Winter 2022 On Eagle's Wings

SPOTLIGHT

WONDERFUL TIME It’s the Most of the year A HISTORY OF CHRISTMAS

solstice, which date back for centuries. Merging Christmas with these old festivities enabled the church to maintain the winter holiday tradition while pivoting its focus on Christianity. The Early Days of Christmas While holding Christmas at the same time as traditional winter solstice festivals increased the chances that Christmas would be popularly embraced, the ability of church leaders deciding how it was celebrated was compromised. Early celebrations of Christmas combined a mix of pagan and Christian traditions. Believers attended church, then celebrated raucously with activities that might seem more fitting for Halloween these days: lighting bonfires to keep the darkness at bay, performing tricks in exchange for treats, and drunken revelry in the streets. In medieval England, Christmas was a 12- day festival which included hearty feasts, plays and parades celebrating Jesus’ birth. It became commonplace to partake in Christmas decorations, gift-giving andmusic, and even the simplest festivities included singing carols and hymns. However, Christmas became so known for debauchery that the Pilgrims strongly discouraged celebrating it and even prohibited it in some cities when they first came to America. Christmas in early America was a mishmash of practices. Many with Puritan beliefs banned Christmas because of its pagan origins and the unruly nature of the celebrations. Immigrants arriving from Europe carried on with the traditions of their native homes. The Dutch brought Sinterklaas – also known as Santa Claus – with them to New York in the 1600s. The Germans brought their tree traditions in the 1700s. Different communities celebrated Christmas in their own way.

Christmas, the season of joy and giving. Often what comes to mind would be a brightly lit Christmas tree in the living room, plenty of gifts underneath the tree, a sumptuous feast with the family, and perhaps the kids’ favorite Santa Claus. Christmas is both merry and bright. Brimming with tradition and festivity, its hallmarks of good cheer and family fun are recognized and celebrated all over the world. But how did a holiday with religious origins become so widely celebrated globally? Observed on December 25, Christmas is both a religious holiday and a global, cultural and commercial phenomenon. For two thousand years, how people around the world celebrate Christmas has evolved, commemorating it with both religious and secular customs and traditions. Although Christmas marks the birth of Jesus Christ, the spiritual leader of Christianity, no one knows the actual date of his birth. The Bible doesn’t say when he was born, but clues from the Nativity Story – like shepherds guarding the flock outside – hint that it may have been spring, because why would shepherds be herding sheep in winter?

Despite this, when the Catholic Church decided to recognize Jesus’ birth as an official holiday, Pope Julius I chose a date in the deep of winter – December 25. Many historians believe that this date was picked in an effort to adopt and absorb the pagan festivals celebrating the winter

5 THE AMERICAN CLUB SINGAPORE