Christmas festival is Coming on 25 December Every Year.
The history of Christmas is something to learn, because Christmas as we know is a relatively new phenomenon.
The celebration of Christmas as a joyous commemoration of peace, love and the advent of Jesus Christ has only been in popularly celebrated since about the 1820’s when a book called The Keeping of Christmas at Bracebridge Hall was published by Washington Irving. Published in 1834, by Charles Dickens ‘A Christmas Carol’ further supported the notoriety and popular celebration of the Christmas Holiday. The popularity of this book was so potent that it is still synonymous with Christmas to this day.
Other common signs of the season like the Christmas trees, mistletoe wreathes, lights, and Santa Clause or Father Christmas are even newer in the history of Christmas celebrations. The earliest Christmas traditions were much more religiously oriented and solemn than today’s joyful Christmas parties. Celebrated any time from March to December the earliest Christmas celebrations were passed in fasting, not feasting.
Mesopotamian: New Years
Many of these traditions began with the Mesopotamian celebration of New Years. The Mesopotamians believed in many gods, and as their chief god – Marduk. Each year as winter arrived it was believed that Marduk would do battle with the monsters of chaos. To assist Marduk in his struggle the Mesopotamians held a festival for the New Year. This was Zagmuk, the New Year’s festival that lasted for 12 days.
Persians and Babylonians: Sacaea
The Persians and the Babylonians celebrated a similar festival called the Sacaea. Part of that celebration included the exchanging of places, the slaves would become the masters and the masters were to obey.
Europeans: Winter Solstice
Early Europeans believed in evil spirits, witches, ghosts and trolls. As the Winter Solstice approached, with its long cold nights and short days, many people feared the sun would not return. Special rituals and celebrations were held to welcome back the sun.
Scandinavia: Yuletide
In Scandinavia, during the winter months the sun would disappear for many days. After thirty-five days scouts would be sent to the mountain tops to look for the return of the sun. When the first light was seen the scouts would return with the good news. A great festival would be held, called the Yuletide, and a special feast would be served around a fire burning with the Yule log. Great bonfires would also be lit to celebrate the return of the sun. In some areas people would tie apples to branches of trees to remind themselves that spring and summer would return.
Roman: Saturnalia
The Roman’s celebrated their god Saturn. Their festival was called Saturnalia which began the middle of December and ended January 1st. The celebration would include masquerades in the streets, big festive meals, visiting friends, and the exchange of good-luck gifts called Strenae.
The 25th was not only sacred to the Romans but also the Persians whose religion Mithraism was one of Christianity’s main rivals at that time. The Church eventually was successful in taking the merriment, lights, and gifts from the Saturanilia festival and bringing them to the celebration of Christmas.
