Ace Collins - Stories Behind the Great Traditions of Christmas

Turn Your Radio On: The Stories Behind Gospel Musics All-Time Greatest Songs

Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas

Stories Behind the Hymns That Inspire America

Stories Behind the Great Traditions of Christmas

Copyright 2003 by Andrew Collins

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Zondervan.

EPub Edition MARCH 2010 ISBN: 978-0-310-87388-4

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Collins, Ace.

Stories behind the great traditions of Christmas / Ace Collins; illustrations by Clint Hansen. 1st ed.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 0-310-24880-9

1. Christmas. 2. Christmas decorations. I. Title.

GT4985.C5475 2003

394.2663dc21

2003010892

To the staff and donors of World Missionary Evangelism, who, for the past four decades, have made every day seem like Christmas for tens of thousands of third-world orphans. My humble thanks to you for this great Christian tradition of selfless service.

Special thanks to
Rheda Jones,
Kathy Collins,
John Hillman,
and the Baylor University Library.

Its the most wonderful time of the year, or so the famous Christmas song goes. But for many Americans, a modern Christmas does not seem to hold the spirit, the charm, and the warmth of an old-fashioned holiday. Yet before we bemoan the demise of what we think Christmas was like in the old days, a time when it wasnt the most commercialized holiday in America, we might want to reexamine what Christmas past really was. There is no doubt that today this holy time of year is our most frenetic, stressful season. It is therefore only natural that Christians lament that the real reason for the season seems to have been largely forgotten in the midst of cookie baking, decorating, and office parties. It seems that the most awesome event in human history, the coming of God to earth as a babe in a manger, has been forever obscured by Santa, shopping, and merrymaking. So is it really the most wonderful time of the year?

Before we brood and protest too much over the ruin of what we think Christmas must have been like in generations long past, we might actually feel encouraged about the season we celebrate today when we consider what Christmas was really like in the days of old.

Only in relatively recent times, the past two hundred years, has Christmas even been celebrated by most Christians. Up until the 1800s, the day recognized as Christs birthday was largely a pagan celebration. Those who bemoan the lack of religious zeal in modern Christmases would have been appalled at the way people in early America celebrated the day. For a majority of people who embraced Christmas throughout history, Christ wasnt a part of the day at all. In most of the world, especially in England and America, Christmas was not a time of worship, prayer, and reflection; rather, it was a day set aside to sing bawdy songs, drink rum, and riot in the streets.

For centuries, Christmas was anything but a holy day. It was most often a sinful parade of excess, a day set aside for ignoring laws and even terrorizing citizens. Mummers, the British carolers of the day, were musicians and actors who roamed the streets, presenting plays and singing songs. Mirroring the boisterous nature of the English Christmas, these songs rarely acknowledged the Christian aspects of the holiday. Those who attended church did so in wild costumes, the messages of many priests were anything but scriptural, and gambling was common during the services. After church the poor often stormed the homes of the elite in moblike fashion, pounding on doors and windows, demanding the finest food and drink. If the hosts did not respond, the guests broke into the homes and took what they wanted. This combination holiday of Mardi Gras and Halloween was nothing like todays Christmas. The drunken celebrations hearkened back to the time when Romans and Greeks marked the winter solstice with a weeklong festival of self-indulgence. As nothing about these celebrations was staid or reverent, many devoted Christians loathed the holiday and considered it an instrument of sin and evil.

How did the Christmas that Christians recognize today as Christs birthday deteriorate into such an orgy of irreverent excess? For one thing, history tells us that it took over three hundred years for the church to decide on a day on which to honor Christs birth. In the minds of millions who go to church now, December 25th is the actual day when Mary gave birth to Jesus. It is ironic that an undeniable fact many Christians think they know about their faith has no factual basis at all.

The one biblical passage that alludes to the specific time of the incarnation all but rules out winter as being the season of Jesus birth. Logic clearly dictates that shepherds would not have been out with their flocks during the coldest time of the year. Most modern Bible scholars believe that Christ was probably born in the spring, based on what we now know of Roman census practices. Though they concede that Jesus could have been born in the summer or fall, one fact seems clear: the date of the Saviors birth was nowhere near December 25th. So why do we celebrate Christmas at a time when the birth of Christ could not have taken place? Probably because early church leaders wanted a holy day to counteract the ancient wild festivals held annually around the time of the winter solstice.

Long before the birth of Christ, almost every culture set aside the shortest days of the year as a celebration of the rebirth of the sun. For peoples whose livelihood depended on sunlight, the time when the shortest day of the year passed and the days of light became longer was an event to be marked and treasured. It was wonderful to know that the dark days of winter were finally over and spring was just ahead.

As far back as history is recorded, midwinter festivals were held in Babylon and Egypt. The ancient Germans held fertility festivals in midwinter as well. In Phrygia the birth of the sun god Attis was celebrated on December 25th, as was the birth of the sun god Mithras in Persia. The Greeks partied in late December because of the return of the sun, and during this time the Romans celebrated Saturnalia, a festival dedicated to Saturn, the god of peace and plenty. Saturnalia was the party to end all parties, running annually from the 17th to 24th of December. During this festival, public gathering places were decorated with flowers and banners; gifts and candles were exchanged; and the whole population, slaves and masters alike, celebrated with wild abandon.

To avoid religious persecution during this Roman pagan festival, early Christians decked their homes with Saturnalia holly. Yet for many who had only recently come to know Christ as Lord and Savior, the lure of the party was simply too great. While not actually worshiping Saturn, a majority of Roman Christians still participated in every facet of the weeklong revelry. Church leaders were often horrified as their members fell prey to their old habits and customs. To the leaders it seemed like sin was the central theme of the festival. They knew something had to be done, but what? For years the question remained unanswered.