If you are anything like me you have enjoyed the sights, sounds, events and traditions of Christmas time without giving much thought to how these things have come to be. Let's take a few minutes to consider some of the history behind this annual festival and how it shapes today's and tomorrow's world.
Religious origins
To begin with what should be obvious: Christmas is an English language word to denote the festival of the birth of Jesus of Bethlehem during the reign of the Roman Emperor Augustus. Other languages use other words. Navidad is Spanish for the same event; in Italian it is Natale, German-speakers will say Weihnachten, with the French it is Noël, and there are numerous others. Greek was widely spoken in the Empire, especially in the eastern regions where Christianity first took hold, and was a type of lingua franca for the next fifteen centuries; notably, the Greek word for savior is Khrīstos (as rendered for our contemporary English-speaking convenience). The first reference of a Khrīstos mass occurred about one thousand years ago. Centuries before, by the year 336 the Christian bishop in Rome had selected December 25 as the date to recognize the birth of Jesus. No evidence -- whether secular or religious -- of the validity of that or any other date has been found. In any case, it was an inspired choice by positioning a celebration of the growing religion of Christianity near to the long-established and popular festivities of Saturnalia for the winter equinox.
Yule log
The yule log tradition dates its beginning to long-ago European cultures, probably prior to the Roman Empire. Its origins can be found in pre-Christian festivals celebrating the winter solstice. So, yes, it can be said to have roots in pagan culture. As an accessory to the Medieval European Christian celebration, the yule log is traditionally a very large piece of wood placed on a hearth of suitable size, first fired on Christmas Eve and rekindled each of the twelve days of Christmas. As the centuries passed the use of the hearth for providing warmth declined, and with that change the dragging of a large hunk of wood into the house became needlessly onerous and impractical. However, we can thank the creativity of 18th and 19th century French bakers for the continued existence of the yule log in its contemporary form as a dessert -- the bûche de Noël. Vive la France! Variations include the Bismarckeiche ("Bismarck oak") in Germany; the Italian tonchetto di Natale; and the Vietnamese bánh khúc cây giáng sinh ("Christmas tree log cake").
Music
Christmas music -- both sacred and secular -- is so numerous as to be beyond concise description. However, the brief carol "Silent Night" has a particularly touching origin: On Christmas Eve of the year 1818 the young Austrian priest Joseph Mohr realized that his church organ was likely to be unusable due to water damage from a nearby flooded river. It was his previously-written poem that became the lyrics for Silent Night when Mohr -- a skilled player of the guitar -- asked his friend Franz Xaver Gruber to set it to music suitable for the guitar. Gruber quickly accomplished this for a portion of the poem and the evening service included the guitar-strumming performance. Humble beginnings, indeed, for a piece that has been translated from the original German into at least 300 other languages, earned a UNESCO Heritage designation, and can be found in a heavy metal arrangement.
Christmas tree
Honors are due to the peoples of Germany for creating the Christmas tree (although Latvia and Estonia both claim to have been first in this event). Strasbourg -- now in France, but then in Germany -- is mentioned as introducing fir trees decorated with apples by 1605, and its Cathedral likely had a Christmas tree in 1539. In 1554 the nearby city of Freiburg prohibited the felling of trees for Christmas uses because the practice had become so pervasive. A Silesian duchess is known to have placed candles on Christmas trees in 1611. The custom of using greens, such as tree branches, to decorate for various holidays was already common in Germany and other parts of Europe; expanding to the once-a-year use of an entire tree was probably an easy development for some folks. But the use of Christmas trees spread slowly. England and its American colonies delayed in adopting the Christmas tree practice. It was not until 1840 that Prince Albert (originally from Germany) and Queen Victoria popularized the idea of having a Christmas tree. It caught on in Britain and easily spread to the United States.
Those quirky and influential English
Long before the time of Victoria and Albert the English were remarkable for the extravagance and lengthiness of their Christmas celebrations. In the centuries following the Norman conquest of 1066 those who were wealthy and fortunate hosted feasts and celebrations that spanned several days around Christmas. (The pre-conquest Saxon/Danish/Norse population was predominately Christian, but was not known to have given much thought to Christmas-time celebrations. The renowned Saxon King Alfred the Great of Wessex was devout and pious, but suffered from serious digestive problems and probably gave little thought to hosting lavish buffets.) English Heritage describes medieval Christmas affairs with these observations:
Medieval people really let rip with twelve full days of Christmas festivities, reaching a crescendo on 6 January, 'Twelfth Night', when presents were exchanged. . .Medieval celebrations also combined the servants-as-masters antics and gift-giving of Roman Saturnalia with customs belonging to the midwinter feast of Yule. These included the Yule Log (kept burning throughout the season), decorating houses with evergreens and eating richly decorated boar's heads, sometimes washed down with mulled 'braggot', extra-strong ale with honey and cinnamon, spiked with brandy.
Boisterous medieval festivities were directed by a Lord of Misrule, whose word was law. The Christmas games he ordered could be rough; among the tamest was 'Hot Cockles', where blindfolded victims had to guess who'd slapped them from behind. If the guess was right, the slapper became the victim. Blending devotion with drunken partying, medieval Christmases were also important state occasions, when kings ceremonially wore their crowns at feasts and lawgivings. . .Tudor Christmases were even more full-on than medieval, but were a tad less boisterous, at least at Court. . .This was also a time for plays (like Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night'). . .
Fast-forwarding to 1645 finds England convulsed by civil war, with the Parliamentarians gaining the advantage over the royalty. Puritans -- those who aimed to "purify" English society and religion by removing all vestiges of paganism, a portion of whom were the majority of settlers in New England -- discerned paganism in Christmas celebrations and so caused Parliament to officially declare that Christmas was not a holiday with religious services. In 1647 Parliament banned all Christmas festivities and celebrations. Popular feelings in favor of Christmas celebrations were supressed until 1660 when the monarchy was restored under Charles II. The Puritanical inclination towards constant hard work and limited (or no) play was overcome by royal support of the natural human desire for occasional festivity. King Charles is credited with reopening theaters and restarting traditions such as decorating churches with holly, sponsoring Christmas-oriented games, banquets and dances.
Some of this seeped into Colonial America where it took root and survived the colonialist rejection of the monarchy. Nor did it merely survive; it evolved and prospered. Even as the English author Charles Dickens strongly influenced the development of new Christmas attitudes in Victorian culture, his popularity in America caused similar acceptance here. The historical Saint Nicholas predates Dickens and the Victorians by many centuries, but the Saturday Evening Post and Coca-Cola images of Santa Claus and other similar manifestations of that quantum theory elf are contemporary lineal descendants of A Christmas Carol.
Both sacred and secular
These brief perspectives are inherently European and American in their heritage, and so can only acknowledge that there are also other Christmas experiences from entirely different cultures: Shinto and Buddhist Japan, Hindu India, Catholic and Indigenous Latin America, Africa, Asia and even Orthodox Christianity.
I think that what is common to all is this: Our own individual experiences, as well as those that are historical, show the events and activities of Christmas time as a fusion of both the sacred and the secular. The product of that fusion is a flexible environment that helps us to communicate seasonal messaging to family and friends, provide others with some charity, enjoy the time with its frivolities and festivities and take some contentment from the hope that we each do our own little part to make the world a better place.
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