THE English name “Christmas,” meaning “Christ’s Mass,” suggests that the holiday so designated is Christian. It is commonly viewed as commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ on December 25.
Christmas—Its Origin
Biblical evidence, however, rules out a winter date. At the time Jesus was born, shepherds were still living outdoors and keeping watches at night over their flocks. (Luke 2:8) This circumstance does not fit the nights in the month of December, when there are frequent frosts in the Bethlehem area. With the start of the rainy season in the latter part of October, shepherds are already no longer living outdoors.
How, then, did December 25 come to be the day for celebrating the “birth of Christ”? What about the various customs associated with Christmas? Are they of Christian origin? Note what various reference works say about this.
Why the December 25 Date?
“The members of the early church were recruited from among the pagans, and by the establishment of a festival at this time the energy and attention of the proselytes could be focused thus in a Christian festival.”—Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology, and Legend, Vol. 1, p. 229.
Is It Really a Christian Festival?
“The celebration was not observed in the first centuries of the Christian church . . . In the 5th century the Western church ordered the feast to be celebrated on the day of the Mithraic rites of the birth of the sun and at the close of the Saturnalia, as no certain knowledge of the day of Christ’s birth existed. Among the German and Celtic tribes the winter solstice was considered an important point of the year and to commemorate the return of the sun they held their chief festival of yule, which, like other pagan celebrations, became adapted to Christmas.”—The Encyclopedia Americana, 1959 edition, Vol. 6, p. 622.
“Most of the customs now associated with Christmas were not originally Christmas customs but rather were pre-Christian and non-Christian customs taken up by the Christian church. Saturnalia, a Roman feast celebrated in mid-December, provided the model for many of the merrymaking customs of Christmas. From this celebration, for example, were derived the elaborate feasting, the giving of gifts, and the burning of candles.”—The Encyclopedia Americana, 1959 edition, Vol. 6, p. 622.
“The custom of decorating homes and churches with evergreens began in ancient times. The Romans exchanged green tree branches for good luck on the calends (first day) of January.” (The World Book Encyclopedia, 1973, Vol. 3, p. 415) Regarding the carol entitled “Holly and the Ivy,” Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology, and Legend says: “It is one of a number of carols in which the holly and ivy carry over a pre-Christian symbolism of male and female principles.”
Is Christmas Acceptable for Christians?
“There were, within the Church, criticisms of the observance on the grounds of its resembling pagan rites, of its being sun-worship (the Armenians called the Roman Church members idolaters as well, because of the identification of Christmas with the date of the birth of the sun), and, as late as 1644, during the Puritan ascendancy, the English Parliament forbade observance of the festival.”—Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology, and Legend, Vol. 1, p. 229.
The Bible raises the questions: “What fellowship do righteousness and lawlessness have? Or what sharing does light have with darkness?” (2 Cor. 6:14) None whatsoever. And is not the Christmas celebration an endeavor to bring ancient paganism into partnership with Christ?
