Let's face the facts. Christmas is a pagan holiday. It's a pagan celebration so strong and so popular that it defies every effort to modify or suppress it. You can change the name and tack on all the baby Jesuses you like, but it's still the feast of the Winter Solstice, and most of the popular observations can be traced back to pagan origins. We've got the sacrificial tree of Wotan, the feasting of the Roman Saturnalia, the sacred libations of Dionysius, the Yule log that represents the burning corpse of the god of the dying sun, sacred rowan wreaths and mistletoe to ward off evil spirits, a Santa who's a rehashed pagan sky god, and plenty of monetary sacrifices to Mammon.
December 25th certainly isn't the day Jesus was born. That was likely much earlier in the year. The date was originally selected and made a holiday by the Romans as a consolidation of several pagan winter feasts, and then the early Church just just appropriated it, over some fairly strong objections, and those objections have continued ever since. It seems like the joyous spirit of Christmas is inherently incompatible with the dour righteousness of fundamentalism.
We hear a lot about the "War on Christmas" that secularists are waging, but the truth is that there are two wars on Christmas, with the religious right attacking it just as fiercely as the atheistic left. At the very least the Christians are at war to take the holiday away from the people who just want to celebrate their old paganistic traditions without having to worry about the larger implications. Most concerned Christians just want to "put the Christ back in Christmas" - never mind that there was precious little of him there in the first place. However, some of them want to go even farther and get rid of Christmas entirely.
In the late Middle Ages the Catholic scholar Polydore Virgil wrote against Christmas in de Rerum Inventoribus:
Dancing, masques, mummeries, stageplays, and other such Christmas disorders now in use with Christians, were derived from these Roman Saturnalian and Bacchanalian festivals; which should cause all pious Christians eternally to abominate them.
And opposition to the pagan traditions was high on the list of things the puritans wanted to purge from the Church. In the 1640s the puritan parliament tried to ban Christmas celebrations in England. Later that same century there was a similar ban in Massachusetts and Increase Mather expressed what were largely objections to the joyous nature of the holiday as being unchristian in his broadside A Testimony Against Several Profane and Superstitious Customs:
The generality of Christmas-keepers observe that Festival after such a manner as is highly dishonourable to the name of Christ. How few are there comparatively that spend those Holidays (as they are called) after an Holy manner. But they are consumed in Compotations, in Interludes, in playing at Cards, in Revellings, in excess of Wine, in mad Mirth; Will Christ the holy Son of God be pleased with such Services? Just after this manner were the Saturnalia of the Heathen celebrated. Saturn was the Gaming God. And the Feast of Christ’s Nativity is attended with such Profaneness, as that it deserves the name of Saturn’s Mass, or of Bacchus his Mass, or if you will, the Devil’s Mass, rather than to have the Holy name of Christ put upon it.
Mather clearly reaffirms the popular perception that Puritans really objected to people having any fun at all.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Sameer
Some interesting points well made, good read!
2 - STM
I agree ... the Us is predominatly a Christian country, whether you actually believe and/or practice it.
I find it absurd that in many places in the US, you can offend people by saying "Merry Christmas".
My view: if they're offended, and I don't believe most are, tough titties. On the question of other faiths, I have asked Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist friends in Australia (all of different national descent, but all Australians) whether they are offended by it: none are, and all actively participate in the giving of gifts etc with friends of a Christian background.
The most recent example of this nonsense came when the Lord Mayor of Sydney a few years back decided to cancel Christmas decorations throughout the city in case they offended non-Christians. She, of course, is of an anglo/Christian background - and as you'd guess, quite to the left. When Sydney's The Daily Telegraph newspaper did a digital picture on the front page of her as The Grinch and mounted a bring-back-Christmas campaign, she backed down.
Others here have included the cancellation of Kindergarten and pre-school Christmas plays and performances. I notice, however, that when the gay mardi gras is on in Sydney, no-one complains about being told: "Happy Mardi-Gras." I'm not gay, but it's a big event for people who are and why not be happy for everyone? Surely we're all big enough to recognise that people celebrate what they celebrate as part of their cultural backgrounds/lifestyles.
In the US, in case you offend anyone, the replacement greeting has become totally bizarre: "Happy Holidays."
What the f.ck does that mean? It's Christmas we are celebrating, for heaven's sake.
Another example of the majority falling victim to the looney and vocal minority, usually from the left.
3 - Bliffle
Maybe so, but thanksgiving is a better holiday, less fraught with despair and misery. And fewer lies to tell children, for the occasional parent who worries about developing a bad record of untruthfulness with his own children.
4 - STM
Yes Bliff ... but the beauty of it is, we've all been lied to.
Passing on the lie is a rite parenthood, and discovering the Santa Claus lie a rite of childhood.
It's all good.
5 - Dave Nalle
What 'Santa Claus lie' would that be? See my earlier writing on Santa.
Dave
6 - D'oh
You know, I have yet to ever meet anyone, or witness anyone, who has ever objected to a "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Hannukah" or "have a super Saturnalia".
Could just be me, but every time I hear someone say there's some kind of war on the holiday, I check my wallet.
Just for Dave, a small Gift.
7 - Mohjho
Sounds reasonable.
8 - Dave Nalle
Very cool. Thanks, D'Oh. Didn't know there was a video for it, but it's been on my Christmas playlist for years.
Dave
9 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Nice job, Dave. It nails the concept home, not to put too fine a point on it... ;))
10 - Bliffle
"... but the beauty of it is, we've all been lied to."
That's your idea of beauty?
"Passing on the lie is a rite parenthood, and discovering the Santa Claus lie a rite of childhood.
It's all good."
You're mad.
