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The Christmas tree came from Germany, Christmas card from England, Santa from the USA, and secular celebrations started all over the world.
-By Bharti Raizada
To my knowledge, no other festival is as universal and controversial as Christmas.
As per M-W dictionary, the definition of Christmas is as follows:
“A Christian feast on December 25 or among some eastern orthodox Christians on January 7 that commemorates the birth of Christ and is usually observed as a legal holiday.”
Christ- Mas: is the church service that celebrates the birth of Jesus.
X- Mas: X is the Greek letter Chi that is a short form of the word Christ. In Greek, Christ’s name is Xristos. Therefore, X- mas is the same as Christ-mas. For some, X removes the religious aspect of Christmas by replacing Christ with X and this celebration then becomes more secular to them. You can fill X with anything you like.
People observe or celebrate Christmas in many different ways: religiously, in a secular way, or as a holiday. Some people do not pay any attention and become part of the Christmas in a mixed way.
Those who do not celebrate are either indifferent or wage a war against it.
Pagans are unhappy for Christianization of Saturnalia. Christians are complaining about paganization or secularization of Christmas. Some Christians believe that it is not their festival at all.
Actually, if we dig deep into it, we come to know that Christ’s birthday and life have been surrounded with assumptions. There is controversy whether he was Jewish or Christian; and whether Jews or Romans crucified him.
Contrasts between Hinduism and Christmas
Now, before we go further into the roots of this topic, let us take a glance at Christmas from the Hindu point of view. Here is how I would summarize a few contrasting points.
Christmas was invented to convert people by appropriating pagan’s original practices with Christmas. We know, the birth of Christ is not that important to Christians as his Resurrection. Protestants/Puritans do not even consider Christmas as their festival. Initially, the agenda of this celebration was conversion by assimilation.
When we adopt festivals and traditions, which are not our own, it dilutes our own traditions and festivals and slowly our celebrations are replaced and become obsolete. Additionally, it does not take long (takes only a few generations) to lose our own practices.
Why do some Hindus celebrate Christmas?
Questions/ Observations:
How is it democratic and gives equal rights when non-Christian children also have to do Christmas activities in schools?
How can one avoid this festival in Christian dominated areas? There are decorations, trees, Santa everywhere, in public places, official buildings, schools, malls, zoos, movie theaters, hospitals, parks.
You can choose not to celebrate it in your own home but you cannot close your eyes when you go out.
To answer some of these questions we need to know the history and take part in healthy discussions. A clear understanding of the festival and facts can make a solid foundation of the decision to celebrate or not.
What were the ways of Celebrations before Christmas?
Before Chistmas was ‘invented’, people all over the world used to celebrate the coming of long days in different ways. For example, people in Norse celebrated the festival Yuletide. People carried the biggest Yule log to their home and set it on fire. It gave warmth in cold days and sparks of fire represented new lives to arrive in spring. Because of daily sacrifices, food was abundant. Festivities went on for days, until the log kept burning, usually 10 to 12 days. Evil spirits stayed outside in dark and cold weather. Sacred Evergreen trees kept inside were worshiped. Evergreen represented the natural symbol of life when everything else was dead or inactive in dark and cold winters.
Mistletoe is a ceremony in which the Mistle tree is cut to make an elixir, which is supposed to increase life and fertility, and works as an aphrodisiac. Mistle is a magical, sacred plant. It grows on oak trees, symbolizes peace, and wards off evil spirits.
Saturnalia is a pagan celebration to honor the god Saturn, as the name Saturnalia itself indicates. It is a weeklong festival in December when days are very cold, dark, and gloomy. People stay inside and celebrate. They sacrifice many cattle so that they do not have to feed them in winter when it is hard to go out for food. Because of the slaughtering of cattle, there is a lot of meat, so feasting is a major part of the celebration. Holly bushes hung on doors ward off evil spirits. Role reversal occurs. Masters behave like servers; one chosen person from lower status becomes ruler for the duration of the festival. He enjoys all the freedom and good meals and at the end of the celebration, his sacrifice happens. Juvenilia is the same festival for children.
