Reason of the Season

Today we are going to discuss some of the reasons people have given as to why they have not wanted to keep Christmas.  These are the main thoughts I have come up with :

1.     December 25 is not the day on which Jesus was born.

2.     The Bible nowhere says that we should celebrate Jesus' birth, whatever day it is.

3.     The celebrations we associate with Christmas—giving gifts, decorating trees, using mistletoe and holly, etc., have their origins in the pagan religions of the ancient world and pre-Christian Europe. The Roman Catholic Church adopted these in an effort to spread its influence and control these celebrations.

4.     Commercialism has taken advantage of our giving Christmas Spirit and turned Christmas into a materialistic and debt building frenzy.

Let’s take the subjects one by one and discuss them.

Jesus was not born on December 25.

Jesus was not even born in the winter season. When the Christ-child was born "there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night" (Luke 2:8). This never could have occurred in Judaea in the month of December. The shepherds always brought their flocks from the mountainsides and fields and corralled them not later than October 15, to protect them from the cold, rainy season that followed that date. Notice that the Bible itself proves, in Song of Solomon 2:11andEzra 10:9, 13, that winter was a rainy season not permitting shepherds to abide in open fields at night.

"It was an ancient custom among Jews of those days to send out their sheep to the fields and deserts about the Passover (early spring), and bring them home at commencement of the first rain," Continuing, this authority states: "During the time they were out, the shepherds watched them night and day. As ... the first rain began early in the month of Marchesvan, which answers to part of our October and November [begins sometime in October], we find that the sheep were kept out in the open country during the whole summer. And, as these shepherds had not yet brought home their flocks, it is a presumptive argument that October had not yet commenced, and that, consequently, our Lord was not born on the 25th of December, when no flocks were out in the fields; nor could He have been born later than September, as the flocks were still in the fields by night. On this very ground, the nativity in December should be given up. The feeding of the flocks by night in the fields is a chronological fact ... See the quotations from the Talmudists in Lightfoot."  Adam Clarke Commentary (Vol. 5, page 370, New York ed.)

 Any encyclopedia, or any other authority, will tell you that Christ was not born on December 25. The Catholic Encyclopedia frankly states this fact.  It is also recorded in history that the Romans took the census at a time when the Jews would be traveling and coming together for their Feasts or Holy Days.  That would put Christ’s birth in the Spring or Summer.

Should Christians Keep Birthdays much less Christ’s Birthday?

Although many who profess Christ celebrate birthdays, did you know that birthdays were simply not celebrated by those in the early church? Interestingly, there is no hint in the Bible or early writings that Jesus, the apostles, or any true Christians ever celebrated birthdays.

The first century Jewish historian Josephus noted that Jewish families did not celebrate birthdays:

Nay, indeed, the law does not permit us to make festivals at the birth of our children, and thereby afford occasion of drinking to excess (Josephus. Translated by W. Whiston. Against Apion, Book II, Chapter 26. Extracted from Josephus Complete Works, Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids (MI), 14th printing, 1977, p. 632).

Now although there is no specific command against the celebration of birthdays in the Bible, the Jewish custom in those days was apparently based on the negative occurrences in the Bible surrounding birthdays. Since nearly all of the first Christians were Jewish, this may partially explain why the celebration of Jesus' birth would not be consistent with that early custom. 

It is interesting to note that while the New Testament is clear about the specific time of certain holy days such as Passover (Matthew 26:17-20) and Pentecost (Acts 2:1), it never mentions the date, nor even the precise month, of Jesus' birth (see Matthew 1 and Luke 1;2:1-20). Nor does it ever specifically endorse the celebration of birthdays. Nor does it ever give the date (with either a solar or lunar calendar reference) for any one being born.

So, should we celebrate Christ’s birth? A part of our cultural roots include celebrating birthdays. It seems to me that a celebration of Christ’s birth is an opportunity to rejoice, give thanks and praise God for the greatest gift of all time.  In my own search for truth though, I don’t feel I should celebrate Jesus' birthday at Christmas time.  I tend to think of Christmas as a more secular holiday like Thanksgiving.  I personally prefer the Jewish season starting with the Feast of Trumpets as a great time to celebrate the birth of Christ’s.  There are eight Jewish festivals or Holy Days that when studied carefully tell the complete plan of God for mankind.

