Christmas is a Christian holiday held on December 25 which celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. Eastern Orthodox Churches, which use the Julian Calendar to determine feast days, celebrate on January 7 by the Gregorian Calendar. The date is merely traditional and is not thought to be the actual birthdate of Jesus. Christ's birth, or nativity, is said by his followers to fulfill Old Testament prophecies concerning a messiah, or savior.
The word Christmas is derived Middle English Christemasse and from Old English Cristes mæsse. It is a contraction of "Christ's mass". The name of the holiday is often shortened to Xmas because Roman letter "X" resembles the Greek letter ? (chi), an abbreviation for Christ (???st??).
In Western countries, Christmas has become the most economically significant holiday of the year. The popularity of Christmas can be traced in part to its status as a winter festival. Many cultures have their most important holiday in winter because there is less agricultural work to do at this time. Examples of winter festivals that have influenced Christmas include the pre-Christian festivals of Yule and Saturnalia.
The holiday is characterized by the exchange of gifts among friends and family members, some of the gifts being attributed to Santa Claus (also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas and Father Frost). Various local and regional Christmas traditions are still practised, despite the widespread influence of American, British and Australian Christmas motifs disseminated by film, popular literature, television, and other media.
History
The Nativity
The Gospel of Luke begins by telling the story of how Mary learns from an angel that the Holy Spirit has caused her to be with child. Mary points out that she is a virgin and the angel responds that "with God nothing shall be impossible." Shortly thereafter, she and her husband Joseph leave their home in Nazareth to travel about 150 kilometres (90 miles) to Joseph's ancestral home, Bethlehem, in order to register for a census ordered by Emperor Augustus. Finding no room at the inns, they lodge in a stable. There Mary gives birth to Jesus. An angel of the lord goes to the fields and tells the shepherds the "tidings of joy." A heavenly host proclaims, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favour rests." The shepherds come to the manger to adore the infant Jesus (Luke 1:5-2:20).
In the Gospel of Matthew, magi arrive at the court of King Herod in Jerusalem and ask, "Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? We have observed the rising of his star, and we have come to pay him homage." (Compare to Numbers 24:17.) The word magi is traditionally translated as "wise men," although some argue that "astrologer" is a more accurate translation. The word connects them to the magi of Babylon who select Daniel their chief in the wildly unhistorical Book of Daniel. Daniel's magi interpret dreams and other portents. The book was well-known in ancient times for its prophecy concerning the messiah (Daniel 9:24-27), a man who will be sent by god to lead the Jewish people.
Neither the names of the magi nor their number are specified in the Bible, but tradition tells us there were three: Balthassar, Melchior, and Caspar. Balthassar is a Greek version of the Babylonian name Belshazzar. This is the name of a king in Daniel. Melchior means "The king is my light" in Aramaic. Caspar is a Latinized version of Gondophares, a Parthian (i.e. Persian) name. The magi are sometimes called kings because of prophecies that kings will do homage to the messiah (Isaiah 60:3, Psalms 72:11).
Herod is disturbed by the magi's words and questions them closely, attempting to determine when the star first appeared and when the child was born. The king asks his advisors where the messiah will be born. They answer Bethlehem, birthplace of King David, and quote Micah 5:2-4. "When you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage," a deceitful Herod tells the magi.
As they travel to Bethleham, the magi follow a star that leads them to a house where they find Jesus. Jesus is no longer in the manger. He is now a child (paidion), not an infant (brephos). The magi present Jesus with gold, frankincense, and myrrh. (If these gifts were chosen in view of Isaiah 60:1-7, it may explain the magi's earlier trip to Jerusalem[1].) In a dream, the magi received a divine warning of Herod's intent to kill the child, who he sees as a rival. Consequently, they return to their own country without telling Herod the result of their mission. An angel tells Joseph to flee with his family to Egypt. Meanwhile, Herod orders that all male children of Bethlehem under the age of 2 be killed. After Herod's death, the holy family settles in Nazareth
The Star of Bethlehem
Matthew reports that the magi saw the star of Bethlehem rise in east, as a star or planet might. It "went before" them as they travelled to Bethlehem and then "stood over" the place where Jesus was. Although an astronomical object cannot mark a single building, various astronomical explanations of the star have been suggested. The object was something the magi linked to the "king of the Jews." If they were Hellenistic astrologers, they would associate kings with Jupiter, the king planet, and Regulus, the king star. If they were Babylonian, they would link kings to the planet Saturn (Kaiwanu).
