Calvin Synod Herald, 2014 (115. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2014-11-01 / 11-12. szám
4 CALVIN SYNOD HERALD Christians and Christmas If you would take a moment and close your eyes - and let your mind wander for a moment as you think of the word Christmas. What came to your mind when you thought of the word, “Christmas”? Christmas trees, presents, lights, candles, food, parties, snow, decorations, the star, angels, Santa Claus...wow! There are about a million symbols we have for Christmas, aren’t there? What I find interesting is that, in some of the minds, one symbol that didn’t seem to come to mind until very late was The Nativity... From November onwards, Pictures of Santa Claus begin to appear and television advertising begins to include elves and reindeer. Shopping centers become busier and busier as December approaches and stores begin staying open until very late. Christmas carols will be played on PA systems everywhere, and radio stations will devote the bulk of their music programming to Christmas-oriented songs. We are entering that time of the year when we become surrounded with the trappings and symbols of Christmas. For many, this is their favorite time of year. The reasons for it being their favorite holiday are as varied as there are people around the world that celebrate Christmas each year. For some, Christmas is the time of year that depresses them the most or that they despise the most. Wherever we stand, and for whatever reasons, Christmas has a significant place in all our daily lives. How many of you even wondered why we call this season “Christmas?” Do we know why we celebrate it on the 25th of December? Why do we exchange gifts? What do wreaths and garlands of evergreens and holly have to do with it? Why do we have a Christmas tree in the church and in our homes? What is the significance of the Christmas lights that decorate our trees, homes and city streets? Who is Santa and how does he fit with the birth of Christ? I’m not sure what you know about the origins of the holiday we call Christmas or of all of the things that are associated with its celebration today. What we have in America is a hodge-podge of traditions from multiple nations over thousands of years. “Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. And everyone was on his way to register for the census, each to his own city. Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, in order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and was with child. While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn (Luke 2:1-7).” These words are oh, so familiar to us. These are the words that will be read or recited thousands of times over the next several weeks, especially in the last days before Christmas - probably more than any other passage of Scripture. But, what do they have to do with the Christmas that we have today? Let’s go back to a time when the church first began to celebrate Christmas, which literally means “the Mass of Christ”. Christ, which is based on the Greek word “Christos” for “Messiah” or “Anointed One”, is the official title for Jesus, the only Natural Bom Son of God. “Mass” simply means a religious festival or celebration, except within the Roman Catholic Church where it signifies what is known as the Eucharist, which is their interpretation and application of the Lord’s Supper. In the fourth century, the bishop in Rome wrote and asked the bishop in Jerusalem what the date of Jesus’ birth was. No one knows for sure - the records of the Jews were destroyed in 70 A.D. when the city of Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed by the Romans. The bishop of Jerusalem wrote back stating that December 25th was the date of Christ’s birth. This is a date that he pulled out of the hat, but it fit well with the wide-spread decadent Winter solstice celebrations that permeated Roman society and other pagan nations. There are dozens of pagan “gods” whose “birthdays” coincide with this time of year, especially the festival of Satum, known as Saturnalia, in ancient Rome. For the first hundredplus years after Christ’s Resurrection and Ascension, the Church didn’t celebrate His birthday at all. But when Christianity became the official state religion of Rome with the conversion of Constantine in the middle of the 4th century, multitudes of unconverted pagans flooded into the Church. They brought all of their festivals and celebrations with them because being Christian was the thing to do, so something had to be done to counteract the pagan influences. Let’s look at the date that Christmas falls on a little closer. December was an exceptionally important religious month for almost every nation and people. In Egypt, December 21 st marked the date of the celebration of the death and resurrection of Osiris, the god of the underworld and judge of the dead. Osiris was the husband and brother of Isis, the queen of heaven, the mother of gods, and goddess of magic, fertility, nature. December 26th saw the observance of the birthday of Homs, son of Isis, the sun god and proto-type of human rulers, with a twelve-day festival conspicuous for its decorations of palms with twelve shoots for the twelve months of the year. In northern Europe, the Norse held a twelve-day feast of the solstice at the end of December. Jews throughout the Empire observed Hanukkah, or “the feast of lights” during December. Greeks worshipped Apollo, Attis, Dionysus, Helios, Herakles, Perseus, and Theseus in December. December 25th, the winter solstice by the Julian calendar, the day of the least sunlight of the year, was the day on which many sunworshiping pagans worshiped the sun lest the sunlight should disappear altogether; they also held festivals shortly thereafter in gratitude for lengthening days. Though Christians themselves didn’t begin to celebrate the birth of Christ until between AD 127 and 139, by AD 320, after the last of the Christian persecutions, the Roman Catholic Church had made December 25th the date of its Nativity celebration. Why December 25th? The Catholic Church, aware that March 25th, the Spring Equinox and a pagan feast-day, had long been regarded as the
