Christmas is one of the biggest parties in the whole world, it is both a huge religious festival and a major economic event, but where does this phenomenon originate?
The idea of a party on or near the 25th of December is ancient. The Babylonians had the feast of the Son of Isis the Goddess of Nature which was celebrated at this time. The Romans had Saturnalia which was the festival honouring the god Saturn who was their god of agriculture. The ancient Europeans had the festival of Yule, an ancient word meaning wheel that also, in many of their languages meant sun.
All these festivals, in some way honoured the sun. The 21st of December is the longest night of the year and therefore was a turning point. On this day the longest and darkest times reached their peak and started to recede. From the 22nd onwards every day becomes longer and lighter, every day brings people closer to the planting time of spring and the end of the worry of surviving the cold hungry times of winter. It was a festival of renewed hope and the rebirth of the sun.
The Europeans used to burn huge Yule logs which were meant to honour and encourage the sun to rise, a tradition that survives in France in the form of the Bûche cake. Evergreen trees were brought into the home to remind the people that new life and growth were soon to arrive. Another plant that was brought into the home was Mistletoe (Gui). This is a Viking tradition again related to the sun as Mistletoe was the plant associated with Balder the sun god.
In 350AD , Pope Julius I decided that Christ’s birth would be celebrated on December 25th. This is because he was probably trying to make it as easy as possible for pagan Romans to convert to Christianity. The new religion was easier to accept when they knew that their feasts would not be taken away from them.
One common feature of all these feasts was wild partying, gluttonous eating and drinking, and gift-giving….much like the way I intend to celebrate this Christmas!
Happy Christmas one and all
