“Merry Christmas and a happy New Year” is the common phrase I hear during the last few weeks of the year. The latter is still heard during the first month of the following year. Whether you celebrate this holiday or not, Christmastime is known for the time of gift giving, setting up your Christmas displays outside your home, or dressing up like Santa or his elves. Let’s not forget about the radio and TV programs that air their Christmas related shows and songs. During this time of year, businesses also make their biggest profit. Yet the question still remains, why celebrate this holiday? Is Christmas the time for gift giving and gathering together with family and friends before the New Year or is it something more?
According to a front-page story in the December 1992 Chicago Tribune, the Christmas holiday that Christians now complain is being co-opted by commercialism traces back to the roots in a pagan festival taken over by Christianity. This festival was known as the Saturnalia, a celebration held during mid-December dedicated to Saturn, the god of agriculture, and to the renewed power of the sun. This celebration involved gift giving and the burning of candles.
Today, Christmas is said to be Christ’s birthday. Yet in the scriptures at Ezra 10:9, 13, Ezra showed that the months of December/January were the time of cold and rainy weather. Also in this account, the people themselves mentioned that it was not possible to stand outside. At Luke 2:8-12, the shepherds were “living out doors and keeping watch in the night over their flocks” near Bethlehem. Never in God’s Word did it say when Jesus was born; however, it specifically tells us when he died, emphasizing Jesus’ ministry and the reason to commemorate his death.
In its roots, Christmas is more than just the worshiping of a Sun god. It is a birthday celebration, which too can be traced back to pre-Christian times. I’ve heard the phrase “Killing two birds with one stone.” As a holiday, Christmas fits this idiom.
The World Book Encyclopedia mentions that early Christians considered the celebration of anyone’s birth to be a pagan custom. New Year’s, though, is not so much a celebration of a birth but can be traced back to the celebration of Janus, the god of gates, doors, and beginnings.
Nowadays, people look into these holidays and may say, “Many of the world’s holidays today can be traced back to paganism.” The question is, “Does it honor the Creator?” Some people see Christmastime as a way to draw closer to their families. Ephesians 5:10 tells us to “Keep on making sure of what is acceptable to the Lord.”
There are many other ways to draw closer to your loved ones in ways God approves. Furthermore, why wait till the end of the year to practice giving when the apostle Paul urges, at Acts 20:35: “I have exhibited to YOU in all things that by thus laboring YOU must assist those who are weak, and must bear in mind the words of the Lord Jesus, when he himself said, ‘There is more happiness in giving than there is in receiving.'”
I leave this on a positive note. Unfortunately, there are some who overlook this reason and may scoff at me for not following the holiday norm. I don’t remember the last time some one called me “Scrooge,” but I know its coming. Yes, I’ve seen the movie long time ago, and they play that annoying movie every year.
How about the three Christmas spirits that were supposed to haunt the dreams of those alleged Scrooges? The last ghost seemed like Freddy Krueger, who felt pity for his terrified victim and left him alone.
Fortunately, that’s all petty superstition to scare those deep with its grasp. Scrooge was known for his infamous catch phrase, “Bah, Humbug!” I’d replace that last word with “Pagan!” and if ridiculed for my article exposing Christmas’s pagan tradition, I might just add, “You hypocrite!”
I remember a song whose chorus was, “If you believe in things you don’t understand, then you suffer. Superstition ain’t the way.” This fact no doubt is sad but true.