A Glance at the Evolution of Christmas Celebration

By Matthew Eloyi

Christmas is a Christian festival that celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ and includes various Christian, pre-Christian and secular activities. The progression of Christmas into the festivity we know and celebrate today is somewhat convoluted.

The Christmas we now celebrate on the 25^th of every December has evolved over many centuries from different points of origin.  Many myths, traditions and legends from different cultures entwined to form what we know as Christmas today. With the growing globalization, commercialism, modern media and the internet, Christmas will continue to expand and evolve either for good or bad.

Though Christmas is seemingly a Christian celebration commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, many of the customs and rituals come from other traditions, both spiritual and secular. Christmas festivities were first chronicled in Ancient Rome in the fourth century. The celebrations were placed in December, during the time of the northern winter solstice.

It is easy to identify the similarities between our modern Christmas rituals and the Roman festival of Saturnalia, which was also celebrated in December and co-occurred with Christian faith for a period of time. Saturnalia prioritized the sharing of food and drink, and spending time with loved ones on the arrival of the colder winter period. There is even substantiation that the Romans exchanged little gifts of food to mark the event.

As Christianity spread wider in the Roman world and the old polytheistic religion was left behind, we can see the traditional stamp of Saturnalia customs in the conducts in which our famous Christmas celebrations established themselves across the board.

Viewing from the Germanic-Scandinavian perspective also provides enthralling connections. In the Norse belief, Yule was a winter carnival celebrated during the period we now rather associate with December. The commencement of Yule was noticeable by the arrival of the Wild Hunt, a transcendent event when the Norse god, ‘Odin’ would ride across the sky on his eight-legged white horse. While the hunt was a scary sight to behold, it was also a source of excitement for families, and especially children, as Odin was known for leaving little gifts at each household as he rode past. Similar to the Roman Saturnalia, Yule was a period of drawing in for the winter months, during which abundant amounts of food and drink would be consumed. The Yule merriments incorporated bringing tree branches inside the home and embellishing them with food and jewelries, which opened the way for the Christmas tree we know today. The idea of gift-giving also shows the apparent similarities between Odin and Santa Claus.

In most countries, especially in Europe, exchange of gifts is carried out on the eve of Christmas (December 24), in line with the belief that the baby (Jesus) was born on the night of the 24th. However, the morning of December 25 has become the time when people exchange gifts in North America. As the sunset of December 24 became the time for exchange of gift, the Christmas mass was shifted to late afternoon of that day. In North America, the significance of the morning of the 25th of December as the time for the family to open presents has led, with the exclusion of Catholic and some Lutheran and Episcopal churches, to the virtual end of holding church services on that day, a prominent example of the way societal customs sway liturgical practices.

Bearing in mind the prominence of Christmas as one of the major Christian celebrations, most European countries observe December 26 as a second Christmas holiday. This practice brings to mind, the primordial Christian liturgical belief that the celebration of Christmas, as well as that of Easter and of Pentecost, should last the entire week. However, the weeklong compliance was subsequently abridged to Christmas Day (December 25) and an additional holiday on December 26.