European influences on Christmas Customs

Although Christmas had been officially established in Rome by the fourth century, another pagan celebration later greatly influenced the many Christmas customs practiced today. The festival was the Teutonic feast of the Twelve Nights, celebrated from Dec. 25 o Jan. 6. This festival was based on ht supposed mythological warfare between the forces of nature – specifically winter (called the ice giant) which signified death, vs. The sun god, representing life. The winter solstice marked the turning point: Up until then the ice giant was at his zenith of power; afer that the sun god began to prevail.

“As Christianity spread to northern Europe, it met with the observance of another pagan festival held in December in honor of the sun. This time it was the Yule-feast of the Norsemen, which lasted for twelve days. During this time og-fires were burnt to assist the revival of the sun. Shrines and other sacred places were decorated with such greenery as holly, ivy, and bay, and it was an occasion for feasting and drinking.

“Equally old was the practice of the Druids, the caste of priests among the Celts of Ancient France, Britain, and Ireland, to decorate their temples with mistletoe, the fruit of the oak-tree was sacred to Odin, their god of war, and they sacrificed to it until St. Boniface, in t eight century, persuaded them to exchange it for the Christmas tree, a young fir-tree adorned in honor of the Christ child... It was the German immigrants who took the custom to America” (L.W. Cowie and John Selwyn Gummer, The Christian Calendar, 1974, p. 22).

Instead, of worshipping the sun god, converts were told to worship the Son of God. The focus of the holiday subtly changed, but the traditional pagan customs and practices remained fundamentally unchanged. Old religious customs involving holly, ivy, mistletoe and evergreen trees were merely dressed up in Christian attire. W should keep in mind that Jesus Christ warn us to beware of things that masquerade as something they are not (Matthew 7:15).

THE ROOTS OF MODERN CUSTOMS (5)

Many of the other trappings of Christmas are merely carryover from ancient celebrations.

Santa Claus comes from Saint Nicholas, the “saint whose festival was celebrated in December and the one who in other respects was most nearly in accord with the dim traditions of Saturn as the hero of the Saturnalia” (Walsh, p. 70).

“On the Roman New Year (January 1), houses were decorated with greenery and lights, and gifts were given to children and the poor. To these observances were added the German and Celtic Yule rites. . .Food and good fellowship, the Yule log and Yule cakes, greenery and fir trees, gifts and greetings all commemorated different aspects of this festive season. Fires and lights, symbols of warmth and lasting life, have always been associated with the winter festival, both pagan and Christian” (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15^th edition, Micropaedia, Vol II, p. 903, “Christmas”).

In midwinter, the idea of rebirth and fertility was tremendously important. In the snows of winter, the evergreen was a symbol of the life that would return in the spring, so evergreens were used for decoration... Light was important in dispelling the growing darkness of the solstice, so a Yule log was lighted with the remains of the previous year’s log . . . As many customs lost their religious reasons for being , they passed into the realm of superstition, becoming good luck traditions and eventually merely customs without rationale. Thus the mistletoe was no longer worshipped but become eventually an excuse for rather nonreligious activities” (Gerard and Patricia Del Re, p. 18).

Christmas gifts themselves remind us of the presents that were exchanged in Rome during the Saturnalia. In Rome, it might be added, the presents usually took the form of wax tapers and dolls, - the latter being in their turn a survival of the human sacrifices once offered to Saturn. It s a queer thought that in our Christmas presents we are preserving under another form one of the most savage customs of our barbarian ancestors!” (Walsh, p. 67).

(taken from Holidays or Holy Days Does it Matter,p.6, 2006 reprint)