The Universal History of Christmas
The celebration of Christmas, a feast of profound spiritual and cultural significance, represents the ultimate expression of the pattern of the high becoming low. Its enduring presence in diverse cultures underscores the human need for ritual and communal participation in sacred moments.
The act of celebrating Christmas is not merely about believing in the theological tenets of the Nativity, but actively embodying that belief, much like singing a song to participate in its melody. Without such participation, the holy moment, when Heaven and Earth converge, passes by, potentially leading to a cessation of belief.
The history of Christmas is marked by both its organic development and continuous defence against various attempts at abolition, indicating its inherent "stickiness". This resilience is evident in ongoing "Christmas Wars," particularly within fundamentalist Protestant traditions, and in efforts to reconcile religious observance with popular customs.
Early Foundations and Theological Essence
Originally, the Nativity and its associated revelatory events were celebrated as a single feast known as Theophany in the East and Epiphany in the West. This early celebration was conceived as the "Feast of Light". While Theophany primarily focused on the baptism of Christ, Epiphany emphasised the Adoration of the Magi. Other moments of Christ's early revelation, such as the wedding at Cana, were also often included.
A pivotal development in the feast's history occurred in the mid-fourth century, when the celebration of Christmas began to separate from Epiphany/Theophany into two distinct feasts, twelve days apart. This separation was largely driven by theological disputes, primarily Arianism and its permutations like Apollinarianism. Arianism asserted that the Son was a created being, not eternally begotten, thereby challenging the full divinity of Christ. To counter this, Christians emphasised that the incarnate Logos was God from the moment of conception, not at some later point such as the baptism. Consequently, the focus shifted to Christ being born in the manger as already God before the ages, worthy of adoration. The gifts of the Magi, in this context, became an emblematic act of worship, representing the total giving of oneself to Christ.
Ancient hymns and orations, such as those by St. Gregory the Theologian, articulate the core themes of the feast. Key among these are:
- The glorification of the newborn Christ.
- The high becoming low: symbolised by the omnipotent Logos born as a defenceless baby in the Roman Empire, representing the weakest, poorest, and least significant.
- The uncontainable God being contained: residing within the Virgin Mary and laid in a manger.
- Eucharistic foreshadowing: Christ laid in a food trough, prefiguring the Eucharist.
- Mary as the "cherubic throne": understanding the Virgin as more honourable than the Cherubim because she became the throne upon which the baby Jesus sat.
- Restoration of the Temple of the cosmos: drawing ties to Old Testament feasts like Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights.
St. Gregory's homilies also provided guidance on celebration, urging Christians to celebrate soberly, in contrast to pagan revelries, by attending church and feeding the poor.
Seasons of Preparation and Cultural Adaptations
The establishment of Christmas as a distinct feast led to periods of preparation. In the West, Advent, or "St. Martin's Lent," began on 11 November, while in the East, it commenced on 15 November, both periods involving a forty-day fast. Sixth-century councils in France formally established Advent and Christmastide as separate seasons, partly to curb premature celebration. Christmastide, the period from Christmas to Epiphany/Theophany, was designated as a time of feasting.
A fundamental principle governing Christmas traditions is that the colder and darker a winter is, the more significant Christmas becomes in a given culture. This is evident in the rich Christmas traditions found in Northern European countries. The natural human impulse to seek light and celebration during the deepest, darkest part of the year has led to the development of winter festivals in every culture. This also explains why the 25th of December, near the winter solstice, is considered a fitting date for Christ's birth; the very perfect symbolism of light entering the world at its darkest point suggests a divine design, not a mere pagan integration.
Medieval Customs and the Spirit of Inversion
Many traditions associated with Christmas today originated in the late Middle Ages:
- Carolling: Distinct from hymns, carols were not initially sung in churches, only entering liturgical settings in the latter half of the 19th century. Carolling was a carnival practice, involving going from house to house, typically with alcoholic punch, singing, and offering drinks in exchange for gifts. Medieval bishops often wrote against this practice due to its boisterous and sometimes bawdy nature; carols might include both religious themes and coarse humour. Carolling traditionally began on Christmas night.
- Feasting: The Christmas boar, as celebrated in carols like "The Boar's Head at Christmas," was a prominent feature.
- Decorations: The use of evergreens such as garlands, holly, and fir trees, along with lights, became a defining aesthetic, symbolising life and light when most of the natural world was dormant. Winter berries also held significance for their preservation of life and light. Mistletoe, though now associated with modern customs, had rich symbolism in the medieval period.
