Christmas is both a sacred religious holiday and a worldwide cultural and commercial phenomenon. For
two millennia, people around the world have been observing it with traditions and practices that are
both religious and secular in nature. Christians celebrate Christmas Day as the anniversary of the birth of
Jesus of Nazareth, a spiritual leader whose teachings form the basis of their religion. Popular customs
include exchanging gifts, decorating Christmas trees, attending church, sharing meals with family and
friends and, of course, waiting for Santa Claus to arrive. December 25–Christmas Day–has been a federal
holiday in the United States since 1870.
More to Explore
People and Groups
Santa Claus
Themes
Christmas Traditions Worldwide
History of Christmas Trees
Events
Christmas Truce of 1914
Hanukkah
Kwanzaa
New Year's
Easter
Related Topics
History of the Holidays
Recommended Articles
Santa Claus
The man we know as Santa Claus has a history all his own.
History of Christmas Trees
Long before the advent of Christianity, plants and trees that remained green all year had a special
meaning for people in the winter.
Christmas Traditions Worldwide
One of the most celebrated holidays in the world, Christmas is a product of hundreds of years of
traditions from around the globe.
Christmas Truce of 1914
On the first Christmas of WWI, the sounds of rifles firing and shells exploding faded along the Western
Front in favor of holiday celebrations.
Contents
An Ancient Holiday
Saturnalia
An Outlaw Christmas
Irving Reinvents Christmas
A Christmas Carol
Christmas Facts
An Ancient Holiday
The middle of winter has long been a time of celebration around the world. Centuries before the arrival
of the man called Jesus, early Europeans celebrated light and birth in the darkest days of winter. Many
peoples rejoiced during the winter solstice, when the worst of the winter was behind them and they
could look forward to longer days and extended hours of sunlight.
In Scandinavia, the Norse celebrated Yule from December 21, the winter solstice, through January. In
recognition of the return of the sun, fathers and sons would bring home large logs, which they would set
on fire. The people would feast until the log burned out, which could take as many as 12 days. The Norse
believed that each spark from the fire represented a new pig or calf that would be born during the
coming year.
The end of December was a perfect time for celebration in most areas of Europe. At that time of year,
most cattle were slaughtered so they would not have to be fed during the winter. For many, it was the
only time of year when they had a supply of fresh meat. In addition, most wine and beer made during
the year was finally fermented and ready for drinking.
In Germany, people honored the pagan god Oden during the mid-winter holiday. Germans were terrified
of Oden, as they believed he made nocturnal flights through the sky to observe his people, and then
decide who would prosper or perish. Because of his presence, many people chose to stay inside.
Saturnalia
In Rome, where winters were not as harsh as those in the far north, Saturnalia—a holiday in honor of
Saturn, the god of agriculture—was celebrated. Beginning in the week leading up to the winter solstice
and continuing for a full month, Saturnalia was a hedonistic time, when food and drink were plentiful
and the normal Roman social order was turned upside down. For a month, slaves would become
masters. Peasants were in command of the city. Business and schools were closed so that everyone
could join in the fun.
Also around the time of the winter solstice, Romans observed Juvenalia, a feast honoring the children of
Rome. In addition, members of the upper classes often celebrated the birthday of Mithra, the god of the
unconquerable sun, on December 25. It was believed that Mithra, an infant god, was born of a rock. For
some Romans, Mithra's birthday was the most sacred day of the year.
In the early years of Christianity, Easter was the main holiday; the birth of Jesus was not celebrated. In
the fourth century, church officials decided to institute the birth of Jesus as a holiday. Unfortunately, the
Bible does not mention date for his birth (a fact Puritans later pointed out in order to deny the
legitimacy of the celebration). Although some evidence suggests that his birth may have occurred in the
spring (why would shepherds be herding in the middle of winter?), Pope Julius I chose December 25. It is
commonly believed that the church chose this date in an effort to adopt and absorb the traditions of the
pagan Saturnalia festival. First called the Feast of the Nativity, the custom spread to Egypt by 432 and to
England by the end of the sixth century. By the end of the eighth century, the celebration of Christmas
had spread all the way to Scandinavia. Today, in the Greek and Russian orthodox churches, Christmas is
celebrated 13 days after the 25th, which is also referred to as the Epiphany or Three Kings Day. This is
the day it is believed that the three wise men finally found Jesus in the manger.
By holding Christmas at the same time as traditional winter solstice festivals, church leaders increased
the chances that Christmas would be popularly embraced, but gave up the ability to dictate how it was
celebrated. By the Middle Ages, Christianity had, for the most part, replaced pagan religion. On
Christmas, believers attended church, then celebrated raucously in a drunken, carnival-like atmosphere
similar to today's Mardi Gras. Each year, a beggar or student would be crowned the "lord of misrule"
and eager celebrants played the part of his subjects. The poor would go to the houses of the rich and
demand their best food and drink. If owners failed to comply, their visitors would most likely terrorize
them with mischief. Christmas became the time of year when the upper classes could repay their real or
imagined "debt" to society by entertaining less fortunate citizens.
An Outlaw Christmas
In the early 17th century, a wave of religious reform changed the way Christmas was celebrated in
Europe. When Oliver Cromwell and his Puritan forces took over England in 1645, they vowed to rid
England of decadence and, as part of their effort, cancelled Christmas. By popular demand, Charles II
was restored to the throne and, with him, came the return of the popular holiday.
The pilgrims, English separatists that came to America in 1620, were even more orthodox in their
Puritan beliefs than Cromwell. As a result, Christmas was not a holiday in early America. From 1659 to
1681, the celebration of Christmas was actually outlawed in Boston. Anyone exhibiting the Christmas
spirit was fined five shillings. By contrast, in the Jamestown settlement, Captain John Smith reported
that Christmas was enjoyed by all and passed without incident.
After the American Revolution, English customs fell out of favor, including Christmas. In fact, Christmas
wasn't declared a federal holiday until June 26, 1870.
When was Jesus born?
A. Popular myth puts his birth on December 25th in the year 1 C.E.
B. The New Testament gives no date or year for Jesus’ birth. The earliest gospel – St. Mark’s, written
about 65 CE – begins with the baptism of an adult Jesus. This suggests that the earliest Christians lacked
interest in or knowledge of Jesus’ birthdate.
C. The year of Jesus birth was determined by Dionysius Exiguus, a Scythian monk, “abbot of a Roman
monastery. His calculation went as follows:
a. In the Roman, pre-Christian era, years were counted from ab urbe condita (“the founding of the
City” [Rome]). Thus 1 AUC signifies the year Rome was founded, 5 AUC signifies the 5th year of Rome’s
reign, etc.
b. Dionysius received a tradition that the Roman emperor Augustus reigned 43 years, and was
followed by the emperor Tiberius.
c. Luke 3:1,23 indicates that when Jesus turned 30 years old, it was the 15th year of Tiberius reign.
d. If Jesus was 30 years old in Tiberius’ reign, then he lived 15 years under Augustus (placing Jesus
birth in Augustus’ 28th year of reign).
e. Augustus took power in 727 AUC. Therefore, Dionysius put Jesus birth in 754 AUC.
f. However, Luke 1:5 places Jesus’ birth in the days of Herod, and Herod died in 750 AUC – four
years before the year in which Dionysius places Jesus birth.
