Christmas Celebration history
We all celebrate Christmas on December 25 as the birthday of our great savior, Jesus Christ. However, very few people know about the history of Christmas celebrations. The Christmas celebration history started nearly 2000 years ago. There are a number of strange facts about Christmas celebrations. For example, many of the traditions and customs, associated with Christmas celebrations, used to exist ages before the birth of Jesus Christ. Decorating trees, gifts exchanging, and Yule log burning were the existing customs of winter festival
The journey from winter festival to Christmas
Many historians and experts support the view that Christmas celebration is actually a modified and improvised form of Winter Festival. There are a number of theories to vouch for the view. According to one theory, the Roman emperor Constantine was the person, who was responsible behind the conversion from Winter festival to the celebrations of the birthday of Jesus Christ. As the emperor converted to Christianity, he wanted to merge the rituals and customs of winter festival and Christmas together. His motto was to motivate both the Christians and the pagans.
According to another theory of Christmas celebration history, Jesus Christ was not at all born in the month of December. The Roman church took the opportunity to replace the pagan celebrations with the celebrations of Christmas. The idea was to diminish the pagan gods.
Who started Christmas celebrations
Christmas refers to ‘Mass of Christ’. The celebrations, which are associated with this festival, are quite different from that of the ancient ages. It is believed that Christmas celebrations originated in the Mesopotamian age. It was more than 4000 years ago, that the Mesopotamians started celebrating New Year. It was a 12-day festival, known as Zagmuth. According to them, there were many Gods, but the festival of Zagmuth was a tribute to their most important God, Marduk. According to the myth, Marduk used to fight with the bad omens in order to start a chaos free winter season. This festival later on took the form of Christmas.
Origin of Christmas gift exchanging tradition
After the Mesopotamians, it was the Romans, who carried forward the legacy of winter festival. They would celebrate a festival of Saturn God in the month of December and it lasted until the first week of January. The festival was known as Saturnalia. During this festival, the Romans used to wash and clean their houses and decorate with trees, candles, and garlands. The Romans also visited the houses of their family and friends during the festival and exchanged gifts. The Christmas tradition of gifts exchanging actually originated from this Roman tradition. This custom of gifts exchanging was practiced as a sign of generating good luck in other’s lives.
Origin of Christmas Yule log burning
In the ancient Scandinavia, there used to be some days, when the sun God would not shine like the usual days. For this reason, they would celebrate the day, when the first sunlight came to their land. The festival was famous as Yuletide. They used to burn a Yule log and they used to sit around the fire in order to enjoy a grand feast with their near and dear ones. The tradition of Yule log burning originated from the festival of Yuletide by the Scandinavians.
Origin of Christmas tree decoration
Like the Yule log burning, the tradition of Christmas tree decoration also originated from the Scandinavians and the Romans. The Scandinavians used to believe that after winter, spring would come. In this belief, they used to tie apples on the branched of trees. The Romans used to decorate the trees with candles during the festival of Saturnalia.
Origin of singing carols during Christmas
The Scandinavians used to sing celebration numbers on the shortest day of the year, Winter Solstice. It was celebrated on December 22. This tradition of singing celebration songs took the form of carols in Christmas.
Last updated on 13/07/2011
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