It must be up to each of us to determine whether we celebrate Christ’s birth and when we celebrate it just as it is up to each of us to determine whether to celebrate Christmas and why.  It is important that we do not judge each other in this matter.  It is also important that each of us do what we believe in and what we feel in our hearts the Divine is teaching us.  God knows what is in our hearts.  He expects us to be true to that.

We have already been looking at a lot of the traditions of Christmas and where they came from in the past few weekly messages so while I want to mention them again here for the sake of discussing Pagan Roots, I won’t do so in great detail.

Pagan Roots of Christmas

We will start with the fact that many Christians will refer to the season as born out of paganism and that the church simply appropriated the holiday as Christian in order to convert pagans.  Since it is not really Christian and has no basis in the Bible, we should not celebrate it, some would say.   They worry that Christians may be doing what God asked us not to do in Deuteronomy and Jeremiah:

"Take heed to thyself that thou are not snared by following them  ... that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. Thou shalt not do so unto the Lord thy God: for every abomination to the Eternal, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods" (Deut. 12:30-31).

Thus said God, do not learn the way of the heathen, and do not be awed by the signs of the heavens, for the heathen are awed by them. For the customs of these people are worthless… (Jeremiah 10:2)

Christmas (despite the Christ sounding name given to it) is the celebration of the time of year when the sunlit days stop diminishing and start to lengthen. Many religions have claimed the winter solstice as a holy day. As followers of Christ, we believe in the one true God, the God that created the heavens and earth and the lights and signs of the heaven.  We can see that this is a logical time when one cycle is ending and a new one beginning, a time for thankfulness and a time for hope, a time to wish our family and friends well in the new year.

Though we have discussed a number of things in previous messages, we do not know everything about the historical roots of Christmas. There are elements that emerged into the festival without known reason, and entire areas where there is much speculation, but no historical evidence to either support or refute claims. The best, and certainly the most accurate, account of this history of such calendar events is laid out by Professor R Hutton. I include in the following quote the historian's interesting notes about light. Light is a feature of all winter festivals.

“The habit of a midwinter festivity had come by the dawn of history (and probably very long before) to seem a natural one to the British, and not one to be eradicated by changes of political or religious fashion. [...] It was general custom in pagan Europe to decorate spaces with greenery and flowers for festivals, attested wherever records have survived. [...]

What the Scots did emphasize, in common with many of the English, was light. In 1725 Henry Bourne, a Newcastle clergyman, commented that many people in the North of England lit huge 'Christmas candles' on Christmas Eve. [...] The Scots and] the Irish were also fond of them. [...] Yule candles were also common in Scandinavia, a region which had strong contacts with those parts of Britain which maintained them.”

"The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain" by Ronald Hutton (1996)

The exact date of the Winter Solstice changes slowly over time. "So, although the solstice moved progressively from 6 January to 25 December, some traditions continued to celebrate it on the familiar night. Today it falls around 22 December." The Roman religion of Mithraism, which existed for hundreds of years before Christians started celebrating Christmas, holds that the birth of Mithras was on the 25th of December. In another coincidence, the birth of Mithras was also said 'to have been witnessed by three shepherds!'

Sun worship formed the basis of Mithraism, Zoroastrianism, other Roman religions and many other pagan traditions. It is the reason Sun-day is a holy day in many religions, and why major festivals are held at Spring and the Solstices. The real meaning of Christmas is sun worship; a reminder to all life on Earth that we owe everything to the Sun. Sun worship is one of the main pillars of all religion, especially older religions. Sun worshippers and nature religions, the most ancient of the religious, held major celebrations at the Winter Solstice the victory of the strength of the Sun over the forces of darkness that try to suppress it. Osiris-Dionysus represented and was represented by the sun, as was Jesus, whom the Church father Clement of Alexander calls 'The Sun of Righteousness'. When old relics and religious symbols (such as Human faces) are given a light backdrop of rays of light or a corolla it means they represent the sun.

