Is Christmas Really a Christian Holiday?

Is Christmas a Christian vacation?

Sure. Sure, it’s.

I’m being definitive up entrance as a result of so many at this time are dedicated to the general public and sometimes gleeful discrediting of Christmas. Some such naysayers are devoutly Christian and in search of earnestly to withstand pagan–Christian syncretism. Others are decidedly not Christian and relish the prospect of exposing secret paganism on the coronary heart of a Christian celebration. Although exceptionally odd bedfellows, these keen debunkers share the identical conviction: Christmas is a pagan vacation that’s been “baptized” into Christianity. I believe they’re (sincerely) flawed.

Christmas and the Saturnalia

Let’s begin with the date of Christ’s Nativity, popularly known as Christmas (an abbreviated type of “Christ’s mass”). There’s a widespread principle that claims early Christian leaders merely adopted the Roman Saturnalia competition and refashioned it to be about Jesus’s beginning. Supposedly, the story goes, after Emperor Aurelian established the feast of Sol Invictus (the Unconquered Solar) on December 25 within the imperial calendar (274 CE), Christians determined to make it their very own, leading to a perverse mishmash of paganism and Christianity.

The issue with this principle is that there’s little proof for it. Definitely, December 25 isn’t documented as the normal date for Jesus’s beginning till 336 CE. However its formal quotation within the Philocalian Calendar, a form of Roman Christian almanac, strongly means that it had been a part of the church’s customary observance effectively earlier than then. Additionally, when fourth-century bishops like Ambrose (c. 339–397) wrote concerning the coincidence of Christ’s beginning and the winter solstice, they handled it as proof of God’s sovereign windfall. Jesus was born in the course of the season of pagan celebration, they claimed, to point out his superiority over all rival gods. In different phrases, they believed God did it that approach on function.

This isn’t to say Christians by no means assimilated pagan holidays. We all know such was the follow below the management of Gregory the Nice (c. 540–604). He instructed missionaries to at this time’s Nice Britain to repurpose pagan temples and festivals for Christian ends. However that follow comes a lot later within the church’s story. As greatest we are able to inform, the custom of celebrating Christ’s Nativity on December 25 was established someday within the third century, probably earlier than Christianity grew to become the faith of the Roman Empire, and lengthy earlier than any Christians adopted the technique of assimilating pagan holidays.

Christmas and the rabbinic custom

How, then, did the early church choose December 25 within the first place? The most definitely clarification has to do with Jewish rabbinic tradition. Rabbinic students taught that the Hebrew patriarchs have been born and died on the identical days—an indication of completion or wholeness of life earlier than God. So, Jesus Christ, the right achievement of Israel’s hopes, was thought to have had a totally symmetrical life, too. Based mostly on the relationship of Passover, Jesus was regarded as crucified on March 25. It was concluded, then, that he was conceived on the identical day. And March 25 occurred to be the date rabbinic students additionally stated the world was created, a becoming coincidence for early Christian thinkers proclaiming Jesus as Lord. What comes precisely 9 months after March 25 on the Julian calendar? That’s proper: December 25.

Right here’s what Augustine (c. 354–430) stated on the topic:

For [Jesus] is believed to have been conceived on the twenty fifth of March, upon which day additionally he suffered; so the womb of the Virgin, through which he was conceived, the place no considered one of mortals was begotten, corresponds to the brand new grave through which he was buried, whereby was by no means man laid, neither earlier than him nor since. However he was born, in keeping with custom, upon December the twenty fifth. (On the Trinity, IV.5.9)

The Council of Excursions

When the Council of Excursions met in 567 CE, about 130 years after Augustine, they formally affirmed the twelve days from December 25 by way of January 6 (the feast of the Epiphany) to be noticed as a sacred and festive season.

Inside the twelve days of Christmas, later known as Christmastide, the church noticed different commemorations too: St. Stephen’s Day, the trustworthy deacon and first martyr (December 26); the Feast of John the Apostle, imprisoned for his faithfulness to Christ even in outdated age (December 27); the Holy Innocents, slaughtered by Herod in Bethlehem (December 28); and the circumcision of Jesus on the eighth day following his beginning (January 1).

