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Is Christmas Really Christian

All this talk about Christmas and keeping Christ in Christmas got me wondering: Is Christmas a Christian thing or of Pagan origin? Turns out, it's both.

I started looking into the meaning and origin of the word Christmas. I enjoy looking at the meaning and origins of words. It brings life to the word and helps me understand it better. Christmas derived from the Old English word Cristemaesse which literally means, "Christ's mass." If you want to go even deeper, Crist (Cristes) is from the Greek Khristos which is a translation of the Hebrew Masiah (Messiah) meaning "anointed." If I have royally confused you, hold tight. I haven't even gotten started yet.

The first Christmas celebrated took place around the middle of 4th century Rome. Romans had been celebrating Saturnalia (think a festival celebrating the winter soltice/return of the sun) around the time we celebrate Christmas present-day. The thought here was to incorporate a Christian holiday alongside a pagan holiday. By the 5th century, Rome created a mandate to keep the festival honoring Christ throughout the empire.

The date, December 25th, has many stories and theories. One theory stated that this date was chosen because it was believed Mary conceived Jesus around March 25th thus December 25th being nine months later. There is some Scripture that kind of supports this but there is nothing directly stated in the Bible that associates Christ's birth with December 25th. Many who dispute this date claim Christ was born in the early fall due to Scripture accounts of the shepherds and when they would be out in their fields. January 6th was another widely debated date and also coincided with other pagan festivities. The 12 days of Christmas comes from the time between December 25th-January 6th.

Let's talk stuff. How do all the decorations, gift giving, lights, and Christmas trees align with Scripture?Well, they do not. These are all symbols that Christians use to represent their faith. For instance, holly is thought to represent the crown of thorns. The thorns on holly represent the crown and the berries the blood shed by Christ. Many use ivy to decorate for the holiday. The heart-shaped leaves are thought to symbolize Jesus' coming to earth. The color red is thought to represent the blood of Christ while green represents eternal life (specifically the evergreen tree that does not lose its leaves in the winter). Gold is thought to symbolize the gift of gold the magi (or wise men) brought to Jesus after his birth. We all know about Santa Claus, aka Saint Nicolas. There was an actual feast to celebrate his work on December 6th. I did not dig deeper to find out how his generous work helping children and giving gifts eventually coincided with Christmas.

So, where does this leave us? I feel like we like to keep secular things all tidy in their corner and Christian things all neat on their side. The moment the two cross, things get messy and that makes us uncomfortable. Really uncomfortable. However, it looks like the two co-mingle and dare I say, that may not be a bad thing.

One of the articles I read (because I like to look at things from all perspectives) completely debunked Christmas as a Christian holiday. The author was a Christian writer writing for a Christian magazine. There was substantial Scripture where I could see the interpretation to show that we get off course when it comes to Christmas actually being a Christian holiday. There are many things about Christmas that are not Christ-honoring and do not adhere to His Word. We, as believers, need to be aware of this and careful how we celebrate our Saviors birth. We need to remember that these are all symbols and traditions and in no way effect our salvation nor are they stated specifically in Scripture.


The one thing that surprised me in all my digging around was that there are so many places that celebrate Christmas where Christianity isn't celebrated. While the commercialism of Christmas is not my thing nor is it the true meaning of Christmas, I feel like Christmas being celebrated in countries that have a minority Christian population is a good thing. Just like the infamous red cup, if we can get people talking about Christ, then that's a great place to start.


Love & Blessings,
Meg

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