D. Joseph A. Fitzmyer – Professor Emeritus of Biblical Studies at the Catholic University of America,
member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission, and former president of the Catholic Biblical Association –
writing in the Catholic Church’s official commentary on the New Testament[1], writes about the date of
Jesus’ birth, “Though the year [of Jesus birth is not reckoned with certainty, the birth did not occur in AD
1. The Christian era, supposed to have its starting point in the year of Jesus birth, is based on a
miscalculation introduced ca. 533 by Dionysius Exiguus.”
E. The DePascha Computus, an anonymous document believed to have been written in North Africa
around 243 CE, placed Jesus birth on March 28. Clement, a bishop of Alexandria (d. ca. 215 CE), thought
Jesus was born on November 18. Based on historical records, Fitzmyer guesses that Jesus birth occurred
on September 11, 3 BCE.
II. How Did Christmas Come to Be Celebrated on December 25?
A. Roman pagans first introduced the holiday of Saturnalia, a week long period of lawlessness
celebrated between December 17-25. During this period, Roman courts were closed, and Roman law
dictated that no one could be punished for damaging property or injuring people during the weeklong
celebration. The festival began when Roman authorities chose “an enemy of the Roman people” to
represent the “Lord of Misrule.” Each Roman community selected a victim whom they forced to indulge
in food and other physical pleasures throughout the week. At the festival’s conclusion, December 25th,
Roman authorities believed they were destroying the forces of darkness by brutally murdering this
innocent man or woman.
B. The ancient Greek writer poet and historian Lucian (in his dialogue entitled Saturnalia) describes
the festival’s observance in his time. In addition to human sacrifice, he mentions these customs:
widespread intoxication; going from house to house while singing naked; rape and other sexual license;
and consuming human-shaped biscuits (still produced in some English and most German bakeries during
the Christmas season).
C. In the 4th century CE, Christianity imported the Saturnalia festival hoping to take the pagan masses
in with it. Christian leaders succeeded in converting to Christianity large numbers of pagans by
promising them that they could continue to celebrate the Saturnalia as Christians.[2]
D. The problem was that there was nothing intrinsically Christian about Saturnalia. To remedy this,
these Christian leaders named Saturnalia’s concluding day, December 25th, to be Jesus’ birthday.
E. Christians had little success, however, refining the practices of Saturnalia. As Stephen
Nissenbaum, professor history at the University of Massachussetts, Amherst, writes, “In return for
ensuring massive observance of the anniversary of the Savior’s birth by assigning it to this resonant
date, the Church for its part tacitly agreed to allow the holiday to be celebrated more or less the way it
had always been.” The earliest Christmas holidays were celebrated by drinking, sexual indulgence,
singing naked in the streets (a precursor of modern caroling), etc.
F. The Reverend Increase Mather of Boston observed in 1687 that “the early Christians who first
observed the Nativity on December 25 did not do so thinking that Christ was born in that Month, but
because the Heathens’ Saturnalia was at that time kept in Rome, and they were willing to have those
Pagan Holidays metamorphosed into Christian ones.”[3] Because of its known pagan origin, Christmas
was banned by the Puritans and its observance was illegal in Massachusetts between 1659 and 1681.[4]
However, Christmas was and still is celebrated by most Christians.
G. Some of the most depraved customs of the Saturnalia carnival were intentionally revived by the
Catholic Church in 1466 when Pope Paul II, for the amusement of his Roman citizens, forced Jews to race
naked through the streets of the city. An eyewitness account reports, “Before they were to run, the
Jews were richly fed, so as to make the race more difficult for them and at the same time more amusing
for spectators. They ran… amid Rome’s taunting shrieks and peals of laughter, while the Holy Father
stood upon a richly ornamented balcony and laughed heartily.”[5]
H. As part of the Saturnalia carnival throughout the 18th and 19th centuries CE, rabbis of the ghetto
in Rome were forced to wear clownish outfits and march through the city streets to the jeers of the
crowd, pelted by a variety of missiles. When the Jewish community of Rome sent a petition in1836 to
Pope Gregory XVI begging him to stop the annual Saturnalia abuse of the Jewish community, he
responded, “It is not opportune to make any innovation.”[6] On December 25, 1881, Christian leaders
whipped the Polish masses into Antisemitic frenzies that led to riots across the country. In Warsaw 12
Jews were brutally murdered, huge numbers maimed, and many Jewish women were raped. Two
million rubles worth of property was destroyed.
III. The Origins of Christmas Customs
A. The Origin of Christmas Tree
Just as early Christians recruited Roman pagans by associating Christmas with the Saturnalia, so too
worshippers of the Asheira cult and its offshoots were recruited by the Church sanctioning “Christmas
Trees”.[7] Pagans had long worshipped trees in the forest, or brought them into their homes and
decorated them, and this observance was adopted and painted with a Christian veneer by the Church.
B. The Origin of Mistletoe
Norse mythology recounts how the god Balder was killed using a mistletoe arrow by his rival god Hoder
while fighting for the female Nanna. Druid rituals use mistletoe to poison their human sacrificial
victim.[8] The Christian custom of “kissing under the mistletoe” is a later synthesis of the sexual license
of Saturnalia with the Druidic sacrificial cult.[9]
C. The Origin of Christmas Presents
In pre-Christian Rome, the emperors compelled their most despised citizens to bring offerings and gifts
during the Saturnalia (in December) and Kalends (in January). Later, this ritual expanded to include gift-
giving among the general populace. The Catholic Church gave this custom a Christian flavor by re-
rooting it in the supposed gift-giving of Saint Nicholas (see below).[10]
D. The Origin of Santa Claus
a. Nicholas was born in Parara, Turkey in 270 CE and later became Bishop of Myra. He died in 345 CE
on December 6th. He was only named a saint in the 19th century.
b. Nicholas was among the most senior bishops who convened the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE and
created the New Testament. The text they produced portrayed Jews as “the children of the devil”[11]
who sentenced Jesus to death.
c. In 1087, a group of sailors who idolized Nicholas moved his bones from Turkey to a sanctuary in
Bari, Italy. There Nicholas supplanted a female boon-giving deity called The Grandmother, or Pasqua
Epiphania, who used to fill the children's stockings with her gifts. The Grandmother was ousted from
her shrine at Bari, which became the center of the Nicholas cult. Members of this group gave each
other gifts during a pageant they conducted annually on the anniversary of Nicholas’ death, December
6.
