Christmas

Christmas – A religious ceremony conducted by the Catholic Church; The mass of Christ.

Is it really Jesus’ Birthday?

Each year in December, millions of Christians (Catholic and Protestant) in churches all around the world read of the birth of Jesus from the Koine Greek Old Testament gospel account recorded in Luke chapter 2.

And each year the man who governed in Syria at the time of the Lord’s birth is also mentioned.  In Latin, his name is Quirinius.  In Scripture, which is translated from the Koine Greek, it is Cyrenius.

Many bible sceptics refute Luke 2, claiming that Cyrenius either did not exist, or that he did not have the authority to institute a tax.  Look at the evidence.

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The History of Christmas Christmas Was an Ancient Holiday, long before the birth of Jesus.

The middle of winter has long been a time of celebration around the world.  Centuries before the birth of Jesus, the early civilizations celebrated light, fertility, and birth in the darkest days of winter.  Most cultures rejoiced during the winter solstice, when the worst of the winter was behind them and they could look forward to longer days and extended hours of sunlight.

In ancient times, in the northern hemisphere, the end of December was a perfect time for celebration.  At that time of year, the harvest was in and most of the livestock were slaughtered so they would not have to be fed during the winter.  Furthermore, it was the only time of year when a supply of fresh meat was abundant; refrigeration did not yet exist.  Not to mention, the wine and beer made during the year was fermented and ready for drinking.

Long before the beginning of Christianity, plants and trees that remained green all year had a special meaning for people in the winter.  Just as people today decorate their homes during the festive season with pine, spruce, and fir trees, ancient peoples hung evergreen boughs over their doors and windows.  In many countries it was believed that evergreens would keep away witches, ghosts, evil spirits, and illness.

In the Northern hemisphere, the shortest day and longest night of the year falls on December 21 or December 22 and is called the winter solstice.  Many ancient people believed that the sun was a god and that winter came every year because the sun-god had become sick and weak.  They celebrated the solstice because it meant that at last the sun-god would begin to get well.  Evergreen boughs reminded them of all the green plants that would grow again when the sun-god was strong and summer would return.

Likely the most celebrated holiday in the world.

Christmas today is a product of hundreds of years of modification, both secular and religious; traditions from around the globe, having nothing at all to do with God, have been modified to garner some semblance of holiness.

Let’s look at the facts in the chronological order of occurrence. 

In which country do we see the first celebration of what we now call Christmas?  Remember that these celebrations, customs, and traditions came into existence prior to the birth of Christ or the existence Christianity, and even before the language of English was used by the Celtic people. 

1. Egypt’s celebration to honor their god Ra.  Ra had the head of a hawk and wore the sun as a blazing disk in his crown.  At the solstice, when Ra began to recover from the illness, the Egyptians filled their homes with green palm rushes which symbolized, for them, the triumph of life over death.
2. Sino-Tibetan, which includes India, China, and the orient; one of the oldest cultures, in existence since about 3,000 B.C.  They serve the god Buddha, celebrating their own holiday on December 8th, which celebrates the day Buddha achieved enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree. This holiday, “Bodhi Day”, is celebrated by eating cookies (preferable heart shaped – which matches the leaves of fig, or Bodhi, tree) and rice, drinking milk and decorating trees with bright lights. In Asia, Buddhists decorate fig trees, but since Western climate can be harsh and these trees cannot survive, many Western Buddhists instead decorate evergreen trees. Buddhists decorate these trees with multi-colored lights which represent the many different paths to achieve enlightenment.
3. Although the English language did not exist until 450 A.D., the people of that region did exist; they were the Celtic peoples.  Their religious system was Druidism, and their god is called Jove.  Although the Germans are credited for decorating the first Christmas tree, in Druidism trees are sacred, and to decorate them during this celebration was common.  The priests of the ancient Celts also decorated their temples with evergreen boughs as a symbol of everlasting life.  Celtic and Teutonic peoples (Germans) had long considered mistletoe to have magic powers.  They say it has the ability to heal wounds and increase fertility.  Celts hung mistletoe in their homes in order to bring themselves good luck and to ward off evil spirits.
4. Germany also existed since 500 B.C., known as Teutonic peoples; they honored their god Oden during the mid-winter holiday.  Germans were terrified of Oden, they believed he made nocturnal flights through the sky observing his people, and deciding who would prosper or perish.  Because of his presence, many people chose to stay inside.
5. In Scandinavia, the Norse, or Vikings, celebrated Yule to honor their sun-god Balder.  This celebration occurred during the winter solstice, from December 21 through January.  Norway is the birthplace of the Yule log.  “Yule” came from the Norse word hweol, meaning wheel.  The Norse believed that the sun was a great wheel of fire that rolled towards and then away from the earth.  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.  They believed that each spark from the fire represented a new pig or calf that would be born during the coming year.  The Vikings also thought that evergreens were the special plant of their god.
6. Early Romans, beginning in 500 B.C., marked the solstice with a feast called the Saturnalia in honor of Saturn, their god of agriculture.  The Romans knew that the solstice meant that soon farms and orchards would be green and fruitful.  To mark the occasion, they decorated their homes and temples with evergreen boughs.
7. The Jews (not the Hebrews) celebrate Hanukkah, which is not a version of Christmas, but does occur about the same time of year.  Hanukkah is an eight-day festival beginning on the 25th day of Kislev (third month of Israel’s calendar), commemorating the 165 B.C. victory of the Maccabees over Antiochus Epiphanies (c. 215-164 B.C.) and the rededication of their Temple at Jerusalem.  The interesting point is that they also call their celebration the Feast of Dedication, or the Feast of Lights; and notably, it has nothing at all to do with Jesus Christ or Christianity.
8. France, which came into existence in 58 B.C., also burns a log in their homes from the winter solaces on December 26 until New Year’s Day.  This stems from an ancient tradition in which farmers would use part of the log to ensure good luck for the next year’s harvest.

