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Christmas Angst
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The word "Christmas" comes from the words "Christ's mass." It's sometimes abbreviated as "Xmas," where the letter 'X' is the Greek letter "chi," which is the first letter of the word Christ. The Roman letter 'X' has also been used as an abbreviation for Christ since the 16th century. . In name, Christmas is a Christian holiday that's generally celebrated on Dec. 25th, to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ and in recognition that God came to Earth in the form of man, to atone for the sins of humanity. With some variations, the season of Christmastide begins in the evening on Dec. 24 and extends to Epiphany on Jan. 5 or to Candlemas in early Feb. . In practice, Christmas is an important festival and public holiday in most countries around the world. It was introduced into non-Christian countries by colonial rulers, by Christian minorities, and by cultural influence. The secular aspects of Christmas (such as gift-giving, Christmas trees, feasting, Santa Claus parades, etc.) are popular in both Christian and non-Christian countries. The religious part of the celebration includes attending church services, putting on plays that re-enact the Nativity, singing religious carols, displaying Nativity scenes, fasting prior to Christmas Day, and holding religious parades or processions. . The ancient history behind Christmas goes back to pre-Christian times. Some historians argue that the festival of the Roman cult of Sol Invictus (the Sun God), which took place on Dec. 25, and the Roman winter festival of Saturnalia, were taken over by church officials in the Roman Empire after its official conversion to Christianity. The Roman Christians did this supposedly to help convert Roman pagans to Christianity. They thought that if the new Christian celebrations were similar to the old pagan festivals, more people would convert. The tradition of winter solstice festivals (that involve joyful celebration, charity and friendship) were very common in pre-Christian cultures and were most likely assimilated by Christmas, as Christianity spread. The Scandinavian and Germanic pagan feast of Yule seems the most obvious example since some countries still call Christmas Yuletide. . In the 1600s, Puritans in England and in the New World actually banned the celebration of Christmas, both in and out of church, because they thought it was decadent, immoral, pagan, and too Catholic. In its place, they instituted a day of penance, rather than a day of feast. Even today, there are people trying to get it out of the public eye and out of public institutions, like schools and government buildings. . The origins of all the ways people celebrate Christmas are amazingly diverse, with deep roots in ancient history. Here are just a few of them: . Decorating with greenery, evergreen branches, ivy, holly, etc.: One origin of these Christmas decorations dates from pre-Christian times, when the Romans brought evergreen branches indoors in the winter. In ancient Jewish tradition, decorating with palm, willow and other leafy tree branches was part of a seven-day worship of God. In 15th century London, ivy symbolized the coming to Earth of Jesus, holly was said to protect against pagans and witches, and holly thorns and berries symbolized the crown of thorns that Jesus wore at his crucifixion. . Christmas trees: The origin may be traceable to the pagans in northern Europe who worshiped trees and involved them in their Winter Solstice ceremonies. Another explanation traces the origin to Martin Luther in 16th century Germany, who established the use of a decorated evergreen tree as a Protestant substitute for the Catholic Nativity scene. British royalty took up the Germanic tradition, and German immigrants also spread the use of the Christmas tree around the world. . Santa Clause: The origin probably is from a combination of pagan and Christian figures, such as the god Odin (from pre-Christian northern and western European Yuletide celebrations), Saint Nicholas (from the Greek bishop of Myra in present-day Turkey), the Dutch Sinterklaas, and the British Father Christmas from their midwinter festival. . Red and green decorations: Red symbolizes the blood of Christ, which was spilled during his crucifixion. Green symbolizes life, specifically the eternal life that Jesus brings. The red suit that Santa Claus wears replaced the blue, green or brown robe of pagan European depictions of Santa-like figures, when church officials and some artists started depicting Saint Nicholas wearing the same red that church officials wore. In the 1930s, Coca-Cola started using this new image of Santa wearing red and white in its popular ads, and the commercialized image permanently replaced the older depictions. . Jesus and the celebration of his birth: Christians call him Jesus Christ and believe he is the Messiah and