This section takes you back in time and gives you an insight into the history of Christmas. From how the holiday came into being to deciding a date for Christmas, this Christmas History section would come in handy for a fast revision on your knowledge about the holiday.

Christmas History

The history and origin of this most popular holiday of the year, Christmas, can be traced to something above 4000 years back in time and is associated with the early Mesopotamians. It is widely believed that many traditions and ceremonial aspects of Christmas can be found at a time long before Christ was born, the time when the early Mesopotamians lived. The history of Christmas is, therefore, way back in centuries.

The Mesopotamians had a twelve day-long New Year’s festival called the Zagmuk, which was celebrated to help their chief God Marduk in His battle against the monsters of chaos. Each year in winter, the Mesopotamian king traditionally visited Marduk’s temple and at the end, the custom was to kill the king who would then go with Marduk in the battlefield. However, the real king was spared and a mock king (who was almost always a criminal dressed in royal robes) was slain.

Sacaea was a similar celebration of the Persians and Babylonians where roles were reversed for a day--slaves became masters and masters slaved about as servants.

Much in the same street as Zagmuk and Sacaea, the ancient Greeks had a festival to help their God Kronos in His battle against Zeus and his Titans.

The Scandinavians had a festival called Yuletide which celebrated the return of the sun after a long, lightless, chilly winter. Special feasts were held around big bonfires made with the Yule log.

Romans were no exception either. They had their God Saturn to celebrate. Starting mid-December and ending January 1, the Roman festival Saturnalia, featured boisterous shouts “Jo Saturnalia”, elaborate masquerades, exchanging gifts, holding special feasts, decking up halls with laurel wreaths and putting up candles on evergreens. This Saturnalia festival has a close similarity with today’s Christmas celebrations and hence the history of Christmas is heavily linked to this ancient Saturnalia. But the Christians refused to honor the pagan Roman God Saturn. The early Christians couldn’t come to terms with such a frantic Christmas celebration and wanted to observe the birthday of their Lord with devout offerings and sincere devotion.

However, as time went on and Christianity spread to every nook and corner of the world, the Church slowly loosened up a little and came to accept the merry-making during Christmas. Today, Christmas is really incomplete without those decorations of tinsel and streamers, the lights and candles, the piping hot turkey with pies around, the decked halls, the mistletoe on the doorway, the holly and the stockings over the fireplace, the bells on the Christmas tree and the colorful greetings and gifts.

Now ever wondered why Christmas is celebrated on December 25? Is it the day when Jesus Christ was born? Well, nobody knows for sure exactly when Christ was born. There had been a lot of dispute over fixing December 25 as Christmas. In the 2nd century A.D, Hippolytus claimed this day as Christ's birthday. Then January 6 was declared by the Eastern Church as the day of His birth. Finally, in 350 A.D, the Bishop of Rome, Pope Julius I, fixed December 25 as the official day for Christmas. This date, the day of the winter solstice, was wisely chosen with the intention to outweigh the popular pagan Roman holiday of Saturnalia.

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