WINTER-SOLSTICE CELEBRATIONS

Both these ancient holidays were observed around the winter solstice- the day of the year with the shortest period of daylight. “From the Romans also came another Christmas fundamental: the date, December 25. When the Julian calendar was proclaimed in 46 C.E. [A.D.], it set into law a practice that was already common: dating the winter solstice as December 25. Later reforms of the calendar would cause astronomical solstice to migrate to December 21, but the older date’s irresistible resonance would remain“ (Tom Flynn, The Trouble with Christmas, 1993, p.42).

Why was the date significant? “The time of the winter solstice has always been an important season in the mythology of all peoples. The sun, the giver of life, is at its lowest ebb. It is [the] shortest daylight of the year, the promise of spring is buried in cold and snow. It is the time when the forces of chaos that stand against the return of light and life must once again be defeated by the gods. At the low point of the solstice, the people must help the gods through imitative magic and religious ceremonies. Te sun begins to return in triumph. The days lengthen and, though winter remains, spring is once again conceivable. For all people, it is a time of great festivity (Gerard and Patricia Del Re, p. 15)

During the days of the apostles in the first century, early Christians had no knowledge of Christmas as we know it. But as a part of the Roman Empire, they may have noted the Roman observance of the Saturnalia while they kept their customary “feast of the Lord” (listed in Leviticus 23).

The Encyclopedia Britannica tells us: “The sanctity of special times was an idea absent from the minds of the first Christians... [who] continued to observe the Jewish festivals, though in a new spirit, as commemorations of events which those festivals had foreshadowed” (11^th edition, Vol. VIII, p. 828, “Easter”).

Over the following centuries, new, humanly devised observances such as Christmas and Easter were gradually introduced into traditional Christianity. History shows that these new days were forcibly promoted while the feast days of the apostolic times were systematically rejected. “Christmas, the [purported] festival of the birth of Jesus Christ was established in connection with a fading of the expectation of Christ’s imminent return” (Encyclopedia Britannica, 15^th edition, Macropaedia, Vol IV, p. 499, “Christianity”).

The message of Jesus Christ and the apostles – “the gospel of the kingdom of God” (Mark 1:14-15) - was soon lost. The Christmas celebration shifted Christianity’s focus away from Christ’s promised return to His birth. But is this what the Bible asks Chistians to do?

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