It amazes me this time of year that when I ask people if they know the origin of Christmas, they have no idea. I just talked to a person who told me they prefer the version in the bible over the historical version. Really!!! So for those how want to know a short history of Christmas, here it is: "How Did Christmas Come to Be Celebrated on December 25? A. Roman pagans first introduced the holiday of Saturnalia, a week long period of lawlessness celebrated between December 17-25. During this period, Roman courts were closed, and Roman law dictated that no one could be punished for damaging property or injuring people during the weeklong celebration. The festival began when Roman authorities chose “an enemy of the Roman people” to represent the “Lord of Misrule.” Each Roman community selected a victim whom they forced to indulge in food and other physical pleasures throughout the week. At the festival’s conclusion, December 25th, Roman authorities believed they were destroying the forces of darkness by brutally murdering this innocent man or woman. B. The ancient Greek writer poet and historian Lucian (in his dialogue entitled Saturnalia) describes the festival’s observance in his time. In addition to human sacrifice, he mentions these customs: widespread intoxication; going from house to house while singing naked; rape and other sexual license; and consuming human-shaped biscuits (still produced in some English and most German bakeries during the Christmas season). C. In the 4th century CE, Christianity imported the Saturnalia festival hoping to take the pagan masses in with it. Christian leaders succeeded in converting to Christianity large numbers of pagans by promising them that they could continue to celebrate the Saturnalia as Christians.[2] D. The problem was that there was nothing intrinsically Christian about Saturnalia. To remedy this, these Christian leaders named Saturnalia’s concluding day, December 25th, to be Jesus’ birthday. E. Christians had little success, however, refining the practices of Saturnalia. As Stephen Nissenbaum, professor history at the University of Massachussetts, Amherst, writes, “In return for ensuring massive observance of the anniversary of the Savior’s birth by assigning it to this resonant date, the Church for its part tacitly agreed to allow the holiday to be celebrated more or less the way it had always been.” The earliest Christmas holidays were celebrated by drinking, sexual indulgence, singing naked in the streets (a precursor of modern caroling), etc. F. The Reverend Increase Mather of Boston observed in 1687 that “the early Christians who first observed the Nativity on December 25 did not do so thinking that Christ was born in that Month, but because the Heathens’ Saturnalia was at that time kept in Rome, and they were willing to have those Pagan Holidays metamorphosed into Christian ones.”[3] Because of its known pagan origin, Christmas was banned by the Puritans and its observance was illegal in Massachusetts between 1659 and 1681.[4] However, Christmas was and still is celebrated by most Christians. G. Some of the most depraved customs of the Saturnalia carnival were intentionally revived by the Catholic Church in 1466 when Pope Paul II, for the amusement of his Roman citizens, forced Jews to race naked through the streets of the city. An eyewitness account reports, “Before they were to run, the Jews were richly fed, so as to make the race more difficult for them and at the same time more amusing for spectators. They ran… amid Rome’s taunting shrieks and peals of laughter, while the Holy Father stood upon a richly ornamented balcony and laughed heartily.”[5] H. As part of the Saturnalia carnival throughout the 18th and 19th centuries CE, rabbis of the ghetto in Rome were forced to wear clownish outfits and march through the city streets to the jeers of the crowd, pelted by a variety of missiles. When the Jewish community of Rome sent a petition in1836 to Pope Gregory XVI begging him to stop the annual Saturnalia abuse of the Jewish community, he responded, “It is not opportune to make any innovation.”[6] On December 25, 1881, Christian leaders whipped the Polish masses into Antisemitic frenzies that led to riots across the country. In Warsaw 12 Jews were brutally murdered, huge numbers maimed, and many Jewish women were raped. Two million rubles worth of property was destroyed." I feel better now. Thank you and have a great Holiday.
if it wasnt for the Sun, the earth wouldnt have Shit like cabbage patch dolls, rock band and LCD tvs.. Oh and Socks..:sunny::sunny:
Interesting. I always had vague knowledge of Dec. 25th being chosen because its around the time of the pagan celebration of the winter solstice, but I never really knew specifics. I'm taking it back old school. This christmas i'm getting drunk, doing some naked christmas caroling, getting my community to fatten up a man for sacrifice, and rapin' bitches.
