Christmas
Christmas (literally, the Mass of Christ) is a traditional holiday in the Christian calendar which takes place around the end of December and celebrates the nativity of Jesus Christ. Christmas is also celebrated as a secular holiday throughout much of the world, including countries with small Christian populations, such as Japan. The precise date of the birth and historicity of Jesus are much debated (see Jesus).
The word Christmas is often abbreviated to Xmas, possibly because the letter X resembles the Greek letter Χ, which is the first letter of Christ's name as spelled in Greek.
Dates of celebration
Christmas is celebrated on December 25 in all Christian churches (Eastern Rite, Roman & Protestant). Since most Eastern Orthodox churches have not accepted either the Gregorian calendar or the Revised Julian Calendar reforms, the Ecclesiastic December 25 will fall on the civil date of January 7 for the years from 1900 to 2099.
Traditionally in the United Kingdom the Christmas season ran for twelve days following Christmas Day. These twelve days of Christmas, a period of feasting and merrymaking end on Twelfth Night, the Feast of the Epiphany. This period corresponds with the liturgical season of Christmas.
The Christmas period in some countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, in practice now begins many weeks before Christmas, which allows for shopping and get-togethers, and extends beyond Christmas Day up to New Year's Day. This later holiday has its own parties, and in Scotland, Hogmanay —which occurs at the New Year— is celebrated more than Christmas.
Countries that celebrate Christmas on December 25th recognize the previous day as Christmas Eve, and some of them follow Christmas day with Boxing Day. In the Netherlands, Germany, and Scandinavia, Christmas Day and Boxing Day are called First and Second Christmas Day.
Customs and celebrations
An enormous number of customs surround Christmas, and vary from country to country. Many aspects, such as the Christmas tree, holly, the Christmas ham, the Yule Log, and the giving of presents were appropriated from the earlier Asatru pagan midwinter holiday of Yule and the traditional celebrations of the Winter solstice, which were very popular in northern Europe long before the arrival of Christianity. (Other major pagan holidays similarly appropriated include Easter and Halloween.) Rather than attempting to suppress these popular feast days, the Christian missionaries simply gave them a new Christian interpretation, while permitting most of the associated customs to continue with little or no modification. A few Christian churches, most notably the Jehovah's Witnesses and some Puritan groups, thus view Christmas as a pagan holiday not sanctioned by the Bible and do not celebrate it.
In most Western countries, Christmas celebrations have both religious and secular aspects.
Secular customs
Since Christmas has become associated with the Northern Hemisphere winter, motifs of this season are prominent in Christmas decorations and in the Santa Claus myth.
Santa Claus
Some of the more popular customs of British and North American Christmas are Santa Claus (or Father Christmas or Saint Nicholas), who brings gifts to children on a sleigh pulled by reindeer. In some cultures Santa Claus is accompanied by Knecht Ruprecht, or Black Peter. In some versions elves in a toy workship make all his holiday toys; he may also be married to Mrs. Claus. Many shopping malls in North America have a holiday mall Santa Claus whom children can visit to ask for presents.
Gift-giving and cards
Gift-giving is a near-universal part of Christmas celebrations. In many countries, children leave empty containers on Christmas Eve for Santa to fill with small gifts such as toys, candy, or fruit. In the United States, the tradition is to hang a Christmas stocking by the fireplace, because Santa is said to come down the chimney the night before Christmas to fill them. In other countries, children place their empty shoes out for Santa's visit.
Christmas cards are extremely popular in the United States, in part as a way to maintain relationships with distant relatives and business acquaintances. Many families include an annual family photograph with the card and/or a family newsletter which summarizes the adventures and accomplishments of family members during the preceding year.
Decorations (aka decking the halls)
Decorating a Christmas tree with Christmas lights and Christmas ornaments; and the decoration of the interior (and sometimes exterior) of the home with garlands and evergreen foliage, particularly holly and mistletoe are common traditions. In North America and to a lesser extent the United Kingdom, it is traditional to decorate the outside of houses with large numbers of lights, including (sometimes) lit-up models of sleighs, snowmen and other Christmas figures.
The traditional Christmas flower is the poinsettia. Other popular holiday plants are holly, red amaryllis and Christmas cactus.
Cities often get into the swing of things, hanging Christmas banners from street lights or placing Christmas trees in the town square.
Social aspects and entertainment
In many countries, businesses, schools and communities have Christmas parties and dances. These often take place during the several weeks before Christmas Day. Some groups put on Christmas paegents, which may or may not include a retelling of the birth of Jesus Christ. Sometimes groups may go out carolling, and visit neighborhood homes to sing Christmas carols. Other people are reminded by the holiday of man's fellowship with man and do extra volunteer work, or hold fundraising drives for charities.
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Timing of Christmas gifts
For most of the world, Christmas gifts are given at night on Christmas Eve (24 December) or alternatively in the morning on Christmas Day.
For those countries who recognize Saint Nicholas as the bearer of gifts, presents are given on 5 December or 6 December. In Spain, and in countries with a similar tradition, gifts are brought by the three Kings (Magi or Wise Men) at Epiphany on 6 January. In the UK, it was traditional to give gifts to non-family members on Boxing Day, 26 December, but this is less common now. Some families choose to give presents more than once during the winter season.
The song The Twelve Days of Christmas suggests an old tradition of gifts each day from Christmas to Epiphany.
Food
On Christmas Day, a special meal of Christmas dishes is usually served, for which there are traditional menus in each country. Candy and treats are also part of the Christmas celebration in many countries.
Religious customs and celebrations
The religious celebrations begin with Advent, the anticipation of Christ's birth, around the start of December, and are marked by special church services. Advent services often include Advent carols, and the period is also celebrated with Advent calendars, sometimes containing sweets and chocolate for children. Immediately before Christmas, there are many Christmas services at churches at which Christmas hymns and Christmas carols are sung. There also are special services, typified by the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at Cambridge. On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, special services often include a Midnight Mass, or a Mass of the Nativity. The church's season of Christmas ends on the feast of the Epiphany, also known as Twelfth Night, the traditional date of the visit of the Three Kings to the child Jesus.
The holiday's popularity is so pronounced that other faiths have emphasized their own winter holidays to serve as a Christmas surrogate. The most obvious example is Judaism's Chanukah, which in the 20th century has evolved a similar family gift-giving tradition.
National customs and celebrations
United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, another aspect of the Christmas season popular with young families is the pantomime.
Southern Hemisphere
In commonwealth countries in the southern hemisphere, Christmas is still celebrated on December 25, despite the fact that this is the height of their summer season. This rather clashes with the traditional winter based iconography, resulting in anachronisms such as a red fur-coated Santa Claus surfing in for a turkey barbecue on Bondi Beach.
United States
The Christmas tree and skating rink at Rockefeller Center in New York City, and the White House Christmas decorations are important parts of the national Christmas celebration in the U.S. Also, NORAD "tracks" Santa Claus' global transit each year, to wide attention by the mass media.
Other areas
See List of winter festivals for other winter holidays and Christmas around the world for information about Christmas in non-English speaking countries.
Christmas in the arts and media
A large number of Christmas stories have been written, usually involving heart-touching tales that involve a Christmas miracle. Several have passed into popular culture and become part of the Christmas tradition.
Perhaps the most popular is Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, the tale of curmudgeonly miser Ebenezer Scrooge. Scrooge rejects compassion and philanthropy, and Christmas as a symbol of both, until he is visited by the "Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future", who show him the consequences of his ways. Through this and other Christmas stories, Dickens is sometimes credited with shaping the modern celebration of Christmas (tree, plum pudding, carols) and the movement to close businesses on Christmas day.
If Dickens shaped the wider traditions of Christmas, Thomas Nast and Clement Moore provided us with the popular images of Santa Claus. Nast's 19th century cartoons gave Santa his familiar form, while Moore's poem A Visit from Saint Nicholas (popularly known as The Night Before Christmas) gave us the rotund Santa and his sleigh landing on rooftops on Christmas Eve.
Another Christmas story is the acclaimed film, It's a Wonderful Life whose theme mirrors A Christmas Carol. Its hero, George Bailey, is a businessman who sacrificed his dreams to help his community. On Christmas Eve, a guardian angel finds him in despair and prevents him from committing suicide, by magically showing him how much he meant to the world around him.
Radio and TV stations popularise Christmas by broadcasting Christmas carols and Christmas songs. Many TV shows celebrate the holiday with a "Christmas Special" episode. In addition to popular music, classical music like the Hallelujah chorus from Handel's The Messiah may also be played.
UK media Christmas
In the United Kingdom this is usually of extended length, allowing some popular shows to gain high ratings and essentially become Christmas institutions (for example, Morecambe and Wise, The Two Ronnies, Only Fools and Horses, Top of the Pops). HM Queen Elizabeth II annually broadcasts a 10-minute speech on Christmas Day at 3 p.m., charting her views of the past year and giving her own reflections and advice. Also, the popular animated tale The Snowman is screened every Christmas on Channel 4, and a new story, The Bear, by the same artist and company, is usually broadcast around the same time.
Many of the long-running UK soap operas have Christmas specials, usually involving a dramatic storyline developed over several weeks which culminates just before (or at) Christmas. Often, these stories are tragic, involving a death, divorce, a dramatic revelation or similar.
In the United Kingdom, the music industry features the battle of bands and artists to make it to the 'Christmas No. 1' spot, which is always recognised on the first Sunday before, or on, Christmas Day. Many of these songs are extremely festive (for example, Slade's "Merry Xmas Everybody" from 1973), while others are novelty songs that remain at the top of the chart for one week only (such as Mr. Blobby's "Mr. Blobby" from 1993). Gospel singer Cliff Richard has been recognised as a fixture of Christmas charts, appearing nearly every year in the run-up to Christmas and subsequently being mocked for doing so.
U.S. media Christmas
In the United States, most family-oriented TV series also produce a Christmas special. Stand-alone Christmas specials are also popular, from newly created animated shorts and movies to repeats of those that were popular in previous years, such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and A Charlie Brown Christmas. Also, some local affiliates provide the "Yule Log," a block of time on Christmas morning devoted to nothing but a footage of a fireplace coupled with popular Christmas music.
Economics of Christmas
Christmas is typically the largest annual economic stimulus for the economies of celebrating Christian nations. Sales increase dramatically in almost all retail areas, as people purchase gifts, decorations, and supplies for parties and for visiting guests. Shops introduce new products that are sold at premium prices, as customers take advantage of the many marketing opportunities. In the United States, the Christmas shopping season has lengthened such that it now begins the day after Thanksgiving, known as Black Friday in the retail industry. For some shops and other businesses, Christmas Day is the only day in the year that they are closed.
The economic aspects of Christmas continue after the holiday, with Christmas sales and New Year's sales, when stores sell off goods that were not sold before Christmas. They also use this opportunity to clear out goods, or to take advantage of the many shoppers who go to these events, to increase their sales.
In North America, the holiday movie season is generally a repository for film studios' more prestigious pictures (positioning themselves for Oscar consideration), and is the second-most lucrative season after summer. That said, movies with Christmas as a topic, generally open no later than Thanksgiving, because once the day is past, no one wants to see a Christmas movie anymore.
Social impact of Christmas
Because of the focus on celebration, friends, and family, people who are without these, or who have recently suffered losses, are more likely to suffer from depression during the holidays. This increases the pressure on counseling services during the period.
Suicides and murders spike during the holiday season; and because of holiday celebrations involving alcohol, drunk driving may also increase.
Non-Christians in predominantly Christian-secular nations are left without anything to do on the days near Christmas, as stores close and friends depart for vacations. The cliché thing to do for these people is "movies and Chinese food"; movie theaters remaining open to bring in holiday box office dollars and Chinese (and presumably Buddhist, et al.) establishments being less likely to close for the big day.
Theories regarding the origin of the date of Christmas
Related article: Chronology of Jesus' birth and death
Many different dates have been suggested for the celebration of Christmas throughout the years. No explanation of why it is celebrated on December 25 is universally accepted. Theories include the following:
- It is an appropriation by early Christians of a day on which the birth of several pagan gods, Osiris, Jupiter, and Plutus, or the ancient deified leader Nimrod, was celebrated.
- It is an appropriation of the pagan Midwinter festivals, such as the Germanic Yule and the Roman festival of the birth of Unconquered Sun, celebrated on the day after the winter solstice, or the Roman festival of Saturnalia.
- It derives from the tradition that Jesus was born during the Jewish Festival of Lights (Hanukkah, the 25th of Kislev and the beginning of Tevet). Kislev is generally accepted as corresponding with our December. Under the Old Julian calendar, the popular choice of 5 BC for the year of Jesus's birth would place the 25th of Kislev on the 25th of November.
- The date of Christmas is based on the date of Good Friday, the day Jesus died. Since the exact date of Jesus' death is not stated in the Gospels, early Christians sought to calculate it, and arrived at either March 25 or April 6. Then, wishing to to calculate Jesus' birthday, they followed the ancient idea that Old Testament prophets died at an "integral age"—either an anniversary of their birth or of their conception. In Jesus' case, they reasoned that he died on an anniversary of the Incarnation (his conception) so the date of his birth would have been nine months after the date of Good Friday—either December 25 or January 6. Thus, rather than the date of Christmas being appropriated from pagans by Christians, the opposite is held to have occurred. [See Duchesne (1902) and Talley (1986).]
See also
Christmas season,Christmas carol, Christmas song, Christmas dishes, Giftmas, Christmas around the world.
References
- 1908 Catholic Encyclopedia article on Christmas
- Duchesne, Louis (1902), Les origines du culte chrétien
- Talley, Thomas J. (1986). The Origins of the Liturgical Year
External links
- Christmas Origins
- Christmas - Bible Answer (an anti-Christmas web site that attacks the holiday from a strict fundamentalist interpretation.)
- The History of Christmas
- The custom of celebrating with Christmas Lights
- "Calculating Christmas" by William J. Tighe