d. The Nicholas cult spread north until it was adopted by German and Celtic pagans. These groups
worshipped a pantheon led by Woden –their chief god and the father of Thor, Balder, and Tiw. Woden
had a long, white beard and rode a horse through the heavens one evening each Autumn. When
Nicholas merged with Woden, he shed his Mediterranean appearance, grew a beard, mounted a flying
horse, rescheduled his flight for December, and donned heavy winter clothing.
e. In a bid for pagan adherents in Northern Europe, the Catholic Church adopted the Nicholas cult
and taught that he did (and they should) distribute gifts on December 25th instead of December 6th.
f. In 1809, the novelist Washington Irving (most famous his The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip
Van Winkle) wrote a satire of Dutch culture entitled Knickerbocker History. The satire refers several
times to the white bearded, flying-horse riding Saint Nicholas using his Dutch name, Santa Claus.
g. Dr. Clement Moore, a professor at Union Seminary, read Knickerbocker History, and in 1822 he
published a poem based on the character Santa Claus: “Twas the night before Christmas, when all
through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The stockings were hung by the
chimney with care, in the hope that Saint Nicholas soon would be there…” Moore innovated by
portraying a Santa with eight reindeer who descended through chimneys.
h. The Bavarian illustrator Thomas Nast almost completed the modern picture of Santa Claus. From
1862 through 1886, based on Moore’s poem, Nast drew more than 2,200 cartoon images of Santa for
Harper’s Weekly. Before Nast, Saint Nicholas had been pictured as everything from a stern looking
bishop to a gnome-like figure in a frock. Nast also gave Santa a home at the North Pole, his workshop
filled with elves, and his list of the good and bad children of the world. All Santa was missing was his red
outfit.
i. In 1931, the Coca Cola Corporation contracted the Swedish commercial artist Haddon Sundblom
to create a coke-drinking Santa. Sundblom modeled his Santa on his friend Lou Prentice, chosen for his
cheerful, chubby face. The corporation insisted that Santa’s fur-trimmed suit be bright, Coca Cola red.
And Santa was born – a blend of Christian crusader, pagan god, and commercial idol.
IV. The Christmas Challenge
· Christmas has always been a holiday celebrated carelessly. For millennia, pagans, Christians, and
even Jews have been swept away in the season’s festivities, and very few people ever pause to consider
the celebration’s intrinsic meaning, history, or origins.
· Christmas celebrates the birth of the Christian god who came to rescue mankind from the “curse of
the Torah.” It is a 24-hour declaration that Judaism is no longer valid.
· Christmas is a lie. There is no Christian church with a tradition that Jesus was really born on
December 25th.
· December 25 is a day on which Jews have been shamed, tortured, and murdered.
· Many of the most popular Christmas customs – including Christmas trees, mistletoe, Christmas
presents, and Santa Claus – are modern incarnations of the most depraved pagan rituals ever practiced
on earth.
Many who are excitedly preparing for their Christmas celebrations would prefer not knowing about the
holiday’s real significance. If they do know the history, they often object that their celebration has
nothing to do with the holiday’s monstrous history and meaning. “We are just having fun.”
Imagine that between 1933-45, the Nazi regime celebrated Adolf Hitler’s birthday – April 20 – as a
holiday. Imagine that they named the day, “Hitlerday,” and observed the day with feasting,
drunkenness, gift-giving, and various pagan practices. Imagine that on that day, Jews were historically
subject to perverse tortures and abuse, and that this continued for centuries.
Now, imagine that your great-great-great-grandchildren were about to celebrate Hitlerday. April 20th
arrived. They had long forgotten about Auschwitz and Bergen Belsen. They had never heard of gas
chambers or death marches. They had purchased champagne and caviar, and were about to begin the
party, when someone reminded them of the day’s real history and their ancestors’ agony. Imagine that
they initially objected, “We aren’t celebrating the Holocaust; we’re just having a little Hitlerday party.”
If you could travel forward in time and meet them; if you could say a few words to them, what would
you advise them to do on Hitlerday?
On December 25, 1941, Julius Streicher, one of the most vicious of Hitler’s assistants, celebrated
Christmas by penning the following editorial in his rabidly Antisemitic newspaper, Der Stuermer:
If one really wants to put an end to the continued prospering of this curse from heaven that is the
Jewish blood, there is only one way to do it: to eradicate this people, this Satan’s son, root and branch.
Christmas History Work through the menu (right) for a more comprehensive study on the
evolution of Christmas.
The word 'Christmas' comes from Cristes maesse, an English phrase that means Mass of Christ.
Christmas History - an overview
The history of Christmas dates back over 4000 years. Many of our Christmas traditions were celebrated
centuries before the Christ child was born. The 12 days of Christmas, the bright fires, the yule log, the
giving of gifts, carnivals (parades) with floats, carolers who sing while going from house to house, the
holiday feasts, and the church processions can all be traced back to the early Mesopotamians.
Many of these traditions began with the Mesopotamian celebration of New Years. The Mesopotamians
believed in many gods, and as their chief god - Marduk. Each year as winter arrived it was believed that
Marduk would do battle with the monsters of chaos. To assist Marduk in his struggle the
Mesopotamians held a festival for the New Year. This was Zagmuk, the New Year's festival that lasted
for 12 days.
The Mesopotamian king would return to the temple of Marduk and swear his faithfulness to the god.
The traditions called for the king to die at the end of the year and to return with Marduk to battle at his
side.
To spare their king, the Mesopotamians used the idea of a "mock" king. A criminal was chosen and
dressed in royal clothes. He was given all the respect and privileges of a real king. At the end of the
celebration the "mock" king was stripped of the royal clothes and slain, sparing the life of the real king.
The Persians and the Babylonians celebrated a similar festival called the Sacaea. Part of that celebration
included the exchanging of places, the slaves would become the masters and the masters were to obey.
Early Europeans believed in evil spirits, witches, ghosts and trolls. As the Winter Solstice approached,
with its long cold nights and short days, many people feared the sun would not return. Special rituals
and celebrations were held to welcome back the sun.
In Scandinavia during the winter months the sun would disappear for many days. After thirty-five days
scouts would be sent to the mountain tops to look for the return of the sun. When the first light was
seen the scouts would return with the good news. A great festival would be held, called the Yuletide,
and a special feast would be served around a fire burning with the Yule log. Great bonfires would also be
lit to celebrate the return of the sun. In some areas people would tie apples to branches of trees to
remind themselves that spring and summer would return.
The ancient Greeks held a festival similar to that of the Zagmuk/Sacaea festivals to assist their god
Kronos who would battle the god Zeus and his Titans.
The Roman's celebrated their god Saturn. Their festival was called Saturnalia which began the middle of
December and ended January 1st. With cries of "Jo Saturnalia!" the celebration would include
masquerades in the streets, big festive meals, visiting friends, and the exchange of good-luck gifts called
Strenae (lucky fruits).
The Romans decked their halls with garlands of laurel and green trees lit with candles. Again the masters
and slaves would exchange places.
