Christmas Traditions

Christmas is special. Christmas is magic. It is a time of warmth and peace. A season when we can revel unashamedly in nostalgia and tradition. The cynics amongst us have described Christmas as a period of preparations, invitations, anticipations, relations, frustrations, prostration and recuperation! But to most of us it is, above all else, a time of celebration. It often has been, and let’s hope it always will be.

In the Christian globe Christmas is celebrated in remembrance of the birth of Christ but many of the traditions associated with a modern day Christmas stem back many thousands of years.

In 440AD at a meeting held on December 25, the leaders of the Christian Church fixed that day as the date to observe the birth of Christ. It is literally the ‘Mass of Christ’. But, strangely, the rituals linked with this religious festival are of pagan origin and had been celebrated lengthy just before Christ was born.

Because time immemorial it has been in Man’s nature to worship some thing, and simply because all life appears so dependent on that burning ball of fire in the sky, so vital to the achievement of harvests, early man went down on his knees and prayed to the sun. In the winter, the strength of the sun getting less, it became necessary to slaughter animals for food, and these became the first religious sacrifices.

In December, the annual rebirth of the sun turned into an critical festival, and a lot of traditions and rituals became established.

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In Rome on 25 December the Dies Natalis Invicti Solis was celebrated – the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun – sacred to Mithras, the god of light, and to Attis, the Phrygian sun god. The festival was recognized as the Saturnalia and was a period of celebrations from 17 December proper by means of to the New Year (Kalends) when the Latins rejoiced that the days had been finding longer and the energy of the sun stronger.

It was a time of real merrymaking, when bonfires had been lit, houses were decorated with unique greenery, people gave every other presents, and there had been lots of fun and games. We’re not talking about blowing up balloons and playing computer games, but an early form of charades in which slaves dressed up as their masters, and lords pretended to be servants, and it is stated that men and women danced by way of the streets wearing extremely little except some blackened faces and a smile!

These pre-Christian celebrations didn’t just take location in ancient Rome, for at the identical time in Europe the winter solstice, when the sun is farthest from the equator and at the point when it appears to be returning, became identified as the Festival of Yule. In Britain, France (Gaul), Germany, Denmark, Sweden and particularly Norway, the Yule or ‘Juul’ celebrations became the highlight of the year.

Yule logs and candles were lit to the gods Odin and Thor, houses had been decorated with evergreens, Yule food and drink had been ready, and mistletoe was ceremoniously cut. Even though over two thousand years old, the Yule traditions are nonetheless continued right now.

In Britain, the Druids celebrated the Festival of Nolagh and it is thought by some that Stonehenge was built as a temple to the sun, constructed in such a way that it cast shadows wherever the sun happened to be.

In fact, practically every country in the world, from China to India, from South America to the Middle East, held celebrations at this time of year.

In Greece it was the birthday of Hercules, Ceres and Bacchus (an excuse to indulge in the grape) although the Egyptians claimed it as the feast day of Horus. But it was not until the fourth century that Pope Julius I decided that 25 December need to be celebrated as the birthday of Jesus Christ, and Christmas as we know it began.

We now celebrate Christmas each and every year, but with a small bit of pagan tradition: a Norse Yule log Druid candles a drop of wine from Saturnalia and a feast from the winter solstice. The evergreens and mistletoe nonetheless decorate our homes, and each and every year we continue to give presents to those we enjoy. That is the magic of Christmas.