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Christmas: the story on HearLore | HearLore
Christmas
The earliest church records indicate that Christians were remembering and celebrating the birth of the Lord as early as the 2nd century, yet they did not agree upon a set date for the event. It was not until the early 4th century that the church fixed the date as December 25, a decision that would eventually shape the calendar for billions of people. The earliest document to place Jesus's birthday on this specific day is the Chronograph of 354, also known as the Calendar of Filocalus, which was written in Rome in the year 336. This manuscript explicitly lists the date as the birthday of the god Sol Invictus, the Invincible Sun, suggesting a deliberate alignment with the Roman winter solstice festival that had been held on this date since the year 274. Liturgical historians generally agree that this part of the text was written in Rome in the year 336, consistent with the assertion that the date was formally set by Pope Julius I, who served as bishop of Rome from 337 to 352. While the Eastern Church initially celebrated the birth of Jesus in connection with the Epiphany on January 6, the feast was promoted in the East as part of the revival of Orthodox Christianity that followed the death of the pro-Arian Emperor Valens at the Battle of Adrianople in 378. The feast was introduced in Constantinople in 379, in Antioch by John Chrysostom towards the end of the 4th century, probably in 388, and in Alexandria in the following century. There is evidence that Christmas was celebrated in Jerusalem by the 6th century, marking a gradual shift from the earlier focus on Epiphany to the celebration of the Nativity on December 25.
Medieval Revelry And Puritan Bans
In the Middle Ages, Christmas was a raucous public festival that incorporated ivy, holly, and other evergreens, often featuring drunkenness, promiscuity, and gambling as important aspects of the celebration. King Richard II of England hosted a Christmas feast in 1377 at which 28 oxen and 300 sheep were eaten, and the Yule boar was a common feature of medieval Christmas feasts. Caroling became popular during this era, originally performed by a group of dancers who sang, though writers of the time condemned caroling as lewd, indicating that the unruly traditions of Saturnalia and Yule may have continued in this form. The annual indulgence in eating, dancing, singing, sporting, and card playing escalated in England, and by the 17th century the Christmas season featured lavish dinners, elaborate masques, and pageants. In 1607, King James I insisted that a play be acted on Christmas night and that the court indulge in games. However, the Reformation in 16th and 17th century Europe brought a sharp backlash, with some groups such as the Puritans strongly condemning the celebration of Christmas, considering it a Catholic invention and the trappings of popery. Following the Parliamentarian victory over Charles I during the English Civil War, England's Puritan rulers banned Christmas in 1647. Oliver Cromwell even ordered his troops to confiscate any special meals made on Christmas Day. Protests followed as pro-Christmas rioting broke out in several cities, and for weeks Canterbury was controlled by the rioters, who decorated doorways with holly and shouted royalist slogans. Football, among the sports the Puritans banned on a Sunday, was also used as a rebellious force when Puritans outlawed Christmas in England in December 1647, as the crowd brought out footballs as a symbol of festive misrule. The book The Vindication of Christmas, published in London in 1652, argued against the Puritans and made note of Old English Christmas traditions, including dinner, roast apples on the fire, card playing, dances with plow-boys and maidservants, old Father Christmas and carol singing. Christmas was restored as a legal holiday in England with the Restoration of King Charles II in 1660 when Puritan legislation was declared void, allowing Christmas to be again freely celebrated in England.
Common questions
When was the date of Christmas fixed as December 25?
The church fixed the date of Christmas as December 25 in the early 4th century. The earliest document to place Jesus's birthday on this specific day is the Chronograph of 354, which was written in Rome in the year 336.
Who banned Christmas in England and when did the ban end?
England's Puritan rulers banned Christmas in 1647 following the Parliamentarian victory over Charles I during the English Civil War. Christmas was restored as a legal holiday in England with the Restoration of King Charles II in 1660 when Puritan legislation was declared void.
Which book helped revive the spirit of Christmas in 1843?
Charles Dickens wrote the novel A Christmas Carol in 1843, which helped revive the spirit of Christmas and seasonal merriment. The instant popularity of the book played a major role in portraying Christmas as a holiday emphasizing family, goodwill, and compassion.
