When: annually, December 25.
December 25 is Christmas (Day), the day that follows Christmas Eve the Christmas Eve. This is the day when the Christian world reflects on the birth of Jesus Christ.
Origin
When it comes to the origins of Christmas and the time of the year when the celebrations take place, this is because, at some point in time, it was decided that this would be the best moment in the year to do so. Meaning that the events described in the Christian bible didn’t necessarily take place in December. The Roman Catholic church decided that all heretic festivities at the end of the year had to be abolished. Even when Christianity was introduced in most of the Western world, many people celebrated in a way like many people did long before Christianity was introduced in this part of the world. Therefore, Christmas was introduced. Not only that, the birth of Jesus Christ of Nazareth became more important. Up until the moment this was decided, the bible story about the crucifixion and the Easter resurrection was deemed more important by the Vatican because it emphasised how the son of God would have died for the sins of all mankind. Suffering was central and mankind had to behave accordingly.
The birth of Jesus Christ of Nazareth takes centre stage. His name is special, by the way, because he was born in a stable in Bethlehem according to the Christmas story. That is the Christian part of Christmas. The festivals that took place in December go back much further in history. Long before Christianity existed. Until the fourth century, it was not even common to celebrate Christmas. The Passion of Christ was central to the Vatican and they wanted to emphasise this in many ways.
In ancient cultures, whose echoes of Roman culture and Germanic culture perhaps resonated hardest for the Vatican, winter festivals played a major role. These feasts had rituals of their own and continuing them was a kind of violation of the rituals of Christianity, it was felt. Since there was no clarity on the exact date of Christ’s birth, this had never been an issue. People did not want to bother with it. When people did start doing so, they arrived at a calculation based on the solstice and surprisingly, that was roughly around the Winter Solstice. So one ended up with December 25. Quite “coincidentally”, that was precisely when many ancient festivals and rituals took place. Quite coincidentally, yes.
Source:Harm Jagerman.
Christmas trees
There was a time when Christmas trees were not common during Christmas celebrations, as they were seen as pagan. The history of the Christmas tree can be traced back to the Germanic tribes. They were not conifers then, but oak trees. The Germanic tribes presumably gave these a prominent role during their midwinter festivals on the shortest day (also known as the Winter Solstice). The trees were then possibly burnt when they were too old, although no hard evidence for this has been found.
Source: Harm Jagerman.
From the thirteenth century, trees were provided with candles, although this was not common throughout Western Europe, as is sometimes suggested. Only from the sixteenth century onwards was it more common for trees to be decorated. This involved decorating trees with candles, food and coloured paper. A couple of centuries later, in the nineteenth century, the tradition took off and originated in French-German Alsace. Over time, this area was disputed by France and Germany. The area now belongs to France. Decorating the trees met resistance from the church. This was a pagan custom.
It was eventually the German Lutheran churches that were the first to accept Christmas trees. After that, it took a long time for the tradition to gain popularity outside Germany. First, the tradition was adopted by retailers in the UK. People thought it looked cosy, like a Christmas tree in the shop window. From that thought, the idea arose that it would also do well in a living room. By the end of the 19th century, even the British royal family was ready for a Christmas tree. The Vatican, however, didn’t follow. A Christmas tree was first put up in St Peter’s Square in Rome in 1980.
Santa Claus
Source: Unsplash.
Besides the Christmas tree as a non-religious part of this celebration, there is another non-religious part associated with this party. That is Father Christmas. A mixture of the British Father Christmas and the Dutch Sinterklaas, made big by Coca Cola. Although the tradition of Father Christmas is older in folklore and in Skandinavia dates back to, say, Joulupukki from Finland or the Skandinavian gnomes Nisse or Tomte or numerous other folk tales, the story of Father Christmas as we know it today owes much to “A vist from Saint Nicholas” from 1823. This poem written by Clark Moore, for example, describes the names of the reindeer (eight in total), which were then supplemented by Robert L. May in the 1939 book “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”. This brought the number to nine reindeer.
It was not Coca-Cola that came up with the figure itself. The company was, however, responsible for raising Santa’s profile. That started in 1931. Haddon Sundblom was responsible for the final design when you can speak of that. A jolly Santa as we know him today. Until then, there was no uniformity. Some made it a smiling old man who looked a lot like St Nicholas, while others made it an angry man. Moreover, the location where he lived was not uniform either. From 1931, that became the North Pole. Sundblom’s goal was to sell Coca-Cola, so there had to be a relationship with the soft drink brand. Hence red clothing with white accents. That worked out nicely because that was already being done. That was not Sundblom’s idea. It had everything to do with colours that were already associated with the Christmas season.
Source: Harm Jagerman.
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