God incarnate. The Hebrew or Aramaic name for Jesus is Yeshua, but modern Jews call him Yeshu. Jews don't believe that Jesus is the Messiah or God incarnate. In Islam, Jesus is called Isa. Muslims believe Isa was an important prophet, but not God incarnate. Nobody really knows what year Jesus was born, let alone which month and day, so it's probably inaccurate to celebrate Dec. 25th as his birth. In the ancient mythologies of Egypt, Greece, Rome, Babylon and India, there are some pagan gods who are similar to Jesus, such as Attis of Phrygia, Adonis of Phoenicia, Tammuz of Babylonia, Osiris of Egypt, etc. Some people say that the Bible was just copied from other ancient mythologies, but others vehemently deny that. The roots of worshiping a figure who was born of both a king/god and a virgin mother and who died and was resurrected are ancient, but it's hotly debated whether those ancient myths gave rise to worshiping Jesus and thus to Christmas. . Christmas caroling: Also known as "wassailing" in Old English. The history of wassailing, or caroling, is ancient. The origin of the word "carol" goes back through the old French "caroler" and the Latin "choraula" to the Greek "choros," which was a circling dance often accompanied by singing and associated with dramatic performances, religious festivals, and fertility rites. Pagan wassailing was a ritual performed to ensure a good apple harvest, where the peasants would form a procession and go from orchard to orchard singing to the trees to wake them up and scare away evil spirits. Other ancient wassailing traditions involved peasants banging on the door of their feudal lord and demanding food and drink, in exchange for the peasants' goodwill and blessing. The tradition of modern caroling for Christmas probably started in England in the 1300s. . Really, the history of Christmas is long enough to write books about. It fascinates me how it's such an evolution, or even mish-mash, of so many other traditions. It's nearly impossible to separate the religious aspects of it from the secular. It's because of this long history and diversity of the holiday that I really don't understand how some people can claim to be keepers of the true meaning of Christmas. It seems to me that there's at least some small part of Christmas that can be embraced by just about everybody. So, again, why does Christmas cause so many bad feelings? I don't get it...
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I couldn't agree with your hypothesis more Trainme. I'm not sure where the anger and frustration comes from, but I do know that people have lost touch with the true meaning of Christmas. The simplicity of the holiday is lost in the commercialism created by the media and the commercial world in general. The Normal Rockwell painting is just that a painting. We are imperfect beings trying to create that perfect atmosphere. Why? We read it in a magazine or saw a movie and wish the same in our lives? This is a time for celebration and thanks. The simple parts of life are lost and for many need to be rediscovered. Not in a toy store or clothing store, but in their hearts. I don't know if they know how to look. Even if they find it, they still may not know what to do. It's a sad cometary of today's world. Bud Always Ready for Fun.
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I couldn't agree with your hypothesis more Trainme. I'm not sure where the anger and frustration comes from, but I do know that people have lost touch with the true meaning of Christmas. The simplicity of the holiday is lost in the commercialism created by the media and the commercial world in general. The Normal Rockwell painting is just that a painting. We are imperfect beings trying to create that perfect atmosphere. Why? We read it in a magazine or saw a movie and wish the same in our lives? This is a time for celebration and thanks. The simple parts of life are lost and for many need to be rediscovered. Not in a toy store or clothing store, but in their hearts. I don't know if they know how to look. Even if they find it, they still may not know what to do. It's a sad cometary of today's world. Bud . I think what I realized by doing all the research I did is that there is no "true meaning" of Christmas. It's been so many different things to so many different people throughout history and in so many places around the world, that it's impossible for anyone to say how Christmas should properly be celebrated. It's been everything from a day of penance to an extended time of drinking alcohol, feasting and gift-giving.
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Lots of people don't know that. It's interesting to hear people criticize the use of Xmas as though it's something non-religious and as though it's taking the "Christ" out of Christmas, which is not true at all. I also noticed that Christina Aguilera calls herself Xtina. 
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