GLOBAL (WVDN) – As we get caught up in the joy and wonder of the season, it’s easy to forget that at some point, each and every aspect of the holiday we hold dear had its beginning. With Christmas here, let’s take a closer look at how our beloved holiday began.
Modern Christmas traditions began as a blending of an observance of Jesus’ birth with ancient pagan winter festivals such as Saturnalia and Yule. The incorporation of evergreens along with feasts, gifts and caroling solidified Christmas during the Victorian Era. Yule logs were used to symbolize light, hope and rebirth during the darkest days of the year. Now, a yule log is often a delicious cake served after a meal, though many still hold the original tradition.
On December 21 and 22, pre-Christian Europeans celebrated the winter solstice as the return of the sun. Saturnalia was a mid-December festival dedicated to the god Saturn. The festival featured feasting and gift-giving, thus heavily influencing Roman Christmas customs. The Norse festival of Yule celebrated the sun’s return with bonfires, yule logs and feasting. This is why it’s associated with modern trees and logs.
Our seasonal favorites for decorating holly, ivy and mistletoe were used by Celts to symbolize life and fertility in winter. Now we see holly grace, everything from doorways to ornaments and mistletoe overhead means you must kiss the person you’re underneath it with.
The tradition of decorating a tree for Christmas mixes pagan customs of using evergreens to represent life, along with 16th-century German Christian traditions. Most notable among those are German settlers who brought their customs of decorating trees to America. Queen Victoria made the custom popular globally. These stemmed from tales of Martin Luther adding lights and rooted fast in the German guild.
Many ancient cultures used evergreens to symbolize life. Among those were Egyptians, Romans, Celts and Vikings. Therefore, the idea of bringing evergreens in for decorating was hardly anything new. Trees and branches were used to signify life, which was very important to ancient cultures.
The winter solstice marks the shortest night of the year. Many ancient cultures believed the sun was a god. Therefore, ancient people believed winter came each year because the god became weak and sick. The solstice was celebrated because the people believed the god would get better, and bring warmer days. Evergreens were hung to make them remember all the green that would come back as the sun god became well.
Egyptians worshipped a god they called Ra. Ra had the head of a hawk and wore the sun in his crown. Ra also began to recover from being sick and weak on the solstice.
All these ancient cultures and practices led us to our modern Christmas celebration. By the mid-1800’s, Queen Victoria and her family were sketched around a Christmas tree. By the late 1800s, ornaments were arriving from Germany, and Christmas tree popularity was on the rise in the United States. Many families decorated their homes with homemade ornaments.
Santa Claus is another big part of Christmas. He evolved from a historical figure. St Nicholas was from the 4th century and a bishop known for giving gifts. His legend soon merged with European ones like Father Christmas, leading to the jolly man in the red suit we have today. For the counterpart of Santa, we have Krampus. He’s said to have horns and hooves and take naughty children to the underworld. The anti-Santa has gained popularity in recent years, but his origins date back to the 16th century.
While Christians celebrate Christmas as Christ‘s birthday, scholars believe Jesus was most likely born several months earlier due to the shepherds being in the field and other indicators that the weather wasn’t bad. It’s believed the date was chosen by the early church to coincide with Roman solstice celebrations such as Sol Invictus. Since no one can be sure when Christ was born, a day was chosen to honor his birth.
Whatever reason you celebrate, may it be the best time ever.