This brings us to the beginning of the traditions that we now call Christmas.  Christmas as we know it today is a Victorian invention of the 1860s.  With every second generation the beliefs, rituals, and customs of any given event or tradition is accepted by the practitioners as being “this way from the beginning of time”.  And I suppose that is somewhat understandable, it has been that way since the beginning of their memories; more accurately they should say “this is the way I’ve always done or remember it”.

The history of Christmas as we know it today, as a religious event, began with greed and was built on ignorance.  In 1 A.D. an apostate Jew and Greek philosopher named Philo began a religion, based on the co-mingling of Judaism and the Gospel of Grace.  Philo used a newly formed, ambiguous, and inaccurate term coined by unwary onlookers in Antioch Syria as the title of his new religion.  He adopted it to give credence to his new religion.  The term or title is Christian.  

Not long after, about 30 years (60 A.D.), Christianity became officially titled as the Catholic Church, or the “Holy Mother Church of God”, with the generic title remaining Christianity.

To accomplish recruitment into his new religion, Philo adopted all of the Hebrews Scripture lumped together as an undefined package, and commingled God’s Gospel of Grace, which was given by God to Paul, into their religious stew.  To further recruitment, converts to Christianity were allowed to bring rites, rituals, customs, and practices from their old religions as long as they allowed the Catholic Church to modify them and control the overall practices.  One of the customs brought by converts to Christianity was the worship of their God in the winter solstice, as you can plainly see in the rough outline above.

So, where and how did the Jesus connections get into their pagan rituals?  That’s easy; you can see it in the name … Christ-MASS … the Catholic Church created a ceremony to tie all of the pagan rituals into a service that they could control.  Let’s see how it unfolds.

