Of Christmas…
25/12/05
The story of Christ's birth has been handed down for centuries, based on the Gospels of Matthew and Luke...
Luke tells us that Mary learned from the angel Gabriel that she was with child by the Holy Spirit. Shortly thereafter, she and her husband Joseph left their Nazareth home to travel to Joseph's ancestral home of Bethlehem of Judea, to enroll in the census ordered by the Roman emperor, Augustus. Finding no room in inns in the town, they set up primitive lodgings in a stable. There Mary gave birth to Jesus and laid him in a manger. Christ's birth in Bethlehem, the home of the house of David from which Joseph was descended, fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah. And let's not forget the announcement by angels to nearby shepherds of Jesus' birth.
Matthew's Gospel begins by recounting the royal and law genealogy (in fulfillment of the scriptures) and virgin birth of Christ, then skips to the coming of the Wise Men from the East to the home where Christ was staying after his birth in Bethlehem.
The date we celebrate the birth of Christ is based on the date of Good Friday, the day Jesus was crucified. Since the exact date of Jesus' crucifixion and death is not stated in the Gospels, early Christians sought to calculate it; they arrived at March 25th, or thereabouts (please don't ask me how they arrived at that date). To then calculate the date of Jesus' birth, they followed the ancient idea that Old Testament prophets died at an "integral age"-either the anniversary of their birth or of their incarnation (conception). They reasoned that Jesus died on the anniversary of his incarnation, so the date of his birth would have been nine months after the date of Good Friday-December 25th.
The word "Christmas" is simply a contraction of the old English "Cr?stes m�sse," literally "Christ's Mass."
The endless number of customs; with either secular, religious, or national aspects surrounding Christmas vary widely from country to country. Most of the familiar and traditional trappings of our Christmas; wreaths, holly, ivy and mistletoe, the Yule log, and carolers are all English. Gifts at Christmas is also an English custom; elsewhere they are given at other times, such as at Epiphany in Spain. The Christmas tree is a German tradition from the Middle Ages. The crib (cr�che) with the Nativity scene at Bethlehem was popularized by the Franciscans.
In the mid 19th century, Christmas began to acquire its trappings of an increasingly secularized holiday of gift-giving and "good cheer;" a view that was popularized in works such as Clement Clarke Moore's poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" (1823) and Charles Dickens' story "A Christmas Carol" (1843). Christmas cards first appeared in England in 1846. Our current notion of jolly ol' Santa Claus was first popularized in New York in the 19th century.
When Oliver Cromwell took over England in 1645, Christmas was cancelled as part of the Puritan effort to rid the country of decadence. This proved, let's say "unpopular," and when Charles II was restored to the throne, he reinstated the celebration. The Pilgrims, that group of Puritanical English separatists who later came to North America in 1620, completely disapproved of celebrating Christmas, and as a result it wasn't a holiday in most of early America; though all the while the Anglicans of the Jamestown and subsequent settlements celebrated Christmas freely. The celebration of Christmas was actually outlawed from 1659 to 1681 in Boston, a prohibition enforced with a fine of five shillings. Christmas again fell out of favor after the American Revolution, as it was considered an "English custom," and it was not declared a federal holiday in the United States until June 26, 1870.
Luke tells us that Mary learned from the angel Gabriel that she was with child by the Holy Spirit. Shortly thereafter, she and her husband Joseph left their Nazareth home to travel to Joseph's ancestral home of Bethlehem of Judea, to enroll in the census ordered by the Roman emperor, Augustus. Finding no room in inns in the town, they set up primitive lodgings in a stable. There Mary gave birth to Jesus and laid him in a manger. Christ's birth in Bethlehem, the home of the house of David from which Joseph was descended, fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah. And let's not forget the announcement by angels to nearby shepherds of Jesus' birth.
Matthew's Gospel begins by recounting the royal and law genealogy (in fulfillment of the scriptures) and virgin birth of Christ, then skips to the coming of the Wise Men from the East to the home where Christ was staying after his birth in Bethlehem.
The date we celebrate the birth of Christ is based on the date of Good Friday, the day Jesus was crucified. Since the exact date of Jesus' crucifixion and death is not stated in the Gospels, early Christians sought to calculate it; they arrived at March 25th, or thereabouts (please don't ask me how they arrived at that date). To then calculate the date of Jesus' birth, they followed the ancient idea that Old Testament prophets died at an "integral age"-either the anniversary of their birth or of their incarnation (conception). They reasoned that Jesus died on the anniversary of his incarnation, so the date of his birth would have been nine months after the date of Good Friday-December 25th.
The word "Christmas" is simply a contraction of the old English "Cr?stes m�sse," literally "Christ's Mass."
The endless number of customs; with either secular, religious, or national aspects surrounding Christmas vary widely from country to country. Most of the familiar and traditional trappings of our Christmas; wreaths, holly, ivy and mistletoe, the Yule log, and carolers are all English. Gifts at Christmas is also an English custom; elsewhere they are given at other times, such as at Epiphany in Spain. The Christmas tree is a German tradition from the Middle Ages. The crib (cr�che) with the Nativity scene at Bethlehem was popularized by the Franciscans.
In the mid 19th century, Christmas began to acquire its trappings of an increasingly secularized holiday of gift-giving and "good cheer;" a view that was popularized in works such as Clement Clarke Moore's poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" (1823) and Charles Dickens' story "A Christmas Carol" (1843). Christmas cards first appeared in England in 1846. Our current notion of jolly ol' Santa Claus was first popularized in New York in the 19th century.
When Oliver Cromwell took over England in 1645, Christmas was cancelled as part of the Puritan effort to rid the country of decadence. This proved, let's say "unpopular," and when Charles II was restored to the throne, he reinstated the celebration. The Pilgrims, that group of Puritanical English separatists who later came to North America in 1620, completely disapproved of celebrating Christmas, and as a result it wasn't a holiday in most of early America; though all the while the Anglicans of the Jamestown and subsequent settlements celebrated Christmas freely. The celebration of Christmas was actually outlawed from 1659 to 1681 in Boston, a prohibition enforced with a fine of five shillings. Christmas again fell out of favor after the American Revolution, as it was considered an "English custom," and it was not declared a federal holiday in the United States until June 26, 1870.