The Real Reason for the Season...the history of Christmas and it's icons...

so...i can be serious once in awhile..right?

Christmas, December 25th, by popular belief, is supposed to be the celebration of Jesus Christ's birth. It is supposed to be a "holy" holiday throughout the entire Advent season into the New Year. But when did this all start? Who started it? and Why?

First of all, Christ's birth was no where near December 25th. In fact, the New Testament doesn't even mention when the date was as the date was not important back in the days Jesus and shortly after his death. Biblical scholars have tried to pinpoint the date by several means. One of them is using the New Testament as a historical guide as to who was in power at that time, which was Herod. Also, by calculating back to when the "star of bethlehem" would be prominent in the night sky over that area. Three dates were equated: March 28th, November 18th and September the 11th.

 

Roman pagans celebrated the Saturnalia Festival. it was a festival that ran from December 17th to December 25th. it was a week of debauchery, lechery, and lawlessness. The Roman Emperor lifted the laws of the land and the subjects were allowed to do whatever they wanted without punishment.

 

 

in some roman precincts, they would pick a name by lottery before the festival. that person's name, man or woman, would be labelled an "enemy of the state". for the week of saturnalia they were allowed as much food, wine, and sex as they wanted. Then on December 25th, they were killed, usually poisoned by the fruit of mistletoe. this was the way the romans used to think they would rid themselves of the "bad spirits" in their precinct.

the practice moved ahead later on to include everyone in the lawlessness, gratuitous sex, widespread intoxication, rape. Some of the tamer traditions were going from neighbor to neighbor's home singing in the nude which may be a pre-cursor for how caroling started. also, another precursor to holiday tradition, the Romans used to make human shaped biscuits that they would consume only during this particular time of year. Was this where gingerbread men came from?

 

In 4th century A.D., christians tried to conform Saturnalia into some form of christian celebration and convert the roman pagans into christians. the agreement the church made with the new converts was this: still practice Saturnalia, but the last day, December 25th, is to be kept holy to recognize the Christ's birth who was born to forgive them of their week long debauchery. It was for this reason (the Church meshing Saturnalia with the Christ's Birth) that the Puritans who settled America made Christmas illegal to celebrate in Massachusettes from 1659 to 1681.

 

In 1466, Pope Paul the Second, revitalized the depraved traditions of Saturnalia by forcing Jews to overeat and then run naked in the streets of Rome allowing any Roman christian citizen to do whatever they wanted to them.

 

 

 

n the 1880's Pope Gregory had polish rabbis walk the streets in clown suits during Saturnalia/Christmas. Sometimes this caused anti-semetic riots killing, raping and injuring many jews in those communities.

hat of Christmas Trees?

the Saturnalia cults and the Asheira cults worshipped and decorated trees in the forest. The Church, wanting people out of the forest who were out there fornicating and sacrificing, back into their homes, so they started the tradition of having the tree in their homes.

 

 

 

What is the Significance of Mistletoe?

in Norse mythos, Balder was killed by a mistletoe tipped arrow by his rival Hoder over a woman's heart.

Saturnalia followers would use the mistletoe fruit to poison the sacrifices on Dec. 25th.

the Church used the "kissing under the mistletoe" practice to lighten up the festival orgies going on around them, hoping to quell their followers (converts) to just kissing.

 

 

 

how did the Gift Giving tradition Start?

Pre-Christian Roman Emperor's used to make the most despised Roman citizens give them gifts at the end of Saturnalia (Dec 25th). After the Christians came into Rome, the practice of gift giving was changed to everyone exchanging gifts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus:

Nicholas was born in Turkey. He became the Bishop of Myra and one of the many Bishops in the Council of Nicaea that transcribed the New Testament. It was his belief that the Jews were "the children of Satan who sentenced Jesus to death".

