Nick's New Age Christmas

[Guest guest]

Well, here's the story of Christmas in short (pardon my misspellings),

mostly based on "Christmas Unwrapped," a documentary on the History Channel:

 

Pre-Christian Yuletide celebrations:

 

Centuries before the birth of Jesus, Europeans were celebrating life and

light during the darkest and coldest time of the year. In the Norse

countries, this celebration was known as "Yule." They burned a huge Yule log,

and they used evergreens (whose "leaves" survive the winter) to decorate

their homes. The Yule log burned for twelve days, during which feasting

(usually on meat, since animals had to be slaughtered because they didn't

have enough food to keep them alive through the winter) and drinking and

carousing took place. It was a huge party in defiance of the cold and dark

that permeated the season.

The Pagan God Oden (Germany) was believed to soar through the skies and

decide who would prosper and who wouldn't. (Later adapted to the Santa Claus

myth.)

Romans: They celebrated Saturnalia, a month long orgy of food and drink

in honor of the God Saturn. These wild celebrations turned the social order

upside down. Junvenalia, another Roman celebration at this time, celebrated

children. (This would later become a large part of Christmas celebrations.)

Upper class Romans: They worshiped Mithra, the God of the Unconquerable

Sun, who was born on Dec. 25. He was born of a rock, and shepherds came to

worship him as an infant God. (These stories came into Christian tradition.)

Christianity takes root:

Christianity takes hold in the centuries following the crucifixion, but it is

the resurrection that is celebrated, not his birth of Jesus. In the 4th

century, Christians begin to celebrate his birth. Scholars believe that

Jesus was born in the spring, but Christians adopted Dec. 25 (in the 4th

century) to co-opt the pagan celebrations. The church also adopted many of

the traditions of pagan Europe-- the traditional evergreens were decorated

with apples to symbolize the garden of Eden (which later would become

ornaments on the Christmas tree). The holly and the ivy were transformed into

a symbol of Christ's crown of thorns. The raucous and rowdy aspects of the

pagan holidays continued, but Christians didn't mind if people paid lip

service to being Christians.

 

Middle Ages:

Christianity had supplanted pagan religions. Christ's mass, Christmas, was

celebrated in large cathedrals. In the streets, however, it was still a

rowdy party with drinking and carnival-like aspects. Class distinctions were

reversed and power roles switched during that time.

Early 1600s in England: Oliver Cromwell led a wave of religious Puritanism.

They overthrew the monarchy and outlawed Christmas. They forced stores to

stay open and churches to stay closed on Christmas. The holiday was driven

underground, but still celebrated.

Later, the monarchy was restored with Charles ll, and Christmas was restored

complete with the partying aspect.

 

America: The settlers in America were mostly Puritans, and they outlawed and

punished anyone who celebrated Christmas. However, as in England, the

celebrations went underground. Sex continued to be a big part of the

celebrations, and the conception of children continued to increase during

this time. Celebrants in Virginia were the first to drink eggnog, meaning a

drink made with rum.

 

America after independence: There was a rebellion against British customs,

including Christmas observances and parties. Congress began to hold session

on Christmas in 1789, and did so for the next 67 years.

 

Holidays in America: There were no holidays in America because the previous

ones had been mandated by Britain, and people began to wonder how to start

populating the calendar with holidays. In the early 1800s, Christmas was one

of the first holidays to begin to be celebrated.

 

New York City: In the 1820s, New York was the center of American commerce,

and the upper and middle classes began to grow, along with those who were

unemployed. The rowdy celebrating of the poor became a time for gang

rioting. The first police force was instituted in 1828 to control these

riots.

1819: Writer Washington Irving, America's best selling novelist, writes

"Brace Bridge Hall," a series of stories written to instruct the various

classes to get along during the holidays.

1843: England's Charles Dickens writes "A Christmas Carol", a story about

religious conversion that shamed the upper classes back into celebrating

Christmas (which many had renounced), and also reminds them of their economic

obligations to their employees and the poor. It had a huge influence on

Britain and America and affected Victorian attitudes. The story transferred

to the stage and to movies, and continues to be a powerful reminder of

spirituality.

 

1800s in America: Americans begin to rediscover Christmas after 200 years of

Puritan disapproval, and begin to celebrate it openly but without the rowdy

aspects. Family structures changed dramatically from the 1700s to the 1800s.

