The Real Reason for the Season...the history of Christmas and it's icons...

so...i can be serious once in awhile..right?

Christmas, December 25th, by popular belief, is supposed to be the celebration of Jesus Christ's birth. It is supposed to be a "holy" holiday throughout the entire Advent season into the New Year. But when did this all start? Who started it? and Why?

First of all, Christ's birth was no where near December 25th. In fact, the New Testament doesn't even mention when the date was as the date was not important back in the days Jesus and shortly after his death. Biblical scholars have tried to pinpoint the date by several means. One of them is using the New Testament as a historical guide as to who was in power at that time, which was Herod. Also, by calculating back to when the "star of bethlehem" would be prominent in the night sky over that area. Three dates were equated: March 28th, November 18th and September the 11th.

 

Roman pagans celebrated the Saturnalia Festival. it was a festival that ran from December 17th to December 25th. it was a week of debauchery, lechery, and lawlessness. The Roman Emperor lifted the laws of the land and the subjects were allowed to do whatever they wanted without punishment.

 

 

in some roman precincts, they would pick a name by lottery before the festival. that person's name, man or woman, would be labelled an "enemy of the state". for the week of saturnalia they were allowed as much food, wine, and sex as they wanted. Then on December 25th, they were killed, usually poisoned by the fruit of mistletoe. this was the way the romans used to think they would rid themselves of the "bad spirits" in their precinct.

the practice moved ahead later on to include everyone in the lawlessness, gratuitous sex, widespread intoxication, rape. Some of the tamer traditions were going from neighbor to neighbor's home singing in the nude which may be a pre-cursor for how caroling started. also, another precursor to holiday tradition, the Romans used to make human shaped biscuits that they would consume only during this particular time of year. Was this where gingerbread men came from?

 

In 4th century A.D., christians tried to conform Saturnalia into some form of christian celebration and convert the roman pagans into christians. the agreement the church made with the new converts was this: still practice Saturnalia, but the last day, December 25th, is to be kept holy to recognize the Christ's birth who was born to forgive them of their week long debauchery. It was for this reason (the Church meshing Saturnalia with the Christ's Birth) that the Puritans who settled America made Christmas illegal to celebrate in Massachusettes from 1659 to 1681.

 

In 1466, Pope Paul the Second, revitalized the depraved traditions of Saturnalia by forcing Jews to overeat and then run naked in the streets of Rome allowing any Roman christian citizen to do whatever they wanted to them.

 

 

 

n the 1880's Pope Gregory had polish rabbis walk the streets in clown suits during Saturnalia/Christmas. Sometimes this caused anti-semetic riots killing, raping and injuring many jews in those communities.

hat of Christmas Trees?

the Saturnalia cults and the Asheira cults worshipped and decorated trees in the forest. The Church, wanting people out of the forest who were out there fornicating and sacrificing, back into their homes, so they started the tradition of having the tree in their homes.

 

 

 

What is the Significance of Mistletoe?

in Norse mythos, Balder was killed by a mistletoe tipped arrow by his rival Hoder over a woman's heart.

Saturnalia followers would use the mistletoe fruit to poison the sacrifices on Dec. 25th.

the Church used the "kissing under the mistletoe" practice to lighten up the festival orgies going on around them, hoping to quell their followers (converts) to just kissing.

 

 

 

how did the Gift Giving tradition Start?

Pre-Christian Roman Emperor's used to make the most despised Roman citizens give them gifts at the end of Saturnalia (Dec 25th). After the Christians came into Rome, the practice of gift giving was changed to everyone exchanging gifts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus:

Nicholas was born in Turkey. He became the Bishop of Myra and one of the many Bishops in the Council of Nicaea that transcribed the New Testament. It was his belief that the Jews were "the children of Satan who sentenced Jesus to death".

After his death he was given Sainthood. Jesuit followers of St. Nicholas moved his bones to Bari, Italy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The St. Nicholas cult absorbed another cult there who followed a diety known as "Pasqua Epiphania" or "The Grandmother" who was known to deliver gifts to children in their stockings. The St. Nicholas cult picked up this practice and took over her shrine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

as the St. Nicholas cult moved northward, the Norse and Celtic Pagans adopted the St. Nicholas beliefs and melded his image with their god Woden. St. Nicholas shed his mediteranean look, grew a long white beard, wore winter clothing and flew through the night on his flying horse,  on December 6th to deliver gifts to people. After the Catholic Church took back the icon of their Saint, they changed his flight plan to December 24th.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

in 1809, Washinton Irving wrote the book "Knickerbocker History" satirizing Dutch folklore using St. Nicholas' Dutch name "Santa Claus".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

in 1822, Dr. Clement Moore, a college professor, wrote and published a poem influenced from his reading of Knickerbocker History. The poem was "Twas the Night Before Christmas". It was Dr. Moore who created the chimney myth and the 8 tiny reindeer.

  

from the 1860's to the 1880's a Bavarian illustrator for Harper's Weekly, drew cartoons of St. Nick. it was this illustrator that gave Santa his north pole address, his workshop and elves, the nice or naughty list, all of his ideas were sprung from Dr. Moore's poem.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 1931, Coca-Cola hired Swedish commercial artist Haddon Sundblom, to come up with a Coke drinking Santa for their ads. Sundblom modeled his santa after his friend Lou Prentice because he was fat, jolly, and always smiled. Coke executives insisted that Sundblom give Santa a Coca-Cola Red suit. and the rest as they say...is history.

 

Author's Note

when i graduated from college i was depressed about never being able to do a research paper again...fortunately, i realized i don't need no freakin school to tell if i can or can't write one...so i did this for fun...shut up, i know what you're thinking.

Reviews

I found this interestering .... I knew about the three dates!
And few of the thing, but alot I didn't even know! for one the coca-cola!
Thank you for sharing! Adn doing this research!
We slimmed christmas back ... years ago, just as we did with Easter! It's not about how many presents we can get or A bunny!

[KAREN]

I learned some things I didn't even know! Good write and read!

[MuSe Ampoule]

So....Santa...wasn't created by Macys to fit in nicely after their Tom the Turkey float?

I'm so confused.

If nothing else...this shows just how f%cked up history is. I'm always sayin' history is a convenient fiction idealized by those who win wars...but oh, no one listens to me...

LOL, great write...I love reading informative pieces...

[Rick]

I likey :)

Research paper or not -- this is cool stuff.

[Michael of Gilead]

Orgies? did you say orgies?!?!?!?! lets get in the helliday spirit then!

Besides all the made up stuff.....can we rape and kill the jews still? After all they are the children of Satan..or Santa?

[NoneOfYourBusiness akaK..]

ahh the wonderfoUl holiday exposed ~ you done good bringing it down to reality here AntiClaus~ truth is Jesus Christ of Nazareth has nothing to do with the shameless commercialism of Christmas and all those horrific acts commited in his name to commemorate a day that isn't even his natal day~ humans will do anything for a quick buck and to humiliate and slaughter their brethern who are not of like thought~ tsk tsk

[Robin]

awesome my friend, awesome

[.]

very informative. It's interesting how so many traditional and beliefs morph into the period we call Christmas..I like to think that whatever the reasons we have come to celebrate the Birth of Christ.. if we keep the idea pure, a period to show others we care by sharing gifts..the act of giving..the coming together to share a feast..family and friends and we can celebrate the birth of the most enlightened being to ever walk this planet..nice research piece!