Brief History of Christmas
The history of Christmas is a long and complicated one. It is not known exactly why December 25th became associated with Christ’s birth, as the New Testament does not mention Jesus’ actual date of birth. Sextus Julius Africanus promoted the idea that Christ was born on December 25 in his Chronographiai, a Christian reference book, in AD 221, and the celebration of the feast of Christmas came about some time after this.
The earliest reference to celebrating the nativity on December 25 was found in a Roman manuscript compiled in the year 354. Christmas was popularised in the Christian East to help revive Catholicism following the death of Emperor Valens at the Battle of Adrianople in 378. However, the feast disappeared with the resignation of Bishop Gregory of Nazianzus in 381, only to be reintroduced in 400.
Christs Birthday is Celebrated at Christmas
By the Early Middle Ages, the medieval calendar was dominated by Christmas-related holidays. The 40 days before Christmas became the forty days of St. Martin, now known as Advent, and in the 12th century, the Twelve Days of Christmas appeared in liturgical calendars as Christmastide or Twelve Holy Days. The importance of Christmas Day increased gradually, and by the high middle ages, the holiday had become widely celebrated. Caroling became very popular and originally featured a group of dancers who sang, comprising of a lead singer and a ring of dancers that provided the chorus. In England, gifts were exchanged on New Year’s Day and Christmas was a public festival that incorporated the use of holly, ivy, and other evergreens.
During the Reformation, some Protestants condemned Christmas as the ‘trappings of popery’and the Roman Catholic Church responded by overtly promoting the religious aspects of the festival. English Puritan leaders banned Christmas in 1647, but this ban was lifted with the Restoration of Charles II in 1660.
In America, Christmas fell out of favor after the American Revolution, as it was considered an English custom. Charles Dickens’s 1843 novel A Christmas Carol played a major role in reintroducing Christmas as a holiday in the U.S, with its emphasis on family, goodwill, and compassion. Interest in Christmas had been revived in the 1820s through several short stories by Washington Irving – his stories told of lovely harmonius holiday traditions he claimed to have witnessed in England – and by Clement Clark Moore’s 1822 poem A Visit From St. Nicholas (widely recognised by its first line: Twas the Night Before Christmas). Finally, Christmas was declared a United States federal holiday in 1870.
Most Christians like to actively remember Christ’s birth at Christmas. Children the world over perform the nativity play and many homes display the nativity scene under the tree. Santa Claus, the bearer of gifts, originates from modern western culture and in the west Christmas is celebrated by the exchanging of gifts amongst friends and family. The image of Santa Claus as he is known today was created by the German-American cartoonist Thomas Nast in the 1880’s.
Today, the history of Christmas is a long and colourful one, and the holiday is widely celebrated around the world.