The purpose of Christmas

Can we all know for certain that Jesus was born on December 25? No. And a few have argued from particulars within the Nativity tales that it’s unlikely for different causes. However, not realizing the exact date of some occasion doesn’t rule out the potential of remembering and celebrating it. The purpose just isn’t the precise date of Jesus’s beginning however the truth that he was born. God, the Creator of the cosmos, got here amongst us in a first-century Palestinian Jew, Jesus of Nazareth: conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.

For God was happy to have all his fullness dwell in him, and thru him to reconcile to himself all issues, whether or not issues on earth or issues in heaven, by making peace by way of his blood, shed on the cross. (Col 1:19–20)

Definitely, nobody should commemorate the beginning of our Savior and Lord. However we get to if we wish to. And that’s what most Christians and church buildings have been doing on December 25, the feast of the Nativity of our Lord, for about 1500 years.

A Christmas story

If that’s true, although, why did Christmas grow to be controversial even amongst Christians?

The story is lengthy and meandering, however the primary plot goes like this: As Christianity unfold, finally turning into the established faith of European empires, its observances have been tightly intertwined with agricultural rhythms. For many individuals, the winter month of December was a time of relative relaxation after the extraordinary labor of harvest in autumn. Throughout winter they butchered livestock and laid off seasonal employees. Widespread people nonetheless had loads to do: weaving, repairing instruments, logging, and extra. However idleness nonetheless threatened. With meat, ale, and free time in additional plentiful provide, many noticed the vacation of Christmastide with ingesting, feasting, and troublemaking.

Within the medieval period, particularly, Christmas grew to become related to indulgence, carousing, and the flouting of social conventions. Serfs have been anticipated to “reward” their lords further bread, eggs, and chickens. However lords have been additionally supposed to provide their serfs a Christmas bonus of meals, drink, garments, and firewood—along with twelve days off and, for some, invites to luxurious feasts on the manor. Keen carolers, not welcome to carry their bawdy singing to church, typically took to the streets to serenade their neighbors and dance house-to-house. Such self-appointed entertainers typically demanded some form of cost with veiled—and generally not-so-veiled—threats in the event that they weren’t glad. You possibly can hear echoes of this custom in “We Want You a Merry Christmas”: “O, carry us some figgy pudding, And convey it proper right here! / We received’t go till we get some, So carry it proper right here!”

Curiously, it’s in the course of the medieval interval, too, that quite a lot of Christmas traditions first emerged. For example, most historians hint the Christmas tree to public performs that have been held to show biblical tales to illiterate laity. The Paradise Play, which recounted the story of Adam and Eve’s creation and fall, featured a big evergreen adorned with pink apples (for the autumn) and spherical pastry wafers for the Eucharist (for the physique of Christ that saves us). Over time, the general public show of the paradise tree shifted to the inside of church buildings and of aristocratic houses; after which the custom migrated to North America with German and Scandinavian immigrants. Mass media then popularized the ornament a lot that, by the flip of the 20 th century, the show of adorned evergreens was thought of important to Christmas celebrations.

Nonetheless, the debauched extra of medieval Christmastide was a scandal to many clergy throughout and after the Protestant Reformation. The English cleric Hugh Latimer denounced it, saying, “Males dishonor Christ extra within the twelve days of Christmas than in all of the twelve months moreover.” Maybe it comes as no shock, then, that the Puritan occasion of the Church of England printed tracts towards Christmas and finally banned it completely when then settled in New England. And it’s in these Puritan tracts and preaching that we encounter explicitly Christian claims that Christmas is, the truth is, refashioned paganism. So, twenty-first century Christians are on no account the primary to marvel if they’ve any enterprise observing Christmas in any respect!

