In the
deepest parts of frozen winters our ancient ancestors watched as day after day
the sun held its place in the sky for shorter and shorter periods. The days of light and warmth grew shorter
while the nights darkness grew longer and longer. For those living further North, towards the Arctic Circle , the sun gave light for only a few hours
each "day".
What we
know today what our ancient ancestors could not know –that there is a 23 ½
degree tilt to the axis of our planet – from a line perpendicular to the path
of its year-long pilgrimage around the sun – which accounts for this season of
darkness. The night of December 21st-
the Winter Solstice - has the longest hours of darkness (for those in the
Northern Hemisphere…) The daylight hours of the days following the winter are
gradually longer and longer until the Summer Solstice when the daylight hours
are at their longest point.
Fearful
that darkness and death would rule over the earth, our ancient pagan ancestors
built sacred fires on hilltops and in holy shrines for the winter
solstice. Roaring prayers of red and
yellow flames begged the gods to bring back the sun. On the winter solstice, they danced about
fires and chanted hymns to the sun's glory; they wanted to awaken the sun, lest
they and all creation die in freezing darkness of an endless winter.
It's
not certain when, exactly, Christmas began to be celebrated as a holy, or
"holiday," though historians suggest that it probably began as a 4th
century replacement for Saturnalia – the Roman festival of the Winter
Solstice. From December 17th through the
24th they would hold a festival to honor Saturn, the god of
agriculture. Business, warfare and
executions were postponed during this festival; gifts were exchanged; slaves
were temporarily set free and seated at the best seats for the festival and
served by their masters. It was a period
of goodwill, perfect peace and happiness.
Another
festival was held about this same time for Mithras – the Persian god of Light
whose birth was celebrated on December 25th.
The
Catholic Church hoped to draw in pagans by subverting their worship of Saturn
and Mithras by replacing the pagan festivals with appropriate Christian
meaning. The birth of Christ was pegged
at December 25th to replace the pagan Mithras and Saturn. And while this may seem like a utilitarian or
merely pragmatic solution to the church's problem with its pagan neighbors,
putting the Christ-Mass or celebration of the birth of the Son of God at the
Winter Solstice makes a certain amount of theological sense.
In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was
God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were
made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life,
and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the
darkness, the darkness has not overcome it. ... The true light that
gives light to every man was coming into the world ... The Word became flesh
and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the
One and Only who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Keep
the light!
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