The unexpected origin of Christmas

Christmas is right around the corner. This holiday is popular but its origin may not be what you always thought. It has some pagan influence. Christmas is popularly known as the celebration of Jesus Christ’s birth. A saviour believed to have been born in a simple barn in Bethlehem to Mary and Joseph.

However, centuries before Jesus walked the earth, early Norse Europeans had their own winter festivity called Yule. Around December 21, fathers & sons would drag home evergreen trees. Evergreen trees were the one plant that could make it through a harsh winter, so they were held as a symbol of life that persisted in this dark time. During this time, they had long feasts.

In Rome, they celebrated Saturnalia, a month-long wild feast of food and drink. Saturnalia was named after their god, Saturn, which meant plenty. The Roman upper classes had a sober celebration of Mithra, the god of the Unconquerable Sun. Mithra was said to be an infant born from a rock who shepherds came to worship. Quite similar to the shepherds who visited Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. While Roman upper classes were worshipping Mithra, the Sun God, Christianity was spreading throughout the empire.

At first, Christians didn’t celebrate the birth of Christ. They later changed their minds. If pagan Romans were already celebrating the birth of Mithra on December 25, it seemed natural to them to honour the birth of the Christ at the same time. By the 4th century, the church made it official that December 25 would be the day to commemorate Christ’s birth.

The church knew it could not outlaw the pagan traditions of winter celebration so it set out to adopt them to Christmas. The evergreen trees that Norse Europeans brought inside their houses were soon decorated by Christians with apples symbolizing the Garden of Eden. These apples eventually became the Christmas ornaments we see today. Christians also adopted the act of feasting during winter celebrations from the Norse Europeans and the Romans. This is how feasting became such a central part of celebrating Christmas.

It is interesting that some of the popular Christmas practices did not come from Christianity, but from the influence of other religions. However, what stands out is that these radically different people yearned in their hearts to celebrate life, joy and hope the best way they could. Perhaps this is what truly makes Christmas such a magical time.

Ms Otieno is an advocate and communication professional. [email protected]