"Jo Saturnalia!" was a fun and festive time for the Romans, but the Christians though it an abomination
to honor the pagan god. The early Christians wanted to keep the birthday of their Christ child a solemn
and religious holiday, not one of cheer and merriment as was the pagan Saturnalia.
But as Christianity spread they were alarmed by the continuing celebration of pagan customs and
Saturnalia among their converts. At first the Church forbid this kind of celebration. But it was to no avail.
Eventually it was decided that the celebration would be tamed and made into a celebration fit for the
Christian Son of God.
Some legends claim that the Christian "Christmas" celebration was invented to compete against the
pagan celebrations of December. The 25th was not only sacred to the Romans but also the Persians
whose religion Mithraism was one of Christianity's main rivals at that time. The Church eventually was
successful in taking the merriment, lights, and gifts from the Saturanilia festival and bringing them to the
celebration of Christmas.
The exact day of the Christ child's birth has never been pinpointed. Traditions say that it has been
celebrated since the year 98 AD. In 137 AD the Bishop of Rome ordered the birthday of the Christ Child
celebrated as a solemn feast. In 350 AD another Bishop of Rome, Julius I, choose December 25th as the
observance of Christmas.
In the late 300's, Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire. By 1100, Christmas had
become the most important religious festival in Europe, and Saint Nicholas was a symbol of gift giving in
many European countries. During the 1400's and 1500's, many artists painted scenes of the Nativity, the
birth of Jesus. An example of these works appears in the Jesus Christ article in the print version of The
World Book Encyclopedia.
The popularity of Christmas grew until the Reformation, a religious movement of the 1500's. This
movement gave birth to Protestantism. During the Reformation, many Christians began to consider
Christmas a pagan celebration because it included nonreligious customs. During the 1600's, because of
these feelings, Christmas was outlawed in England and in parts of the English colonies in America. The
old customs of feasting and decorating, however, soon reappeared and blended with the more Christian
aspects of the celebration.
Origin of the word
The word for Christmas in late Old English is Cristes Maesse, the Mass of Christ, first found in 1038, and
Cristes-messe, in 1131. In Dutch it is Kerstmis, in Latin Dies Natalis, whence comes the French Noël, and
Italian Il natale; in German Weihnachtsfest, from the preceeding sacred vigil. The term Yule is of
disputed origin. It is unconnected with any word meaning "wheel". The name in Anglo-Saxon was geol,
feast: geola, the name of a month (cf. Icelandic iol a feast in December).
Early celebration
Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the Church. Irenaeus and Tertullian omit it from their
lists of feasts; Origen, glancing perhaps at the discreditable imperial Natalitia, asserts (in Lev. Hom. viii in
Migne, P.G., XII, 495) that in the Scriptures sinners alone, not saints, celebrate their birthday; Arnobius
(VII, 32 in P.L., V, 1264) can still ridicule the "birthdays" of the gods.
Alexandria
The first evidence of the feast is from Egypt. About A.D. 200, Clement of Alexandria (Stromata I.21) says
that certain Egyptian theologians "over curiously" assign, not the year alone, but the day of Christ's
birth, placing it on 25 Pachon (20 May) in the twenty-eighth year of Augustus. [Ideler (Chron., II, 397, n.)
thought they did this believing that the ninth month, in which Christ was born, was the ninth of their
own calendar.] Others reached the date of 24 or 25 Pharmuthi (19 or 20 April). With Clement's evidence
may be mentioned the "De paschæ computus", written in 243 and falsely ascribed to Cyprian (P.L., IV,
963 sqq.), which places Christ's birth on 28 March, because on that day the material sun was created.
But Lupi has shown (Zaccaria, Dissertazioni ecc. del p. A.M. Lupi, Faenza, 1785, p. 219) that there is no
month in the year to which respectable authorities have not assigned Christ's birth. Clement, however,
also tells us that the Basilidians celebrated the Epiphany, and with it, probably, the Nativity, on 15 or 11
Tybi (10 or 6 January). At any rate this double commemoration became popular, partly because the
apparition to the shepherds was considered as one manifestation of Christ's glory, and was added to the
greater manifestations celebrated on 6 January; partly because at the baptism-manifestation many
codices (e.g. Codex Bezæ) wrongly give the Divine words as sou ei ho houios mou ho agapetos, ego
semeron gegenneka se (Thou art my beloved Son, this day have I begotten thee) in lieu of en soi
eudokesa (in thee I am well pleased), read in Luke 3:22. Abraham Ecchelensis (Labbe, II, 402) quotes the
Constitutions of the Alexandrian Church for a dies Nativitatis et Epiphaniæ in Nicæan times; Epiphanius
(Hær., li, ed. Dindorf, 1860, II, 483) quotes an extraordinary semi-Gnostic ceremony at Alexandria in
which, on the night of 5-6 January, a cross-stamped Korê was carried in procession round a crypt, to the
chant, "Today at this hour Korê gave birth to the Eternal"; John Cassian records in his "Collations" (X, 2 in
P.L., XLIX, 820), written 418-427, that the Egyptian monasteries still observe the "ancient custom"; but
on 29 Choiak (25 December) and 1 January, 433, Paul of Emesa preached before Cyril of Alexandria, and
his sermons (see Mansi, IV, 293; appendix to Act. Conc. Eph.) show that the December celebration was
then firmly established there, and calendars prove its permanence. The December feast therefore
reached Egypt between 427 and 433.
Cyprus, Mesopotamia, Armenia, Asia Minor
In Cyprus, at the end of the fourth century, Epiphanius asserts against the Alogi (Hær., li, 16, 24 in P.G.,
XLI, 919, 931) that Christ was born on 6 January and baptized on 8 November. Ephraem Syrus (whose
hymns belong to Epiphany, not to Christmas) proves that Mesopotamia still put the birth feast thirteen
days after the winter solstice; i.e. 6 January; Armenia likewise ignored, and still ignores, the December
festival. (Cf. Euthymius, "Pan. Dogm.", 23 in P.G., CXXX, 1175; Niceph., "Hist. Eccl,", XVIII, 53 in P.G.,
CXLVII, 440; Isaac, Catholicos of Armenia in eleventh or twelfth century, "Adv. Armenos", I, xii, 5 in P.G.,
CXXII, 1193; Neale, "Holy Eastern Church", Introd., p. 796). In Cappadocia, Gregory of Nyssa's sermons
on St. Basil (who died before 1 January, 379) and the two following, preached on St. Stephen's feast
(P.G., XLVI, 788; cf, 701, 721), prove that in 380 the 25th December was already celebrated there,
unless, following Usener's too ingenious arguments (Religionsgeschichtliche Untersuchungen, Bonn,
1889, 247-250), one were to place those sermons in 383. Also, Asterius of Amaseia (fifth century) and
Amphilochius of Iconium (contemporary of Basil and Gregory) show that in their dioceses both the
feasts of Epiphany and Nativity were separate (P.G., XL, 337 XXXIX, 36).
