The approaching of winter season tells us that
Christmas is around the corner as we associate the winter with the
Christmas celebration. The history of Christmas dates back over 4000
years and it tells us that celebration during the winter season were
common, way before the Christ child was born and celebrated as
Christmas on 25th December. In the Western world, the birth of Jesus
Christ has been celebrated as Christmas since 354 AD, replacing an
earlier date of 6th January. The main reason behind Christmas
celebration was to replace the Pagan festival with the Christian
one, which coincided with the pagan rituals of Winter Solstice or "Return
of the Sun". The stories related to Christmas are based chiefly
on the Gospels of Saint Luke and Saint Matthew in the New Testament.
According to Luke, an angel appeared to shepherds outside the town
of Bethlehem and told them of Jesus's birth. Matthew tells how the
wise men, called Magi, followed a bright star that led them to
Jesus.
Fundamentally Christmas celebration is based on the intertwining of
two ethnic patterns, Roman transition rites and Germano-Celtic Yule
(jiuleis) rites-feasting and mortuary practice. Before the Christmas
celebration there were mid-winter festivals in ancient Babylon and
Egypt, and Germanic fertility festivals also took place at this
time. Even the birth of the ancient sun-god Attis in Phrygia was
celebrated on 25th December, as was the birth of the Persian
sun-god, Mithras. As far as the facts are concerned it tells that
Christmas was not celebrated in the early days of the church till
Pope Julius I who choose 25th December as the day for the
celebration of Jesus birth and slowly with passage of time the
practice was adopted by the Christian church in Antioch around 374
and later in Constantinople and in Alexandria. Eventually the
customs and traditions, which were associated with the celebration
of Christmas, were practiced among people. Like the gift giving
which was linked with the presents of the wise men. Trees, which
were decorated with apples, were associated with the biblical Garden
of Eden and the firelight that represented the light of Christ.
