Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, December 18, 1993 TAG: 9312180122
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-12 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: CODY LOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Very few people believe that Dec. 25 is the actual birthdate of Jesus Christ.
Many modern students say biblical accounts suggest a spring or summer birth, but the debate is hardly new.
The date has been disputed almost since the birth of the Christian church -at least back to the 4th century. Despite its rocky beginnings, it is now the most widely celebrated and most beloved of Christian holidays.
It took a while to catch on, though, and customs and traditions associated with it continue to be added to this day.
Here is a look - though it is far from comprehensive - at how some of thosetraditions were started. It is important to remember that there are several theories about the origins of many traditions; thus, we may never know precisely how some came about.
Though information for this story came from a variety of sources, a more detailed look at most of these is available in a book called "All About Christmas" by Maymie R. Krythe.
Christmas Day
The name Christmas comes from the Old English "Christes Maesse," the Mass celebrated for Christ's birth.
Many early Christians, up to the 3rd century, thought Christ was born at the time of the spring equinox - which they believed fell on March 25. Becausethe Earth was reborn each spring, they reasoned, God must have created the world at that time of year. They then assumed that Christ's birth - signaling the new birth of creation - would have come then, too.
The first written notice of a Feast of the Nativity of Christ is found in aRoman almanac from the year 354.
Many scholars believe that Roman Emperor Constantine helped establish the festival after his conversion to Christianity in 312. Even after that, the exact date of the celebration remains obscure, although one tradition says that Pope Julius I recognized the Dec. 25 date in 350.
The most common assumption is that the early church took over the pagan Roman festival to the god Saturn. It was a veritable orgy of eating, drinking and celebrating that included many of the traditions we now associate with Christmas, such as gift-giving, games-playing and decorating with evergreens.
Elsewhere, other people also held feasts at the winter solstice to celebrate the lengthening days - to encourage the sun and the fertility it brought.
One theory is that the church decided to make new converts feel at home by co-opting their festivals and affixing them with Christian symbolism.
The issues of overindulgence and secularization of the holiday were evidenteven in the early centuries of the church when its leaders were encouraging the faithful to avoid gluttony, dancing, drunkenness and other excesses.
The modern celebration in the United States combines elements from many different places and periods. Much of our tradition comes from the British Isles, however.
Christmas was a major festival in England before the civil war that put Oliver Cromwell in power in 1642. Obliging the Puritan leaders of the day, Cromwell outlawed Christmas celebrations - Parliament even met on the day. In 1660, the restored monarchy recognized the holiday again but it never was celebrated with the same verve.
Disdain of the holiday came to the Americas with the Puritans, who briefly outlawed its celebration in Colonial settlements they dominated.
In other Colonies, though, the holiday was observed by the earliest European settlers. Capt. John Smith and his men feasted on wild game, fish andoysters for Christmas in Tidewater Virginia. Many of the traditions we continue to preserve - bell-ringing, feasting, dancing, games, Yule logs, evergreens and carols - were brought with them by those sons of the English cavaliers.
Over time, though, the season slipped again from clerical favor and the traditions began to fade.
That changed in 1842 with the publication of "A Christmas Carol."
Charles Dickens is widely credited with almost single-handedly reviving the celebration of Christmas with his tale of the reclamation of miserly Ebenezer Scrooge through the wonders of the Christmas story. Though it has few overt religious references, the story represents the melding of religious and secular elements, celebrating the holiday as the best time of the year.
Its romantic description of the miraculous nature of the season is as popular now as it was when it was written.
Christmas cards
Even in a world where the telephone call has replaced the letter as the primary means of communicating with family and friends, the Christmas card hassurvived as an annual rite of writing.
The custom began shortly after the publication of "A Christmas Carol." Initially, the hand-painted cards were expensive. It wasn't until about the 1870s that their use became widespread as printing costs went down.
By 1881, one of the printers in the United States was turning out more than 5 million cards a year.
The Wise Men
From humble beginnings of only a few lines in the New Testament, the story of the wise men has grown into a major element of the Christmas story.
The second chapter of Matthew includes this account: "Behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, `Where is he that is born King of the Jews?' for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him."
The 16 verses don't say how many wise men there were, but tradition has assumed three based on the number of gifts - gold, frankincense and myrrh. Tradition also gives the three men names: Melchior, Balthasar and Kaspar.
The men sometimes are called "magi," which means "august" and was a title of the priestly caste among Medes and Persians. Later, they also were described as "kings." Often, they are understood to be astrologers, since theyfollowed a star to find the baby Jesus.
A modern tradition based on this ancient one came with the production of "Amahl and the Night Visitors," a television opera first presented on Christmas Eve 1951. In it, a crippled shepherd boy who shelters the magi is miraculously healed.
Epiphany
The date of the wise men's visit is the foundation for another important date on the church calendar - Epiphany, or Twelfth Night, Jan. 6.
