Official feasts used to be an important part of the human community. People would gather together to remember something sacred, express their faith and hope for the future, and / or just be together formally, recognizing each other as being part of a shared community. Few things express a desire for shared companionship and social intimacy more than dining together. Sadly, the gathering together for feasting is increasingly a relic of the past – at least here in the West.
It need not be so! Today we will remember the ancient feasts.
THE FEAST DAY OF Christmas
This Christian holiday is perhaps the most well-known holiday on Earth. However, within the wider culture (particularly in the West) a lot of the history of the celebration has been lost and replaced by secular traditions. In lieu of that, I will endeavor to shed some light on the celebration’s origins ad history.
For an introduction to the Christmas Feast Day, we’ll start with wikipedia:
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year, it follows the season of Advent (which begins four Sundays before) or the Nativity Fast, and initiates the season of Christmastide, which historically in the West lasts twelve days and culminates on Twelfth Night. Christmas Day is a public holiday in many countries, is celebrated religiously by a majority of Christians, as well as culturally by many non-Christians, and forms an integral part of the holiday season surrounding it.
The traditional Christmas narrative recounted in the New Testament, known as the Nativity of Jesus, says that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, in accordance with messianic prophecies. When Joseph and Mary arrived in the city, the inn had no room and so they were offered a stable where the Christ Child was soon born, with angels proclaiming this news to shepherds who then spread the word.
There are different hypotheses regarding the date of Jesus’ birth and in the early fourth century, the church fixed the date as December 25. This corresponds to the traditional date of the winter solstice on the Roman calendar. It is exactly nine months after Annunciation on March 25, also the date of the spring equinox. Most Christians celebrate on December 25 in the Gregorian calendar, which has been adopted almost universally in the civil calendars used in countries throughout the world. However, part of the Eastern Christian Churches celebrate Christmas on December 25 of the older Julian calendar, which currently corresponds to January 7 in the Gregorian calendar. For Christians, believing that God came into the world in the form of man to atone for the sins of humanity, rather than knowing Jesus’ exact birth date, is considered to be the primary purpose in celebrating Christmas.
The customs associated with Christmas in various countries have a mix of pre-Christian, Christian, and secular themes and origins. Popular holiday traditions include gift giving; completing an Advent calendar or Advent wreath; Christmas music and caroling; watching Christmas movies; viewing a Nativity play; an exchange of Christmas cards; attending church services; a special meal; and displaying various Christmas decorations including Christmas trees, Christmas lights, nativity scenes, garlands, wreaths, mistletoe, and holly. Additionally, several related and often interchangeable figures, known as Santa Claus, Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, and the Christkind, are associated with bringing gifts to children during the Christmas season and have their own body of traditions and lore. Because gift-giving and many other aspects of the Christmas festival involve heightened economic activity, the holiday has become a significant event and a key sales period for retailers and businesses. Over the past few centuries, Christmas has had a steadily growing economic effect in many regions of the world.
Etymology
The English word Christmas is a shortened form of ‘Christ’s Mass‘. The word is recorded as Crīstesmæsse in 1038 and Cristes-messe in 1131. Crīst (genitive Crīstes) is from the Greek Khrīstos (Χριστός), a translation of the Hebrew Māšîaḥ (מָשִׁיחַ), ‘Messiah‘, meaning ‘anointed’; and mæsse is from the Latin missa, the celebration of the Eucharist.
The form Christenmas was also used during some periods, but is now considered archaic and dialectal. The term derives from Middle English Cristenmasse, meaning ‘Christian mass’. Xmas is an abbreviation of Christmas found particularly in print, based on the initial letter chi (Χ) in the Greek Khrīstos (‘Christ’), although some style guides discourage its use. This abbreviation has precedent in Middle English Χρ̄es masse (where Χρ̄ is an abbreviation for the Greek Χριστός).
