The Meaning of Christmas

Christmas

I have heard discussions and arguments all of my life, ad nauseum, about observance and means of well-wishing during the Christmas holidays. I have always considered them to be completely irrelevant and meaningless, produced and propagated by mean, narrow and/or small-minded people.

What exactly is Christmas? What is the real meaning of the holiday? Is it simply the date we use to denote and remember the (questionable) birth of Jesus the Christ? Or is it more than just that?

The simple truth is that people all over the world, dating back thousands of years before Jesus was born, were celebrating this season. It's importance actually has never had anything to do with Christianity at all. Other than the fact that the Roman church abrogated the Roman 'Pagan' holiday of the time, Saturnalia, in the 3^rd or 4^th Century AD.

As the church grew beyond the Roman Imperial boundaries, it absorbed into it's holiday the traditions from other peoples it came into contact with in a continuing effort to make itself more palatable to them. In essence, the Christian holiday season was an early and very successful marketing campaign which is still being used as such today.

Originally, the Northern peoples, for our purposes the best remembered today are the Vikings, would observe that the Sun was at its 'weakest point' on the Solstice, Dec 21. They would pray and make sacrifices on that day to strengthen the Sun and bring it back to health. Then they would hold a celebration when enough days had passed that they could observe that the days were beginning to lengthen. This is what brought the Holiday tradition to begin on Dec. 25^th. The Yule-tide was the Viking celebration of Odin's (the Sun) return.

Similarly, the Christmas Wreath, Holly and Mistletoe are from early Anglo-Saxon traditions. The Christmas tree is a left-over from the Roman Saturnalia. They would put images of Mithra on an evergreen tree along with notes containing their wishes for the new year. They would further decorate the tree to make it more comely to the 'good-spirits,' who would assumably bring the tree to Mithra’s attention.

So, to me when someone wishes me 'Happy Holidays,' or 'Merry Christmas,' I accept and return the sentiment conveyed rather than disagree and start an argument over belief systems. The truth is, regardless of how it's said or from whom, it's one person wishing another well-being and happiness through this season and the year to come. I'm all for happiness and well-being. I think the world, regardless of what religion you subscribe to if any, needs a lot more well-being and happiness.

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year to you all.

Fred