This
Christmas was probably one of my
favorites, I was able to go to Savannah for my friend’s annual
scavenger hunt and to Tennessee with my Grandfather to see my Uncle
and his family. I made it home just in time to go to the Christmas
Eve service with my family and some of my mother’s friends. After the
service we all came back to my house for dinner and gifts. Everything
ran so smooth this year.
No
arguments.
No
stress.
No
complaints.
No
problems.
…but,
for some reason, the thought of Christmas was unsettling for me.
I,
like most individuals, have always known Christmas to be a time where
we recognized and celebrated Christ’s birth. Most
people, even those who are not regular church attendees will go to
the Christmas Eve service to worship or at least show
reverence– well, that is what I have found living in the Bible
belt.
While
still having that odd feeling on Christmas day, I decided to do a
little research on the origin of Christmas. Since doing my research
on the internet, I wanted to check out multiple sites in order to
adequately weigh all that I was reading.
I
was honestly kind of baffled.
This
is actually a hard topic to write on, so let me explain my heart
behind this first. I do not claim to know everything,
nor do I have a full understanding of it all. Reading about all of
this merely intrigued me and gave me a lot to think about. What you
will read below, are my thoughts,
questions, and the pea-sized amount of
understanding
I have on the topic.
Christmas
was one of the first festivals celebrated in the Christian church and
it was partly intended to celebrate the birth of our Savior as
we know it today. It is celebrated on the December 25th
because it marked the first day after the close of Saturnalia.
Saturnalia
was a week long festival, the 17th– 24th,
celebrating the lengthening of the sun (longer days) and representing
growth. It was a week of full on debauchery and sin.
Courts were closed and the law stated that no one could be punished
for the crimes they committed during this time. To begin the
festival, each community among the Roman pagans would chose an enemy,
most of them being Jewish, to basically torture throughout the week-
with the torture ending in death of the
innocent individuals.
From
my understanding, the Catholic church adopted Saturnalia in hopes of
bringing the pagans with it. Supposedly they brought many people to
the Lord by promising them they could continue celebrating Saturnalia
as Christians. Since there was nothing remotely “Christian�
about this holiday, the Christian leaders marked the 25th
Jesus’ birthday. The early Christmas holidays were celebrated by
partying, drinking, singing naked in the streets, etc.
Literally
everything we know Christmas to be, the gift giving, Christmas trees,
wreaths, mistletoe, caroling and Santa Claus, all stem from pagan
or cultic worship.
Okay,
so here are my questions and thoughts on all of this:
To
me, it seems like the early Christians just used Christmas Day, the
celebration of Christ’s birth, as a way to get pagans into the
church- a form of evangelism, if you will. However, if they did
indeed promise that they could continue celebrating Saturnalia, that
goes against everything that is CHRIST.
If
Christ tells us not to be “of the world,� then how could we adopt
such a pagan tradition to be a part of something that we know
to be holy?
Was
Christ ever in CHRISTmas?
If
not, can you put Christ in something He was never in?
As
of right now, I am not going to quit celebrating Christmas. I
have always known Christmas to be a time where friends and family get
to together; a time where we stop and thank God for sending His Son
to be the Savior of the world- and I intend to keep that tradition
going strong. The questions is whether or not I will put up a tree,
hang a wreath or mistletoe, or give into the materialism of gift
giving.
I
don’t know what I am going to do, but it definitely makes me look at
Christmas through a different lens.
