmorning. At the time of the
Reformation many Christians believed that Christmas was entirely a
pagan and sacrilegious celebration and some Protestants, notably the
Puritans in new England, abolished it. Perhaps this was taking
concerns about the secularization of Christmas to the extreme.
Today it is all too easy for us to
get caught up in being “pagans” in our Christmas activities, but
we are brought back to the true glory of the season in our
opportunities for worship. Our 4th century church was right in its
decision to include all peoples’ ways of showing joy, at the
festival time of Christ’s coming in glory.