Other names
In addition to ‘Christmas’, the holiday has had various other English names throughout its history. The Anglo-Saxons referred to the feast as “midwinter”, or, more rarely, as Nātiuiteð (from the Latin nātīvitās below). Nativity, meaning ‘birth’, is from the Latin nātīvitās. In Old English, Gēola (‘Yule‘) referred to the period corresponding to December and January, which was eventually equated with Christian Christmas. ‘Noel’ (also ‘Nowel’ or ‘Nowell’, as in “The First Nowell“) entered English in the late 14th century and is from the Old French noël or naël, itself ultimately from the Latin nātālis (diēs) meaning ‘birth (day)’.
Koleda is the traditional Slavic name for Christmas and the period from Christmas to Epiphany or, more generally, to Slavic Christmas-related rituals, some dating to pre-Christian times.
Why is Christmas celebrated on December 25?
One of the difficult things about learning authentic history on this topic is that a lot of the historians seem to bring a bias into their account of said history. As consumers of that information, we often will account for the bias of a proponent of a religion, but not as often account for the bias of an opponent of a religion.
The wikipedia article above, for example, acknowledges the existence of 2nd century evidence for the celebration while simultaneously downplaying it as “interpolation.” You are likely to read from some historians, definitively, that early Christians did not celebrate Christ’s birth and that the practice of doing so did not begin until the 4th century. The problem with this view is that 1) it assumes that the lack of a written record indicates a lack of the existence of a thing, and 2) on this point, there is evidence to the contrary. From theconversation.com
Hyppolitus (170-235 CE), a prominent theologian of the Catholic Church in Rome, mentioned the date of Jesus birth in his 204 CE work, “Commentary on Daniel”.
He stated Jesus was born “in Bethlehem, eight days before the calendar of January [December 25], the 4th day of the week [Wednesday]”.
In this context, Hyppolitus used the Julian calendar, a solar calendar introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BCE.
The rationale for the date can also be found in the early Church and in Second Temple Jewish tradition.
But in Jewish tradition, the date of conception of holy person coincides with the date of death. Early Christians believed that March 25 was when Jesus was crucified.
Based on this theological assumption, the calculation shows that Jesus’ conception also happened on March 25. This means, Jesus was born exactly nine months later, or on December 25. This theological-based calculation is known as Calculation Theory.
The theory suggests Jesus’s birth date has not linked to the pagan rituals to worship Sol Invictus, Saturnalia and Mithras, since the pagan feasts were not celebrated on December 25.
Sol Invictus was likely celebrated on August 8, 9, or 28, October 19 or 22, or December 11.
Saturnalia was celebrated between December 17-23.
As for Mithras, there is no compelling evidence that it was celebrated on December 25.
Three different manuscripts further prove Christmas was celebrated before 336 CE. Didascalia Apostolorum, Liber Pontificalis, and Epistle of Theophilus The texts provide information on the pastoral life of early Christians, their religious ceremonies (liturgies) and the names of popes.
Didascalia is an ancient text from 250 CE. The text mentions the celebration of the Epiphany, the manifestation of Christ to the ordinary people. The Catholic Church celebrates Epiphany to commemorate the visit of three wise men in Bethlehem.
The Eastern Orthodox and Orthodox churches celebrate the Epiphany to commemorate the baptism of Jesus. Epiphany is part of of Christmas feast in the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Orthodox Churches.
The Didascalia text states that Epiphany is celebrated every January 6 in the Julian calendar. When we convert this date to the Gregorian calendar, a solar calendar that has been widely used since 1582 CE until now, the Epiphany falls on December 25.
Liber Pontificalis, which contains a short biography of the popes, suggests the celebration of Christmas in 2 century CE. The text reveals that Pope Telesphorus (125-136 CE) instructed the celebration of Jesus’s birth. The text does not mention the date of the festival. However, Liber Pontificalis proves that the Christmas celebration’s history is older than we used to know.
Epistle of Theopilus mentions December 25 as the date of the celebration of Jesus birth. The text suggests that the celebration was prior to 196 CE, thus, it is likely the Christmas has been celebrated before that.
Ultimately, if you want to believe that Christians co-opted pagan holidays in the 4th century, or if you want to believe the Calculation Theory, I am not certain that it actually matters much to the validity of the celebration itself. However, as that’s often a point of discussion, I find the history to be both worth knowing and also interesting. (In addition, there is a fascinating theory that the Book of Revelation reveals Christ’s date of birth to have been in September.)
