The great spending beano of Christmas is almost upon us and we will check our wallets with more than usual dismay this 2011 “Festive Season”. Before we dive into the conventional materialistic splurge and gorge ourselves sick on shiny and overpriced novelties and on numerous items we certainly do not really need, we are always urgently encouraged to think about the “real meaning of Christmas”.
The conventional supposition is that we should think about that little child in a manger in Bethlehem, surrounded by shepherds, multitudes of the heavenly host and adored by the Magi. He grew up, it is said, to redeem our sins and suffer and die for us and rise again to sit on the right hand of God to judge the quick and the dead. Well, I guess thoughts of this depressing kind are very far from most peoples’ minds at Christmas and anyhow the facts are at variance with the above narrative.
Was Christ born at the start of the Christian era? Er..no, even biblical scholars reckon he was born in about 6-4 BC. Born in December in Bethlehem? Er..no, Bethlehem would be too far a journey from Nazareth (there was no census to attend) and nobody travelled in winter. Witnessed by shepherds, tending their flocks by night? Er..no, the fields would be dormant and empty in December. Multitudes of the heavenly host and gift-bearing Magi present? Er…yes, if you believe credulously any tall tale peddled by 2nd century religious fanatics. The whole Nativity narrative is a myth, set out by Matthew as a realisation of the Jewish prophecies, and embroidered by imaginative Luke – there is no Nativity narrative in Mark and John.
The gospels are a-historical documents, grinding theological axes and are no guide to what actually happened. Personally I am not even convinced Christ ever existed, so I am not impressed by the alleged merits of his subsequent career. I cannot connect with any historical personage unless someone can tell us what he looked like, how tall he was, what his favourite tipple was or whether his boots squeaked, all absent in the case of young Christ J. Before a heavenly thunderbolt shrivels me up, I declare I will observe 21st century European Christmas with every enthusiasm; I am deficient in religious belief, not impervious to religious sentiment.
Christmas is emphatically a secular, not a religious festival in the modern world and the “traditions” of Christmas are relatively recent. The date of 25 December was chosen as it was near enough to the winter solstice – Sol Invicta (the Unconquered Sun) was a popular Roman deity and Yule a powerful Norse god linked to the rebirth of the sun – and it also coincided with the Roman Saturnalia, a popular festival giving some licence to slaves and associated with gift-bearing. In short the Church hi-jacked a long-established mid-winter time of celebration.
Christmas was fitfully observed and relegated well below Easter and Epiphany for about 1,500 years. Slowly it flickered into life with a few carols appearing in the 16th century, including carol singing round the houses, but this was confused in England with cider apple-tree fertility “wassailing” often sung on 12th Night. The move from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar in most countries confused matters further. Christmas music flourished in the 18th century, but it was a sophisticated, metropolitan taste – Bach’s Christmas Oratorio runs for about 3 hours unedited and Handel’s Messiah, (only partly Christmas music), much longer. Although “Adeste Fideles” appeared in the 18th century, “Silent Night” only came in 1820, “Hark the Herald Angels sing” in its current form in 1833 and “Good King Wenceslas” in 1853. The Anglican Church was long sniffy about carols, seeing them as coarse folk songs and not permitting them to be sung in church until the late 19th century. The iconic Festival of the 9 Lessons and Carols was first performed in Kings College Chapel, Cambridge as late as 1918, and was only invented 30 years earlier in remote Truro.
The secular side soon gained strength. New York shop-keepers in 1820, wishing to avoid aping the genial English Father Christmas (Papa Noel etc in Europe) dreamt up Santa Claus from the supposed Dutch saint Sinterklaas. The American poem “The Night before Christmas” appeared anonymously in 1823 but after Dickens published his Scrooge tale in 1843, there was no stopping the commercialisation of Christmas. Dickens popularised the idea of a convivial family Christmas, with hearty helpings of goose for the plebs and turkey for the gentry. The Christmas tree had long been popular in Germanic Europe and Prince Albert delighted Victoria by having a tree in every room in Windsor. An 1848 woodcut showing the royal couple beside a decorated tree sparked off its wide adoption throughout the English-speaking world.
As usual, Christmas had its detractors among the party-pooping Puritans. They said it was all unbiblical and miserable old Cromwell managed to ban Christmas in England during the Commonwealth, earning him well-deserved unpopularity. The blue-nosed Pilgrim Fathers took an equally dim view of Christmas in the American colonies and the dour Scots Presbyterians were not much better, only acknowledging Christmas as a public holiday as late as 1957.
Happily the tide of materialism and conspicuous consumption could not be held back. Today we enjoy an unbridled retail feeding frenzy, with Harvey Nicks, Bloomingdales, Harrods and all global emporia besieged by gift buyers, doing great things for their local economies, and moving a huge stock of goods of debatable intrinsic value. Eateries will thrive mightily with expensive special menus and millions of home kitchens will be producing delicious turkeys, stuffings, trimmings, plum puddings, brandy butter washed down by gallons of stimulating beverages. Enjoy it shamelessly! Dismiss from your mind all hocus-pocus about the Word made Flesh – the main religious news will be the traditional punch-up between the monks of 3 sects at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Forget all that, let the plastic rip, have a great time and then look forward to the January Sales!
SMD
5.12.11
Copyright Sidney Donald 2011
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