Four Calling Birds

Written By Jonathan Krogh

Dear Christmas Celebrators:

Closing out the Christmas season and its twelve days, I want to take one quick look as to how the church determined that December 25 was the magical day of Christ’s birth. Like so many who had taken high school Latin, I was taught that the Christian community was bummed out during winter solstice because the Romans celebrated the occasion with bacchanalian debauchery in a festival called Saturnalia. The party was named for and recognized Saturn, god of agriculture, wealth and the mythical "Golden Age" and called for gift giving, singing, drinking—pretty much everything we associate with a 1950s office party. Christians, it was said, looked on with envy because they were prohibited from sharing in the raunchier traditions, as Christianity was the place where fun went to die. By the fourth century, with the nationalization of Christianity under Emperor Constantine, Christmas completely supplanted Saturnalia, and the pagan festival gave way to the celebration of Jesus’ birthday. At least that was what I learned in Latin class; turns out, it’s wrong.

To begin with, the winter solstice is consistently two to five days prior to December 25, and there is no reference to Christians celebrating any commemoration of Jesus’ birthday well into the third century. While Matthew and Luke do have nativity references, there is no mention of Jesus' birth in Mark, John or any of Paul’s writing. Nowhere in the first two centuries of Christian writing is there found any commendation for Christians to observe Jesus’ birthday; in fact, it was the other end of Jesus’ life that Christians obsessively commemorated. All four Gospels provide detailed recollection of Jesus’ final hours, and even the communion liturgy commended by Paul in 1 Corinthians 11.26 observes, “For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”  It was the calculation of Jesus’ death that worked its way around to eventually determining his birthday.

We know from biblical references that Jesus was crucified during the Passover feast. John in his Gospel says that Jesus dies as the Passover lambs are being sacrificed. This would have occurred on the 14th of the Hebrew month of Nisan, just before the Jewish holiday began at sundown (considered the beginning of the 15th day because in the Hebrew calendar, days begin at sundown). A quick comparison of calendars determined the date on which Jesus died. A peculiar Roman tradition held that famous people were conceived and died on the same day. Jesus’ death coordinated as the 25th day of March—if timing tradition held, that was also the date of the Annunciation, when the angel appeared to Mary. Nine months later is December 25—Who knew? Jesus was born on Christmas Day!

By the fourth century, Western Christianity had permanently anchored Christmas as December 25, with Eastern churches firmly planting the day as January 6, owing to variant calendar calculations. The Western church acknowledged January 6 as the feast of the Epiphany, and as a compromise of unity, the span from 12/25 to 1/6 became known as the twelve days of Christmas, annually costing true loves hundreds of dollars ever since.

However you celebrated this year, I hope your Christmas was merry and that you continue the celebration all year. Wishing you also a Happy New Year, I remain,

With Love,
Jonathan Krogh
Your Pastor

Jonathan Krogh
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Christmas Memory Both Hot and Cold