Christmas is the most malleable of all the holidays. The Fourth of July is celebrating American independence; freedom and rights and American history. Labor Day is a day of rest given in honor of workers. Memorial Day, a day in honor of those who gave their lives defending the US. Thanksgiving, a day to be grateful for our blessings. All of these holidays and the rest are straightforward celebrations of one simple thing. All of them with roots in our country. And the other countries holidays are similarly rooted in a straightforward manner in their country’s history and culture.
At first, Christmas too gives the appearance of a similar simplicity. It is about the birth of Jesus. However, a cursory thought shows this simplicity not to be true. Just look at the emotions attached to the holidays. July 4th, pride and patriotism. Thanksgiving, gratefulness. Memorial Day, a different type of gratefulness and appreciation and so forth.
But Christmas. It includes gratefulness for the birth of Jesus and his saving of humanity from its sins. It also includes peace on earth and goodwill to all. It includes an appreciation for family. It also has no roots in any one country’s history or society. Instead its trappings come from not just one country but from several. At first a religious holiday it has also grown to be a secular one with the same feelings of peace on earth and love for all but without the necessity of belief in God. And to add to it is the capitalist flavor it has now as people are encouraged, required even, to buy gifts to show how much they appreciate loved ones and friends – complete with advertising and sales to make it easy to remember and to spend (although giving gifts to loved one’s pre-dates capitalism, and from different motives. Capitalism just accentuates and magnifies this aspect).
I think a quick look at the history of Christmas helps explain this malleability and highlights why many Christians see it as the most important of holidays. And why many non-Christians agree.
Current status of Christmas
According to Statista 31.6% of those living on earth are Christian.
According to nationsonline.org, there are either “….193, 195, 237, 245, 248, or 253 countries in the world, depending on definition”. The UN recognizes 193 countries and two that have observer status. But however many countries there are, the great majority have a national holiday for Christmas – around 160 of them in fact.
Almost half of those of us living on earth, 45%, celebrate Christmas. That includes not only Christians but atheists such as myself as well as many Muslims. Even those Muslims who live in predominantly Muslim countries who see Jesus as one of the most important prophets. In the US 96% of Christians celebrate Christmas and 81% of those who are not Christian also celebrate Christmas.
There are those Christians who do not celebrate or recognize Christmas; Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists, and others though. So although very widespread, it is not universal even within Christianity.
Also, there are those who do celebrate Christmas, but not on December 25th. Instead, almost 260 million Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on January 7th.
History
Initially Christmas was not celebrated nor recognized by the church. At first the most important of holidays was Jesus’s death, the day he died for our sins and was then resurrected. In fact, the early church discouraged the celebration of not only Jesus’s birthday but that of all the martyrs, reasoning that their deaths are what was important, not their births.
It wasn’t until 221 that Jesus’s date of birth was determined by Sextus Julianus Africanus to be Dec 25th. As for why this date there are two explanations.
The first and still most common explanation among many is this date was the Christianization of a popular Roman Empire holiday celebrating the rebirth of the sun. Possibly Saturnalia, but more likely Sol Invictus. This has some support in the fact that “…after December 25 had become widely accepted as the date of Jesus’ birth, Christian writers frequently made the connection between the rebirth of the sun and the birth of the Son.” Most people, including Christians, go with this today, with some occasionally disparaging it as a move by the early church to gain popularity and followers by taking over a popular Roman holiday.
This explanation though has several issues. At that time the early church was trying to separate and distinguish itself from pagans. To purposely conflate the birth of Jesus with that of a pagan deity would have been inconsistent with Christian practices at the time.
Further, the determination of the date of Jesus’s birth in 221 CE pre-dates the establishment of the Roman holiday of Sol Invictus in 274 CE. And references to Jesus’s birth being in the winter are even earlier than 221 CE. And now that I am writing this it occurs there is another issue with this explanation, something I mentioned earlier. The church discouraged the celebration of birthdays, not only of martyrs but of Jesus. There are also other reasons to question this explanation.