Jerusalem
In 385, Silvia of Bordeaux (or Etheria, as it seems clear she should be called) was profoundly impressed
by the splendid Childhood feasts at Jerusalem. They had a definitely "Nativity" colouring; the bishop
proceeded nightly to Bethlehem, returning to Jerusalem for the day celebrations. The Presentation was
celebrated forty days after. But this calculation starts from 6 January, and the feast lasted during the
octave of that date. (Peregr. Sylv., ed. Geyer, pp. 75 sq.) Again (p. 101) she mentions as high festivals
Easter and Epiphany alone. In 385, therefore, 25 December was not observed at Jerusalem. This checks
the so-called correspondence between Cyril of Jerusalem (348-386) and Pope Julius I (337-352), quoted
by John of Nikiû (c. 900) to convert Armenia to 25 December (see P.L., VIII, 964 sqq.). Cyril declares that
his clergy cannot, on the single feast of Birth and Baptism, make a double procession to Bethlehem and
Jordan. (This later practice is here an anachronism.) He asks Julius to assign the true date of the nativity
"from census documents brought by Titus to Rome"; Julius assigns 25 December. Another document
(Cotelier, Patr. Apost., I, 316, ed. 1724) makes Julius write thus to Juvenal of Jerusalem (c. 425-458),
adding that Gregory Nazianzen at Constantinople was being criticized for "halving" the festival. But
Julius died in 352, and by 385 Cyril had made no change; indeed, Jerome, writing about 411 (in Ezech.,
P.L., XXV, 18), reproves Palestine for keeping Christ's birthday (when He hid Himself) on the
Manifestation feast. Cosmas Indicopleustes suggests (P.G., LXXXVIII, 197) that even in the middle of the
sixth century Jerusalem was peculiar in combining the two commemorations, arguing from Luke 3:23
that Christ's baptism day was the anniversary of His birthday. The commemoration, however, of David
and James the Apostle on 25 December at Jerusalem accounts for the deferred feast. Usener, arguing
from the "Laudatio S. Stephani" of Basil of Seleucia (c. 430. — P.G., LXXXV, 469), thinks that Juvenal tried
at least to introduce this feast, but that Cyril's greater name attracted that event to his own period.
Antioch
In Antioch, on the feast of St. Philogonius, Chrysostom preached an important sermon. The year was
almost certainly 386, though Clinton gives 387, and Usener, by a long rearrangement of the saint's
sermons, 388 (Religionsgeschichtl. Untersuch., pp. 227-240). But between February, 386, when Flavian
ordained Chrysostom priest, and December is ample time for the preaching of all the sermons under
discussion. (See Kellner, Heortologie, Freiburg, 1906, p. 97, n. 3). In view of a reaction to certain Jewish
rites and feasts, Chrysostom tries to unite Antioch in celebrating Christ's birth on 25 December, part of
the community having already kept it on that day for at least ten years. In the West, he says, the feast
was thus kept, anothen; its introduction into Antioch he had always sought, conservatives always
resisted. This time he was successful; in a crowded church he defended the new custom. It was no
novelty; from Thrace to Cadiz this feast was observed — rightly, since its miraculously rapid diffusion
proved its genuineness. Besides, Zachary, who, as high-priest, entered the Temple on the Day of
Atonement, received therefore announcement of John's conception in September; six months later
Christ was conceived, i.e. in March, and born accordingly in December.
Finally, though never at Rome, on authority he knows that the census papers of the Holy Family are still
there. [This appeal to Roman archives is as old as Justin Martyr (First Apology 34-35) and Tertullian (Adv.
Marc., IV, 7, 19). Julius, in the Cyriline forgeries, is said to have calculated the date from Josephus, on the
same unwarranted assumptions about Zachary as did Chrysostom.] Rome, therefore, has observed 25
December long enough to allow of Chrysostom speaking at least in 388 as above (P.G., XLVIII, 752, XLIX,
351).
Constantinople
In 379 or 380 Gregory Nazianzen made himself exarchos of the new feast, i.e. its initiator, in
Constantinople, where, since the death of Valens, orthodoxy was reviving. His three Homilies (see Hom.
xxxviii in P.G., XXXVI) were preached on successive days (Usener, op. cit., p. 253) in the private chapel
called Anastasia. On his exile in 381, the feast disappeared.
According, however, to John of Nikiû, Honorius, when he was present on a visit, arranged with Arcadius
for the observation of the feast on the Roman date. Kellner puts this visit in 395; Baumstark (Oriens Chr.,
1902, 441-446), between 398 and 402. The latter relies on a letter of Jacob of Edessa quoted by George
of Beeltân, asserting that Christmas was brought to Constantinople by Arcadius and Chrysostom from
Italy, where, "according to the histories", it had been kept from Apostolic times. Chrysostom's
episcopate lasted from 398 to 402; the feast would therefore have been introduced between these
dates by Chrysostom bishop, as at Antioch by Chrysostom priest. But Lübeck (Hist. Jahrbuch., XXVIII, I,
1907, pp. 109-118) proves Baumstark's evidence invalid. More important, but scarcely better accredited,
is Erbes' contention (Zeitschrift f. Kirchengesch., XXVI, 1905, 20-31) that the feast was brought in by
Constantine as early as 330-35.
Rome
At Rome the earliest evidence is in the Philocalian Calendar (P.L., XIII, 675; it can be seen as a whole in J.
Strzygowski, Kalenderbilder des Chron. von Jahre 354, Berlin, 1888), compiled in 354, which contains
three important entries. In the civil calendar 25 December is marked "Natalis Invicti". In the "Depositio
Martyrum" a list of Roman or early and universally venerated martyrs, under 25 December is found "VIII
kal. ian. natus Christus in Betleem Iudeæ". On "VIII kal. mart." (22 February) is also mentioned St. Peter's
Chair. In the list of consuls are four anomalous ecclesiastical entries: the birth and death days of Christ,
the entry into Rome, and martyrdom of Saints Peter and Paul. The significant entry is "Chr. Cæsare et
Paulo sat. XIII. hoc. cons. Dns. ihs. XPC natus est VIII Kal. ian. d. ven. luna XV," i.e. during the consulship
of (Augustus) Cæsar and Paulus Our Lord Jesus Christ was born on the eighth before the calends of
January (25 December), a Friday, the fourteenth day of the moon. The details clash with tradition and
possibility. The epact, here XIII, is normally XI; the year is A.U.C. 754, a date first suggested two centuries
later; in no year between 751 and 754 could 25 December fall on a Friday; tradition is constant in placing
Christ's birth on Wednesday. Moreover the date given for Christ's death (duobus Geminis coss., i.e. A.D.
29) leaves Him only twenty eight, and one-quarter years of life. Apart from this, these entries in a consul
list are manifest interpolations. But are not the two entries in the "Depositio Martyrum" also such?