1. Philo creates a new religion, designed to make money, control people, and eventually control governments.
   1. This new entity, Christianity, is foretold in Scripture by Daniel: Israel’s 5^th course of judgement and the final ruling power on earth before the 2^nd advent of Christ detailed in the book of Revelation.
2. Philo’s Catholic Church is supported by the forced compliance to his religion with the conversion of Constantine, according to the Edict of Milan, in the 2^nd century A.D.
3. Philo’s Catholic Church then takes a quieter approach and introduces a universal theme that seems to tie their pagan rituals to “God” … the “manger scene” (Jesus Christ, enter stage right) … The manger theme is the primary decoration in most southern European, Central American, and South American nations.  Let’s look at some of the problems with this story.
   • Jesus wasn’t born in December.  If you want to do something for the birth of Christ, you’ll have to do it sometime around September/October.
   • The Catholic Church through “their Saint”, Saint Francis of Assisi, created the first living nativity in 1224.  He claims to have innocently done it to help explain the birth of Jesus to his followers … it just accidentally happened during their winter ritual.
4. The Catholic Church capitalizes on the quasi-universal pagan ritual of the solstice, naming it Christmas (celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ … yea, right); and they create patron saints for various regions, to accommodate the major theme of the prior pagan practices.
   •  St. Nicholas – The legend of Santa Claus can be traced back hundreds of years to a Catholic monk named St. Nicholas.  It is believed that Nicholas was born sometime around 280 A.D. in Patara, near Myra in modern-day Turkey.  Much admired for his piety and kindness, St. Nicholas became the subject of many legends.  It is said that he gave away all of his inherited wealth and traveled the countryside helping the poor and sick.
     • Over the course of many years, Nicholas’s popularity spread and he became known as the protector of children and sailors.
     • His feast day is celebrated on the anniversary of his death, December 6.  This was traditionally considered a lucky day to make large purchases or to get married.
     • By the time of the Renaissance, St. Nicholas was the most popular saint in Europe.  Even after the Protestant Reformation, when the veneration of saints began to be discouraged, St. Nicholas maintained a positive reputation, especially in Holland.
   • Sweden – ‘God Jul!’ – Lucia lived in Syracuse during the fourth century when persecution by the Catholic Church was common.  Most people in Scandinavian countries honor St. Lucia (also known as St. Lucy) each year on December 13.
     • The celebration of St. Lucia Day began in Sweden, but had spread to Denmark and Finland by the mid-19th century.  According to one common legend, Lucia lost her eyes while being tortured for her Protestant-Christian beliefs by a Diocletian.  Others say she may have plucked her own eyes out to protest the poor treatment of Protestant-Christians.  Lucia is the patron saint of the blind.
     • Originally, the oldest daughter in each family would rise early and wake each of her family members, dressed in a long, white gown with a red sash, and wearing a crown made of twigs with nine lighted candles.  For the day, she is called “Lussi” or “Lussibruden (Lucy bride).”  The family then eats breakfast in a room lighted with candles.
     • Any shooting or fishing done on St. Lucia Day was done by torchlight, and people brightly illuminated their homes.  At night, men, women, and children would carry torches in a parade.  The night would end when everyone threw their torches onto a large pile of straw, creating a huge bonfire.
     • In Finland today, one girl is chosen to serve as the national Lucia and she is honored in a parade in which she is surrounded by torchbearers.  Light is a main theme of St. Lucia Day, as her name, which is derived from the Latin word lux, means light.  Her feast day is celebrated near the shortest day of the year, when the sun’s light again begins to strengthen.
   • Norway – ‘Gledelig Jul!’ – Ever wonder why the family fireplace is such a central part of the typical Christmas scene?  This tradition dates back to the Norse Yule log.  It is probably also responsible for the popularity of log-shaped cheese, cakes, and desserts during the holidays.
   • Finland – ‘Hyvää Joulua!’ – It is customary to visit the gravesites of departed family members.  Many Finns visit the sauna on Christmas Eve.  Families gather and listen to the national “Peace of Christmas” radio broadcast.
   • Germany – ‘Froehliche Weihnachten!’ – Decorating evergreen trees had always been a part of the German winter solstice tradition.  
     • The first “Christmas trees” explicitly decorated and named after the Christian holiday, appeared in Strasbourg, in Alsace in the beginning of the 17th century.  
     • After 1750, Christmas trees began showing up in other parts of Germany, and even more so after 1771, when Johann Wolfgang von Goethe visited Strasbourg and promptly included a Christmas tree is his novel, “The Suffering of Young Werther”.
     • After Germany’s Prince Albert married Queen Victoria, he introduced the Christmas tree tradition to England.
     • In the 1820s, the first German immigrants decorated Christmas trees in Pennsylvania, USA.
     • In 1848, the first American newspaper carried a picture of a Christmas tree and within a few years the custom had spread to nearly every home in America.
   • England – ‘Merry Christmas!’ – In the late 1830s an Englishman named John Calcott Horsley helped to popularize the tradition of sending Christmas greeting cards when he began producing small cards featuring festive scenes and a pre-written holiday greeting.  Newly efficient post offices in England and the United States made the cards nearly an overnight sensation.  At about the same time, similar cards were being made by R.H. Pease, the first American card maker, in Albany, New York, and Louis Prang, a German who immigrated to America in 1850.
     • Celtic and Teutonic peoples had long considered mistletoe to have magic powers.  It was said to have the ability to heal wounds and increase fertility.  Celts hung mistletoe in their homes in order to bring themselves good luck and ward off evil spirits.  During holidays in the Victorian era, the English would hang sprigs of mistletoe from ceilings and in doorways.  If someone was found standing under the mistletoe, they would be kissed by someone else in the room, behavior not usually demonstrated in Victorian society.
     • Plum pudding is an English dish dating back to the Middle Ages.  Suet, flour, sugar, raisins, nuts, and spices are tied loosely in cloth and boiled until the ingredients are “plum,” meaning they have enlarged enough to fill the cloth.  It is then unwrapped, sliced like cake, and topped with cream.
     • Caroling also began in England.  Wandering musicians would travel from town to town visiting castles and homes of the rich.  In return for their performance, the musicians hoped to receive a hot meal or money.
     • In the United States and England, children hang stockings on their bedpost or near a fireplace on Christmas Eve, hoping that it will be filled with treats while they sleep.  In Scandinavia, similar-minded children leave their shoes on the hearth.  This tradition can be traced to legends about Saint Nicholas.  One legend tells of three poor sisters who could not marry because they had no money for a dowry.  To save them from being sold by their father, St. Nick left each of the three sisters a gift of gold coins.  One went down the chimney and landed in a pair of shoes that had been left on the hearth.  Another went into a window and into a pair of stockings left hanging by the fire to dry.
   • France – ‘Joyeux Noël!’ – In France, Christmas is called Noel.  Noel comes from the French phrase les bonnes nouvelles,” which means “the good news” and refers to the gospel.  In southern France, some people burn a log in their homes from Christmas Eve until New Year’s Day.  This stems from an ancient tradition in which farmers would use part of the log to ensure good luck for the next year’s harvest.
   • Italy – ‘Buone Natale!’ – Italians call Christmas Il Natale, meaning “the birthday”, which refers back to the great nativity lie instituted by Christianity.
   • Ukraine – ‘Srozhdestvom Kristovym!’ – Ukrainians prepare a traditional twelve-course meal.  A family’s youngest child watches through the window for the evening star to appear, a signal that the feast can begin.  A variation of the nativity lies … Shepard and the star?
   • Greece – ‘Kala Christouyenna!’ – In Greece, many people believe in kallikantzeri; goblins that appear to cause mischief during the 12 days of Christmas.  Gifts are usually exchanged on January 1^st, St. Basil’s Day.

