I don't claim all the following are accurate, but I can't claim they're not either. So, just in time for Christmas, and thanks to MSN.com and Tamim Ansary (http://encarta.msn.com/column/christmasquestions.asp) : -------------------------------------- Why We Decorate Evergreen Trees, and Other Questions About Christmas By Tamim Ansary Christmas is a time of wonder. And not just the sitting-by-the-fire-staring-into-the-Christmas-lights-as-the-Yule-log-flickers-cheerfully-on-the-TV type of wonder. No, I'm talking about the kind of wonder that hits when you walk into the mall and see a 50-foot Christmas tree and a mile-long line of children eagerly waiting to sit on a costumed stranger's lap. As in: I wonder where all these traditions came from? Why do we decorate evergreen trees at Xmas? What's the X about? Who says Santa is fat and jolly? After all, we have only scattered eyewitness accounts of his Yuletide visits. So I put together a list of Christmas questions and then went looking for the answers, and here's what I found. Send Tamim Mail Have a question about Christmas? Or maybe you've got another subject that you'd like me to investigate. Send me mail! Have Americans always celebrated Christmas? Yes and no. The religious founders of the American nation, the Puritans, did not celebrate Christmas. Of course, the Puritans didn't "celebrate" much of anything, but they were particularly firm about Christmas. The Puritans once fined anyone caught observing Christmas in Massachusetts. In Connecticut, even baking a mincemeat pie was forbidden! (By the way ... Did you know that the United States Congress did not declare Christmas a federal holiday until June 26, 1870?) Is December 25th really Jesus Christ's birthday? No, December 25th is not Jesus' actual birthday. No one actually knows what day Jesus was born. The first mention of December 25th as his birthday appeared on a Roman calendar in the year 336. Why is Christmas celebrated in late December? Jesus' birthday appeared on Roman calendars after the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity. But despite Constantine's conversion to Christianity the church was still embattled: There were plenty of pagans around. The December date wasn't the result of careful historical research; it was chosen because there was a pagan tradition of feasting and celebration around this time. The church fathers wanted to offer an alternative to it. (Not everyone agreed to celebrate the birthday. Many members of the Eastern Orthodox Church delay celebrations until Epiphany, their commemoration of Jesus' baptism.) The pagan celebration in question was Saturnalia, an ancient Roman holiday honoring Saturn, god of agriculture. You might wonder who would celebrate agriculture in the dead of winter when nothing is growing. The answer is--lots of people. Late December is the winter solstice, the time of year in the Northern Hemisphere when the night is longest and the day is shortest. It is therefore one of the year's pivotal points. From this moment, darkness and death begin to ebb; light and life begin to rise. No wonder most cultures celebrate the solstice in some way. To paraphrase Bette Midler, they are celebrating the seed that in the spring becomes the rose. Saturnalia began on December 17 and ran for one week. During that festival, Romans decorated trees with bits of bright metal and then gave each other gifts for the new year. As Rome grew more corrupt, Saturnalia grew more debauched. Today, the word saturnalia means rowdy, out-of-control partying. That's probably a pretty good indication of what Saturnalia had come to in the 4th century. Perhaps there were anguished calls to "put the Saturn back in Saturnalia," but it was too late. Quiet Christmas with its spiritual glow offered deeper satisfactions than getting blind drunk for Saturnalia. Who put the "X" in Xmas? That's an easy one. In Greek, X is the first letter of Christ's name, so the letter X was frequently used as a holy symbol and an abbreviation of Christ. Substitute "X" for "Christ" in Christmas, and you get Xmas. Where did we get the tradition of the Christmas tree? The Christmas tree tradition has many roots. The Romans contributed (see above), and the pagan Germans (who later became Christians) also had solstice celebrations honoring trees. They, however, left the trees in the woods. According to legend, the Protestant reformer Martin Luther was the first to decorate a tree indoors. One night, walking in the woods, he saw stars twinkling through evergreen branches. He brought a tree home and decorated it with candles to show his children the dazzling sight. Incidentally, the