Now that Christmas is over we can reflect for a moment on its meaning. And I am referring not to the classical definition but to a practical observation of what the Christmas period actually produces and how it has changed over many years.
Mankind has celebrated the “rebirth” of the sun in the darkest days of the year for thousands of years. How did they know when the days started to become longer? We don’t know how that all began but we may be sure that they watched the movement of heavenly bodies much more closely than we do today. Some people probably made these observations before the general public became aware of them and thus gained a “priestly” status from their predictions. We do know that perhaps 1000 years BC, many people in the northern hemisphere “celebrated” this change of the seasons with festivals and gifts. Pagan gods began to "have been born" around this time we now would call the third week in December. Eventually Saturn’s "birthday" became dominant and the festivals were often called Saturnalia, and his "birthday" became the main reason for celebration.
Jesus’ birth, according to the Bible is mentioned only in Matthew and Luke. Luke, like Mark, never met Jesus and did not know him personally. They were clearly writing the words told to them by other people, perhaps because Mark and Luke were literate. John apparently, did know Jesus very well but he was illiterate. His work is written some 30 to 40 years after Jesus’ death and is clearly a transcription. Matthew was not only literate, but also wealthy, and apparently knew Jesus very well. His account of the birth is entirely in the beginning of his gospel.
The possibility of jesus having been born on December 25th is very unlikely, and the stories surrounding the birth are illogical. Sheep and shepherds have never been in the fields in December in that part of the world and it would seem doubtful that any census would have been taken during that period because of the difficulty of travel at that time of year. The history of that census has been lost and no record of it has been found. Also no record remains of a star that remained stationary, and there are no independent records of angels appearing to anyone at that supposed time.
Jesus’ birthday was apparently added to the collection of pagan gods who celebrated their birthday around December 25 some time around 200 to 250 years later, and that was documented for the first time about 345 AD. Now that Jesus had been "promoted" to equal status with many pagan gods, religions struggled for dominance. A period of "holy wars" broke out, and they ended in the establishment of Christianity as the major religious force in Europe.
As the Twenty-first Century gets firmly underway, we find another new god moving in on Jesus and claiming priority as the real reason for the celebration of this season. This new entry is the god of corporate commerce. This god does not claim it was born in this season, but this season is the reason for its salvation. Merchants refer to the beginning of the Christmas shopping period as “Black Friday” because for many of them it is the “Christmas sales” that begin to move their yearly ledgers from the “red” side over to the “black”. Meanwhile, commercial preparations for Christmas have moved forward (or backward) in time. Many years ago, the first commercial signs for Christmas began appearing soon after Thanksgiving, then before, then they became visible right after Halloween. Now some of the Christmas advertisements can be seen well before Halloween. But this god is not a jealous god, it will accept Jesus, and pagan gods and other symbols too like Santa and Rudolph and trees brought into houses and decorated as long as it can use them to help push their sales.
So if you want to go to church on Christmas day, that’s fine with this new god, but just don’t take Jesus’ message to heart because that would definitely hurt sales, and of course, you should attend ONLY after you have paid your tribute to the new god.
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