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Paganism, Religion and Crops: A Quick Look at the History of Christmas.

It's that time of the year again to spend quality time with your loved ones, exchange gifts, reflect on the year and get ready to welcome in the new one, it's Christmas! For me, it's also a time to celebrate my faith, and the birth of Christ; although, biblical scriptures does not tell us his birthday. It's actually speculated that Christ was most likely born in the warmer seasons, which would better how the sheep herders (herding sheep at night) found baby Jesus in the manger. But I digress.

Although I personally accept Christmas' adopted religious way of celebrating, I still wondered what is the original meaning and history of this cheery day?

Let's take a quick look!

To begin, we'd have to go back and learn how some ancient civilizations welcomed the winter. Every continent, country and culture have their own unique way of celebrating the shift of seasons. For example, during the winter, Europeans (and various other cultures) celebrated the Winter Solstice, the mid-winter point. During this time, the nights are the longest because the sun is at it's lowest maximum elevation. The Europeans also looked at the mid-winter as the "re-awakening" of nature, because the long winter nights are now behind them and they can begin looking forward to the warmer weather, blossoming flowers, full trees and evergreen. For the Scandinavians, this time period was called Yule. Starting on December 21st and ending in January, they celebrated the return of the sun (welcoming longer days). The Norse (Norwegians or Scandinavians) would celebrate by burning logs brought by the family and feasting with their families, until their are no more collected logs to burn.

The Romans, on the other hand, celebrated Saturnalia, a day to observe Saturn, their god of agriculture. Originally, the holiday was a one day celebration on December 17th (133-31 B.C.), but it quickly became a week long holiday. For the Romans in that era, it was one of the most cheerful times of the year. Both government and businesses paused their operations to enjoy their friends and family. The social order was also suspended. For example, the slaves were "masters" and the owners became "slaves," and everyone would come together to gamble, eat, drink and be merry as "equals." Around this time, the Romans also celebrated Juvenalia, a day to honor the children of Rome. Meanwhile, the upper-class Romans celebrated Mirthra's, the infant god born from rocks, birthday on December 25th.

Christmas trees (pine trees, among many others types of trees) were also part of the winter solstice celebrations and pagan traditions. During Saturnalia, Romans would decorate their homes and temples with fresh green boughs. To them, it symbolized the coming season, and a time to grow vegetation, fruits and to welcome the evergreen city/town/state again. The Celts, however, used it to symbolize everlasting life, and for the Vikings, it was of Balder's, their sun god, special plant.

Keep in mind that the cultures I mentioned above that celebrate this time of year are only a few examples. There are many other examples worldwide.

Christians opting December 25th as the date to observe Christs' birth is still unclear. Historians, however, suspect that the underlying reasons for this is an attempt to overshadow the other pagan/secular traditions, similar to ( Halloween ). Pope Julius I (Roman Catholic) declared December 25th as the day to observe Christ's birth, originally known as the Feast of the Nativity during the 4th century B.C. Eventually, the holiday became so popular it quickly spread, reaching England around 6th century B.C. and continuously spread reaching Scandinavia in the 8th century B.C.

According to the History of Christmas, Christmas didn't make it's way to the United States until the 17th century through English separatists. But, it was originally banned (for reasons a bit unclear to me) According to the History of Christmas, the holiday was not fully observed until June 6, 1870 - relatively speaking, that's fairly recent. It was only after the American Revolution, after the English custom fell, that Christmas became the holiday we know today in the US.

By no means am I an expert historian on this subject. Below are the links that I used to research the topic, but more information can be easily found online. My purpose with this post is only to inform anyone that was curious about some historical context of Christmas and, of course, for self education. Christmas goes much deeper than I have explained and if interested, click on those links and find out more details!