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A History of Christmas

Early christians were uninterested in birthdays, and did not celebrate Christmas. Birthday celebrations were frowned upon as having pagan overtones. The only birthdays talked about in the Bible were those of Herod and Pharaoh.

Although there was no Christmas as far as christians were concerned, there were many mid-winter celebrations which have strong parallels with what we now know as Christmas. The new year celebrations of Babylon and Egypt, the mid-winter and new year holidays of the Roman Empire, and the Yule celebrations of northern Germanic tribes are all relevant. These celebrations represented an effort to promote fertility and bring back the sun. Food and drink were common features, and usually derived from sacrificial rites. There were rituals involving fire, lights and evergreen trees. The whole of the period from late November until the beginning of January was marked with various holidays. Some people think that modern christmases start too early, but there is a long history of mid-winter festivals beginning in November.

There are three festivals which are particularly linked with Christmas: these are the Saturnalia, which in the later Roman Empire began on the 17th of December and continued to the 24th of December; the Kalends on the 1st of January; and the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun, on December the 25th. The Birthday of the Unconquered Sun was important to the religion of Mithraism, Christianity's main rival for the hearts and minds of Europeans in the third and fourth centuries. With all of these festivals the parallels with Christmas are clear. Both Saturnalia and Kalends required that buildings were brightly lit and decorated with evergreens. Presents were given and greetings exchanged. When the Roman poet Lucian expressed the spirit in which Saturnalia should ideally be kept, he could be talking about aspects of Christmas today:

"All business, be it public or private, is forbidden during the feast days, save such as tends to sport and solace and delight... All men shall be equal, slave and free, rich and poor, one with another... No discourage shall either be composed or delivered, except it be witty and lusty, according to mirth and jollity." (Quoted in The Englishman's Christmas by J.A.R Pimlott, P3)

There is little doubt that the mid-winter holiday was deliberately chosen by early christians as the time for a Nativity feast. The idea was to assimilate pagan traditions into Christianity rather than attempting the hopeless task of suppressing them. The ironies of choosing the 25th of December are clear: shepherds would not have been in their fields at this time of year, and a census would not have been held. The 25th was probably chosen because this was Mithraism's day of celebration, the idea being to steal the thunder of a rival.

Written evidence of the christian attempt to assimilate winter festivals actually exists in the history of the English Christmas. Augustine, the Pope's emissary had arrived in Britain in 597. Soon afterwards he received instructions from Gregory the Great which described how Anglo Saxon mid-winter festivals should be christianised:

"Because they are accustomed to slay many oxen in sacrifices to demons, some solemnity should be put in place of this... they may make bowers of branches of trees around those churches which have been changed from heathen temples, and may celebrate the solemnity with religious feasting. Nor let them now sacrifice animals to the Devil, but for the praise of God kill animals for their own eating..." (Quoted Pimlott, P6)

Christian influence, however, remained superficial until the time of the Norman Conquest. Rites included yule logs, use of evergreens, eating, drinking, and games such as leap frog and blind man's buff, two recreations which actually originated in ancient fertility customs. Gradually the old Germanic Yule celebrations combined with the Nativity feasts, and the English Christmas began to take shape. The Twelve Days of Christmas were set by the Council of Tours in 567, and were designated as the period between the Nativity and Epiphany. Alfred the Great insisted that no business was done during the Twelve Days. By 1066 the christianisation of the country was complete and the Twelve Days were the main annual holiday. The scribes of the Anglo Saxon Chronicles had referred to Christmas by name for the first time in 1043, using this term rather than the more usual mid-winter mass, or Nativity.

The shape of Christmas was now set until the seventeenth century. It was a time of eating, drinking, good cheer, all taking place against a christian backdrop. The Christmas story had grown out of Nativity plays staged at many churches, most notably the Abbey of St Martial at Limoges in France. There were generally two plays in the Christmas repertoire, one about shepherds, the other involving wise men. These plays merged and some details about Herod and the slaughter of the innocents were later added for dramatic effect. Carols derived from the old singing rites of the mid-winter celebrations. These festive songs were originally condemned by the Church but, as with other pagan Christmas rituals, assimilation was more effective than suppression. Present giving and the eating of turkey at Christmas dinner became popular in Tudor times. The turkey had been imported from America by the Spaniards. Being exotic and expensive turkey became popular with the upper classes. The rest of the society then followed on. Much of the food tradition we continue today originated in Tudor England.

In the seventeenth century Christmas was banned. It's hard to believe now, but Christmas really was banned by government decree for about fifteen years. As the puritans came to dominate Parliament, Christmas came under increasing pressure. During the Civil War, Parliament needed Scottish support against the royalist forces. Part of the price of this support was bowing to demands from Scottish presbyterians that Christmas be stopped. The presbyterians didn't like all the fun and games, and they also thought that Christmas had catholic overtones. For some reason their anti-catholic ire was focused on mince pies! Once royal control had been defeated, legislation was passed banning Christmas in 1644, although it was widely disregarded. Another big effort was made to stop Christmas in 1647. There were riots and general unrest in many parts of the country, but the government stuck to its policy. Christmas went into hiding, and did not emerge again until 1660 when Parliament decided to bring back Charles the Second from exile.

Christmas reformed as a family celebration and remained popular until the beginning of the nineteenth century. At this time Christmas began to decline again, the designated holidays becoming fewer and fewer until only Christmas Day itself was left. The revival of Christmas coincided with A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens in 1843, and the enthusiasm that the Prince Consort, Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, had for Christmas. He followed the German tradition of erecting a christmas tree at Windsor in 1840. In subsequent years the rest of the population followed suit. Holidays began to expand again, and the Bank Holiday Act of 1871 stipulated that Boxing Day was to be taken as a holiday. Christmas was resurrected as a time of giving and remembering your fellow man.

Christmas lights outside the Archbishop's Palace, Maidstone

Christmas has remained much as it was during those years of Victorian revival. Although holidays for people in the retail businesses are declining, holidays in other industries remain, and some can find themselves with a week off work depending on how the bank holidays fall. It used to be the case that many people would bemoan the lack of religious feeling in Christmas, attacking the "commercialisation", the eating and drinking, and the general lack of substance: but it has always been this way. Christmas is much as it was during the Roman times of Saturnalia. In recent years the worry about Christmas is that it actually might be too religious, and might serve to alienate other faiths. Christmas was originally a tool for the triumph of Christianity over pagan religions, and in this sense Christmas has long been part of a religious struggle. Indeed any and all major celebrations of whatever kind could be seen as a threat to general social cohesion if other parts of the population do not join in. However, it is also the case that midwinter festivals show remarkable similarities in different parts of the world and in different cultures. The midwinter celebration is a way of banishing the cold and hoping for the light, in whatever form you feel it might come.