Saturnalia culminates in Winter Solstice on December 25. It is the birthday of unconquered Sun God Mithra. People honor his strength and power. It represents the end of long, dark nights and beginning of bright days.
Origin of Christmas:
Initially, Christians celebrated only the Resurrection of Jesus, not his birth. To them, Easter was more important. They believe that Jesus died in place of all other humans so that they can live i.e. he rescued humanity. For them, his work during his life and his death for saving others are more important than his birth.
During financially hard times, in ancient Rome, the Roman king ordered everyone to come to the city and pay taxes. Mary and Joseph (from Lineage of King David) also went there and Mary gave a virgin birth to Jesus. Many believe that it was spring season as days were not cold; shepherds were outside in the field with their livestock, and people from faraway places were traveling to the city. One speculation is that Jesus was born in September; therefore, Mary must have conceived him in December, probably on December 25. As life starts with conception, not at delivery, the Church decided his birthdate as December 25.
The Bible does not mention Jesus’s birthday. It was the Church which decided that his birthday is December 25, same as Mithra’s birthday, to make it more acceptable to pagans to accept Christianity and Jesus and to extinguish or replace pagan’s own festivals at that time.
The Church attacked every aspect of pagan religion, their culture, and traditions. Praying to sacred trees and gods was a sin. Pagan temples were destroyed. Christians decorated Evergreen trees with apples to make them look like apple trees in the Garden of Eden. Holly bush became crown of assimilation and replaced as much as they could with Christian symbols. Candles, which represent light shown by Christ, were originally candles of yule festival.
Pagans protested against the cutting of trees as they considered trees as God and Goddesses. Christians made a strategy and built Churches in dense tree areas. These churches represented a good place, and surrounding trees portrayed as evil, dark forces. Cross symbols were placed on trees to ward away evil spirits. The Norse God of wisdom and magic, Odin, did human and animal sacrifices there, as he believed that these dense tree areas were pious places. Christians portrayed him as an evil person.
Some Christians justify the conversions by saying that Pagans practices were bloody and violent.
Puritans worked hard to stop Christmas celebrations. They were able to remove Christian elements in it, but celebrations continued. Ornaments replaced apples on the tree.
Puritans lost the battle in England and King Charles 11 started Christmas celebrations again.
Some Orthodox Christians came to America and were able to ban Christmas in some American areas. Those who celebrated were fined.
Americans were desperately looking for holidays and celebrations, as they had no major holiday/celebration. Eventually, America reinvented the holiday and gave priority to family, charity, gifts, children, and holiday spirit.
In a nutshell, Christians appropriated Saturnalia and non-Christians appropriated Christmas.
Christmas tree
Christmas tree is the Evergreen tree of Germany. When Prince Albert of Germany married Queen Victoria, he brought this tree to the Royal Palace in England and quickly it became part of almost every home during Christmas time. Then the Christmas card came. Initially, only Catholic Churches were celebrating Christmas. Protestant Churches ignored this celebration, as they believed that Christmas is not Christian at all, it is all Pagan. When Puritans finally decided to celebrate Christmas, under tremendous pressure, they made an effort to do something different and started lighting up the trees.
The tree has pagan origins but now it represents Christian beliefs. The star at the top represents the Star of Bethlehem. Holly bushes’ prickly ends and red berries represent the torture of Jesus and his death. Christian religious symbols replaced pagan rituals
Santa
St. Nicholas was an orthodox Greek Bishop who used to give gifts to people.
According to the Dutch, there was a saint called Sinterklaas, who had a white horse and flew in the sky. He used to come to homes via chimney and left kids gifts in shoes placed near the chimney. The Dutch brought this gift-giving tradition to America.
American author Clement Clark Moore wrote a book in which the main character was Santa Claus who was flying with reindeer and coming through chimneys and leaving gifts for kids in shoes.
It is popularly held that an American author Thomas Mast gave Santa his current image, in one of his books. Since then Santa has come to be known as a jolly, old, fat man in red and white clothes, and a long, white beard. And now we see Santa everywhere, in malls, schools, public places, zoo’s, and hospitals etc.
And our ‘Santa Claus’ has supe
