It
happens every year, the carols are sung, the halls are decked, and trees
put up. Of course we are speaking of Christmas. The time of year when
everyone seems just a little more festive and the executives of Visa and
MasterCard buy new cars. It's a tradition held dear by Christians and
Non-Christians alike. A time of joy, peace and goodwill. But where did it
all come from?
Well, it's said that it's the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. As
taken from the Gospel according to Matthew. The conception with the Holy
Ghost, virgin mother, manger, wise men, and so on. In fact, many people
and most churches even set up a little scene from this story in their
yards, or under their Christmas tree. But does this nice story match up
with what we know from history? You can be the judge.
The first problem arises with the time of year that we celebrate
Christmas. According to the Bible, the sheep were in the fields. This
means that the whole thing probably happened in the spring or summer, but
not in December. If it was in December the mangers would have been filled
with sheep, not free for people to use as a delivery room. The reason we
celebrate Christmas in December is because in 336 CE there was a
celebration of Saturn (god of harvest) and Mithras (god of light). This
celebration resembled Christmas as we know it, they would give gifts, sing
songs, have a feast, and decorate their homes with greenery. The ruler of
Rome at the time was a Christian, and he disliked this Pagan ritual
greatly. He was also insulted by it's popularity. So he had an idea, he
proclaimed December 25th as Jesus Christ's birthday. The 25th of December,
was right in the heart of the pagan celebration. He came up with rituals
that were improved versions of the pagan rituals, so he could win people
over to Christianity.
The vision we have of baby Jesus in the manger is quite sweet, isn't it? A
perfect baby boy, in a bed of hay, loved ones and animals around him.
Ahhhh, simply beautiful. When we take a look at what a manger really was,
it's quite shocking. In reality, a manger was a cave. There would be a
small section near the mouth of the cave where the shepherd would sit and
keep his personal belongings, but this space was tiny, about the size of
handicapped bathroom stall. The rest of the manger was unclean at best. It
was just a dark cave with generations and generations of sheep dung
covering the floor. The mangers were never cleaned out, it just reeked of
manure. If a baby were to be born in those conditions, it would have died
or at best suffered from disease.
The wise men, when they had heard of the birth of the Messiah, probably
thought that King Herod had a son. After all at the time Kings were called
Messiach, which means "son of God". They were probably shocked to find out
that there was still no heir to Herod's throne. Which brings up a point
about Herod.
Herod, in Matthew, shows interest in worshipping this new born king of the
Jews. Yet history tells us another story about Herod. Herod was very
jealous and paranoid about other kings. In the Bible it says that Herod
wanted all children under the age of two to be killed after the wise men
mocked him. In reality though, Herod probably ordered the slaughter of all
newborns at the word of the birth of a new king. He was very against even
the thought of another king, and would do just this to take care of any
threats.
Christmas wasn't always embraced as it is today, in the 1600s England and
the American colonies outlawed Christmas because of it's pagan roots.
Eventually, Christmas came back into fashion, just a little more religious
than previously.
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