THIS EARLY, the world counts down in anticipation of Christmas on Dec. 25 – the supposed birthday of Jesus Christ. Even non-Christians celebrate it, as I found out while researching on composer Irving Berlin. He was no Christian; he was the American Jew who composed “White Christmas” – first recorded by Bing Crosby in 1942.
Do you know that there was a time when the Protestant Christians denounced it for being a “duplicate” of a pagan celebration?
There is now no doubt among Bible Scholars that Jesus could not have been born on a winter day, December 25, in 4 B.C. For on the day of his birth, the shepherds in Bethlehem were out in the fields grazing sheep – an impossible scene in snowy winter. Born in a manger, the naked child Jesus could have frozen to death.
Even the year is erroneous. How could he have been born in 4 B.C. or four years before his own birth?
This is because of the error traced to calendar maker Dionysius Exiguus, who reckoned in the 6th century that Christ was born 754 years after the founding of Rome. It later turned out he was four years off in dating the year of Christ’s birth.
The celebration of the first December 25 Christmas – according to Roman Catholic Church history – occurred in Rome in 320 A.D. That date had always been celebrated by pagans as the Saturnalia or birthday of Saturn, the god of agriculture or the “Unconquered Sun.”
No, it was no coincidence. That first “mass of Christ” was aimed at converting the believers of Saturn into Christianity without discarding their cherished 12 days of feast, merry-making and gift-giving. The church fathers at that time had no choice but tolerate the inebriation and free sex that new converts had been accustomed to. The transition from the “Unconquered Sun” to “Unconquered Son” was thus accomplished.
With the Protestant Reformation in Europe in the 16th century, the followers of Martin Luther (a German) and John Calvin (a Swiss) questioned the propriety of celebrating Christmas because of its inaccurate date and its pagan origin.
The government of Scotland forbade it in 1593. It was also decreed illegal by Commonwealth England in the years 1649 to 1660. The Puritan tirade lasted over a century in Scotland and England.
However, in spite of anti-Christmas pamphlets, sermons, speeches and even incarcerations of celebrators, the Puritan opposition eventually vanished. On the contrary, the symbols of Christmas have mushroomed.
The mistletoe – a parasitic shrub that grows on oak tree and is still the most distinguished Christmas decoration in the United States and Europe – was a Saturnalian “protector against infertility, disease and poison.”
The Western world has modernized Christmas with commercial trappings. The first Christmas card surfaced only in 1843 when an Englishman, J. C. Horsly, lithographed in color on a thousand copies of stiff cardboard a group of young and old people raising glasses of wine over the words “A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you.” All copies were bought and sent. One copy, sent by John Washborn to James Peters of 22 Theberton St., Islington, London, still survives.
One of the most controversial Christmas cards ever printed is a naughty one with this riddle: “Who was the sexiest man in history? Christ, because he rose after he was dead.”
Santa Claus – a living Christmas symbol personified by a bearded, fat, red-robed gift giver – is a “reincarnation” of Saint Nicholas, a generous 4th-century patriarch of Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey). (hvego31@gmail.com/PN)