In a nutshell …

In the 16th century, Germany is credited with starting the Christmas tree tradition as we now know it, when devout Christians brought decorated trees into their homes.  If trees were scarce, some built Christmas pyramids of wood and decorated them with evergreens and candles.  It is a widely held belief that Martin Luther, the 16th-century Protestant reformer, first added lighted candles to a tree.  Walking toward his home one winter evening, composing a sermon, he was awed by the brilliance of stars twinkling amidst evergreens.  To recapture the scene for his family, he erected a tree in the main room and wired its branches with lighted candles.

Most 19th-century Americans found Christmas trees an oddity.  The first record of one being on display was in the 1830s by the German settlers of Pennsylvania, although trees had been a tradition in many German homes much earlier.  The Pennsylvania German settlements had community trees as early as 1747.  But, as late as the 1840s Christmas trees were seen as pagan symbols and not accepted by most Americans.

It is not surprising that, like many other festive Christmas customs, the tree was adopted so late in America.  To the New England Puritans, Christmas was sacred. 

The pilgrims’ second governor, William Bradford, wrote that he tried hard to stamp out “pagan mockery” of the observance, penalizing any frivolity.

The influential Oliver Cromwell preached against “the heathen traditions” of Christmas carols, decorated trees, and any joyful expression that desecrated “that sacred event.”  I guess he was so ignorant of Scripture that he didn’t know that Christmas has nothing to do with Christ.

In 1659, the General Court of Massachusetts enacted a law making any observance of December 25 (other than a church service) a penal offense; people were fined for hanging decorations.  That stern solemnity continued until the 19th century, when the influx of German and Irish immigrants undermined the Puritan legacy.

In 1846, the popular royals, Queen Victoria and her German Prince, Albert, were sketched in the Illustrated London News standing with their children around a Christmas tree.  Unlike the previous royal family, Victoria was very popular with her subjects, and what was done at court immediately became fashionable – not only in Britain, but with fashion-conscious East Coast American Society.  The Christmas tree had arrived.

By the 1890s Christmas ornaments were arriving from Germany, and Christmas tree popularity was on the rise around the U.S.  It was noted that Europeans used small trees about four feet in height, while Americans liked their Christmas trees to reach from floor to ceiling.

The early 20th century saw Americans decorating their trees mainly with homemade ornaments, while the German-American sect continued to use apples, nuts, and marzipan cookies.  Popcorn joined in after being dyed bright colors and interlaced with berries and nuts.  Electricity brought about Christmas lights, making it possible for Christmas trees to glow for days on end.  With this, Christmas trees began to appear in town squares across the country and having a Christmas tree in the home became an American tradition.

See also Christian, Jesus’s Birthday, Luke 2 Verified, Magi