I found a nice second hand book on Christmas Traditions from 1931 at the Guide Dogs for the Blind biggest book sale, and as Christmas approaches, thought it might be interesting to share it with my readers. Although it dates from 193, the author was well-informed and a good deal of his history, which is judicious on matters of ignorance, stands up well with modern scholarship.
The Coming of Christmas – Part 3
by William Muir Auld
Not much is known of the way in which December 25 was observed in the Empire. It probably had far more significance for the educated and official classes than for the masses. But it was sandwiched, as will be shown later, between two immensely popular folk festivals, the Saturnalia and the Kalends of January, which together converted the closing and the opening of the year into one continuous and uproarious carnival.
There was obviously a crying need for some important festival around which the faithful might rally, despite the views of those who thought, after the manner of Tertullian, that Christians were and should remain strangers to these Jewish and pagan necessities. It was desirable, not only for the mutual encouragement of the strong, but also as a means of curing in the weak and the unsteady any hankering after the flesh pots of Egypt which in their passage through the Red Sea of Baptism they were pledged to renounce.
The plain and indubitable facts are these: there was no unimpeachable tradition concerning the date of the Saviour’s Birth; and churchmen chose December 25. If the choice has any meaning at all, it was surely that thereby Christians might be afforded an anchorage in the swirling tide of frivolity, and the thoughtful votaries of Mithra, peradventure, be induced to forsake him and turn to Christ as the true Light of the World. "What more natural," writes Mr. Clement A. Miles, "than that the Church should choose this day to celebrate the rising of her Sun of Righteousness with healing in His wings, that she should thus strive to draw away to His worship some adorers of the god whose symbol and representative was the earthly sun!" '
But when all is said, in the absence of direct evidence, it is not possible to tell just why the Church chose December 25 as the day on which to feast the Birth of her Lord. All the matters alluded to had, doubtless, their due influence.
How St. Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople (398-403), regarded the matter is, to say the least, interesting; and his views are shared by others. In one of his discourses he makes reference to the heathen festival of the sun-god and says:
On this day also the Birthday of Christ was lately fixed at Rome in order that while the heathen were busy with their profane ceremonies the Christians might perform their sacred rites undisturbed. They call this (Dec.25, or viii. Kal. Jan, as the Romans wrote it), the Birthday of the Invincible One (Mithras) ; but who so invincible as the Lord? They call it the Birthday of the Solar Disc; but Christ is the Sun of Righteousness.
Once firmly established in Rome Christmas soon found wide acceptance in both East and West; though it does not seem to have been made welcome in Jerusalem till after the sixth century. January 6 robbed of all associations with the actual Nativity was forthwith relegated to a secondary place. In the East, however, it retained its time honoured connection with the Lord's Baptism; and it still possesses this significance in the Orthodox Church.
The Armenians would have nothing to do with the new Roman arrangement for feasting the Birth of Christ; and they sustain this attitude to the present day. They celebrate the Nativity on January 6, as of old, and hold that any other time is heretical. Christmas was carried to the barbarians when in the succeeding centuries they were brought within the fold of the Church. It was taken to the British Isles probably by the Celtic Church, certainly by St. Augustine, 592. Germany received it in 813 from the Synod of Mainz; but it did not pass to Norway till the tenth century, when it was introduced by King Hakon the Good.
That the newly inaugurated festival should not be lacking in splendour and appeal the days between December 25 and January 6 were caught up into one holy season, with the Birth of the divine Child at the beginning and the coming of the Magi at the end. In Rome this season from Christmas to Epiphany was known as the twelve day period; but among the peoples of the North, who reckoned by nights instead of by days, it became the famous twelve nights of the historic Christmastide.
The Coming of Christmas – Part 3
by William Muir Auld
Not much is known of the way in which December 25 was observed in the Empire. It probably had far more significance for the educated and official classes than for the masses. But it was sandwiched, as will be shown later, between two immensely popular folk festivals, the Saturnalia and the Kalends of January, which together converted the closing and the opening of the year into one continuous and uproarious carnival.
There was obviously a crying need for some important festival around which the faithful might rally, despite the views of those who thought, after the manner of Tertullian, that Christians were and should remain strangers to these Jewish and pagan necessities. It was desirable, not only for the mutual encouragement of the strong, but also as a means of curing in the weak and the unsteady any hankering after the flesh pots of Egypt which in their passage through the Red Sea of Baptism they were pledged to renounce.
The plain and indubitable facts are these: there was no unimpeachable tradition concerning the date of the Saviour’s Birth; and churchmen chose December 25. If the choice has any meaning at all, it was surely that thereby Christians might be afforded an anchorage in the swirling tide of frivolity, and the thoughtful votaries of Mithra, peradventure, be induced to forsake him and turn to Christ as the true Light of the World. "What more natural," writes Mr. Clement A. Miles, "than that the Church should choose this day to celebrate the rising of her Sun of Righteousness with healing in His wings, that she should thus strive to draw away to His worship some adorers of the god whose symbol and representative was the earthly sun!" '
But when all is said, in the absence of direct evidence, it is not possible to tell just why the Church chose December 25 as the day on which to feast the Birth of her Lord. All the matters alluded to had, doubtless, their due influence.
How St. Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople (398-403), regarded the matter is, to say the least, interesting; and his views are shared by others. In one of his discourses he makes reference to the heathen festival of the sun-god and says:
On this day also the Birthday of Christ was lately fixed at Rome in order that while the heathen were busy with their profane ceremonies the Christians might perform their sacred rites undisturbed. They call this (Dec.25, or viii. Kal. Jan, as the Romans wrote it), the Birthday of the Invincible One (Mithras) ; but who so invincible as the Lord? They call it the Birthday of the Solar Disc; but Christ is the Sun of Righteousness.
Once firmly established in Rome Christmas soon found wide acceptance in both East and West; though it does not seem to have been made welcome in Jerusalem till after the sixth century. January 6 robbed of all associations with the actual Nativity was forthwith relegated to a secondary place. In the East, however, it retained its time honoured connection with the Lord's Baptism; and it still possesses this significance in the Orthodox Church.
The Armenians would have nothing to do with the new Roman arrangement for feasting the Birth of Christ; and they sustain this attitude to the present day. They celebrate the Nativity on January 6, as of old, and hold that any other time is heretical. Christmas was carried to the barbarians when in the succeeding centuries they were brought within the fold of the Church. It was taken to the British Isles probably by the Celtic Church, certainly by St. Augustine, 592. Germany received it in 813 from the Synod of Mainz; but it did not pass to Norway till the tenth century, when it was introduced by King Hakon the Good.
That the newly inaugurated festival should not be lacking in splendour and appeal the days between December 25 and January 6 were caught up into one holy season, with the Birth of the divine Child at the beginning and the coming of the Magi at the end. In Rome this season from Christmas to Epiphany was known as the twelve day period; but among the peoples of the North, who reckoned by nights instead of by days, it became the famous twelve nights of the historic Christmastide.
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