It isn’t even Thanksgiving, and Christmas
carols are already floating through the air.
In television ads, gifts pile up under a tree covered with
decorations. A jolly, bearded elf waves
merrily. Streets are starting to fill up
with images of angels. Homes will soon
be ablaze with lights along with the joyous sounds of families gathering to
enjoy the season.
No wonder early Church Fathers
hated Christmas.
They would have found the hoopla surrounding
the holiday unfathomable. Christmas
wasn't even celebrated with any known festivities for at least 200 years after
Jesus was born. Even the term “Christmas,”
so familiar to us, was unknown then. Christmas does not show up on the
list of Christian festivals described late in the second century by such men as
Irenaeus -- who was the first to list the books now in the New Testament -- or
Tertullian, one of the great scholars of that era.
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| Iconic view of Church Fathers |
Origen, the most prolific writer
among the early Church hierarchy, didn't like the idea of a birthday party at
all. He noted that the birthdays of
Moses, Abraham and prophets didn't warrant a single cake or candles. In the holy texts, he added scornfully, only
sinners celebrate their birthdays.
Arnobius, another great leader of
that day, satirically commented on the "birthday of the gods." He may have been thinking of Roman emperors who
ordered annual feasts on their birthdays.
When the Church finally decided to
have a holiday to mark Jesus’ nativity, the question was: what day? In 200 A.D., the holiday finally earned an
official mention. Clement of Alexandria said then that, in Egypt, the day chosen for the big
occasion was May 20. He said the
theologians thought the fifth month of their calendar corresponded to the ninth
month of the calendar at the time when Jesus lived.
Other dates suggested for Jesus'
birthday included April 19 and April 20.
March 28 earned a vote because that was the day, supposedly, when the
sun was created. A later study found
that
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| Two Christmas stories combined |
In reality, no one knew exactly when
Jesus was born. At the time of his
nativity, no one thought to record the date.
December reportedly was given the
nod by bishops at the famed Nicea Council in 325. That view didn’t have much impact, based on
the welter of proposed dates that followed that significant clerical session.
In 350, supposedly, Pope Julius I
decided to resolve any lingering debates.
According to extant correspondence, he acted at the request of Cyril of
Jerusalem, a famed priest who was upset that his clergy had to march into the Holy City
twice for separate holidays. Based on this
account, Cyril asked Julius to declare that Christ was born on December 25,
relying on census documents supposedly brought to Rome by Titus, the Roman general
who destroyed the Temple in 70 AD. If
the story is true -- and the documents recounting it may have been forged --
Cyril still hadn't changed the date six years after Julius died.
The Pontiff certainly didn't convince
many people. In Jerusalem, Silvia of
Etheria could write about the celebration she witnessed in 385, which lasted 40
days and started January 6. She also
said the major Christian religious festivals were only Easter and
Epiphany.
In fact, Jerusalem didn't succumb
to the December 25 designation until at least 300 years later. Instead, commemorations of Jewish King David
and James the Apostle were held annually on December 25.
Antioch, another important early
Christian stronghold, opted to join the December 25 bandwagon, but not until as
late as 386 or 387. St. John Chrysostom, the Church leader there,
attempted to hold one celebration rather than have it scattered around the
calendar. He wrote that part of the
community had been celebrating Christmas on December 25 for at least a decade. Ironically, he faced conservatives who
opposed the move.
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| St. John Chrysostom |
In Rome, December 25 also held sway. Early documents from 354 contain a calendar
listing claiming Christ was born that day.
Naturally, given the carelessness associated with the handling of the texts,
there's some question whether later pious insertions helped "confirm"
the exact date.
By the late fourth century, the
diocese in Constantinople, capital of the eastern Roman Empire and residence of
the emperor, supported December 25. That
ended the argument.
The holiday quickly took on pagan
attributes. That didn't sit well with
Christian authorities. In 425, they banned circus games. About 100 years later, they ordered all work
to stop on December 25. A few years
after that, they extended the holiday and matched the old 12-day Egyptian
version, and added a fast. None of that
choked off the merrymaking. Around 1000
A.D., some inventive leader fabricated the "Laws of King Cnut," which mandated a fast from December 25 to January 6.
No doubt, this austere approach
made Christians hungry for some real holiday excitement.
After Christmas festivities
returned in the Middle Ages, Puritans banned the celebration of the holiday
first in England and then in
their new home in America. They were upset because Christmas does not appear
in the Bible, which they considered the final word on such holidays. Some Christian sects today refuse to
acknowledge Christmas for that reason.
Some Catholics still do not begin to trim their Christmas trees until
Christmas Eve to maintain the sanctity of the holiday.
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| 1700s Christmas celebration |
Most others went about enjoying the
season. A Terre Haute (Indiana) newspaper editor in 1855 commented on the
frivolity. He was bemused by the "gambol," gift exchanges, and the
person of "Santa Clause" who seemed to dominate the holiday. He
wondered if such behavior was the proper way of celebrating the birth of
Christ. In a telling comment, he noted that it was probably already too late to
change things, as the trend was already well established.
He could say the same thing these
days. With no Church Fathers to provide opposition,
Christmas has crept far beyond a single day in December to cast a red-and-green
shadow over the last two months of the year.
Long-time religious historian Bill Lazarus regularly writes
about religion and religious history. He
also speaks at various religious organizations throughout Florida. You can reach him at www.williamplazarus.net. He is the author of the famed Unauthorized
Biography of Nostradamus; The Last Testament of Simon Peter; The Gospel Truth: Where Did the Gospel
Writers Get Their Information; Noel:
The Lore and Tradition of Christmas Carols; and Dummies Guide to Comparative
Religion. His books are available on Amazon.com,
Kindle, bookstores and via various publishers.
He can also be followed on Twitter.
You can enroll in his on-line class, Comparative Religion
for Dummies, at http://www.udemy.com/comparative-religion-for-dummies/?promote=1
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