Were the day of Christ's birth in the flesh alone there found, it might stand as heading the year of
martyrs' spiritual natales; but 22 February is there wholly out of place. Here, as in the consular fasti,
popular feasts were later inserted for convenience' sake. The civil calendar alone was not added to, as it
was useless after the abandonment of pagan festivals. So, even if the "Depositio Martyrum" dates, as is
probable, from 336, it is not clear that the calendar contains evidence earlier than Philocalus himself, i.e.
354, unless indeed pre-existing popular celebration must be assumed to render possible this official
recognition. Were the Chalki manuscript of Hippolytus genuine, evidence for the December feast would
exist as early as c. 205. The relevant passage [which exists in the Chigi manuscript Without the bracketed
words and is always so quoted before George Syncellus (c. 1000)] runs:
He gar prote parousia tou kyriou hemon he ensarkos [en he gegennetai] en Bethleem, egeneto [pro okto
kalandon ianouarion hemera tetradi] Basileuontos Augoustou [tessarakoston kai deuteron etos, apo de
Adam] pentakischiliosto kai pentakosiosto etei epathen de triakosto trito [pro okto kalandon aprilion,
hemera paraskeun, oktokaidekato etei Tiberiou Kaisaros, hypateuontos Hrouphou kai Hroubellionos. —
(Comm. In Dan., iv, 23; Brotke; 19)
"For the first coming of Our Lord in the flesh [in which He has been begotten], in Bethlehem, took place
[25 December, the fourth day] in the reign of Augustus [the forty-second year, and] in the year 5500
[from Adam]. And He suffered in His thirty-third year [25 March, the parasceve, in the eighteenth year
of Tiberius Cæsar, during the consulate of Rufus and Rubellio]."
Interpolation is certain, and admitted by Funk, Bonwetsch, etc. The names of the consuls [which should
be Fufius and Rubellius] are wrong; Christ lives thirty-three years; in the genuine Hippolytus, thirty-one;
minute data are irrelevant in this discussion with Severian millenniarists; it is incredible that Hippolytus
should have known these details when his contemporaries (Clement, Tertullian, etc.) are, when dealing
with the matter, ignorant or silent; or should, having published them, have remained unquoted (Kellner,
op. cit., p. 104, has an excursus on this passage.)
St. Ambrose (de virg., iii, 1 in P.L., XVI, 219) preserves the sermon preached by Pope Liberius I at St.
Peter's, when, on Natalis Christi, Ambrose' sister, Marcellina, took the veil. This pope reigned from May,
352 until 366, except during his years of exile, 355-357. If Marcellina became a nun only after the
canonical age of twenty-five, and if Ambrose was born only in 340, it is perhaps likelier that the event
occurred after 357. Though the sermon abounds in references appropriate to the Epiphany (the
marriage at Cana, the multiplication of loaves, etc.), these seem due (Kellner, op. cit., p. 109) to
sequence of thought, and do not fix the sermon to 6 January, a feast unknown in Rome till much later.
Usener, indeed, argues (p. 272) that Liberius preached it on that day in 353, instituting the Nativity feast
in the December of the same year; but Philocalus warrants our supposing that if preceded his pontificate
by some time, though Duchesne's relegation of it to 243 (Bull. crit., 1890, 3, pp. 41 sqq.) may not
commend itself to many. In the West the Council of Saragossa (380) still ignores 25 December (see can.
xxi, 2). Pope Siricius, writing in 385 (P.L., XII, 1134) to Himerius in Spain, distinguishes the feasts of the
Nativity and Apparition; but whether he refers to Roman or to Spanish use is not clear. Ammianus
Marcellinus (XXI, ii) and Zonaras (Ann., XIII, 11) date a visit of Julian the Apostate to a church at Vienne in
Gaul on Epiphany and Nativity respectively. Unless there were two visits, Vienne in A.D. 361 combined
the feasts, though on what day is still doubtful. By the time of Jerome and Augustine, the December
feast is established, though the latter (Epp., II, liv, 12, in P.L., XXXIII, 200) omits it from a list of first-class
festivals. From the fourth century every Western calendar assigns it to 25 December. At Rome, then, the
Nativity was celebrated on 25 December before 354; in the East, at Constantinople, not before 379,
unless with Erbes, and against Gregory, we recognize it there in 330. Hence, almost universally has it
been concluded that the new date reached the East from Rome by way of the Bosphorus during the
great anti-Arian revival, and by means of the orthodox champions. De Santi (L'Orig. delle Fest. Nat., in
Civiltæ Cattolica, 1907), following Erbes, argues that Rome took over the Eastern Epiphany, now with a
definite Nativity colouring, and, with as increasing number of Eastern Churches, placed it on 25
December; later, both East and West divided their feast, leaving Ephiphany on 6 January, and Nativity on
25 December, respectively, and placing Christmas on 25 December and Epiphany on 6 January. The
earlier hypothesis still seems preferable.
Origin of date
The gospels
Concerning the date of Christ's birth the Gospels give no help; upon their data contradictory arguments
are based. The census would have been impossible in winter: a whole population could not then be put
in motion. Again, in winter it must have been; then only field labour was suspended. But Rome was not
thus considerate. Authorities moreover differ as to whether shepherds could or would keep flocks
exposed during the nights of the rainy season.
Zachary's temple service
Arguments based on Zachary's temple ministry are unreliable, though the calculations of antiquity (see
above) have been revived in yet more complicated form, e.g. by Friedlieb (Leben J. Christi des Erlösers,
Münster, 1887, p. 312). The twenty-four classes of Jewish priests, it is urged, served each a week in the
Temple; Zachary was in the eighth class, Abia. The Temple was destroyed 9 Ab, A.D. 70; late rabbinical
tradition says that class 1, Jojarib, was then serving. From these untrustworthy data, assuming that
Christ was born A.U.C. 749, and that never in seventy turbulent years the weekly succession failed, it is
calculated that the eighth class was serving 2-9 October, A.U.C. 748, whence Christ's conception falls in
March, and birth presumably in December. Kellner (op. cit., pp. 106, 107) shows how hopeless is the
calculation of Zachary's week from any point before or after it.
Analogy to Old Testament festivals
It seems impossible, on analogy of the relation of Passover and Pentecost to Easter and Whitsuntide, to
connect the Nativity with the feast of Tabernacles, as did, e.g., Lightfoot (Horæ Hebr, et Talm., II, 32),
arguing from Old Testament prophecy, e.g. Zacharias 14:16 sqq.; combining, too, the fact of Christ's
death in Nisan with Daniel's prophecy of a three and one-half years' ministry (9:27), he puts the birth in
Tisri, i.e. September. As undesirable is it to connect 25 December with the Eastern (December) feast of
Dedication (Jos. Ant. Jud., XII, vii, 6).