Another recent explanation for the choosing of Dec 25th as Jesus’s birthday, one that is gaining some prominence among many modern scholars, is that this date was determined by determining first when Jesus was conceived. At that time Christians believed that God created the universe during the Spring Equinox. And since light was created on the fourth day, and Jesus was the light to the world, Jesus was thus conceived on March 25th. Nine months later takes us to December 25th, and Jesus’s birth.
Just as I was getting ready to post this blog I saw this blog, History for Atheists, by atheist and skeptic Tim O’Neill. It is a 57 minute long interview Dr. Phillip Nothaft, a Fellow of All Souls Oxford and a historian specializing in astronomy, astrology and calendars in late antiquity, the Middle Ages and early modern Europe. The link to this interview is here and if you are interested in this question it is well worth listening to as it goes into several issues that I have either not mentioned or mentioned very briefly.
In keeping with the death date being important among early Christians, there is no evidence that the early church celebrated Jesus’ birth. In fact, the first recorded celebration of his birth was in 336 CE. It was not until the 9th century that a widespread church liturgy for Jesus’s birth is found. And even then, Good Friday and Easter Sunday were considered much more important.
Many of our Christmas symbols and celebrations did not come from the church though. December 25th, or the immediate days around it, were popular times for other non Christian societies to have celebrations and ceremonies recognizing the end of the long nights and the return of the sun. The Jews with the Festival of lights, the Celts with Balder, the god who was struck down by a mistletoe arrow. The Germans with their Yule festival, and others.
Since Christmas was not rooted in a particular country and, whether Jesus’s birth was purposely put on this date to take advantage of this or not (personally in looking at the reasoning and evidence I think mainly not, although the early church may have taken advantage of that fact), many of the symbols and ways of celebrating Christmas were adapted from celebrations and symbols already in those countries. – the tree, mistletoe, parol etc. It is why there is such a wide variety of celebrations and figures.
Something of interest to note here, Christmas is the most widespread holiday that I know of. It is not tied to any one nation, one people. It is not like the Fourth of July or other nation’s independence days, our or other country’s days of Thanksgiving. Those all have local roots and traditions. However, Christmas comes from outside the nations. This also though shows that it appeals to something basic to our nature, to a need of ours.
This also may explain its malleability. It has assumed many emotional meanings over the years and through its travels. The birth of Christ heralded hope for a fallen humanity. Hope, one of the most important of human needs. Further, this was for all humanity, not just for the Romans or the Jews or the Briton, etc., but for all mankind.
This is also the reason for the other solstice celebrations that I mentioned that were already in existence, renewed hope that day was coming and the night ending. I think it wasn’t just the fact that they were on the same date that caused many pagan influences to enter into how Christians celebrated Christmas, but that their message was also so similar. Hope. The darkness recedes for everyone, and the light comes back for all.
Hope that was not tied to one nation as our Fourth of July is. Hope centered on the individual, all individuals. And it is why it has been celebrated in a secular way too by many, that message of peace on earth and goodwill to all.
Through the years this message was distorted and twisted and ignored by many Christians. I keep wondering what the Jews thought of the Christians who guarded them in the concentration camps when they heard them sing Silent Night.
And of course we have our own way of distorting it too here in America. For too many Christmas is tied to patriotism and America. It is an American holiday along with the good ole fourth of July. Although I haven’t researched this in depth, I don’t know of any other nation on earth that does this.
All holiday’s meanings change over time. Ideas are changed or looked at in new ways, some shades of meanings dropped, others highlighted. They become mixed with other ideals, such as capitalism or the rise of a concern for humanity and become more than just a celebration of Jesus’s birth.
This happens on the individual level too. What a person feels about and how they view Christmas changes. From that of a young child, to an active teenager, to an adult with a growing family. As new family members come into being, and others are lost to moves, to anger, to disputes, and to death. As disease, war, economic hardship takes their toll, how Christmas is viewed and celebrated changes.
