Christmas Every Day

Many people today, Christian and non-Christian alike, complain about the commercialism and degradation of Christmas. In a 380 Christmas sermon, Gregory of Nazianzen, the archbishop of Constantinople, decried the way the Romans behaved during their late December celebrations:

Let us not put wreaths on our front doors, or assemble troupes of dancers, or decorate the streets. Let us not feast the eyes, or mesmerize the sense of hearing, or make effeminate the sense of smell, or prostitute the sense of taste, or gratify the sense of touch. These are ready paths to evil, and entrances of sin … Let us not assess the bouquets of wines, the concoctions of chefs, the great cost of perfumes. Let earth and sea not bring us as gifts the valued dung, for this is how I know to evaluate luxury. Let us not strive to conquer each other in dissoluteness. For to me all that is superfluous and beyond need is dissoluteness, particularly when others are hungry and in want, who are of the same clay and composition as ourselves. But let us leave these things to the Greeks and to Greek pomp and festivals.

The notion that Christmas was situated on December 25 by the early church because of the date’s connection to the winter solstice and sun worship has no contemporary evidence for it. The earliest we hear of it is in this 12th-century Syriac manuscript:

The Lord was born in the month of January, on the day on which we celebrate the Epiphany [January 6]; for the ancients observed the Nativity and the Epiphany on the same day, because he was born and baptized on the same day. Also still today the Armenians celebrate the two feasts on the same day. To this must be added the Doctors who speak at the same time of the one and the other feast. The reason for which the Fathers transferred the said solemnity from the sixth of January to the 25^th of December is, it is said, the following: it was the custom of the pagans to celebrate on this same day of the 25^th of December the birth of the sun. To adorn the solemnity, they had the custom of lighting fires and they even invited Christians to take part in these rites. When, therefore, the Doctors noted that the Christians were won over to this custom, they decided to celebrate the feast of the true birth on this same day; the 6^th of January they made to celebrate the Epiphany. They have kept this custom until today with the rite of the lighted fire.

It is almost certainly not a true explanation but you still it attested to on the Web.

In Nicaragua, Christmas begins December 7 with the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, known in Spanish as “La Purísima” (The Most Pure). The exuberance and the loudness of the festivities is such that it has also come to be called “La Noche de Gritería”, the Night of the Screams. Songs are sung at maximum volume, fireworks are set off and crowds shout out questions and responses: “Quien causa tanta alegría?” — “Why all this happiness? —  “La Concepción de María!” — “The Conception of Mary!” — “Viva la Concepcio!” — “Long live the Conception!” Homeowners hand out out candies, fruit and little treats to the crowds who will party until dawn.

The patron saint of  Aberdonians, apothecaries, Austrians, bakers, barrel-makers, boatmen, Belgians, boot-blacks, brewers, brides, butchers, button-makers, captives, chandlers, children, coopers, dock workers, Dutchmen, druggists, firemen, fishermen, florists, folk falsely-accused, Greeks, grooms, haberdashers, judges, Liverpudlians, longshoremen, merchants, murderers, newlyweds, notaries, old maids, orphans, parish clerks, paupers, pawnbrokers, perfumers, pharmacists, pilgrims, pirates, poets, rag pickers, Russians, sailors, sealers, shipwrights, Sicilians, spice dealers, students, thieves, travellers, and weavers.

As people begin to grumble about Christmas stress, it’s time to remind them of the words of St Maximus of Turin, 1600 years ago:

You well know what joy and what a gathering there is when the birthday of the emperor of this world is to be celebrated; how his generals and princes and soldiers, arrayed in silk garments and girt with precious belts worked with shining gold, seek to enter the king’s presence in more brilliant fashion than usual …If, therefore, brethren, those of this world celebrate the birthday of an earthly king with such an outlay for the sake of the glory of the present honor, with what solicitude ought we to celebrate the birthday of our eternal king Jesus Christ. Who in return for our devotion will bestow on us not temporal but eternal glory.

A virgin martyr slain by her father for converting to Christianity, St Barbara’s feast day, December 4, is the start of Christmas season in Syria and Lebanon and the occasion for European traditions involving blossoms. In Germany, Austria, the Czech lands and Slovakia a ‘Barbara twig’ is cut from a cherry tree and placed in water. If it blooms on or before Christmas Eve the family will see a marriage in the year to come. In Provence and parts of the Middle East wheat and lentils are sown on St Barbara’s Day and if they germinate are served on Christmas.

When her father chopped off her head he was instantly struck dead by a bolt of lightning. For this explosive reason Barbara is the patron saint of miners and artillery men.

 A Swedish mystic and saint, patron of Sweden, founder of the Brigittine Order, and a visionary whose revelations about the Nativity were highly influential in the way it was artistically depicted during the Middle Ages.

After the death of her aristocratic husband Bridget entered a convent and began to have a series of visions, some political, some personal and some of which dealt with the birth of Jesus. Until Bridget’s revelations it was believed that Mary had given birth in the normal fashion but after she announced that it had been revealed to her that Mary had given birth standing in prayer, without pain or effort, medieval art changed its portrayal of the Nativity.

 Bridget was canonized in 1391 and her Revelations were printed in 1492.

A wreath, usually of greenery, to which are attached candles, invented by the reforming Lutheran pastor Johann Hinrich Wichern. In Hamburg in 1833 he opened the “Rauhe Haus”, the Rough House, which sheltered orphaned or neglected children. In order to make the Christmas story more real to them every night of Advent he told them stories, prayed and lit a candle. To accommodate the candles a wheel-shaped chandelier was built, around which evergreens were twined. Visitors and supporters were impressed by this display and the custom spread but those who imitated it reduced it in size to four candles, one for each week of Advent.

Many churches and homes mark the progress of Advent by lighting one additional candle a week until on the final Sunday all four are alight. Three of these candles are purple or violet (penitential colours) while the one lit on the third Sunday (Gaudete Sunday) is the pink of rejoicing. After Christmas these candles are often replaced with white ones.

The candles represent the coming of Jesus, the Light of the World, and it was once customary for someone named John or Joan to be first to light them because John the Baptist at the River Jordan was the first to see the fire of divinity in Jesus and John the Evangelist began his gospel by referring to Jesus as the Light. The wreath is an ancient symbol of victory while the greenery represents the ever-lasting life.

A German variation on the Advent wreath is a seven-branched candle-holder. In the southwestern United States the wreath is occasionally made from bunches of red chili peppers. Acadians in the Canadian Maritime provinces fashion their Advent wreaths in the form of a cross and place them at the foot of the church altar.

 The world’s largest Advent Wreath takes up a whole city block in Münster, Germany.