It would seem the people were in awe of the signs of the heavens, particularly the sun and set about worshiping the sun instead of the one true God they had witness of.  It was easy to worship something they could see but hard to worship what they couldn’t see and what some felt was a harsh God.  That’s not unlike the people asking Aaron to make a golden calf to worship.  As true followers of Christ we know the difference.  Is it a logical time to spend with family and friends and ask blessings for them as we wish them well in the New Year?  Could it truly be a time of Thanksgiving for all mankind to be thankful of the blessings received in the past?

Now to the final subject in this discussion: commercialism.

Commercialism

The most skeptical view of modern Christmas is that the fads, decorations, festive goods and all the paraphernalia are a commercial scam to make us spend money on over-priced useless goods. However true this is, it has also become a secular social festival much akin to the American thanksgiving. Families come together at Christmas even if they do not for the rest of the year. It probably helps that Christmas and New Year's celebrations have become institutionally intertwined. These make Christmas in essence a meaningful family celebration, even if on top of that there is a thick cover of shallow commercialism.

The festivities are largely led by commerce and retail outlets: The relevant decorations, cards, food and goods are all marketed for Christmas more than any other festival, and it is the High Streets that press Christmas upon the populace way before the populace itself is ready. It is a frequent complaint that stores start Christmas "too early" and too aggressively.

Prominent elements of Christmas are commercial inventions, from Santa Claus or Father Christmas (and his suit) to Christmas Cards. The history of a commercialist Christmas is older still than even those creations.  From the 1870s onwards, The Times broadsheet could be relied upon to attack the commercialism of Christmas. Clearly, its commercialism has not destroyed it and since the nineteenth century, it has become even more popular than ever.

I personally believe in abundance and feel that  the production of gifts and material things is what a glorious holiday should be all about. Productivity and capitalism and materialism and, most of all, the celebration of life on earth -- of happiness in this life -- is the essence of Christmas.  To remove the commercial aspects of Christmas would be largely to destroy it; religious activists would create in its place a series of historically-challenged myths and break it into a sectarian event. Without commercialism the general populace, Protestant Christians, secularists and evangelical Christians would all cease to have anything in common during the festive season.

Conclusion

So far I have been talking about Anti-Christmas sentiments.  In the last couple of years though I have seen another phenomenon occurring.  Because I have a wide variety of friends from Jewish, Christian and Pagan backgrounds I tend to send out seasonal greeting cards with nature scenes and greetings like: “Peace on Earth” and best wishes for the New Year.  I have lost some friends because I didn’t say “Merry Christmas” and they accused me of leaving Christ out of Christmas which in a sense is what I do.

Christians like my friends sometimes complain that the 'original' Christian message is ignored at Christmas. Such modern Christians do not know its history. Christian Churches have themselves have led long and bitter campaigns against the observance of Christmas and in various times and places banned it completely. The religious content was always very small, with most celebrations and rituals being secular (i.e., organized by the people, not by clerics).  The main outstanding issue in the West is the Christian assertion that Christmas has something to do with the Christian figure of Christ or his birthday. As I have pointed out already, I think these elements should be disclaimed.

Christmas is a multicultural, multi-religious festival.  When Christians complain it is too pagan, or when lay folk complain it is too religious, or when both groups complain it is too commercial, then they are all in need of realizing that Christmas is a commercial fusion of diverse nature-based festivals. The date of the 25th accords with Sun Worship thousands of years old, the Christmas tree and some of the decorations are pagan, the Nativity stories are pagan, Mithraistic, Roman and Christian.

In addition to its rich history, Christmas has now become largely a secular holiday, a social festival based on the family, and a commercial enterprise keeping our economy alive. Critics largely concentrate of the portions of Christmas they don't like, and claim that those portions ruin the rest of it.   As long as no-one tries to "capture the flag" and exclude others, then there need be no modern conflict over the nature of Christmas. The non-religious can celebrate the commercial and social event, Christians can pretend Christmas has something to do with Christ, pagans can celebrate nature, and all can be happy. There are even alternative and well-known names for Christmas, such as Yuletide, which can be used according to taste. Whether or not we choose to celebrate Christmas is more a matter of individual intent and purpose.

Blessings, Rev. Sharra