When did the Christmas truce occur during World War I?
A series of informal truces took place for Christmas between opposing armies during the First World War, particularly in 1914. One of the most memorable images of the Christmas truce was the games of football played between the opposing sides on Christmas Day 1914.
Who created the modern popular image of Santa Claus?
The modern popular image of Santa Claus was created in the United States, and in particular in New York. The transformation was accomplished with the aid of notable contributors including Washington Irving and the German-American cartoonist Thomas Nast, who lived from 1840 to 1902.
Why do some Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on January 7?
Some jurisdictions of the Eastern Orthodox Church mark feasts using the older Julian calendar, which currently corresponds to January 7 on the modern Gregorian calendar. Since Christmas 1899 until Christmas 2099 inclusive, there is a difference of 13 days between the Julian calendar and the modern Gregorian calendar.
In the early 19th century, Christmas festivities and services gradually spread with the rise of the Oxford Movement in the Church of England that emphasized the centrality of Christmas in Christianity and charity to the poor. An indication of this increased recognition of Christmas was slow, as seen in the fact that in twenty of the years between 1790 and 1835, The Times did not mention Christmas at all. In 1843, Charles Dickens wrote the novel A Christmas Carol, which helped revive the spirit of Christmas and seasonal merriment. Its instant popularity played a major role in portraying Christmas as a holiday emphasizing family, goodwill, and compassion. Dickens sought to construct Christmas as a family-centered festival of generosity, linking worship and feasting within a context of social reconciliation. A prominent phrase from the tale, Merry Christmas, was popularized following the appearance of the story, and the term Scrooge became a synonym for miser, with the phrase Bah Humbug becoming emblematic of a dismissive attitude of the festive spirit. In 1843, the first commercial Christmas card was produced by Sir Henry Cole in London. The revival of the Christmas Carol began with William Sandys's Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern in 1833, with the first appearance in print of The First Noel, I Saw Three Ships, Hark the Herald Angels Sing and God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, popularized in Dickens's A Christmas Carol. In Britain, the Christmas tree was introduced in the early 19th century by the German-born Queen Charlotte. In 1832, the future Queen Victoria wrote about her delight at having a Christmas tree, hung with lights, ornaments, and presents placed round it. After her marriage to her German cousin Prince Albert, by 1841 the custom became more widespread throughout Britain. An image of the British royal family with their Christmas tree at Windsor Castle created a sensation when it was published in the Illustrated London News in 1848. A modified version of this image was published in Godey's Lady's Book in Philadelphia in 1850, where the editor copied it exactly, except he removed the Queen's tiara and Prince Albert's moustache to remake the engraving into an American scene. By the 1870s, putting up a Christmas tree had become common in America. In 1822, Clement Clarke Moore wrote the poem A Visit From St. Nicholas, popularly known by its first line Twas the Night Before Christmas, which helped popularize the tradition of exchanging gifts and started the cultural conflict between the holiday's spiritual significance and its associated commercialism.
Global Wars And Soviet Silence
During the First World War and particularly in 1914, a series of informal truces took place for Christmas between opposing armies. The truces, which were organized spontaneously by fighting men, ranged from promises not to shoot, shouted at a distance in order to ease the pressure of war for the day, to friendly socializing, gift giving and even sport between enemies. These incidents became a well known and semi-mythologized part of popular memory, described as a symbol of common humanity even in the darkest of situations. One of the most memorable images of the Christmas truce during World War I was the games of football played between the opposing sides on Christmas Day 1914. Under the state atheism of the Soviet Union, after its foundation in 1917, Christmas celebrations along with other Christian holidays were prohibited in public. During the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, the League of Militant Atheists encouraged school pupils to campaign against Christmas traditions, such as the Christmas tree, as well as other Christian holidays, including Easter. The League established an antireligious holiday to be the 31st of each month as a replacement. At the height of this persecution, in 1929, on Christmas Day, children in Moscow were encouraged to spit on crucifixes as a protest against the holiday. Instead, the importance of the holiday and all its trappings, such as the Christmas tree and gift-giving, was transferred to the New Year. It was not until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 that the persecution ended and Orthodox Christmas became a state holiday again for the first time in Russia after seven decades. In 1991, the Gubbio Christmas Tree in Italy, high and decorated with over 700 lights, entered the Guinness Book of Records as the tallest Christmas tree in the world. In Nazi Germany, because Nazi ideologues saw organized religion as an enemy of the totalitarian state, propagandists sought to deemphasize or eliminate altogether the Christian aspects of the holiday, and propagandists tirelessly promoted numerous Nazified Christmas songs, which replaced Christian themes with the regime's racial ideologies.
