WHY CHRISTMAS?
Barnes, Harry Elmer
Why Christmas? By HARRY ELMER BARNES WHY DO WE celebrate Christmas? Why do we celebrate it on Dec. 25? What contributions have the ages and the nations made to this great international Christian...
...It was only natural, then, that the winter solstice should be.the great day of celebration in the rites of Mithraism...
...It provided the Christians with a great rite to match the Mithraic feast...
...For its duration, all business and legal activities were suspended...
...Further, it made it easier for a convert to pass over from Mithraism to Christianity...
...His rites were celebrated on Dec...
...Competition Set The Day But there was a very good practical reason for selecting the 25th of December as the hypothetical date of the Nativity...
...giving of presents on Christmas Day...
...The great Christian festive rite of Christmas was established some time in the late Third or early Fourth Century as a strategic move in the struggle of Christianity with its Persian rivals, Mithraism and Manichaeism...
...This was the date of the chief holy day of Mithraism, the leading Persian rival of Christianity—a rival which at one time seemed likely to crowd out Christianity in the Roman Empire...
...25 was a stroke of genius for Christianity in its struggle with Mithraism...
...By the Fifth Century, the Catholic Church in the West had made the celebration of Christmas on Dec...
...Indeed, one cannot even date the year of his birth with any exactitude...
...The Sun thereby increased its dominion over darkness...
...25 was as close as the Mithraites could come to the winter solstice, which actually occurs on Dec...
...Contemporary business enterprise has seen to the rest...
...The selection of Dec...
...25, was also very satisfactory to the Germanic converts to Christianity, for the pre-Christian German pagans had celebrated the winter solstice in their Yuletide festivities...
...In most of Europe, St...
...Christmas was not celebrated at all in the early years of the Christian era...
...There was still a life and death struggle between them when Christmas came into being...
...Santa Claus is a popularization of the legendary St...
...When Mussolini was trying to denationalize the Germanic peasants of the former Tyrol, he forbade their use of Christmas trees...
...Nicholas was reputed to travel on a gray horse or a white ass...
...Origin Of Giving Gifts This date, Dec...
...8. With the rise of the Christian Christmas, the celebration of St...
...It is a p'art of the Christmas festivities only in Teutonic countries or in those which have been penetrated by Teutonic influences...
...What contributions have the ages and the nations made to this great international Christian festival of peace, good will, and benevolence...
...In answering these questions, as in other phases of our everyday life, history can provide most interesting and cogent information...
...There were no precise astronomical observations at that time, so Dec...
...17 to Dec...
...The latter originated as a harvest festival and later came to be a symbolic celebration of the legendary freedom, equality, happiness, and benevolence of the reign of Saturn over Italy...
...There was no certainty at the time—nor is there now—as to the exact day of Christ's birth...
...The sun was the source of light, and hence the most holy thing in the universe from the Mithraic point of view...
...It was then the general custom to commemorate the death rather than the birth of eminent religious leaders and martyrs...
...Nicholas Day was merged with the Christmas festivities in Germanic countries...
...A special Christian justification for giving.presents was found in the legend of the Wise Men coming to Bethlehem bearing gifts on the first "Christmas...
...This was derived, in the main, from the old Roman festival, the Saturnalia...
...The Mithraites worshipped light, which they believed to be the symbol of life and goodness...
...Nicholas then became the gift bearer...
...He was thought to exercise various functions, such as guide and protector...
...Their death was regarded as marking the date of their birth into the kingdom of God and the life everlasting...
...By the early Christian era, the Saturnalia had become a seven-day festival, lasting from Dec...
...Persian competition with Christianity accounts not only for the origin of Christmas but also for the day selected...
...25 compulsory...
...Further, his ancient religious associations were all but forgotten...
...Santa Claus And Reindeer The Christmas tree is a Teutonic contribution...
...The Mithraite converted to Christianity found something Comparable to his main religious holiday right at hand...
...Nicholas, who is supposed to have lived in the Fourth Century...
...Good will, generosity, and gift giving were a prominent element in this pagan fete...
...He was represented as distributing gifts to children after a benign inquisition of them as he visited them...
...This was the date on which the sacred Sun symbolically began to regain its strength and warmth as the days became longer...
...When he came to the United States as Santa Claus his legendary steeds became reindeer—possibly from a Norse legend...
...In France, for example, the Christmas tree was not extensively introduced until the winter of 1870-1871, when the Prussian soldiers wintered in France...
...Whence came the practice of universal benevolence and the...
...In this manner, the folklore and customs of the ages have contributed to create the most .striking and colorful Christian festival of the year...
Vol. 7 • December 1943 • No. 51
