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Oh, Christmas!

By Brishti Bandyopadhyay; Illustrations by Shinod A.P.

Did you know that the celebrations at Christmas might have nothing to do with the birth of Christ? In fact they may well lie in a feast called Sacaea that was celebrated thousands of years before Christ's birth. Over 4000 years ago, in the region that is now Iraq, a five-day festival with the exchanges of gifts, the staging of plays, accompanied by merry making and processions, marked the end of winter and ushered in the New Year.

Origins

The beliefs spread from the East to central Europe to further north along the Baltic. Most of them centred around seasonal changes and the growing and harvesting of crops. People lit bonfires to revive a dying sun and decorated their homes with evergreen plants like holly and firs to remind themselves that not all was lifeless in the chill of winter.

All this combined with rituals followed in Scandinavia, that honoured local gods Odin and Thor, were later incorporated as Christmas rituals. But perhaps the most important festival to influence Christmas was the weeklong pagan ('unchristian') celebrations known as Saturnalia, celebrated by the Romans.

Saturnalia was held in mid December, during the winter solstice or the turning point of the year, when it is the shortest day and the longest night. This day was marked by a sacred festival called the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun and was celebrated with general rejoicing.

No precise date is known for the birth of Christ who was born over two thousand years ago. January 6, believed to mark Christ's baptism, was widely observed as Christmas Day in the beginning. The first mention of December 25 as the birth date of Jesus occurred in 325 A.D. in an early Roman calendar. It could have been the date of the Saturnalia celebrations.

Growth of Christianity

The Roman Empire adopted Christianity as the official religion in 300 A.D. By 1100 A.D., Christianity had become the most important religion in Europe. Throughout the Middle Ages, Christmas was seen by noblemen and their attendants as an opportunity to feast and generally have a rollicking time. The good times lasted until the Reformation, a religious movement in the 1500s.

During the Reformation, Christians in Europe broke away from the Catholic Church at Rome. The largest of the breakaway sects was that of the Protestants. These groups began to consider Christmas a pagan celebration due to the non-religious customs that it included. These sentiments caused Christmas to be outlawed in England and in those parts of America where people from England were settling down during the 1600's.

But gradually the old customs of feasting and decorating soon reappeared and in time blended with the ritualistic part of Christmas celebration.

Flavours of Christmas

Are you curious about the feasting part? The preparation of special food items is an important part of Christmas celebrations throughout the world. There's the christmas cake, for example. From roasting boars, pigs and peacocks over large open fires in the early Christmas days to roasting turkey in the oven today, Christmas delicacies have come a long way.

Plum pudding is an English dish dating back to the Middle Ages. Suet, flour, sugar, raisins, nuts, and spices are tied loosely in cloth and boiled until the ingredients are 'plum', meaning they have enlarged enough to fill the cloth. It is then unwrapped, sliced like cake, and topped with cream.

Popular beverages served during especially at Christmas time include eggnog in the United States, a hot spicy drink called wassail in England and grog, a hot punch made with spices, liquors, raisins and nuts.