For this Christmas I would that we all could keep the hope and share it with those who have none. Something that is oh so simply said, but impossible to do for most on a large scale. How do I give hope to the Palestinians who are being slaughtered? Or hope to the Jews with their well founded fear of random attacks. Or those living in Ukraine? Those suffering from the drug cartels in Mexico and Columbia? Or the many starving and poor across all countries, including the US. To the ill, to those who have lost close family, children, spouses. Who have lost their income, their home and are on the streets.
While none of us are going to be able to give hope to all, or even most, or even to many, we can give hope to some. And not in grand gestures, but in small ones. Giving a couple of dollars to those begging, stopping to help someone with car trouble, holding a door open, listening to those who need an ear. Courtesies and small acts we can do. And far from being meaningless, in many ways they are the most meaningful of all. Because while they are small actions, we, the people who live on this earth and who are not rich and powerful, and do not hold positions of power, we are billions.
Mountains are worn and canyons created mainly by the actions of many l drops of rain and a mild blowing of the wind. Continents move at the same slow speed of our toenails, 0.6 inches a year. Small actions resulting in large changes.
That is why Christmas, with all its changes, and all its flaws and problems, is still around and celebrated so widely.
Christmas is a more complex holiday because it is about a man, Jesus Christ. The other holidays are about an idea or the remembrance of many people (veterans), so they are more simple holidays.
Thanks for the like and response. I would though point out that there are other holidays about a man – for example Martin Luther King day. Also that they are not just about a man, but there are ideas and beliefs associated with that life.
I think the fact that Christmas is not rooted in any one nation, that it is celebrated at a time when other groups celebrated winter solstice and so added on, and time is why it is so complex.
Either way, it is a good holiday. One that many people find meaningful and helpful to them.
Happy New Year. Hey Yea the God JeZeus, that Harry Potter pathetic forgery: That Protocols of the Elders of Zion Czar slander – new testament – counterfeit; that Av-tumah Reptilian – dead.
Just like the false prophet Muhammad – together with Allah. Goyim rejoice: Happy Joyous New Year! Hail Deicide! You no longer have to waste your time praying to dead Gods.
Happy New Year, free at last, Free at last. LOL. These latest new Gods, gone the way of the Gods of Mt. Olympus, & Ceasar’s pantheon of Gods. Drinks on the House! לחיים. Freedom! Now that these new Gods – dead – Abracadabra!! Poof. Both Heaven and Hell cease to exist, like a rabbit pulled out of a hat.
You do realize that I am an atheist and so do not believe in any gods, not even the Christian one?
Now, as to your comment – nice rant. Let me ask though, you say that Heaven and Hell cease to exist. Do you, as Jew, not believe in Heaven?
Hence Happy New Year! LOL As an atheist praise God! The Torah defines faith as the pursuit of righteous Judicial justice and NOT as a theological belief in this or that God(s)!
Thanks you – and a happy new year to you. Now, did not ask about whether you believed God existed. I asked whether you believed in a Heaven, or an afterlife in general?
Torah not a belief system. O’lam Ha’bah – translated as “World to Come” refers to a family man’s children born consequent to his marriage to a woman.
Did not ask if Torah said there was a heaven. I asked if you thought there was a heaven or an afterlife of some sort. Not sure why you have such difficulties in answering a straightforward question.
So, again, do you believe there is a heaven or an afterlife of some sort?
I accept the Torah’s interpretation as expressed by the Gemara of k’dushin, as found in the Mishnaic Order of Women.
Thats nice. So that means you do not believe in an afterlife? A simple yes or no will suffice. If I do not get a straightforward answer from you this time that will conclude our discussion on this blog.
As an atheist praise God I resemble that remark. LOL. I believe in my daughter, my only child.
As you wish. I believe our conversation on this blog is done now. Enjoy!