A meaningful Christmas

By Lionel Wijesiri

Every year, around this time, most people’s thoughts turn to Christmas. It is the time when professing Christians are supposed to focus on Jesus Christ. After all, it is the ‘Christ-mass’ season!

Traditionally, Christmas is thought to be a wonderful time, with its focus on giving, family togetherness, beautiful music and decorations, feasting on special foods and singing Christmas carols. These all bring warm feelings to those who celebrate it.

Christmas is an annual commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ

On Tuesday evening, when you gather around the Christmas tree or stuff goodies into gift boxes, you’re beginning to take part in traditions that stretch back thousands of years - long before Christianity entered the mix. Pagan, or non-Christian, traditions show up in this beloved winter holiday, a consequence of early church leaders melding Jesus’ nativity celebration with pre-existing mid-winter festivals. Since then, Christmas traditions have warped over time, arriving at their current state a little more than a century ago.

Let us go through this story again.

History

Saturnalia was an ancient Roman festival in honour of the deity Saturn, held on December 17 of the Julian calendar and later expanded with festivities through December 23. The holiday was celebrated with a sacrifice at the Temple of Saturn in the Roman Forum and a public banquet, followed by private gift-giving, continual partying, and a carnival atmosphere that overturned Roman social norms. The poet Catullus called it “the best of days.”

In Roman mythology, Saturn was an agricultural deity who reigned over the world in the Golden Age, when humans enjoyed the spontaneous bounty of the earth. The renewal of light and the coming of the New Year was celebrated in the later Roman Empire at the Dies Natalis of Sol Invictus, or the ‘Birthday of the Unconquerable Sun’, on December 25.

As Christians spread their religion into Europe in the first centuries AD, they ran into people living by a variety of local and regional religious creeds. Christian missionaries lumped all of these people together under the umbrella term pagan. The term is related to the Latin word meaning ‘field’. The lingual link makes sense because early European Christianity was an urban phenomenon, while paganism persisted longer in rustic areas.

Early Christians wanted to convert pagans, but they were also fascinated by their traditions.

Christians of that period were quite interested in paganism. It was obviously something they thought was a bad thing, but it was something they thought was worth remembering. It’s what their ancestors did.

Perhaps, that’s why pagan traditions remained even as Christianity took hold. The Christmas tree is a 17th-century German invention, but it clearly derives from the pagan practice of bringing greenery indoors to decorate in mid-winter. The modern Santa Claus is a direct descendent of England’s Father Christmas, who was not originally a gift-giver. However, Father Christmas and his other European variations are modern incarnations of old pagan ideas about spirits who travelled the sky in mid-winter. Despite the spread of Christianity, mid-winter festivals did not become Christmas for hundreds of years.

According to some legends, the Christian celebration of Christmas was invented to compete against the pagan festivals held in December. The 25th was sacred, not only to the Romans, but also to the Persians whose religion of Mithraism was one of Christianity’s main rivals at that period in time.

For some, Christmas means just partying and fun

In 350 AD, Julius I (Bishop of Rome) selected December 25 as the observance of Christmas. This date was made official in 375 AD, when it was formally announced that the birth of Jesus would be honoured on this day.

The announcement also allowed some of the older pagan festivities (such as feasting, dancing and the exchange of gifts) to be incorporated into the observance of Christmas. The use of greenery to decorate homes continued to be prohibited as pagan idolatry, but, over the centuries, this too became an accepted custom of the festivities.

That is a brief history of Christmas. As we can see, it is a mistake to say that the modern Christmas traditions come directly from pre-Christian paganism. However, we would be equally wrong to believe that Christmas is a modern phenomenon.

Christian sermon

Last year, during the Christmas season, this writer was at Singapore and had the opportunity to listen to a purposeful public Christian sermon. The topic was ‘The Meaning of Christmas: Look Deeper’. The writer doesn’t recollect the name of the Christian priest who delivered the sermon, but scanning through his notes, the writer remembers the gist of the speaker’s presentation. His five-point formulae is food for thought for any Christian who wishes to reconnect with the original purpose and meaning of Christmas.

* Make it a time for meaningful fellowship

At Christmas, we usually spend more time with family, friends, and co-workers than at any other time of the year. Real fellowship occurs when there is heart-to-heart sharing. For fellowship to happen, we must open and reveal ourselves to one another, talking about what we care about most. When real fellowship happens, families and friends grow closer to each other. But it doesn’t happen automatically. It happens when we intentionally ask meaningful questions, and then take the time to listen to one another.

* Make it a time for personal growth

Many people dread their annual family gathering because it reminds them of unresolved hurts, unsettled conflicts, painful memories and uncomfortable relationships. Because all families are composed of imperfect people, we hurt one another - sometimes intentionally and sometimes, not. In a purpose-driven Christmas, you use the event as an opportunity for reconciliation. Jesus came to restore our broken relationships with God and with one another. That is why, for us, the purpose of Christmas is to make peace, which needs courage, patience, openness, initiative and maturity.

* Make it a time for service

Everyone knows the spirit of Christmas is giving. But the best gifts are often ones you can’t wrap in paper. They are gifts of service - where we offer our time, our talents, our connections, our ideas or our energy to serve those in need around us. Do simple acts of kindness during this season. It might be running an errand, picking up a package, offering to babysit, loaning some decorations, making phone calls for your church, or taking a meal to someone who is housebound.

* Make it a time for joyful worship

Certainly, you’ll want to make time for worship as you thank God for His greatest Christmas gift to you: He sent a Saviour. You can worship God during your everyday activities. You can do this by performing those activities as if you were doing them for God and carrying on a continual conversation with Him while you do them.

* Make it a time for cheerful sharing

During the Christmas season, you’ll find that people are more open to discussing spiritual issues than at any other time of the year. So share the message with your family and friends. Reach out beyond the church walls. It’s the best news they’ll ever hear!

So, amidst the din and tinsel as you fix the Christmas tree, let a new-born love enfold you, embrace you, uphold you. That’s the true idea of Christmas and that’s what Christmas should really mean to you!