Natalis Invicti
The well-known solar feast, however, of Natalis Invicti, celebrated on 25 December, has a strong claim
on the responsibility for our December date. For the history of the solar cult, its position in the Roman
Empire, and syncretism with Mithraism, see Cumont's epoch-making "Textes et Monuments" etc., I, ii, 4,
6, p. 355. Mommsen (Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, 12, p. 338) has collected the evidence for the
feast, which reached its climax of popularity under Aurelian in 274. Filippo del Torre in 1700 first saw its
importance; it is marked, as has been said, without addition in Philocalus' Calendar. It would be
impossible here even to outline the history of solar symbolism and language as applied to God, the
Messiah, and Christ in Jewish or Christian canonical, patristic, or devotional works. Hymns and Christmas
offices abound in instances; the texts are well arranged by Cumont (op. cit., addit. Note C, p. 355).
The earliest rapprochement of the births of Christ and the sun is in Cyprian, "De pasch. Comp.", xix, "O
quam præclare providentia ut illo die quo natus est Sol . . . nasceretur Christus." — "O, how wonderfully
acted Providence that on that day on which that Sun was born . . . Christ should be born."
In the fourth century, Chrysostom, "del Solst. Et Æquin." (II, p. 118, ed. 1588), says: "Sed et dominus
noster nascitur mense decembris . . . VIII Kal. Ian. . . . Sed et Invicti Natalem appelant. Quis utique tam
invictus nisi dominus noster? . . . Vel quod dicant Solis esse natalem, ipse est Sol iustitiæ." — "But Our
Lord, too, is born in the month of December . . . the eight before the calends of January [25 December] .
. ., But they call it the 'Birthday of the Unconquered'. Who indeed is so unconquered as Our Lord . . .?
Or, if they say that it is the birthday of the Sun, He is the Sun of Justice."
Already Tertullian (Apol., 16; cf. Ad. Nat., I, 13; Orig. c. Cels., VIII, 67, etc) had to assert that Sol was not
the Christians' God; Augustine (Tract xxxiv, in Joan. In P.L., XXXV, 1652) denounces the heretical
identification of Christ with Sol.
Pope Leo I (Serm. xxxvii in nat. dom., VII, 4; xxii, II, 6 in P.L., LIV, 218 and 198) bitterly reproves solar
survivals — Christians, on the very doorstep of the Apostles' basilica, turn to adore the rising sun. Sun-
worship has bequeathed features to modern popular worship in Armenia, where Christians had once
temporarily and externally conformed to the cult of the material sun (Cumont, op. cit., p. 356).
But even should a deliberate and legitimate "baptism" of a pagan feast be seen here no more than the
transference of the date need be supposed. The "mountain-birth" of Mithra and Christ's in the "grotto"
have nothing in common: Mithra's adoring shepherds (Cumont, op. cit., I, ii, 4, p. 304 sqq.) are rather
borrowed from Christian sources than vice versa.
Other theories of pagan origin
The origin of Christmas should not be sought in the Saturnalia (1-23 December) nor even in the midnight
holy birth at Eleusis (see J.E. Harrison, Prolegom., p. 549) with its probable connection through Phrygia
with the Naasene heretics, or even with the Alexandrian ceremony quoted above; nor yet in rites
analogous to the midwinter cult at Delphi of the cradled Dionysus, with his revocation from the sea to a
new birth (Harrison, op. cit., 402 sqq.).
The astronomical theory
Duchesne (Les origines du culte chrétien, Paris, 1902, 262 sqq.) advances the "astronomical" theory that,
given 25 March as Christ's death-day [historically impossible, but a tradition old as Tertullian (Adv. Jud.,
8)], the popular instinct, demanding an exact number of years in a Divine life, would place His
conception on the same date, His birth 25 December. This theory is best supported by the fact that
certain Montanists (Sozomen, Church History VII.18) kept Easter on 6 April; both 25 December and 6
January are thus simultaneously explained. The reckoning, moreover, is wholly in keeping with the
arguments based on number and astronomy and "convenience", then so popular. Unfortunately, there
is no contemporary evidence for the celebration in the fourth century of Christ's conception on 25
March.
Conclusion
The present writer in inclined to think that, be the origin of the feast in East or West, and though the
abundance of analogous midwinter festivals may indefinitely have helped the choice of the December
date, the same instinct which set Natalis Invicti at the winter solstice will have sufficed, apart from
deliberate adaptation or curious calculation, to set the Christian feast there too.
Liturgy and custom
The calendar
The fixing of this date fixed those too of Circumcision and Presentation; of Expectation and, perhaps,
Annunciation B.V.M.; and of Nativity and Conception of the Baptist (cf. Thurston in Amer. Eccl. Rev.,
December, 1898). Till the tenth century Christmas counted, in papal reckoning, as the beginning of the
ecclesiastical year, as it still does in Bulls; Boniface VIII (1294-1303) restored temporarily this usage, to
which Germany held longest.
Popular merry-making
Codex Theod., II, 8, 27 (cf. XV, 5,5) forbids, in 425, circus games on 25 December; though not till Codex
Just., III, 12, 6 (529) is cessation of work imposed. The Second Council of Tours (can. xi, xvii) proclaims, in
566 or 567, the sanctity of the "twelve days" from Christmas to Epiphany, and the duty of Advent fast;
that of Agde (506), in canons 63-64, orders a universal communion, and that of Braga (563) forbids
fasting on Christmas Day. Popular merry-making, however, so increased that the "Laws of King Cnut",
fabricated c. 1110, order a fast from Christmas to Epiphany.
The three Masses
The Gelasian and Gregorian Sacramentaries give three Masses to this feast, and these, with a special and
sublime martyrology, and dispensation, if necessary, from abstinence, still mark our usage. Though
Rome gives three Masses to the Nativity only, Ildefonsus, a Spanish bishop, in 845, alludes to a triple
mass on Nativity, Easter, Whitsun, and Transfiguration (P.L., CVI, 888). These Masses, at midnight, dawn,
and in die, were mystically connected with aboriginal, Judaic, and Christian dispensations, or (as by St.
Thomas, Summa Theologica III:83:2) to the triple "birth" of Christ: in Eternity, in Time, and in the Soul.
Liturgical colours varied: black, white, red, or (e.g. at Narbonne) red, white, violet were used (Durand,
Rat. Div. Off., VI, 13). The Gloria was at first sung only in the first Mass of this day.
