The Origins of Christmas
by Since man began cultivating the earth, he has followed the path of the sun all year, because he depended upon it for food, warmth and well-being. The seasons also determined the timing of festivals. Since the dawn of time, rituals and sacrifices were made when the sun reached significant points in its orbit, namely the summer and winter solstices.
It became a festival, which was characterized by wastage. There were enormous tables around which people ate and often drank to excess, people danced and played. Cards were particularly fashionable. In England this was only allowed during the Christmas period.
Plays were very popular in Europe. They were rather crude, very lively and full of double entendres and often drew from the pagan traditions and rites. Instead of prohibiting these practices formally, the Church tried to counter them with tableaux of scenes of the birth of Christ taken from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. These living crèches were the forerunners of the nativity plays and cribs we have today.
They were especially popular at the time in the Alps regions. The Christmas crib scenes of Provence result directly from this tradition and appeared in the 18th century leading, first in France, then to all cribs. The characters were originally made of dried bread crumbs then painted with oil paints and varnished.
Little by little the festival became the symbol of the extravagance that the puritans disapproved of. In Scotland the Presbyterians prohibited Christmas in 1583. The English puritans ended Christmas at the time of the civil war in 1642. People had to work on Christmas Day as if it was an ordinary day. But people continued to celebrate Christmas within the family. When Charles returned to the throne he brought back Christmas. However, people had got used to celebrating Christmas much more discreetly and the traditions became similar to those which we keep today. Even in the catholic countries like Italy and France, where the puritans didn’t have much influence, Christmas became a time to spend with the family.
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the tradition of exchanging presents at Christmas or New Year gifts and giving money to tradesmen on Boxing Day started to spread. Christmas presents are doubtless a symbol of the gifts given by the Three Wise Men to Jesus. Even in the reign of Cesar, the officials gave gifts to the people at the beginning of each year and even slaves received presents from their masters. Before Jesus, each home offered sacrifices to gods at the Winter Solstice, so that they would protect the house from evil spirits and to ask for good crops.
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