The Evolution Of Symbols
Nativity scenes are known from 10th-century Rome and were popularized by Saint Francis of Assisi from 1223, quickly spreading across Europe. The tradition of the Nativity scene comes from Italy, with one of the earliest representations in art of the nativity found in the early Christian Roman catacomb of Saint Valentine, dating to about AD 380. Another, of similar date, is beneath the pulpit in Sant'Ambrogio, Milan. For the Christian celebration of Christmas, the viewing of the Nativity play is one of the oldest Christmastime traditions, with the first reenactment of the Nativity of Jesus taking place in AD 1223 in the Italian town of Greccio. In that year, Francis of Assisi assembled a Nativity scene outside of his church in Italy and children sang Christmas carols celebrating the birth of Jesus. Each year, this grew larger, and people traveled from afar to see Francis's depiction of the Nativity of Jesus that came to feature drama and music. The Christmas tree was first used by German Lutherans in the 16th century, with records indicating that a Christmas tree was placed in the Cathedral of Strassburg in 1539, under the leadership of the Protestant Reformer, Martin Bucer. In the United States, these German Lutherans brought the decorated Christmas tree with them, and the Moravians put lighted candles on those trees. The English language phrase Christmas tree is first recorded in 1835 and represents an importation from the German language. The traditional colors of Christmas decorations are red, green, and gold, with red symbolizing the blood of Jesus, green symbolizing eternal life, and gold symbolizing royalty. The first commercially produced decorations appeared in Germany in the 1860s, inspired by paper chains made by children. Since the 16th century, the poinsettia, a native plant from Mexico, has been associated with Christmas carrying the Christian symbolism of the Star of Bethlehem, in that country it is known in Spanish as the Flower of the Holy Night. Mistletoe features prominently in European myth and folklore, and it is customary to hang a sprig of mistletoe in the house at Christmas, and anyone standing underneath it may be kissed.
The Gift Bringer Mythos
The best known of the gift-bearing figures today is the red-dressed Santa Claus, of diverse origins. The name Santa Claus can be traced back to the Dutch Sinterklaas, which is Saint Nicholas. Nicholas was a 4th-century Greek bishop of Myra, noted for the care of children, generosity, and the giving of gifts. His feast day, December 6, came to be celebrated in many countries with the giving of gifts. Saint Nicholas traditionally appeared in bishop's attire, accompanied by helpers, inquiring about the behavior of children during the past year before deciding whether they deserved a gift or not. By the 13th century, Saint Nicholas was well known in the Netherlands, and the practice of gift-giving in his name spread to other parts of central and southern Europe. At the Reformation in 16th and 17th century Europe, many Protestants changed the gift bringer to the Christ Child or Kris Kringle, and the date of giving gifts changed from December 6 to Christmas Eve. The modern popular image of Santa Claus, however, was created in the United States, and in particular in New York. The transformation was accomplished with the aid of notable contributors including Washington Irving and the German-American cartoonist Thomas Nast, who lived from 1840 to 1902. Following the American Revolutionary War, some of the inhabitants of New York City sought out symbols of the city's non-English past. New York had originally been established as the Dutch colonial town of New Amsterdam and the Dutch Sinterklaas tradition was reinvented as Saint Nicholas. Current tradition in several Latin American countries holds that while Santa makes the toys, he then gives them to the Baby Jesus, who is the one who actually delivers them to the children's homes, a reconciliation between traditional religious beliefs and the iconography of Santa Claus imported from the United States. In Italy's South Tyrol, Austria, the Czech Republic, Southern Germany, Hungary, Liechtenstein, Slovakia, and Switzerland, the Christkind brings the presents. Greek children get their presents from Saint Basil on New Year's Eve, the eve of that saint's liturgical feast.
