Mzansi Afrika: Christmas

Was Jesus Christ born on 25 December 0000? Of course he wasn't. My grandmother, who was born in the early part of the past century, couldn't even tell you the year of her birth. She says she was born at the time of Halley's Comet. "A little before or a little afterwards, grandma?" She has no idea. How could somebody affirm that Jesus Christ was born on a specific day, in a specific month? History also tells us that we don't know when Jesus was born.

The date of 25 December as Jesus's birthday can be traced back to the 4th century. At the outset it was but an expression of Romano-European festivities that celebrated harvesting and the end of the winter solstice. That would have been a few days after 21 December. Scandinavians celebrated Yule from 21 December, the day of the winter solstice, to the end of January. The solstice of course heralded the return of sunshine and the end of the bitterly cold darkness: a reason to have a ball. So the men of the village, or of the fjord, brought large logs home and set them on fire, and the party was on for as long as the fire was on. Sometimes it lasted 12 days, we're told.

The name "Christmas" is a portmanteau word made up of Christ and mass... the mass of Christ. It is associated with so many symbols that it would be close to impossible to explore them all here. There's Santa, the Christmas tree, mistletoe, Christmas cards, the term "Xmas", and others. Did you know that:

In 16th-century Germany fir trees were decorated, both indoors and out, with apples, roses, gilded candies, and colored paper. In the Middle Ages, a popular religous play depicted the story of Adam and Eve's expulsion from the Garden of Eden. A fir tree hung with apples was used to symbolize the Garden of Eden -- the Paradise Tree. The play ended with the prophecy of a saviour coming, and so was often performed during the Advent season. It is held that Protestant reformer Martin Luther first adorned trees with light. While coming home one December evening, the beauty of the stars shining through the branches of a fir inspired him to recreate the effect by placing candles on the branches of a small fir tree inside his home. The Christmas Tree was brought to England by King George I from his native Germany. The famous Illustrated News etching in 1848, featuring the Royal Family standing gathered around a Christmas tree in Windsor Castle, popularized the tree throughout Victorian England. Brought to America by the Pennsylvania Germans, the Christmas tree became by the late 19th century. [ Source]

We in Lesotho and other African countries nicked the whole thing from our colonisers. I'll never forget the image in Maseru when I was young, of a Father Christmas sweating profusely beneath his Santa Claus suit and beard. The problem is of course the fact that in Lesotho summer is from October to January, and summer temperatures are often in the thirties. Poor guy.

And the gifts? The practice dates back to Roman festivals of Saturnalia and Kalends. The first giver then must have given a very simple gift, like a pebble, or hyena-skin sandals, or something of the sort. But the present became more and more sophisticated until the request by today's kids of Play Station material that is hardlt affordable for the average mortal. The early church considered this gift-giving un-holy, but people compared it with gift-giving by the Three Wise Men, and the church had to accept it.

I wish you all a merry Christmas and a prosperous 2006.

June 2006

Comments

I did my own bit of snooping around Christmas: http://www.gabbahead.com/?p=30

My theory is that the Christian religion later adopted a lot of ideas from Mithra and other older religions to convert people to the faith. For this same reason the devil and Pan closely resemble each other, since it made missionary work in old England easier.

Jesus was a bright guy with a lot of good ideas, enough to start a cult around him. Messiah cults are not rare at all in Judain history and most of them have tales of miracles and such connected to them.

The big problem behind the Jesus legend is the missing 18 years between 12 and 30. There is effectively less written about Jesus in the bible than what is not. Since the book, at most, covers 15 years of his life. We're all wondering when he was born, but we don't even know what he really did for more than half his life, especially the important, decisive teens and twenties.

Maybe it was dropped because the life of Jesus didn't sell that messiah message. Maybe he did get his ideas from Bhuddists on the South Asian and Middle Eastern trade routes? but then that wouldn't be the word of God, would it?

Christianity is a personality cult and celebrating a figure's birthday in a religious fashion is indicative of that. North Koreans celebrate the birthdays of its two leaders without fail (and highly fabricated births at that). That's not to say that birth-worship means you're in a personality cult. But perhaps it's a good idea to get a bit critical about your beliefs if that happens.

Posted by: Gabbahead | January 09, 2006 at 02:31 PM