Advent wreath has a similar story. The ancient Romans bestowed a "victory wreath" on athletes and warriors, and the Lutherans later absorbed this symbol into Christmas as a symbol of Christ's victory. What started the legend of Santa Claus? Santa Claus started out in Turkey as a 4th century bishop named Nicholas. Early legends said Nicholas helped poor noblemen provide dowries for their daughters by throwing gold coins down their chimneys. The coins landed magically in stockings hung by the fire to dry. Nicholas was later canonized as the patron saint of children, among others. How did Saint Nicholas become Santa Claus? Saint Nicholas's name changed as his fame spread through different language groups. The Dutch, who brought the legend to America, called him Sinter Klaas. From there, it was a short step to Santa Claus. Even so, the European legends differ somewhat from the character Americans have come to know. In Germany and Holland Saint Nicholas is sometimes said to ride through the sky on a horse, is depicted wearing a bishop's robes, and is said to be accompanied at times by Black Peter, an elf whose job is to whip naughty children. How did Santa get so fat? When the legend of Santa Claus first arrived in the United States people envisioned him as thin and gangly. It wasn't until Clement Moore's 1823 poem "A Visit From Saint Nicholas" ("Twas the night before Christmas ...") that Santa came to be seen as fat--like "a bowl full of jelly." (How rude!) Moore's image of Santa was "fleshed out" by a political cartoonist named Thomas Nast, the same man who invented the donkey and the elephant as symbols for the Democratic and Republican parties. It was Nast who created the image of Santa we know today--the fat, jolly fellow with the white beard, red suit, and silly cap. It is true, however, that Madison Avenue advertising executives played a role in shaping our image of Santa. In 1931 advertisements for Coca-Cola depicted Santa as a human-sized figure instead of an elf, and in 1939 an advertising writer for Montgomery Ward created Santa's red-nosed sidekick Rudolph. Does Santa Claus really exist? Can't answer that one. The secret of Santa Claus's existence has been entrusted to mothers and fathers. I'm not about to breach that sacred trust. If you don't know, ask your mother or father. Did You Know? The Twelve Days of Christmas is actually a catechism in code. Catholicism was outlawed in England from 1558 to 1829, and so Catholic parents developed a song to help their children secretly rehearse the points of their faith. "My true love" refers to God , the "me" symbolizes every baptized person, and the partridge is Jesus Christ. Visit Domestic-Church.com's Web site to decode the rest of the song. Have a happy holiday season! ------------------ I use smilies and I LOL -- I'm your worst nightmare.
More on "The Twelve Days of Christmas" (I don't know how accurate this is, but I found it interesting): From 1558 until 1829, Roman Catholics in England were not permitted to practice their faith openly. Someone during that era wrote this carol as a catechism song for young Catholics. It has two levels of meaning: the surface meaning plus a hidden meaning known only to members of their church. Each element in the carol has a code word for a religious reality which the children could remember. The partridge in a pear tree was Jesus Christ. Two turtle doves were the Old and New Testaments Three French hens stood for faith, hope and love. The four calling birds were the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John. The five golden rings recalled the Torah or Law, the first five books of the Old Testament. The six geese a-laying stood for the six days of creation. Seven swans a-swimming represented the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit--Prophesy, Serving, Teaching, Exhortation, Contribution, Leadership, and Mercy. The eight maids a-milking were the eight beatitudes. Nine ladies dancing were the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit--Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self Control. The ten lords a-leaping were the ten commandments. The eleven pipers piping stood for the eleven faithful disciples. The twelve drummers drumming symbolized the twelve points of belief in the Apostles' Creed. ------------------