The historical origin of this triple Mass is probably as follows (cf. Thurston, in Amer. Eccl. Rev., January,
1899; Grisar, Anal. Rom., I, 595; Geschichte Roms . . . im Mittelalter I, 607, 397; Civ. Catt., 21 September,
1895, etc.): The first Mass, celebrated at the Oratorium Præsepis in St. Mary Major — a church probably
immediately assimilated to the Bethlehem basilica — and the third, at St. Peter's, reproduced in Rome
the double Christmas Office mentioned by Etheria (see above) at Bethlehem and Jerusalem. The second
Mass was celebrated by the pope in the "chapel royal" of the Byzantine Court officials on the Palatine,
i.e. St. Anastasia's church, originally called, like the basilica at Constantinople, Anastasis, and like it built
at first to reproduce the Jerusalem Anastasis basilica — and like it, finally, in abandoning the name
"Anastasis" for that of the martyr St. Anastasia. The second Mass would therefore be a papal
compliment to the imperial church on its patronal feast. The three stations are thus accounted for, for
by 1143 (cf. Ord. Romani in P.L., LXXVIII, 1032) the pope abandoned distant St. Peter's, and said the third
Mass at the high altar of St. Mary Major. At this third Mass Leo III inaugurated, in 800, by the coronation
of Charlemagne, the Holy Roman Empire. The day became a favourite for court ceremonies, and on it,
e.g., William of Normandy was crowned at Westminster.
Dramatic presentations
The history of the dedication of the Oratorium Præsepis in the Liberian basilica, of the relics there kept
and their imitations, does not belong to this discussion [cf. CRIB; RELICS. The data are well set out by
Bonaccorsi (Il Natale, Rome, 1903, ch. iv)], but the practice of giving dramatic, or at least spectacular,
expression to the incidents of the Nativity early gave rise to more or less liturgical mysteries. The
ordinaria of Rouen and of Reims, for instance, place the officium pastorum immediately after the Te
Deum and before Mass (cf. Ducange, Gloss. med. et inf. Lat., s.v. Pastores); the latter Church celebrated
a second "prophetical" mystery after Tierce, in which Virgil and the Sibyl join with Old Testament
prophets in honouring Christ. (For Virgil and Nativity play and prophecy see authorities in Comparetti,
"Virgil in Middle Ages", p. 310 sqq.) "To out-herod Herod", i.e. to over-act, dates from Herod's violence
in these plays.
The crib (creche) or nativity scene
St. Francis of Assisi in 1223 originated the crib of today by laicizing a hitherto ecclesiastical custom,
henceforward extra-liturgical and popular. The presence of ox and ass is due to a misinterpretation of
Isaiah 1:3 and Habakkuk 3:2 ("Itala" version), though they appear in the unique fourth-century "Nativity"
discovered in the St. Sebastian catacombs in 1877. The ass on which Balaam rode in the Reims mystery
won for the feast the title Festum Asinorum (Ducange, op. cit., s.v. Festum).
Hymns and carols
The degeneration of these plays in part occasioned the diffusion of noels, pastorali, and carols, to which
was accorded, at times, a quasi-liturgical position. Prudentius, in the fourth century, is the first (and in
that century alone) to hymn the Nativity, for the "Vox clara" (hymn for Lauds in Advent) and "Christe
Redemptor" (Vespers and Matins of Christmas) cannot be assigned to Ambrose. "A solis ortu" is
certainly, however, by Sedulius (fifth century). The earliest German Weihnachtslieder date from the
eleventh and twelfth centuries, the earliest noels from the eleventh, the earliest carols from the
thirteenth. The famous "Stabat Mater Speciosa" is attributed to Jacopone da Todi (1230-1306); "Adeste
Fideles" is, at the earliest, of the seventeenth century. These essentially popular airs, and even words,
must, however, have existed long before they were put down in writing.
Cards and presents
Pagan customs centering round the January calends gravitated to Christmas. Tiele (Yule and Christmas,
London, 1899) has collected many interesting examples. The strenæ (eacute;trennes) of the Roman 1
January (bitterly condemned by Tertullian, de Idol., xiv and x, and by Maximus of Turin, Hom. ciii, de Kal.
gentil., in P.L., LVII, 492, etc.) survive as Christmas presents, cards, boxes.
The yule log
The calend fires were a scandal even to Rome, and St. Boniface obtained from Pope Zachary their
abolition. But probably the Yule-log in its many forms was originally lit only in view of the cold season.
Only in 1577 did it become a public ceremony in England; its popularity, however, grew immense,
especially in Provence; in Tuscany, Christmas is simply called ceppo (block, log — Bonaccorsi, op. cit., p.
145, n. 2). Besides, it became connected with other usages; in England, a tenant had the right to feed at
his lord's expense as long as a wheel, i.e. a round, of wood, given by him, would burn, the landlord gave
to a tenant a load of wood on the birth of a child; Kindsfuss was a present given to children on the birth
of a brother or sister, and even to the farm animals on that of Christ, the universal little brother (Tiele,
op. cit., p. 95 sqq.).
Greenery
Gervase of Tilbury (thirteen century) says that in England grain is exposed on Christmas night to gain
fertility from the dew which falls in response to "Rorate Cæli"; the tradition that trees and flowers
blossomed on this night is first quoted from an Arab geographer of the tenth century, and extended to
England. In a thirteenth-century French epic, candles are seen on the flowering tree. In England it was
Joseph of Arimathea's rod which flowered at Glastonbury and elsewhere; when 3 September became 14
September, in 1752, 2000 people watched to see if the Quainton thorn (cratagus præcox) would blow
on Christmas New Style; and as it did not, they refused to keep the New Style festival. From this belief of
the calends practice of greenery decorations (forbidden by Archbishop Martin of Braga, c. 575, P.L.,
LXXIII — mistletoe was bequeathed by the Druids) developed the Christmas tree, first definitely
mentioned in 1605 at Strasburg, and introduced into France and England in 1840 only, by Princess
Helena of Mecklenburg and the Prince Consort respectively.
The mysterious visitor
Only with great caution should the mysterious benefactor of Christmas night — Knecht Ruprecht,
Pelzmärtel on a wooden horse, St. Martin on a white charger, St. Nicholas and his "reformed"
equivalent, Father Christmas — be ascribed to the stepping of a saint into the shoes of Woden, who,
with his wife Berchta, descended on the nights between 25 December and 6 January, on a white horse
to bless earth and men. Fires and blazing wheels starred the hills, houses were adorned, trials
suspended and feasts celebrated (cf. Bonaccorse, op. cit., p. 151). Knecht Ruprecht, at any rate (first
found in a mystery of 1668 and condemned in 1680 as a devil) was only a servant of the Holy Child.
Non-Catholic observances
But no doubt aboriginal Christian nuclei attracted pagan accretions. For the calend mumming; the
extraordinary and obscene Modranicht; the cake in honour of Mary's "afterbirth", condemned (692) at
the Trullan Council, canon 79; the Tabulæ Fortunæ (food and drink offered to obtain increase, and
condemned in 743), see Tiele, op. cit., ch. viii, ix — Tiele's data are perhaps of greater value than his
deductions — and Ducange (op. cit., s. vv. Cervula and Kalendæ).
In England, Christmas was forbidden by Act of Parliament in 1644; the day was to be a fast and a market
day; shops were compelled to be open; plum puddings and mince pies condemned as heathen. The
conservatives resisted; at Canterbury blood was shed; but after the Restoration Dissenters continued to
call Yuletide "Fooltide".