The Origin of Christmas

I'd like to take a break from the days of Christmas thingamajig I'm doing to tell you something interesting. (also because I started the "days of christmas" posts wayyy too early, even for it to finish on my birthday)


So, I'd like to tell you the origin of Christmas.

The origin of Christmas dates back to the second century after the birth of Christ, (site note-B.C. does stand for before Christ, but A.D. does NOT stand for "after death." It stands for "anno domini," which is Latin for "in the year of our lord.") which is when we have the earliest reference to Christmas being celebrated on the 25th of December. The original holiday celebrated on the 25th of December is in fact the pagan holiday of Saturnalia, which honored Saturn, the god of sowing (as in seeds, not clothes). The holiday, as was celebrated by the Romans, was in honor of the birth of the sun. Even the Christmas tree had its roots in paganism; the Norse pagans and Druids held evergreens in high regard since they did not "die" during winter, but instead stayed green. This they saw as manifestations of some deity or another.

They even decorated their trees with ornaments: coins, fruits, and charms hung from the branches. The Saxons were the first to put lights on trees in the form of candles. Roman pagans exchanged evergreen branches as signs of good luck, and decorated their homes with them.
This tradition was not practiced by Christians until the 16th century. Prince Albert is credited with starting the trend in England by bringing a tree to Windsor castle in 1841. In America, the first recorded sighting of a tree was in 1830, when a church erected one in an effort to raise funds. Note, this was at a time when Christmas trees were viewed as a PAGAN symbol. And, predictably enough, sixty years later, Christmas trees were fashionable, and ornaments were being imported from Germany. And of course, whereas in Britain, the trees were about waist height, in America they spanned from floor to ceiling. This was probably so that we could cram as much food as we could onto the tree: apples, nuts, berries, marzipan, and of course, cookies.

So, you all may be wondering, "Why would Christians decide to celebrate a pagan holiday?" Well, the truth of the matter is, ancient Christians were conservative enough to actually think that the Saturnalia was in fact TOO ROWDY. This can be taken to mean that people died in the arena, or the birth rate went up, or that people drank and drank and drank and woke up in a foreign country. The Romans were always rowdy, it seems....

Another advantage that celebrating Christmas on Saturnalia had was that it looked better to hopeful converts. So that there was no incentive not to join. Not that they wished for everyone to conform, but they wanted everyone to conform. Whatever.

Look at it this way: if you're large, you don't want to have to diet. However, if there were, say, a diet that....oh, required you to eat nothing but what you've been eating, and just a bit of work on the side, it would seem a lot less painful to diet.

Now replace "large" with "pagan"....and that's exactly what I'm trying to say. Perfect.

And now, for an explanation of what Christmas is all about:



And there you have it. Early Merry Christmas, everyone.



edit: Okay, now they're just making stuff up.