A crucial element of traditional Christian celebration, particularly at Christmas, is the feasting of the poor. This involved well-to-do members of the community providing abundant feasts for the impoverished, ensuring that all could enjoy the richest foods. This practice embodies a social inversion where the poor gain access to what the rich possess, a dynamic central to Christian charity and the symbolism of the highest becoming low.
Modern charitable initiatives, such as food drives, continue this tradition. Personal, direct giving to those in need is emphasised as more salvific than impersonal donations, reflecting the importance of seeing the recipient as a human being. The poor are viewed as instruments for the salvation of the wealthy, offering an opportunity for charitable acts.
The historical association of Christmas with drunkenness and gambling was a persistent concern for religious leaders. However, the Christian transformation of these feasts involved channelling, rather than eliminating, the revelry, steering it towards a "better path". The idea of Carnival, as articulated by Charles Taylor, suggests that such periods of release are necessary, preventing explosive build-ups of societal pressure, much like releasing gas from a wine skin.
Traditional societies maintained a balance between strictness and permissiveness, a "dance" between factions rather than absolute authority. Extremes, whether puritanical repression or total hedonism, are considered dangerous. The care for the poor exemplified by canonised bishops illustrates the ideal embodiment of the "highest becoming lowest". Unlike the later Puritan view, traditional societies often practised a "multiple speed Christianity," recognising that different standards might apply to the rich and poor regarding sobriety and celebration.
Christmas Eve and the Genesis Story
Christmas Eve traditionally held a unique focus on the retelling of the story of Adam and Eve, with Genesis narratives being read in Orthodox churches. This strong liturgical connection led to the development of the Christmas tree from the "paradise tree" tradition, which was set up on Christmas Eve. In medieval England, Christmas Eve was the primary time for ordinary people to engage with the Genesis story through "passion plays" performed in village squares, which were paraliturgical and highly embodied experiences.
The Mass, or "Christ Mass," is the central liturgical event that designates Christmas as a holy day. Its importance is further highlighted by the historical practice of coronating famous kings and emperors, such as Charlemagne, on Christmas Day, signifying it as the most appropriate day for such solemn actions.
Reformation and the Anti-Christmas Movement
The Reformation period uniquely gave rise to both Christmas as it is largely celebrated today in the Western Hemisphere and the organised anti-Christmas movement. Martin Luther, a key figure in Lutheranism, was a staunch supporter of Christmas and orchestrated the widespread production of Christmas hymns and carols. These Lutheran carols were distinct from medieval English carols, being theologically explicit rather than riddling in nature.
The Christmas tree also became a prominent feature during this time, likely connected to the paradise tree tradition and the ancient practice of bringing greenery indoors for winter celebrations. The "stickiness" of Christmas traditions is evident in the tendency to add new customs rather than replace old ones, for instance, placing a nativity scene under a Christmas tree.
Many of the defining trappings of the American Christmas were introduced by Moravian and Pennsylvania Dutch immigrants. Several Continental Reformed churches, like the Dutch Reformed, continued to celebrate Christmas as one of the "five Evangelical feasts," alongside Good Friday, Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost, likely because these dates could be derived from scripture. This contributed to the "Christmas and Easter rhythm" prevalent in American Christianity, where these two feasts are the primary spiritual observances outside of Sunday worship.
The most notable attempt to abolish Christmas came from the Puritans, a sect of English Christians who believed the Church of England had not sufficiently rejected "popery". Figures like John Knox deemed Christmas superstitious, and Puritan writers pejoratively called it "the trappings of popery" or "the rags of the Beast".
The Puritans did not merely discourage over-celebration but associated the very act of celebration with superstition and Roman Catholicism. This sentiment extended to the early temperance movement, which often had anti-Catholic undertones, targeting the drinking habits of German, Italian, and Irish immigrants.
In a direct legislative effort, the English Parliament passed ordinances in 1645 and 1647, abolishing the feasts of Christmas, Easter, and Whitsun (Pentecost). This ban remained in force until the Restoration in 1660. The Puritans believed that by purifying religious liturgy and iconography, they could usher in an era of moral improvement, viewing Christmas as inherently linked to excess and corruption.
However, attempts to repress human impulses for celebration often result in their resurgence in dangerously excessive forms. The fundamental human "liturgical impulse" means that if Christian liturgy is absent, people will participate in alternative rituals, even if they are occult. The rigidity of Puritanism, which extended to prohibiting social dancing, inadvertently revealed the intrinsic connection between music and physical expression.