11 - Dave Nalle
Bliff, the ongoing denial of the reality of Santa Claus is a kind of cultural curse which is passed on from generation to generation. The time will come when there is a reckoning and the deniers will stand in all their shame for the world to see.
Dave
12 - Elvira Black
Dave:
Great piece. I have to tell you that you really took me back when you mentioned Garner Ted Armstrong. My dad used to listen to his dad, Herbert W's, radio show "The World Tomorrow" and subscribe to their free mag, "The Plain Truth." I'm guessing that the advent of the internet was a real boon to the Armstrongs' long-standing attempt to get the word out.
Subsequently, though my dad did give me presents and didn't disabuse me of the notion that Santa did exist, I do remember him telling me at some point that Christmas was a pagan holiday. But I agree with you wholeheartedly about the true spirit of Christmas. Too bad those on both extremes can't learn to lighten up a little.
13 - troll
question of the day - who's mad...STM for pointing out the social value of the irrational or Bliffle for denying it
(or this troll for spending time wondering about it)
14 - Bliffle
Lighten up a bit? When is it a good idea to train your children to believe in lies, so that they may discover that you purposely and deliberately lied to them? How do you make the decision when to lie and when to tell the truth? Why would they EVER believe you? Don't you think they will resent being manipulated by your lies?
15 - Belizaire
You must live in a grim and horrible world where kids are denied the fantasy that builds imagination and creativity, bliffle.
16 - Bliffle
This rather stupid statement explains why so many believed Bush/Cheney:
"You must live in a grim and horrible world where kids are denied the fantasy that builds imagination and creativity, bliffle."
Do you think we have a better time now because so many believed their lies? Do you think it creative of those jerks to tell lies to citizens? In what way did that make our lives better?
What is romantic about being lied to? Someone lied to me several times over the last year and i finally fired her - with a detailed recital of her lies. Those lies cost me a lot of money. Why would I find that charming?
Nobody needs fantasy and lies to deal with reality and life except a psychotic.
17 - RedTard
"What is romantic about being lied to?"
What is romantic about the truth? If you practice what you preach online you must be an insufferably rude asshole in person, or you temper the truth with a little tact, lying to others and yourself in the process.
Interpersonal relationships are just one area where a few little white lies, or more commonly ommisions, are necessary in modern society. The confidence and powers of positive thinking gained from 'good' lies also have real world measurable effects.
18 - STM
My kids absolutely loved the idea that a fat, bearded, white haired bloke (No, darling, I'm not Santa) in a red suit came down our chimney (never mind the gas heater at the bottom, there's magical ways around that) and dropped a sh.tload of presents under the tree.
When my youngest daughter and all her friends worked out this year (11-year-olds) that it was, ahem, a slight twisting of the truth, she cried for a moment - and then asked if she'd still get the same number of presents and would it still be dependent on whether she was good. Answering yes to the first one and possubly to the second, she brightened up considerably.
My son just told me he'd suspected for a long time that it might be a story but since the boys at school had been debunking it for three years, peer-group pressure meant it wasn't an issue.
It's a magic thing: I still remember the joy of staying up late hoping to catch a glimpse of the fat fella.
Bliff, this all begs the question: do you have kids???
19 - Clavos
Bliff, this all begs the question: do you have kids???
It also begs the question: is your real name Scrooge?
20 - Iloz Zoc
Great piece. With all the political BS going on between religions, and the power-playing and hate-mongering, as a believer in jolly pagan Santa and Jesus' teachings, I want the holiday to be about peace on earth, good will toward everybody. Whatever meaning you attach to the season, the only one that really matters is that.
21 - Clavos
I want the holiday to be about peace on earth, good will toward everybody. Whatever meaning you attach to the season, the only one that really matters is that.
Repeated for emphasis.
Thank you, Iloz. Well said.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
22 - Martin J. Ryan
Excellent writing, Dave. Right on. Paganism predates the entire Judaic/Christian concept which borrowed liberally from the former, and one can identify parallel ideas of gods and sacrifice, pouring libations of wine ( a sublimation)in lieu of the blood from human to animal sacrifice, practices which themselves hark back to the near pre-history of man with attributions of scary natural phenomena to gods of mountains, sun and moon, etc. Hasn't really changed that much. I'm non-religious but my family and I thoroughly enjoy the national holiday festivities of Xmas. I must admit, when I learned Santa was a little white fib at 5 or 6 years of age I was really pissed. But that was more than 70 years ago and I got over it; was fun while it lasted.
23 - Victor Plenty
No "war on Christmas" is nearly so energetic as the war on "happy holidays" being waged across our culture. From what I've observed, the first strikes in this battle of the culture wars were unjustifiably vicious calumnies against the intentions of anyone using the phrase "happy holidays" to wish their fellow citizens a little seasonal cheer.
Last year I actually overheard the following conversation in a public place, between a cashier and a customer who was leaving the store.
Cashier: Happy holidays!
Customer: NO! MERRY CHRISTMAS.
What kind of insanity have we let take over our culture when things like this can happen? The phrase "happy holidays" did not originate in some think tank of evil secular humanists conspiring to open the gates of hell in the heartland of Western civilization. It's just an innocently easy way to wish someone any or all of the following:
Happy Thanksgiving
Merry Christmas
Happy Hanukkah
Happy New Year
Happy Solstice
etc., etc., etc.
Contrary to the delusions of the right or the left, none of that qualifies as hate speech.
24 - Dave Nalle
You forgot my preferred 'joyous yule'.
I'm still trying to deal with the trauma of the carhop at Sonic telling me to 'have a blessed day'.
Dave
25 - Clavos
Damn I miss Sonic! We don't have them in South Florida.