In the 1700s, children were raised almost solely to be productive workers,

but in the 1800s parents started becoming interested in the emotional

development of children. As a result, Christmas became a time for lavishing

attention on children, something that used to be frowned upon.

 

The Christmas Tree:

In 1840, there was a royal marriage between Victoria, Queen of England, and

Prince Albert of Germany (her cousin). Albert brought the tradition of the

Christmas tree to England. Within 10 years, the tradition spread to all of

England and America. Pointsetta: In 1828, J. R. Pointsette brought the

now-traditional plant to America from Mexico.

 

The Christmas Card:

In 1843, an English firm begins to print Christmas cards, and the newly

developed efficient postal service made the cards an overnight sensation in

both England and America.

 

Mistletoe.

The tradition of kissing any lady under the mistletoe, at a time when any

touch was frowned upon by the Victorians, was the only remaining aspect of

earlier rowdy celebrations.

 

Christmas in Churches:

In America, which was largely Protestant, the celebration of Christmas

permeated the entire culture in the mid 1800s, except in the church where it

was frowned upon. However, as Protestants began to go to Catholic and

Episcopal churches to attend Christmas services, the Protestant ministers

were forced by popular demand to develop a service to celebrate the holiday.

 

Santa Claus (Saint Nick):

St. Nicholas was an austere Turkish Bishop, a popular saint of the Middle

Ages, who was celebrated on Dec. 6. Children who were good were given gifts

on this day, while bad children were not. The Dutch called him Sinter

Klause, and when they came to America they brought tales of their gift-giving

saint.

In 1822, and Episcopal minister (Clement C. Moore) wrote "A Visit From St.

Nicholas" (Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house...),

which added the concept of reindeer to the story of Santa Claus.

In 1863, a cartoonist developed the definitive image of Santa-- a rotund

jolly man fashioned after the robber barons of the late 1800s. However,

Santa was a robber baron in reverse, giving away his hordes to make all

happy. Retailers adopted the image of Santa Clause to help colour the

commercial aspect of Christmas into a religious activity.

1939: Robert May writes "Rudolf The Red Nose Reindeer," about an ostracized

reindeer, and he becomes a sidekick character to Santa Clause and is

immortalized in many songs.

 

1950-60s, America. The debate about Christmas being "commercialized" begins

to be raised. This is personified best by the 1965 cartoon "A Charlie Brown

Christmas" where Charlie Brown seeks out the meaning of Christmas. However,

the argument doesn't return Christmas do its "Christian roots" because the

holiday's roots are pre-Christian. And even after being adapted by

Christianity, it always had a mixture of secular and religious elements. So

churches and shopping malls continue to celebrate the season with joy and

abandon. The American reinvention of Christmas spreads throughout the West.

 

Traditional Songs and Movies:

It's a Wonderful Life

Scrooge (A Christmas Carol) (Alister Sims version)

The Christmas Song

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (from the film "Meet Me in St. Louis")

White Christmas

A Charlie Brown Christmas

 

Many of these films touch on both religious (myth, charity, ethics, etc) and

secular issues (economic issues, romance, weather, etc) relevant to the

culture at the time they were written. This complex mixture merely reflects

the struggle between religious ideals and wordly realities, but in reality

these two are always intermingled..

 

Nick's New Age Christmas:

My introduction to yoga philosophy was through Yogananda and Ram Dass, both

of whom freely borrowed from other religious traditions. Yogananda often

interpreted Christian ideas in the light of yoga, while Ram Dass was

synthesizing ideas from many religions into his own style of hippie

spirituality.

One of the first Hindu temples I studied at was the Vedanta Temple in

Chicago, and they celebrated Christmas in typical American style-- complete

with hymns, tree, and presents. They had no problem with the concept of the

incarnation-- in fact, like many good Hindus they thought "the more of them

the better!" I was always impressed by the fact that they had pictures of

Jesus and Buddha along with Hindu images on their temple altar, and they

avidly studied mystics in other traditions. They would even invite scholars

to lecture on other religions for their Sunday services. (Exclusivism and

eternal damnation based on religious affiliation were not part of their

spiritual worldview.) Their bookstore was more like a library of mystical

thought. They actually believed that there were enlightened saints in all

religions. So celebrate, and enjoy. ==- om==- Nick