The irony of history is that the direct descendants of these Puritans now vociferously defend Christmas symbols like nativity scenes in public spaces. In colonial New England, settled by Puritans, "mince sniffers" were even employed to detect illegal Christmas cooking, leading to severe penalties.
Renaissance and Modern Popularity
The early 19th century witnessed a significant Renaissance of Christmas celebrations in the anglosphere, driven by two main factors: the Oxford Movement, which sought to revive patristic traditions within the Church of England, and the literary influence of Charles Dickens, particularly through his work _A Christmas Carol_. Dickens's novel powerfully revived the ancient theme of charitable works at Christmas, a practice that continues to make it the most generous time of year for charity. _A Christmas Carol_, itself titled after the non-liturgical "Christmas Carol" genre, masterfully captures the essence of Christmas by tying a character's entire life together over the course of the feast, illustrating how holidays act as "kairotic knots" in time.
In the United States, Christmas was initially regarded more as an ethnic holiday, not universally celebrated, until the late 19th century. Its popularity soared with the works of poets like Clement Clarke Moore (who wrote "A Visit from St. Nicholas"), which popularised gift-giving at Christmas and fused the figure of Saint Nicholas with the Nativity. Harriet Beecher Stowe's _A Christmas in New England_ further contributed to its widespread acceptance. Christmas was declared a Federal holiday in the U.S. in 1870, a stark contrast to earlier periods where figures like George Washington would work or even wage war on Christmas Day.
The modern image of Santa Claus emerged from a fusion of Father Christmas and St. Nicholas, later popularised by marketing companies like Coca-Cola. Despite their commercial origins, figures like Santa Claus and creations like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer resonate because they tap into powerful, archetypal images that hold inherent weight. Historical attempts to abolish Christmas, such as those by the Soviet Union (which replaced it with "Old Man Winter") or the French Revolution (which renamed the Three Kings Cake to "equality cake"), invariably failed or resulted in substitutes that mirrored the very traditions they sought to eliminate.
The Enduring Power of Christmas
Christmas is not inherently more over-commercialised than other times of the year; rather, its commercial aspects are simply more noticeable. It is a time when the "soft iconoclasm" of American religion often gives way to a public defence of Nativity scenes. The holiday's potency is undeniable, drawing even "confirmed heathens" to church to light a candle or attend midnight services with their children.
The enduring appeal of Christmas can be understood through a "midwit defence," acknowledging both simple belief and deeper, more complex explanations. Charles Taylor's concept of time illuminates this phenomenon:
- Homogeneous or Empty Time (Kronos): The modern understanding of history as a series of accidents with no inherent meaning.
- Kairotic Time: Moments in time "filled with meaning," acting as "knots" where sequential time becomes entangled, demanding reversal, rededication, or revelation. National histories are replete with such kairotic moments.
- Higher Times: These provide the organising framework for ordinary time, encompassing Eternity breaking into the temporal and Great Time—the mythical era when foundational events occurred (e.g., gods on Earth, the Gospel narratives).
The more these horizontal (homogeneous) and vertical (Eternity, Great Time) dimensions intersect, the "bigger the knot becomes," infusing time with meaning. Hamlet's lament that "the times are out of joint" reflects a disconnection from these ordering paradigms.
Christmas, along with the Crucifixion, represents a moment where these relationships are most complete, and symbolism aligns perfectly. This makes Christmas exceptionally "sticky," resisting attempts to disentangle it.
Christmas is the pivotal moment where Great Time, Eternity, and chronological time converge. God's entry into history through the Incarnation in Bethlehem bridges the gap between the world of ideas (eternity) and linear time, a synthesis that ancient Greek philosophy lacked. The very symbolism of Christmas—the tree with the nativity, angels descending, wise men travelling great distances—is inherently about this intersection.
The imperative to celebrate Christmas stems from the understanding that belief without action is insufficient. Celebration is akin to singing a song; its beginning and end are a unified whole, and participation is essential. Failure to celebrate this holy moment leads to its passing, and eventually, a diminishing of belief. The increasing number of individuals who unknowingly slide into Arianism, believing Christ is merely the greatest created being, highlights the need to "put the mass back in Christmas". Participating in all its dimensions—from contemplating the mystery in church to caroling and engaging in charity—enhances one's humanity, fostering closeness to Christ and neighbour. Without such celebrations, time risks becoming an undifferentiated, linear passage, devoid of memory and meaningful participation.