Hmm...I think I like the Santa Clause and Jesus version better myself, too. But it's very interesting, indeed.
If you wouldn't mind, you can come and carol neekid on my farm!.... Interesting how it all came about though....
Yeah let's go celebrate naked on his farm!! Since he's our host, we should honor him by picking him for the sacrifice! =D
it's not the only true story. true story: i peed my pants once in kindergarten. i prefer the fictional version of that one.
Many protestant churches banned Christmas, including in the original Massachusetts bay colony for how lavish, excessive and opulent the celebrations had become. In other places it remains a solemn day. A Christmas Carol was actually written in a time of renewed interest and birth in old Christmas traditions in England. Which on the flip side is why it's also why it's why people of Italian, French, Spanish, ect decent have the stereotype of throwing huge family feasts with all the food and liquor you could want on Christmas(or Christmas eve) since in Catholic countries the celebrations continued at full force through the years. Also fun fact, the various Eastern Orthodox churches celebrate their Christmas on Jan 7th due to the long lasting legacy of the use of the Julian calendar over the Georgian calender.(They stopped using it almost 90 years ago but the tradition lives on)
this sounds familiar But I still think the Bible version is better, quicker and stuff and smooth to handle...kinda like peanut butter
I thought Sam Walton invented Christmas back in the 1940's so he could eventually cash in on the gift giving gig. Freed Travelers version is basically what I've read and heard as the real origin. The behavior of holy mother church seems to have remained pretty constant since it's inception, violent lying, thieving swine who manage to rule by guilt and intimidation. Where's that ever get brought up in Christmas carols? The Earth based religions make far more sense to me. Have fun, light up the ever growing darkness of winter, sacrafice of some kind to appease the celestial bigshots and bring back light and warmth. And sex, hell yes, sex! Fuck anything and everything, the world looks like it's ending might as well enjoy something. Personally I honor my garden, the soil and trees and ponds, put out bird feeders, keep candles burning and pay homage to my woodstove which keeps my bony old body from freezing up solid. I think the smartest folks are those closer to the Equator, ain't no frost on their pumpkins.
Interesting post, FT. I'm not sure I necessarily agree with your nuances, though. Remember Augustine of Hippo's teaching that the process of introducing new converts to Christianity should proceed by gradual degrees, rather than by expecting them to take on board the whole faith in one great gulp ("He who would climb the highest mountsin" etc? The process of adapting the converts' pre-Christian celebrations and festivals to the requirements of Christian worship and faith fits perfectly with this, and I get really tired of all these people who suggest that because of this, the modern Christian festivals "aren't really Christian at all". Of course they are! You won't find a single Christian using Christmas to worship Saturn ... therefore to the Christian, Christmas is a major Christian festival, nto a pagan one. If non-Christians choose to mark the day in their own way, that's fine ... but it does not detract from the Christian nature of the Christian celebration. Acts of the 15th century popes (probably the lowest point in the history of the papacy) can hardly be taken as in any way indicative of the elements of the Christian faith in the 21st century, IMHO. Not actually Christ's birthday? Probably not ... but we don't know what day it was (so we have a 1 in 365 chance of being right) ... however, if we wish to celebrate the making of the New Covenant (as surely we should) then we need to choose a day to mark it one way or another. And feasting? Why not? We're not 6th century ascetics, are we? The season for abstinence is lent (conveniently timed to coincide, you may have noticed, with the season when teh food supplies of a pre-refrigeration society in the Northern hemisphere would be at their lowest ... and again I say why not?). At other times, great festivals should be celebrated with appropriate gaity and joy. And the traditional means of celebrating with great gaity and joy, across all human cultures and civilisations and faiths for the whole of history, has been the shared feast or banquet. Enjoy the festive season, and share your joy with all :daisy:
