Hello.
Coming from a non-Christian country, to me this is all strange and new, even after many years in Canada. I of course assimilated and accepted and entered the mainstream Canadian culture and society.
However, because there are religious holidays, not like Victoria Day or Thanksgiving, there’s a very peculiar and weird feeling I get for Christmas or Easter.
It’s like cognitive dissonance upon cognitive dissonance upon cognitive dissonance.
What I mean is, okay, it’s the birthday of Jesus Christ. A historical figure, a religious teacher, the God, the Saviour. When we have a birthday of a very prominent historical or cultural or religious figure back in my country of birth, we do not gift gifts to each other. I absolutely don’t mind gifts for any reason though, it’s a nice thing. But It makes no sense to me. Give gifts to the birthday person! Nobody even thinks of it. Hello, it’s His birthday! If I come to my brother’s b-day party and receive a present from another guest, I’d be like, Hey, it seems you are a little confused… We may look alike, but not that much
I think the first thing that needs to be addressed is that Christmas isn't Jesus' birthday, not really anyway. Christmas is often called Jesus' birthday but it's not really. Rather Christmas is a holy day and holy season on the traditional Christian liturgical calendar. If you have ever heard the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas" then you may (or may not) be confused. What are the twelve days of Christmas? It's the period of time between Christmas Day (December 25th) also more formally known as the The Feast of the Holy Nativity, and the Feast of Holy Epiphany (January 6th). Thus beginning on December 25th and ending on January 5th is the Season of Christmas, also called "Christmastide".
So it's not a birthday, but rather the celebration of Jesus' birth. That may seems like a silly distinction to make, but it's important here.
The practice of exchanging gifts is historically complicated. In the ancient Roman Empire there was a winter time of festivity known as the Saturnalia, which lasted from December 17th until December 23rd. It was a time of feasting, joviality, and was marked by several special customs. The most important was that during Saturnalia the roles of master and slave/servant were reversed, the masters of the house would serve the slaves during this time. It was also a time of giving gifts.
As the Roman Empire became Christianized, Saturnalia faded as a religious occasion devoted to the Roman god Saturn. But gift-giving at the end of December didn't go away, it simply was subsumed as a Roman folk practice, and later persisted in the various successor cultures to Rome. Since Christians celebrated Christmas at the end of December, it's not hard to see how giving gifts eventually got lumped together with Christmas. But this connection wasn't universal, and should be considered incredibly late.
And of course, once that already exists side-by-side, Christians have turned to our own Christmas themes to give gift-giving a particular Christmas significance. For example, we look at the story of the Magi who visited the Child Jesus and brought Him gifts of frankincense, gold, and myrrh. We also often point to the Incarnation as the greatest gift from God of all, the gift of His own Son to the world. And so by giving others gifts, we reflect the generosity of God in giving His own Son, born of the Virgin Mary.
How do you honour and value Jesus Christ? Truly. Because usually it’s what we show on a b-day to the b-day person…
What happened to churches? Why are they setting up trees and gift each other gifts and do a million other things that are contrary to honouring the Birthday Man and what He came for?
In Germany where the Christmas Tree originated, the practice goes back to the folk practice of having Paradise Trees. These were originally trees set up in public spaces in towns in accompaniment to Mystery Plays--specifically Mystery Plays about Adam and Eve's fall and ejection from Paradise/Eden. The Roman Catholic Church was not particularly fond of these sorts of things, and so Church officials tried to ban them in public squares. Germans simply decided to just bring these trees into their own homes.
It's worth noting that December 24th is also the traditional Feast Day of Adam and Eve.
Martin Luther and the early Lutherans are often credited with either transforming the Paradise Tree into the Christmas Tree, or at least with popularizing it. The tree was re-imagined in specifically Christ-centered themes. Christ was "hung on a tree", crucified on a wooden cross; the use of an evergreen tree symbolized the deathless life of Christ who died and rose again. Candles on the tree signified the light of Christ who is the "Light of the World". Etc.
As such the Christmas tree is a bonafide religious symbol.