More Christmas traditions answered... During the first two centuries after Jesus' death, Christmas was not celebrated. In A.D. 245, when a group of scholars attempted to pinpoint the exact date of Christ's birth, a church council denounced the endeavor, declaring that it would be wrong to celebrate the birth of Christ "as though he were a King Pharaoh." In spite of official disapproval, various attempts were made to pinpoint the Nativity. The result was a confusion of dates: Jan. 1, Jan. 6, March 25, and May 20. The May date became the favored one, because the Gospel of Luke (Luke 2:8) reports that the shepherds who received the announcement of the messiah's birth were watching their sheep by night. Shepherds guarded their flocks day and night only at lambing time, which was in the spring. In winter, the animals were generally kept in corrals, unwatched. By the middle of the fourth century, Dec. 25 was associated with Christmas. Pope Julius (337-352) formally selected that date in A.D. 349. But even before that, Dec. 25 was already a widely celebrated day in the Roman world. On that date, citizens observed the Natalis Solis Invicti (the birthday of the Unconquerable Sun) in honor of the sun god Mithras. The festival took place just after the winter solstice of the Julian calendar. Many modern Christmas customs such as decorating a house with greenery, exchanging gifts, and enjoying festive meals originated with this pagan celebration. Scholars believe that Pope Julius selected Dec. 25 as the date of the Nativity in order to win over followers of Mithras. In 17th-century England, Puritans objected to Christian celebrations that had no clear biblical basis. As a result, the English Parliament in 1643 outlawed Christmas, Easter, and other Christian holidays. However, Dec. 25 was so popular as a festive day, that by 1660 the citizens reclaimed it. Their neglect of the religious aspects of Dec. 25 resulted in the growing secularization of the holiday. When the Pilgrims arrived in Plymouth, Mass., in 1620, they brought with them a great dislike for Christmas. A Massachusetts law was enacted in 1659 that fined people for celebrating Dec. 25. But the day was so popular that the law was repealed in 1681, although strong religious opposition lasted into the next century. The Christmas tree tradition was started in Germany in the late 15th century. At that time, a popular theatrical performance, the Paradise Play, depicted the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise and was represented by a fir tree decorated with apples. Soon the tree was placed in the homes of Christians, who interpreted it as a symbol of the coming Savior. The apples were replaced with small white wafers representing the Holy Eucharist. Later, the wafers were replaced by small pieces of pastry cut into shapes of stars, angels, hearts, flowers, and bells. The first commercially printed Christmas cards originated in London in 1843. Sir Henry Cole, a wealthy British businessman and patron of the arts, commissioned London artist John Calcott Horsley to create a card he could proudly send to friends and professional acquaintances to wish them a "merry Christmas." Cole sent 1,000 cards in 1843. The idea of using commercially printed cards caught on. Currently, Americans exchange nearly 3 billion Christmas cards annually, making Christmas the largest card-sending holiday in the United States. Pennsylvania Germans claim to have initiated the Christmas tree custom in America in the early 1800s. The first known exhibition of a Christmas tree was held in York, Pa., in 1830. Early trees were decorated with fruits, nuts, popcorn, toys and candles. Today, more than 80 percent of American families buy and decorate a tree. The original candy cane was born in the 1670s when the choirmaster of Cologne Cathedral in Cologne Germany bent sticks of white sugar candy into canes to represent a shepherd's staff. Thus, the candy cane today is meant to symbolize the shepherds in the fields near Bethlehem who first learned about the birth of Jesus. The abbreviation "Xmas" comes from Greek Christians. "X" is the first letter of the Greek word for Christ (Xristos). By the 16th century, Xmas was widely used throughout Europe by Christians who knew that it meant "Christ's mass." Later, Christians unfamiliar with the Greek origin saw the "X" as a sign of disrespect and an attempt by unbelievers to rid Christmas of its central meaning. Some Christians still disapprove of the abbreviation, claiming, incorrectly, that it takes the "Christ out of Christmas." Christmas is the only religious holiday in America that is also a national holiday. In 1836, Alabama became the first state to declare Christmas an official holiday. By 1890, all other states followed suit. Of the many statements made about Christmas, one of the finest comes from President Calvin Coolidge: "Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas." ------------------ 'Deeds, not words, shall speak me.'
