The Christmas Story: Timeless And Multi-cultural
The Christmas story is associated with the overall atmosphere of winter at the North Pole, where this celebration originated. In winter everything is white and there is snow everywhere. Long ago, this climate forced people to sit together around a fire to warm up.
These winter feelings that things are dying, or sleeping, and waiting to be reborn allowed Christmas to gain a foothold in the Western world. The Christmas story is the story of how different traditions merge into one festival that is celebrated all over the world today.
In principle, these holidays are dominated by the birth of the baby Jesus, an important character in the Christian faith. But there is actually no historical document proving that he was born on December 25th. In fact, if you dig deeper into it, you’ll discover that Christmas even has some pagan features.
The Christmas Story
It all started in the Roman Empire, which would later become the main driving force in Christianity. The Romans celebrated a festival in which they honored the shortest day from December 17 to 23. During this festival, they honored the god Saturn, which is why they called it ‘Saturnalia’.
During this festival, the Romans gave gifts and food to the poor. It was also common for them to eat huge meals and drink a lot. To put it another way, they went all out, just as they regularly did throughout the year.
But they weren’t the only ones to celebrate this time of year. The ancient Egyptians celebrated the birth of the god Osiris on December 25. However, this is not the only similarity between Egyptian mythology and Christianity. They also believed that Horus was born from the virgin goddess Isis at the end of December.
Influence of other cultures on the origin of Christmas
December 25 was also a special day for the Greeks. They believed that Dionysos (God of wine) and Adonis (God of beauty) were born on that day. Some people even claim that the God Krishna was born on December 25th. But this is not seen as an essential part of Hinduism.
Chinese do not work on December 24 and 25. During these days they remember the shortest day. The Aztecs believed that their god Quetzalcoatl was born in the last week of December. The ancient Persians also believed that their god Mithra was born on December 25, from the virgin Anahita.
Mithraism even made an appearance in the Roman Empire after they entered Persia. It became so important within the Roman Empire that for a time there was competition with Christianity. Their traditions have subsequently been mixed with the Roman traditions of Saturnia.
How Christmas Became a Celebration
Once Christianity was established, theologians began to debate when Jesus was born. The gospel was not very clear about this. Some claimed it happened during the reign of King Herod. But others say that it only happened after Quirinius came to power in the year 6 AD.
This lack of certainty led some people to celebrate Christmas on May 20 and others on April 20. This caused a lot of confusion and so a committee was set up to put an end to this. Just as it had happened many times before.
At the time, Mithraism still had many followers, so the priests decided to designate December 25 as the birthday of Jesus.
In fact, they have given influences from the Persian faith a definitive place in Roman society. This happened in the year 345 AD, under Pope Liberius.
The Christmas story is timeless because it has its origins in so many different cultures and eras. It combines traditional celebrations of peace, friendship and togetherness in one celebration.
After all, there is something very special about that last week of the year, when we want to become better people, and we celebrate the beginning of a new life.
