When was christmas first generally observed




















In northern countries, when the nights are long and cold, the feast of Christmas traditionally gave Christian people something to look forward to: rich food reindeer if you are in Sweden, pork and lamb if you are in Greece , lots of candles, Catholic Mass at midnight or Protestant services on Christmas morning.

Fir trees were brought inside and lit with candles as a symbol of the hope that spring would return with new crops and plentiful food. Many of our Easter symbols, like the bunny and the egg, are ancient fertility symbols. No one knows how chocolate got dragged in!

It is also an interesting coincidence that the Jewish Festival of Lights, Hanukkah, falls in November or December each year, and is celebrated with the lighting of the candelabra menorah , traditional foods, games and gifts. Nicholas was a bishop in the city of Myra in modern Turkey , who wanted to help poor young women get husbands.

He left bags of money of the doorsteps of their family homes in secret, an anonymous gift to the poor to be used as a dowry. For this he became known as the patron saint of virgins and children. Over time, his generosity was remembered by people giving gifts to children in secret on the feast of St Nicholas, celebrated on December 6 in western Christian countries and 19 December in the eastern churches.

St Augustine of Canterbury was the person who probably started the widespread celebration of Christmas in large parts of England by introducing Christianity to the regions run by the Anglo-Saxons in the 6th century other Celtic parts of Britain were already Christian but there aren't many documents about if or how they celebrated the birth of Jesus.

If you'd like to know more about the history behind the dating of Christmas, then read this very good article on Bible History Daily goes to another site.

There's a strong and practical reason why Jesus might not have been born in the winter, but in the spring or the autumn! It can get very cold in the winter and it's unlikely that the shepherds would have been keeping sheep out on the hills as those hills can get quite a lot of snow sometimes!

During the spring in March or April there's a Jewish festival called 'Passover'. This festival remembers when the Jews had escaped from slavery in Egypt about years before Jesus was born.

Lots of lambs would have been needed during the Passover Festival, to be sacrificed in the Temple in Jerusalem. Jews from all over the Roman Empire traveled to Jerusalem for the Passover Festival, so it would have been a good time for the Romans to take a census. Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem for the census Bethlehem is about six miles from Jerusalem. It's the festival that's mentioned the most times in the Bible!

It is when Jewish people remember that they depended on God for all they had after they had escaped from Egypt and spent 40 years in the desert. It also celebrates the end of the harvest. During the festival, Jews live outside in temporary shelters the word 'tabernacle' come from a latin word meaning 'booth' or 'hut'. Many people who have studied the Bible, think that Sukkot would be a likely time for the birth of Jesus as it might fit with the description of there being 'no room in the inn'.

It wouldn't have been practical for Joseph and Mary to carry their own shelter as Mary was pregnant. The possibilities for the Star of Bethlehem seems to point either spring or autumn. The possible dating of Jesus birth can also be taken from when Zechariah who was married to Mary's cousin Elizabeth was on duty in the Jewish Temple as a Priest and had an amazing experience. There is an excellent article on the dating of Christmas based on the dates of Zechariah's experience, on the blog of theologian, Ian Paul.

With those dates, you get Jesus being born in September - which also fits with Sukkot! In the Bible, John says "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us Not that the day has always been celebrated in its current form, mind — but just who did invent Christmas as we know it?

There are a number of theories as to why 25 December should have been chosen, with one suggesting that it coincided with the Winter Solstice and the ancient Roman pagan midwinter festivals Saturnalia which honoured the Roman god Saturn and Dies Natalis Solis Invicti the festival marking the solstice.

Despite the Romans having marked the date, Christmas was a relatively minor affair, and was not celebrated with a specific liturgy until the ninth Century. For a month, enslaved people were given temporary freedom and treated as equals.

Business and schools were closed so that everyone could participate in the holiday's festivities. Also around the time of the winter solstice, Romans observed Juvenalia, a feast honoring the children of Rome. In addition, members of the upper classes often celebrated the birthday of Mithra, the god of the unconquerable sun, on December It was believed that Mithra, an infant god, was born of a rock. In the early years of Christianity , Easter was the main holiday; the birth of Jesus was not celebrated.

In the fourth century, church officials decided to institute the birth of Jesus as a holiday. Unfortunately, the Bible does not mention date for his birth a fact Puritans later pointed out in order to deny the legitimacy of the celebration. Although some evidence suggests that his birth may have occurred in the spring why would shepherds be herding in the middle of winter?

It is commonly believed that the church chose this date in an effort to adopt and absorb the traditions of the pagan Saturnalia festival. First called the Feast of the Nativity, the custom spread to Egypt by and to England by the end of the sixth century.

By holding Christmas at the same time as traditional winter solstice festivals, church leaders increased the chances that Christmas would be popularly embraced, but gave up the ability to dictate how it was celebrated. By the Middle Ages , Christianity had, for the most part, replaced pagan religion. The poor would go to the houses of the rich and demand their best food and drink. If owners failed to comply, their visitors would most likely terrorize them with mischief.

In the early 17th century, a wave of religious reform changed the way Christmas was celebrated in Europe. When Oliver Cromwell and his Puritan forces took over England in , they vowed to rid England of decadence and, as part of their effort, cancelled Christmas. By popular demand, Charles II was restored to the throne and, with him, came the return of the popular holiday.

The pilgrims , English separatists that came to America in , were even more orthodox in their Puritan beliefs than Cromwell. As a result, Christmas was not a holiday in early America. From to , the celebration of Christmas was actually outlawed in Boston. Anyone exhibiting the Christmas spirit was fined five shillings. By contrast, in the Jamestown settlement, Captain John Smith reported that Christmas was enjoyed by all and passed without incident.



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