The first naturalistic explanation of the star of Bethlehem was given by German astronomer Johannes Kepler in 1614. Kepler determined that a series of three conjunctions of the planets Jupiter and Saturn occurred in 7 BC and linked this to the star of Bethlehem. Modern calculations show that there was always a significant gap between the two planets, so the conjunction was not an impressive sight. An ancient almanac inscribed on a clay tablet found in Babylon suggests that astrologers at the time attached no particular significance to the event. For a contrary view,
More recently, astronomer Michael R. Molnar has identified a double occultation of Jupiter by the moon in 6 BC in Aries as the star of Bethlehem. This event was quite close to the sun and would have been difficult to observe, even with a small telescope. Occultations of planets by the moon are quite common, but Molnar gives astrological reasons to single out this event[5],[6]. Other explanations include a nova (sometimes identified as a comet) in 5 BC which was recorded by Chinese astrologers. In 3-2 BC, there was a series of seven conjunctions, including three between Jupiter and Regulus and a strikingly close conjunction between Jupiter and Venus on June 17, 2 BC. (For a visual presentation, Uranus was visible at various times, but probably moved too slowly to be recognized as a planet
What year was Jesus born?
The conventional way to date the nativity is based on the story of the magi. Josephus says Herod died shortly after a lunar eclipse and such an eclipse occurred on March 13, 4 BC. Jesus was born sometime between the first appearance of the star of Bethlehem and the time the magi arrived in Herod's court. As Herod ordered the execution of children age 2 and under, the star must have made its first appearance within the previous two years. This line of reasoning yields a date of 6-4 BC for the nativity. (Note that there is no suggestion in the Gospels that Jesus was born on the day the star first appeared and thus no way to use astronomical phenomenon to determine a specific day of birth.)
One problem with the 6-4 BC date is that there was no census at that time, a key element in the nativity narrative. There was a census of Roman citizens in 8 BC, but Joseph was not a Roman citizen. There was a census ordered by the governor of Syria in AD 6, but neither Galilee nor Bethlehem were within the Roman province of Syria. Some modern authors identify Luke's worldwide census with a mass oath taking that occurred in 3-2 BC when Augustus was given the title "father of the nation." As a descendant of David, Joseph might have been selected to take the oath. Tertullian, Origen, Africanus and other early Christian writers date the birth of Jesus as 3-2 BC. These writers had access to documents concerning the census and other matters which no longer exist. Jesus is said to have been "about 30" when he began his ministry in AD 29 which yields a birth year of 3-2 BC.
Regional customs and celebrations
A plethora of customs with secular, religious, or national aspects surround Christmas, varying from country to country. Many Christmas practices originate in Germanic countries, including the Christmas tree, the Christmas ham, the Yule log, holly, mistletoe, and the giving of presents to friends and relatives. The prominence of Christmas in Germanic nations may be a form of carryover from the pagan midwinter holiday of Yule. Jul means "Christmas" in the modern Scandinavian languages.
The Pilgrims, a group of Puritanical English separatists who came to North America in 1620, also disapproved of Christmas. As a result it was not a holiday in New England. The celebration of Christmas was actually outlawed from 1659 to 1681 in Boston, a prohibition enforced with a fine of five shillings. The English of the Jamestown settlement and the Dutch of New Amsterdam, on the other hand, celebrated the occasion freely. Christmas fell out of favor again after the American Revolution, as it was considered an "English custom". Interest was revived by Washington Irving's Christmas stories, German immigrants, and the homecomings of the Civil War years. December 25 was declared a federal holiday in the United States on June 26, 1870.
After the Russian Revolution, Christmas celebrations were banned in the Soviet Union for the next seventy-five years
Several Christian denominations, notably the Jehovah's Witnesses, some Puritan groups, and some fundamentalist Christians, view Christmas as a pagan holiday not sanctioned by the Bible and refuse to celebrate or recognize it in any way. Incidentally, this was the practice of the Puritans in 17th and 18th Century England and the American Colonies. Christmas was not widely celebrated in New England until after the middle of the 19th Century; this may be attributed either to the general relaxation of religious attitudes after the Industrial Revolution, the influx of Roman Catholic (and hence Christmas-celebrating) Irish immigrants into New England, or both.
In Commonwealth countries in the southern hemisphere, Christmas is still celebrated on December 25, despite this being the height of their summer season. This clashes with the traditional winter iconography, resulting in anachronisms such as a red fur-coated Santa Claus surfing in for a turkey barbecue on Australia's Bondi Beach. Japan has largely adopted the western Santa Claus for its secular Christmas celebration, but their New Year's Day is considered the more important holiday. Christmas is also known as bada din (the big day) in Hindi, and revolves there around Santa Claus and shopping. In South Korea, Christmas is celebrated as an official holiday.