Epiphany means "manifestation" and is associated with three occasions of the revelation of Christ's deity: the adoration of the magi, his baptism and his first miracle, turning water into wine at Cana. It also is symbolic of theextension of the gospel to gentiles as well as Jews.
Church leaders encouraged celebration of Epiphany as early as the 2nd century. It appears not to have suffered from negative associations with paganfestivals, although it apparently fused some of those practices with its own.
Drinking the "wassail" toasts - earlier associated with pagan prayers for the fruitfulness of apple trees - came at Epiphany.
Gift-giving
Christians obviously link the giving of presents to the wise men's gifts tothe Christ child.
The custom of gift-giving at the winter solstice predates the Christian era, however. The Romans gave gifts of laurel, olive and branches - symbolizing health, happiness and affection - to their rulers. They also gave "sweet" presents, lamps and gold to friends for good luck.
Santa Claus
There was a real Saint Nicholas - a bishop of Myra in Asia Minor who died about the year 340. His feast day was Dec. 6, when he was believed to visit children with gifts in preparation for the gift of the Christ child at Christmas.
Clement Moore, in his 1822 poem "A Visit From St. Nicholas," gave us our modern description of Old Saint Nick. Cartoonist Thomas Nast refined that picture in an 1863 magazine illustration that gave Santa his red coat trimmed in fur.
Known variously as Pere Noel, Father Christmas, Petit Jesus and Kriss Kringle, we call him Santa Claus based on his Dutch name, Sinter Klaas.
Christmas trees
The decoration of evergreen trees to honor the gods also predates Christianity. Ancient Egyptians, Romans and Druids decorated trees with gifts for the gods and sometimes included lighted candles as tributes.
With the spread of Christianity, customs changed to honor Christ and the message of eternal life inherent in the new religion.
Martin Luther is credited with spreading the idea of bringing a tree indoors and lighting candles to simulate the night sky over Bethlehem.
One legend says the Christ Child changed the spider webs on one woman's tree to strands of silver, which began the custom of putting tinsel on the trees.
Chrismon trees
This special type of Christmas tree has its beginnings here in Virginia. In 1957, Mrs. Harry W. Spencer persuaded the members of the Lutheran Church of the Ascension to decorate a tree with the monograms early Christians used to recognize each other. Made out of white Styrofoam and gold trim, the symbols decorate a green tree, usually lit by pure white lights.
The Chrismons - a name coined by joining the words Christ and monogram - can come in dozens of different shapes. Some fairly common ones include a fish, an early secret sign among Christians; a chalice, symbolizing the communion cup; a five-pointed star, representing the star the wise men followed; a seven-pointed star, symbolizing the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit; a butterfly, representing the resurrection after apparent death; and ashepherd's crook, recognizing Jesus' description of himself.
Chrismon trees now are erected annually throughout many parts of Virginia and some surrounding states.
Winter greenery
Romans believed good luck came with exchanging green branches with friends.At the winter solstice feast of Saturnalia, Romans garlanded their temples with green branches.
Even before the Christian era, evergreens - which did not die during the winter - were associated with eternal life.
Celtic and Nordic peoples believed pine, spruce, holly, box, bay, mistletoe, ivy, juniper, rosemary and others protected them from evil spirits.
One legend held that a holly bush hid Christ from his enemies on one occasion and was rewarded by retaining its leaves all year.
Yule log
The custom of burning a great Yule log is sometimes ascribed to ancient Scandinavian mythology of a "Tree of the Universe" that had three roots - one in heaven, one in hell and one on Earth. Serpents were continually eating awayat the roots and, when the tree eventually fell, the universe would be destroyed.
One yule log theory says that converts to Christianity burned a great log, symbolically destroying their old beliefs and taking on the new "light of the world."
Other nationalities also burned a great log as a symbol of light and warmth. In England, the entire household helped drag the log in a bid to attract good luck.
Manger scenes
St. Francis of Assisi began the annual re-creation of the manger scene. At the time - 1244 - the re-creation educated churchgoers about the nativity story.
The practice of creating live nativity scenes eventually spread throughout Europe. Statues or other figurines later were substituted for the live playersand miniature versions adorned churches and homes.
In some places, tradition says that domesticated barnyard animals - like those that might have been housed in the stable where Jesus was born - are able to speak like humans on Christmas Eve. Children sometimes would try to slip into a barn or stable to hear the animals talk.
Candles
Candles represent Christ - the light of the world - at Christmastide.
In some places, a lighted candle was kept in a window as a guide to travelers or the Christ Child himself. Since the homeowners believed Christ might come disguised as a stranger, no one was turned away during the season.
During Advent, many churches have a weekly candle-lighting ceremony in preparation for the coming of Christ that culminates in the Christmas Eve lighting of a final huge centerpiece candle representing the light of Christ.
by CNB