- by Alex Jones -
When I was a kid, we celebrated Christmas by
opening gifts on morning of the 25th of December. I never questioned
this, and it seemed the most natural thing to do considering everyone around me
did the same thing and this was marked on our calendars as ‘Christmas Day’. But
I later learnt that for many Christians, families have their biggest
celebration on the 24th of December. I was even more shocked to
learn later that depending on which branch of Christianity is most prevalent
where you are, you may celebrate on January 6, 7, 18 or 19!
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| Christmas lights and the Nativity Church |
Incidentally, he crosses the West Bank barrier
through a special gate, build expressly for this purpose, and his procession recently
has been greeted much less warmly by Palestinian locals. The church has recently
been ‘forced to liquidate some assets’. Read: selling a large quantity of land in
prime strategic locations to Jewish settlers. Much of the land was originally sold
by Palestinians to the church assuming they would keep it safe and a lot of
locals feel betrayed that it is now in the hands of settlement movements
considered illegal by the international community.
But why do we celebrate Christmas on this date
at all? Nowhere in the Bible does it say that Jesus was born on this date, or
even that he was born in winter. In fact, it seems unlikely considering the
shepherds were sleeping in the fields while their flocks grazed under the
chilly December skies. You can visit the Shepherds’ Fields church on our
Bethlehem tour which is said to have been built on the spot where this happened
and anyone who has been there with us recently knows it’s not an ideal place to
camp out in mid-winter!
One theory is that when Constantine converted
to Christianity in 313, his subjects throughout the Roman Empire were expected
to follow suit. It must have been hard to take away their beloved Pagan shrines,
festivals and traditions and so many of the Christian equivalents were adapted and
put on top. One of the largest festivals was Saturnalia, which honoured the god
Saturn. It was held on 17 December of the Julian calendar and later expanded
with festivities through to 23 December. One theory is that Christmas was celebrated
on the evening of the 24th or the 25th to compensate for
banning Saturnalia.
Another theory suggests an astrological metaphor.
The night of the 21st-22nd is the shortest of the year,
known as the winter solstice. For two more nights the sun rises only an imperceptible
amount to an ancient astronomer, and the third night, from the 24th
to the 25th, is the first when many believed it rose again. This is
of course symbolic of Christ’s crucifixion, death and resurrection three days
later and may have been why the 25th was chosen as the date to
celebrate Christmas.
But this doesn’t account for the date discrepancies
between the various Churches. It is true that many Orthodox countries like
Russia used the Julian, rather than the Gregorian calendar, which are about a
week apart from one another. But even if the name of the day is different, an
event in the sky still takes place on the same moment everywhere on the planet!
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| Assyrian Orthodox Church in Bethlehem |
Whatever the reason, it does give open-minded
pilgrims, and cities like Bethlehem, an excuse to celebrate one event for
nearly a month! If you missed the first two Christmases in Bethlehem, all is not
lost, because the Armenian Christmas rounds the festivities out, on January 18.
This is because unique to the Armenians in the Holy Land, they still follow the Julian, rather than the Gregorian, calendar. And of course, Bethlehem is a great city to visit year-round, Christmas time or
not.
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December 21st is the winter solstice. Equinoxs occur only in March and September.
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