FOURTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS: HISTORY OF CHRISTMAS

by John Loeffler World Affairs Editor
"...when I found myself sitting in an evangelical church in early December listening to the singing of Christmas carols. "Could the church have lost its mind?"   I thought.    It has become so much like the world.  Traditionally, christmas carols are banned until christmas day because its a MONTH OF re-enactment.  Christ isn't BORN until Christmas Day.
In the ancient church, Christmas was celebrated on... Christmas...even fifty years ago, christmas was celebrated on Christmas.   Everything prior to that was a preparation for the big day but Christmas itself wasn't celebrated until midnight, December 24, when there was a "re-enactment WORLDWIDE" of the Christ child being welcomed onto the Earth.
Christ wasn't actually born on December 25.   The actual date is a subject of debate.   But in 336 a.d. the church set the date at December 25 (Julian calendar) to offset the pagan celebration of the winter solstice at the Saturnalia, (similarly, churches today have "harvest parties" to offset what is becoming an increasingly pagan Halloween).
Following the time of the apostles, the early church began to develop organization and worship in five major centers around the Mediterranean:   Jerusalem (naturally), Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople and Rome.
Just as the Jewish calendar had an annual series of liturgically rotating feasts that God ordained in the Old Testament, so the form of worship in the early churches rapidly developed into a liturgical calendar centering around the Lord's Supper, which originally everyone partook in one form or another.  Today, only Jehovah Witness celebrate the Lord's Supper in keeping with the bible and shun (all traditions not ordained by the bible.  Most of what we celebrate for Christmas are not biblical traditions).
Advent
In western churches the four Sundays prior to Christmas were called Advent, coming from the Latin verb advenire, meaning "to come towards."
The church was decorated in purple, along with the priest who wore the same color, signifying penance. Prior to December 25, the church was in a period of penance, preparation and anticipation of the Messiah's birth.   Fasting was observed several times a week.   All of the hymns and prayers reflected this repentance and preparation;   a period of darkness into which the Lumen Christi (the light of Christ) must come.
Scripture readings from the Old Testament and the Gospels matched the season, such as the Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah and Gospel passages about the ministry of John the Baptist preparing the way for Christ.
Hymns included "On Jordan's Bank the Baptists Cry" and "O Come Immanuel" but never a Christmas carol. Christ had not yet arrived.
Then Cometh Christ's Mass
For centuries the Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve was a radical change from the previous four weeks of advent"  this liturgical text became the centerpiece of a number of Baroque and classical compositions.
Christmas itself means Christ's Mass  "the mass celebrated on Christmas Day.   The church was decorated and ablaze with lights.   Colors had shifted from purple to gold and white and the traditional green/red themes.   Much incense was used.   Christ had finally come.   This was a time of great celebration, and hence the use of the word "feast" to designate the day.
Other Christmas Traditions
The Middle Ages saw the beginnings of liturgical dramas (often called "mystery plays") designed to portray Biblical stories surrounding Christmas.   Recall that the majority of the population of Europe at the time was illiterate and so the mystery plays provided a method of teaching Biblical things.   Over the centuries the mystery dramas started to become profane and secular in nature (sound familiar?) and so performances in churches were eventually banned.
Also, manger scenes (or crches as they were called in French) began to appear, and it was a Christmas custom for every family to visit the crche.  Nativity scenes in Italy are the most important part of the holiday, its what the holiday is all about!
The Advent Wreath
The custom of the Advent wreath evolved in northern Europe. The wreath has four candles: three purple and one pink. In some cases, three red and one white candle are used.
One candle is lit on each Sunday of Advent at dinner time and the family sings "O Come Immanuel" prior to the blessing. The third Sunday of Advent is a different color, signifying that while we are still in darkness, there is hope and the light of Christ is coming.
In the western church it was called Gaudate (gow-day-tay) Sunday, meaning we should rejoice, for there is hope.
In America, the tradition has started of adding a white candle in the center on Christmas Day to signify that the light of Christ has come into the world.
The Twelve Days of Christmas
The Twelve Days of Christmas ranks as part of the regular Christmas carol fare. So what are they?   They are the days when Christmas was traditionally observed, between December 25, and January 6. January 6 is the Feast of the Epiphany, when the three Wise Men finally arrived, thus the twelve days when Christmas was celebrated.
Traditionally the Christmas tree went up on December 24 in the evening and came down on January 6.
The Feast of the Holy Innocents is celebrated on December 28th, commemorating the children who were killed in Bethlehem as Herod sought to destroy the messiah/child Jesus.  Jews commemorate this as passover.
Santa Claus
Santa Claus means Holy Claus, short for Ni-cholas.   The word "santo" is "holy" in Latin as well as its descendent tongues, such as Spanish and Italian.   St. Ni-cholas was born in the ancient city of Patara.   As a youth he traveled to Palestine and later became Bishop of Myra.  He was a holy man.   He was imprisoned during the persecution of Christians under Emperor Diocletian and was later attendant at the First Council of Nicea in 325 a.d.
Legend says that St. Ni-cholas showed unusual kindness to the poor and the weak;   oftentimes leaving things for them while they were asleep.   In the Middle Ages he became patron saint of charitable fraternities, children, sailors, as well as patron saint of the City of Moscow, Russia and Greece.   After the Reformation, the legend of St. Ni-cholas died out everywhere except in Holland.   It migrated to the U.S. with Dutch Reformed Christians of Holland living in U.S.
St. Ni-cholas's red outfit was derived from the red colors bishops wear.   The modern version of St. Nick originated in a series of Thomas Nast engravings, which appeared in Harper's Weekly between 1863 and 1886.
Other Traditions
The Night before Christmas was first published in 1822 and picked up widespread popularity and republishing.    During Queen Victoria's reign in England, tree decorating was well under way.    Martin Luther is reported to have been the first person to actually put lights on a Christmas tree. (One can only speculate whose house was the first to burn down as the result of a Christmas tree.)
In 1880, Woolworth's first sold manufactured Christmas tree ornaments and they caught on quickly.
Rudolph, the genetically mutant reindeer, is a latecomer and has absolutely no religious significance whatsoever.   In 1939, Santas at Montgomery Wards gave away 2.4 million copies of a booklet called "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer."    It was written by Robert May, an advertising executive in the store.   In 1949, western singer Gene Autrey did a musical rendition of the poem and it became an overnight best-seller.
Christians today tend to fight the ongoing secularization of their holidays.   Some Christians have rejected anything that is not Biblically ordained.   Others, like Jehovah Witness, Amish, Menonites etc., have tried to go back to keeping the biblically ordained Jewish feasts as their holidays ONLY.   It should be pointed out that the New Testament doesn't really ordain anything other than the Jewish Feast called the Lord's Supper for Christmas.   But the bible does not write that other forms of celebration are prohibited either.   Christians are free to honor in unique ways within the parameters of the ten commandments, if they wish.  Those who choose to keep Christ as the center of Christmas (since it is Christ that we are commemorating) may find it easier to do by understanding the various symbols that have been used to celebrate Christ's birth through the ages,  and using those symbols to commemorate the miracle of the incarnation:   the birth of the messiah/Son of God."