Santa Claus and other bringers of gifts
Gift-giving is a near-universal part of Christmas celebrations. The concept of a mythical figure who brings gifts to children derives from Saint Nicholas, a bishop of Myra in fourth century Lycia, Asia Minor. He made a pilgrimage to Egypt and Palestine in his youth and soon thereafter became Bishop of Myra. He was imprisoned during the persecution of Diocletian and released after the accession of Constantine. He may have been present at the Council of Nicaea, though there is no record of his attendance. He died on December 6 of 345 or 352. In 1087, Italian merchants stole his deceased body at Myra and brought it to Bari in Italy. His relics are still preserved in the church of San Nicola in Bari. To this day, an oily substance known as Manna di S. Nicola, which is highly valued for its medicinal powers, is said to flow from his relics [4].
The Dutch modeled a gift-giving Saint Nicholas on the eve of his feast day on December 6. In North America, other colonists adopted the feast of Sinterklaas brought by the Dutch into their Christmas holiday, and Sinterklaas became Santa Claus, or Saint Nick, known in some West African and the UK countries as Father Christmas. In the Anglo-American tradition, this jovial fellow arrives on Christmas Eve on a sleigh pulled by reindeer, and lands on the roofs of houses. He then climbs down the chimney, leaves gifts for the children, and eats the food they leave for him. He spends the rest of the year making toys and keeping lists on the behaviour of the children.
One belief in the United Kingdom, United States, and other countries passed down through the generations is the idea of lists of good children and bad children. Throughout the year, Santa supposedly adds names of children to either the good or bad list depending on their behaviour. When it gets closer to Christmas time, parents use the belief to encourage children to behave well. Those who are on the bad list and whose behaviour has not improved before Christmas are said to receive a booby prize, such as a piece of coal or a switch with which their parents beat them, rather than presents.
The French equivalent of Santa, Père Noël, evolved along similar lines, eventually adopting the Santa image Haddon Sundblom painted for a worldwide Coca-Cola advertising campaign in the 1930s. In some cultures Santa Claus is accompanied by Knecht Ruprecht, or Black Peter. In some versions, elves in a toy workshop make the holiday toys, and in some he is married to Mrs. Claus. Many shopping malls in North America, the United Kingdom, and Australia have a holiday mall Santa Claus whom children can visit to ask for presents.
In many countries, children leave empty containers for Santa to fill with small gifts such as toys, candy, or fruit. In the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada children hang a Christmas stocking by the fireplace on Christmas Eve because Santa is said to come down the chimney the night before Christmas to fill them. In other countries, children place their empty shoes out for Santa to fill on the night before Christmas, or for Saint Nicholas to fill on December 5 before his feast day the next day. Gift giving is not restricted to these special gift-bringers, as family members and friends also bestow gifts on each other.
Timing of gifts
In many countries, Saint Nicholas's Day remains the principal day for gift giving. In such places, including the Netherlands, Christmas Day remains more a religious holiday. In much of Germany, children put shoes out on window sills on the night of December 5, and find them filled with candy and small gifts the next morning. The main day for gift giving, however, is December 24, when gifts are brought by Santa Claus or are placed under the Christmas tree. Same in Hungary, except that the Christmas gifts are usually brought by Jesus, not by Santa Claus. In other countries, including Spain, gifts are brought by the Magi at Epiphany on January 6. In Poland, Santa Claus (Polish: Swiety Mikolaj) gives gifts at two occasions: on the night of December 5 (so that children find them on the morning of December 6) and on Christmas Eve, December 24, (so that children find gifts that same day). In Finland Joulupukki personally meets children and gives gifts on December 24. In Russia, Grandfather Frost brings presents on New Year's Eve, and these are opened on the same night.
One of the many customs of gift timing is suggested by the song "Twelve Days of Christmas", celebrating an old British tradition of gifts each day from Christmas to Epiphany. In most of the world, Christmas gifts are given at night on Christmas Eve or in the morning on Christmas Day. Until recently, gifts were given in the UK to non-family members on Boxing Day.
Declaration of Christmas Peace
Declaration of Christmas Peace has been a tradition in Finland from the Middle Ages every year, except in 1939 due to the war. The declaration takes place on the Old Great Square of Turku, Finland's official Christmas City and former capital, at noon on Christmas Eve. It is broadcast in Finnish radio (since 1935) and television and nowadays also in some foreign countries.
The declaration ceremony begins with the hymn Jumala ompi linnamme (Martin Luther's Ein` feste Burg ist unser Gott) and continues with the Declaration of Christmas Peace read from a parchment roll:
"Tomorrow, God willing, is the graceful celebration of the birth of our Lord and Saviour; and thus is declared a peaceful Christmas time to all, by advising devotion and to behave otherwise quietly and peacefully, because he who breaks this peace and violates the peace of Christmas by any illegal or improper behaviour shall under aggravating circumstances be guilty and punished according to what the law and statutes prescribe for each and every offence separately. Finally, a joyous Christmas feast is wished to all inhabitants of the city."
Recently there have also been declarations of Christmas peace for forest animals in many cities and municipalities, restricting hunting during the holiday.