After his death he was given Sainthood. Jesuit followers of St. Nicholas moved his bones to Bari, Italy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The St. Nicholas cult absorbed another cult there who followed a diety known as "Pasqua Epiphania" or "The Grandmother" who was known to deliver gifts to children in their stockings. The St. Nicholas cult picked up this practice and took over her shrine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

as the St. Nicholas cult moved northward, the Norse and Celtic Pagans adopted the St. Nicholas beliefs and melded his image with their god Woden. St. Nicholas shed his mediteranean look, grew a long white beard, wore winter clothing and flew through the night on his flying horse,  on December 6th to deliver gifts to people. After the Catholic Church took back the icon of their Saint, they changed his flight plan to December 24th.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

in 1809, Washinton Irving wrote the book "Knickerbocker History" satirizing Dutch folklore using St. Nicholas' Dutch name "Santa Claus".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

in 1822, Dr. Clement Moore, a college professor, wrote and published a poem influenced from his reading of Knickerbocker History. The poem was "Twas the Night Before Christmas". It was Dr. Moore who created the chimney myth and the 8 tiny reindeer.

  

from the 1860's to the 1880's a Bavarian illustrator for Harper's Weekly, drew cartoons of St. Nick. it was this illustrator that gave Santa his north pole address, his workshop and elves, the nice or naughty list, all of his ideas were sprung from Dr. Moore's poem.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 1931, Coca-Cola hired Swedish commercial artist Haddon Sundblom, to come up with a Coke drinking Santa for their ads. Sundblom modeled his santa after his friend Lou Prentice because he was fat, jolly, and always smiled. Coke executives insisted that Sundblom give Santa a Coca-Cola Red suit. and the rest as they say...is history.

 

Author's Note

when i graduated from college i was depressed about never being able to do a research paper again...fortunately, i realized i don't need no freakin school to tell if i can or can't write one...so i did this for fun...shut up, i know what you're thinking.

Reviews

I found this interestering .... I knew about the three dates!
And few of the thing, but alot I didn't even know! for one the coca-cola!
Thank you for sharing! Adn doing this research!
We slimmed christmas back ... years ago, just as we did with Easter! It's not about how many presents we can get or A bunny!

[Revolutionary]

I dont know ifyou have ever seen a DOC called Zietguist but if you get a chance do.I like the read.Like an article in a magazine.Very well written

[Zeek4]

Thanks for taking the time to write this informative paper. I learned many things i knew nothing about previously. I wish more people would do this kind of thing.

[Jūdan FyreHeart]

It was an interesting read; a bit of a shame you focused only on the roman pagans but still the point was made. If you look back enough you can find the roots of all christianity in other pagan beliefs and systems pre-dating it. I haven't researched and read up on it in a while mind. As much as christmas will always be celebrated within this house, I'll stick to keeping the winter solstice as the preferred holiday. :-P

[InkSlinger]

Ho Ho Ho! And everyone turns their heads and looks for.. oh never mind.. as always, you have out-done yourself again. Interesting take on Christmas and because I enjoy history so much, I found this enlightening.. Merry Christmas, and Saturnalia...

[FireWoman]

I enjoyed reading this for two reasons, it was informative and it gave me several ideas... Maybe in the 21st Century we could switch things up a bit & run pedophiles through town while the crowd bludgeoned them with anything Christmasy.

[Marianne]

AND I do appreciate you shedding light on the customs that have captured us....instead of......

[Marianne]

Well done, Bradley !! Isn't it amazing how mankind will twist an historical event of World-wide Significance to bury the TRUTH to escape it's challenges for every person ever born. Of course everyone has the option to believe or to reject the greatest miracle of the Incarnation...God in the flesh appearing on earth !
The actual date of Christ's birth may be debatable, but who will deny that he was born, lived, died and rose to redeem us and to reconcile us to our heavenly Father ??
Christmas is NOT my favorite time...I go along with it, sharing in the spirit of giving, remembering the greatest gift of all...Jesus, the Son of God.

[goltinfron_nh]

Nice review. It has been a long time since I have a concise history of Christmas like this. A joy to have a nice read and history lesson at the same time.