If churches miss the main figure in their religion, how can you characterize it??? Shouldn’t they say enough is enough and take a lead in establishing the reality of this holiday? I’m watching a Christian TV show and they’re all glowing and taking about Nativity and whatnot, smth about a drummer boy, missing again the whole thing by a mile. Shame!
Or the phrase “Merry Christmas!” - shouldn’t we be saying “May Lord Jesus have a happy Birthday!”? In Muslim countries, they never reduce the name of their Prophet to smth like “Chrismis”, they’ll always say “prophet Muhammad peace be upon him”.
Christmas comes from Christ's Mass. The Mass (Liturgical Celebration) of [he Holy Nativity of] Jesus Christ.
While not as common in modern English, this form of contraction also occurs with the Feast of All Saints (November 1st) which has the archaic name of Hallowmas/Allhallowmas. Where "hallow" is simply the older English word for "saint" (it's related to the word "holy"). Hallowmas is the Feast of All Saints, just as the evening before All Saints (All Saints Eve) is called Hallowe'en (Hallow's Eve), which is on October 31st.
The wish of "merry" is simply another way of wishing someone a happy or joyous celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ our Lord. In the UK they say "Happy Christmas", the French say
Joyeux Noel ("Joyous Nativity").
Though I'd be perfectly happy if we instead took a cue from the historic Paschal greeting "Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen!", and "Christ is born!" would make for a fitting Christmas greeting.
The biggest problem with Christmas in North America is the commercialization and "Hallmark Cardification" of the Holy Season. But it isn't very difficult to opt out of that. For example, I choose to focus on the time leading up to Christmas by observing the Church Calendar, in which case the Season of Advent precedes Christmas. Advent is a time of hopeful anticipation, expectation, and sober reflection.
The time of Advent is a two-fold observation, of Christ's first coming and also of His future second coming. As such in the Western Liturgical Calendar Advent functions as both a kind of beginning and ending of the Liturgical Calendar. Advent kicks off the Liturgical Year by bringing us into the time of the Prophets of Israel and the hope of Israel of the coming Messiah, (O Come O Come Emmanuel is actually an Advent hymn, not a Christmas hymn). That hope fulfilled in the birth of the Messiah, Jesus (Christmas). Christ's Epiphany--the visit of the Magi, His baptism in the Jordan River by John the Baptist. Followed by the Season of Lent, which remembers the forty days of Christ in the wilderness after His baptism and before the beginning of His public ministry. The final week of Lent, the week leading up to Easter is known as Holy Week which includes Maundy Thursday (the Last Supper), Good Friday (the crucifixion), Holy Saturday (Christ in the tomb). And then after that is the Great and Most Holy Day of Pascha, also called "Easter" in English. The chief celebration on the Christian calendar, the Feast of Feasts and the Day of Days: Jesus Christ risen from the dead. Easter Sunday begins the period of Eastertide or Paschaltide which includes Ascension Sunday (Jesus' Ascension) and ends with Pentecost. The Season of Pentecost begins with Pentecost Sunday. In general, following Pentecost, we enter what is called "Ordinary Time", not in the sense of something being "ordinary" but in the sense of counting ordinal numbers; thus "Second Sunday after Pentecost", "Third Sunday after Pentecost", etc. Ordinary Time concludes with Advent, as we look forward to Christ's return and the renewal of all things.
As such the Church Year takes us through the entire Gospel story: Christ's promised first coming, His birth, the major events recorded about His life, His death and resurrection, and the Church's continued and present hope in His coming again. We are, in a sense, living in "Ordinary Time" ever since the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on that original Pentecost two thousand years ago (Acts of the Apostles ch. 2).
Rarely the time between Pentecost and Advent has been called "Kingdomtide", as a way to thematically bring it together with the rest of the Church Year. That is, the Season of the Kingdom of God through the Church here and now in the world, working in the world and looking forward to Christ's return.
Christmas makes a lot more sense in the context of the traditional Christian Calendar as observed in all the traditional and historic churches.
-CryptoLutheran