Fashionable Christmas

Over time, main socio-economic adjustments like the economic revolution led to main adjustments in how Christmas was noticed in North America and Europe. For a lot of, the vacation went from being primarily public and communal to personal and home-focused. Concurrently, the emergence of the center class and the mass manufacturing of client items moved the Christmas gift-giving ritual into the family. Somewhat than parades of drunken carolers and raucous neighborhood events, Christmas got here to be epitomized by a middle-class, Anglo-Saxon household gathered round a soft-lit adorned tree exchanging store-bought presents. And this picture stays on the middle of the Western creativeness about Christmas at this time.

Christmas for Christians

Given this (admittedly very abbreviated) historical past, one could be questioning if I nonetheless wish to declare Christmas is really a Christian vacation. However I do! I’ve a number of causes for this.

First, simply because one thing isn’t discovered within the Bible doesn’t imply it isn’t Christian. Since its earliest days, the church has formulated and handed on many doctrines, practices, and customs which might be extrapolations of biblical educating reasonably than specific instruction or instructions. Such issues that the Christian neighborhood has developed over time are sometimes known as custom.

Take into account, for example, the evangelical Protestant custom of day by day “quiet time” or non-public Bible studying. Not one of the biblical authors, who lived lengthy earlier than the printing press and widespread literacy, might have conceived of a world through which people would personal private copies of the Scriptures to learn on their very own. However now that we do reside in such a world, the biblical admonitions to like, attend to, and obey God’s Phrase makes day by day “quiet time” or non-public Bible studying an appropriately Christian follow. Nobody should do it; however anybody can do it in the event that they so select. And there are lots of advantages to reap because of this.

I believe the identical might be stated of observing particular days and seasons of the church yr. Definitely, the place the Bible immediately speaks a technique and custom goes one other, then the Bible wins (at the least for Protestants). However observing Christmastide just isn’t an occasion through which we’re coping with such a transparent contradiction. Seen in historic and liturgical context, Christmas and its twelve days aren’t pagan in origin or which means. Just like the church calendar as an entire, Christmastide was established to assist Christians dwelling within the already-not-yet of God’s kingdom to re-orient themselves within the grand story of God, with the life, dying, and resurrection of Christ on the middle.

Moreover, whereas the vast majority of at this time’s Christians are gentiles, the roots of our religion are Jewish. We’ve got been “grafted into” the individuals of God, Paul says (Rom 11:17). Among the many many issues Jesus and his apostles obtained from their Jewish heritage was the observance of the Jewish calendar. Marking time on this approach was thought of an important a part of remembering their covenant with God and passing on their religion to the following technology. Take into account the phrases of God to Moses relating to the Passover:

Have fun the Pageant of Unleavened Bread, as a result of it was on this very day that I introduced your divisions out of Egypt. Have fun today as a long-lasting ordinance for the generations to come back. (Exod 12:14)

It’s inside this pre-existing Jewish sample of observing days of remembrance that Christians started to mark time with their very own holy days, starting with the resurrection of Christ. The earliest commemorations of the church yr, then, have been methods to maintain time as a substitute—not a capitulation—to the pagan calendar being adopted throughout them. With some thoughtfulness, intentionality, and communal knowledge, the identical might be true for Christians and church buildings at this time.

If Christmas can correctly be known as a Christian vacation, does that then imply Christians are certain to look at it? No, as I hope I’ve made clear. Just like the church calendar as an entire and its many different related traditions, Christians get to look at Christmas, however nobody should accomplish that. But those that need to reclaim Christmastide as a decidedly Christian observance have ample historic, liturgical, and theological causes and sources for doing so.

However, these whose consciences resist collaborating in a season that has grow to be so commercialized and related to overindulgence ought to by all means abstain. And never each custom related to Christmas must be repeated, both. We want the Holy Spirit’s knowledge and discernment, to make sure, particularly in societies deeply formed by client capitalism. The reality is, Christians of each time and place ought at all times to be asking what faithfulness to the gospel requires of us—for Christmas, sure, but additionally for each day thereafter.