Origin of Christmas
By Jaydon Samprased, Grade 7
December is all about Christmas, and the signs of Christmas are all around. Shops advertise the perfect gifts for your loved ones, neighborhoods are lit up with beautiful decorations, and just about everyone is brimming with Christmas cheer! The holiday season is the time for family and good food. It's especially the best time of year for making cookies. I love making the cookie; cutting the dough into shapes, baking the cookies, and icing them. However, the best part is always eating the fresh cookies! Just about everybody enjoys biting into a good sugar cookie, straight out of the oven! Not to forget the delicious gingerbread cookies! However, I have to confess, I'm more excited about the gifts I'll get for Christmas! I'm sure you're also excited about this holiday season. I know many of us love Christmas, but how many of us know how Christmas came to be? Read on to find out!
Christmas actually has its origin in several festivals celebrated in December in the 1st or 2nd century. The Romans had two celebrations: Saturnalia, their harvest festival celebrated through a monthlong feast, and their celebration of the birth of their sun god, Mithra on December 25th. Germanic tribes lit bonfires and candles to keep away the darkness on the winter solstice, the longest night of the year, taking place on December 21 or 22. Nordic peoples would slaughter their herds because they could not keep them through the rest of the winter. For many, this would be the only time they would have a supply of fresh meat. The men would go out and cut down the largest tree they could find. Then, they would set the log on fire, and feast until the log burned out, which could be up to two weeks. The Norse believed that every spark from the fire represented a new calf or pig being born next year.
Later, as Christianity gained popularity, church leaders weren't able to stop the pagan customs. Instead, they decided to Christianize the festivals and celebrate the birth of Jesus, their spiritual leader. This was met with some opposition, especially by Puritans, because this had no base in the Bible. In fact, to this day, Puritans do not celebrate Christmas. However, these Christmas celebrations were very different from what we now know as Christmas. During the Middle Ages, believers would attend church, then celebrated raucously in a carnival-like fashion, similar to Mardi Gras. One beggar or student would be given the title "Lord of Misrule" and others eagerly acted as his subjects. The poor would go to the houses of the rich and demand their best food and drink, threatening to vandalize their houses if they didn't comply. Christmas became a time for the rich to pay back to society. This had a huge impact on Christmas in 17th century England and America. At this time, England was in religious upheaval, with the national religion changing with every new monarch.
When Oliver Cromwell and his Puritan forces took over England, he removed Christmas as a holiday. Christmas was banned for around 18 years, and during this time any celebration was a punishable offense. The pilgrims that came to America brought similar beliefs with them. In Boston, Massachusetts, Christmas was outlawed, and anyone caught celebrating was charged five shillings. However, in Jamestown, Virginia, Captain John Smith reported that Christmas was celebrated and enjoyed by all.
Only in the 19th century was Christmas finally embraced by Americans. This was a period of unemployment and conflict. The poorer classes often held riots around Christmas time. It eventually got so bad that New York had to establish a police force to deal with the riots. This led to certain people in the upper classes beginning to change how Christmas was celebrated. Washington Irving and Charles Dickens were some of these people, essentially reinventing Christmas from a rowdy carnival to a family-centered celebration emphasizing goodwill and generosity
Washington Irving wrote a series of short stories called The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, gent. in 1819. These stories focus on a lord who invites peasants into a Christmas celebration in an English manor house. The two groups had no problem mingling with each other, despite their differences. Irving believed that Christmas should be a time for warm-heartedness and peace, bringing people of all backgrounds together. His characters participate in many "ancient customs" of Christmas. However, these "customs" were just Irving's invention of what he thought Christmas should be like. Irving created his own idea of Christmas, and popularized it through his book.
In 1843, Charles Dickens wrote the classic, A Christmas Carol. This book focused on themes of generosity and compassion for those less fortunate. Christmas rose in popularity, as now people saw it as a time for generosity and bringing people together. The writings of Dickens and Irving together caused a tremendous change in how people see Christmas.
Now, we see Christmas as a holiday of goodwill and family. This Christmas season, Let's remind ourselves of the themes that Irving and Dickens brought to Christmas, themes of generosity and bringing people together. We all can afford to be generous this holiday season. You can either do it with gifts or a few kind words. However, this kindness doesn't have to take away from the rest of Christmas. I'm still really looking forward to those cookies and gifts!