What do you do at Christ’s Mass, traditionally?
The most obvious answer to this question is historically the most important: you attend Church (Mass.)
The Christmas Day celebration is surrounded by many other celebrations (Advent and Epiphany to name two) with their own histories and traditions, and over time, the Feast Day Celebration of St. Nicholas (Dec. 6th) has been combined with the celebration, also, particularly in the United States. The end result is that the specific way that the day is celebrated looks very different, depending on where you live, and what branch of the Christianity family tree (Catholicism, Orthodox, Protestantism, etc.) to which you adhere.
Common traditions include decorating, caroling, gift-giving, movie-watching, and feasting at a large family gathering.
What do you eat for the Christmas Feast Day?
A roughly two thousand year old global Feast Day is bound to have a lot of unique cuisines associated with the holiday. There is such an extensive international list of food traditions, associated with Christmas, that there is a vast wikipedia entry on the topic.
While it is not part of my family’s tradition, “figgy pudding” is a traditional Christmas dish about which I have always been a little bit curious. If I enjoy it, maybe I’ll add it to the DustyReviews family table in the future.
Recipe via allrecipes.com
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cups buttermilk
- 12 ounces dried Calimyrna figs, coarsely chopped
- 1 ½ cups white whole-wheat flour (such as King Arthur)
- 1 cup white sugar
- 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 large eggs
- 1 ½ cups dry bread crumbs
- ½ cup butter, melted
- 1 (2.45 ounce) package sliced almonds
- 3 tablespoons orange marmalade
- 1 tablespoon grated orange zest
- ½ teaspoon orange-vanilla flavoring, such as Fiori di Sicilia (Optional)
Directions
- Gather all ingredients.
- Gently heat buttermilk and figs in a saucepan over medium-low heat until softened, 10 to 15 minutes; set aside until cool.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a tube pan. Grease one side of a sheet of aluminum foil.
- Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt together into a bowl.
- Beat eggs in a separate, large bowl with an electric mixer on high speed for 1 minute. Add the cooled fig and buttermilk mixture, bread crumbs, melted butter, almonds, orange marmalade, orange zest, and orange-vanilla flavoring; beat on low speed until blended.
- Gradually mix in the sifted flour mixture until just incorporated.
- Spoon batter into the prepared pan and cover with the greased foil.
- Bake in the preheated oven until firm and pulling away from sides of the pan, about 1 hour 15 minutes to 2 hours.
- Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Turn out onto a wire rack.
Is there a Traditional Christmas Prayer?
Christianity.com put together a list of 25 prayers one might say for the celebration. The following Christmas Eve prayer, by Robert Louis Stevenson, is quite well known.
A Christmas Prayer
by Robert Louis StevensonLoving Father,
Help us remember the birth of Jesus,
that we may share in the song of the angels,
the gladness of the shepherds,
and worship of the wise men.
Close the door of hate
and open the door of love all over the world.
Let kindness come with every gift
and good desires with every greeting.
Deliver us from evil by the blessing
which Christ brings,
and teach us to be merry with clear hearts.
May the Christmas morning
make us happy to be thy children,
and Christmas evening bring us to our beds
with grateful thoughts,
forgiving and forgiven,
for Jesus’ sake.Amen.
A traditional Catholic prayer is embedded below:
Praise to You, Lord God!
You have become one of us.
You have become a human being,
while still retaining all your power and holiness as God!You, O Lord, made the journey of the unborn child.
By being an embryo, a fetus, and a newborn,
you joined all unborn and newborn children to you!From the beginning of history, O Lord,
You were the Creator of every human life.
Now, with Christmas,
You join Yourself in an unthinkable way with the life You created.Let this Christmas, O God,
fill all of us with awe and wonder
at how close human life is to You.
Cleanse the world of all that tarnishes
and rejects this gift.
Purify our hearts of all that fears this gift.Let our Christmas joy be the joy of welcoming every human life!
Amen!
