Christmas History
I am preparing for my third in a three part series entitled "Christmas is about . . " and I have been struck by the amount of non-Christ related stuff that is part of what we define as Christmas. To begin with, most scholars believe Jesus wasn't even born on the 25th of December. He was most likely born in the fall or spring - I prefer the fall. We don't know the exact date of His birth or even the exact year - but we do know that He was born and that's what's important.
Furthermore, there is no evidence in the Gospels or any of the New Testament for that matter that Jesus or His disciples or anybody else in the early Church ever celebrated His birthday. The first official mention of Christ's birthday being on the 25th of December was in 354 A.D. And this has no Biblical basis to it whatsoever. What many scholars believe happened is that the Church became the official state religion after Constantine's Edict of Toleration in 313 A.D. and the church leaders started trying to convert the masses. To do this they needed to get rid of the pagan practices, holidays, and traditions. One of the big pagan celebrations of the day was the winter solstice which has it's roots all the way back in the days of Babylon. Winter Solstice was celebrated on the darkest day of the year in an effort to convince the god's (mainly the sun god) to bring back the daylight. Well what a better way to keep people from celebrating a pagan religous holiday than to replace it with one of your own. So Christ - mass was inaugurated and celebrated ever since. But what we find happening is that most of these purely pagan rituals and traditions just became acceptable Christian ones and over time no one noticed anymore or cared. The Christmas tree, decorations, mistletoe, yule log, and many more things associated with Christmas all really have pagan orgins.
Have we redeemed these things and turned them into Christ worshipping symbols? Maybe and maybe not. My prayer for this and all future Christmas holidays is that people seperate the fluff and tradition from the real meaning and stuff of Christmas. If you're going to celebrate Christmas then celebrate Christ, His work on the cross, the redemption of mankind through His sacrifice, and the hope we have within us of one day being with Him in heaven. That to me is what Christmas should be all about - nothing more - nothing less. God in His love giving us hope of salvation.
Furthermore, there is no evidence in the Gospels or any of the New Testament for that matter that Jesus or His disciples or anybody else in the early Church ever celebrated His birthday. The first official mention of Christ's birthday being on the 25th of December was in 354 A.D. And this has no Biblical basis to it whatsoever. What many scholars believe happened is that the Church became the official state religion after Constantine's Edict of Toleration in 313 A.D. and the church leaders started trying to convert the masses. To do this they needed to get rid of the pagan practices, holidays, and traditions. One of the big pagan celebrations of the day was the winter solstice which has it's roots all the way back in the days of Babylon. Winter Solstice was celebrated on the darkest day of the year in an effort to convince the god's (mainly the sun god) to bring back the daylight. Well what a better way to keep people from celebrating a pagan religous holiday than to replace it with one of your own. So Christ - mass was inaugurated and celebrated ever since. But what we find happening is that most of these purely pagan rituals and traditions just became acceptable Christian ones and over time no one noticed anymore or cared. The Christmas tree, decorations, mistletoe, yule log, and many more things associated with Christmas all really have pagan orgins.
Have we redeemed these things and turned them into Christ worshipping symbols? Maybe and maybe not. My prayer for this and all future Christmas holidays is that people seperate the fluff and tradition from the real meaning and stuff of Christmas. If you're going to celebrate Christmas then celebrate Christ, His work on the cross, the redemption of mankind through His sacrifice, and the hope we have within us of one day being with Him in heaven. That to me is what Christmas should be all about - nothing more - nothing less. God in His love giving us hope of salvation.
posted by Nazman at
6:45 PM
1 Comments:
Hey Nazman! Its great to see you jumping into the blogosphere. Your entry reminds me of the next section of Colossians we'll be getting into at bible study. Colossians 2, which brings the heavy weight of the preeminence and fullness of Christ to the Church.
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