Feasts And Fruits Of Winter
A special Christmas family meal is traditionally an important part of the holiday's celebration, and the food served varies greatly from country to country. Some regions have special meals for Christmas Eve, such as Sicily, where 12 kinds of fish are served. In the United Kingdom and countries influenced by its traditions, a standard Christmas meal includes turkey, goose or other large bird, gravy, potatoes, vegetables, sometimes bread, and cider. Special desserts are also prepared, such as Christmas pudding, mince pies, fruit cake and Yule log cake. In Poland and Scandinavia, fish is often used for the traditional main course, but richer meat such as lamb is increasingly served. In Sweden, it is common with a special variety of smörgåsbord, where ham, meatballs, and herring play a prominent role. In Germany, France, and Austria, goose and pork are favored. Beef, ham, and chicken in various recipes are popular worldwide. The Maltese traditionally serve Imbuljuta tal-Qastan, a chocolate and chestnuts beverage, after Midnight Mass and throughout the Christmas season. Slovenes prepare the traditional Christmas bread potica, bûche de Noël in France, panettone in Italy, and elaborate tarts and cakes. Panettone, an Italian type of sweet bread and fruitcake, originally from Milan, Italy, is usually prepared and enjoyed for Christmas and New Year in Western, Southern, and Southeastern Europe, as well as in South America, Eritrea, Australia and North America. The eating of sweets and chocolates has become popular worldwide, and sweeter Christmas delicacies include the German stollen, marzipan cake or candy, and Jamaican rum fruit cake. As one of the few fruits traditionally available to northern countries in winter, oranges have been long associated with special Christmas foods. Eggnog is a sweetened dairy-based beverage traditionally made with milk, cream, sugar, and whipped eggs, which gives it a frothy texture. Spirits such as brandy, rum, or bourbon are often added, and the finished serving is often garnished with a sprinkling of ground cinnamon or nutmeg.
Calendars And Conflicts
Most scholars believe that the choice of December 25 was linked in some way with the sun, the winter solstice and the popularity of solar worship in the later Roman Empire. Greco-Roman writers in the 2nd and 3rd centuries called December 25 the birth day of the Sun, and the early Church linked Jesus to the Sun and referred to him as the true Sun or Sun of Righteousness. In the early 5th century, Augustine of Hippo and Maximus of Turin preached that it was fitting to celebrate Christ's birth at the winter solstice, because it marked the point when the hours of daylight begin to grow. The history of religions or substitution theory proposes that the Church chose December 25 as Christ's birthday to appropriate the Roman winter solstice festival, the birthday of the god Sol Invictus, which had been held on this date since 274 AD. However, the calculation theory proposes that the date arose from Christian chronography rather than from an effort to supplant a pagan festival. It was first proposed by Louis Duchesne, who conjectured that early Christians believed Jesus was conceived and died on the same date, yielding a March 25 conception and December 25 birth nine months later. Some jurisdictions of the Eastern Orthodox Church, including those of Russia, Georgia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Jerusalem, mark feasts using the older Julian calendar. Since Christmas 1899 until Christmas 2099 inclusive, there is a difference of 13 days between the Julian calendar and the modern Gregorian calendar. As a result, December 25 on the Julian calendar currently corresponds to January 7 on the calendar used by most governments and people in everyday life. Therefore, the aforementioned Orthodox Christians mark December 25 and thus Christmas on the day that is internationally considered to be January 7. However, following the Council of Constantinople in 1923, other Orthodox Christians, such as those belonging to the jurisdictions of Constantinople, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Antioch, Alexandria, Albania, Cyprus, Finland, and the Orthodox Church in America, among others, began using the Revised Julian calendar, which at present corresponds exactly to the Gregorian calendar. Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine officially moved its Christmas date from January 7 to December 25, to distance itself from the Russian Orthodox Church that had supported Russia's invasion. This followed the Orthodox Church of Ukraine formally adopting the Revised Julian calendar for fixed feasts and solemnities.