The tradition of celebrating Christmas as a secular family holiday is splendidly illustrated by a number of English “Christmas” carols such as “Here We Come A-Wassailing” or “Deck the Halls.” It can also be seen in the practice of sending Christmas cards, which began in England in the 19th century. It is believed that the nativity was set on December 25th by a Roman bishop around the third century A.D. Christmas is from Christes Maesse, which means Christ Mass. This practice recalls the ancient Christian liturgical notion that the celebration of Christmas, as well as that of Easter and of Pentecost, should last the entire week. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. Since the exact date of Jesus' death is not stated in the Gospels, early Christians sought to calculate it, and arrived at either March 25 or April 6. With the spread of Christianity beyond Europe and North America, the celebration of Christmas was transferred to societies throughout the non-Western world. Some scholars believe the word yule means “revolution” or “wheel,” symbolizing the cyclical return of the sun. Ring in the new year with a Britannica Membership, Contemporary customs in Eastern and Oriental Orthodoxy, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Christmas, Rutgers Today - The Surprising History of Christmas Traditions, Christmas - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11), Christmas - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up), Learn how Christian historian Sextus Africanus and Roman Emperor Constantine I determined Christmas's date, Discover the history of Advent calendars and wreaths. More than one of these; ... Making a wreath. It is referred that during the 4th century, the celebration of Christ's birth on December 25 was gradually adopted by most Eastern churches. It followed Saturnalia, a festival where people feasted and exchanged gifts. The origin of Christmas differs as the precise date of the birth and historicity of Jesus are much debated. Annie Spratt on Unsplash. It is an appropriation of the Roman festival of the birth of Unconquered Sun, celebrated on the day after the winter solstice, or the Roman festival of Saturnalia. … Kari Shea on Unsplash. 7. Japan serves as illustration of a different sort. Updates? Yule, which is also called Winter Solstice, is the longest night of the year and the time of greatest darkness. The festival of Christmas takes place on 25th December, every year to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. The New Testament provides no clues in this regard. A special service of “lessons and carols” intertwines Christmas carols with Scripture readings narrating salvation history from the Fall in the Garden of Eden to the coming of Christ. The early Christian community distinguished between the identification of the date of Jesus’ birth and the liturgical celebration of that event. Fantastic Christmas Recipes from our Ambassadors to make this festive season one to remember! U.S. National Christmas Tree, Washington, D.C. Know about Christmas, a Christian religious holiday, “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (or “ ’Twas the Night Before Christmas”), Donegall Square, Belfast, Northern Ireland, Learn about the tradition of gift-giving during Christmas, Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East. The precise origin of assigning December 25 as the birth date of Jesus is unclear. Lester Hine on Unsplash. $15.00 ... Vintage Christmas Caroler Noel Japan 10" Dickens Cloth Doll Yule #1. The Renaissance humanist Sebastian Brant recorded, in Das Narrenschiff (1494; The Ship of Fools), the custom of placing branches of fir trees in houses. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. However, for those that continue to use the Julian calendar for their liturgical observances, this date corresponds to January 7 on the Gregorian calendar. In ancient Rome, December 25 was a celebration of the Unconquered Sun, marking the return of longer days. The weeklong observance, however, was successively reduced to Christmas day and a single additional holiday on December 26. Though the true origin of Christmas is filled with controversy and compromise, today, Christmas has turned out to be one of the most popular festival that fills joy, happiness and love in people's life. During the Saturnalia, the Roman winter festival, branches of holly were exchanged as tokens of friendship. The secular holiday is often devoid of Christian elements, with the mythical figure Santa Claus playing the pivotal role. Christians and non-Christians participate in some of the most popular Christmas traditions, many of which have no origins in Christianity. Christmas largely remains a Christian holiday and is otherwise not widely observed. This was one reason why Puritans in Old and New England opposed the celebration of Christmas and in both England and America succeeded in banning its observance. In this room, the Christmas tree is paired with a wreath, another decoration that has played a number of roles in ancient European winter holiday traditions. According to tradition, the calendar was created in the 19th century by a Munich housewife who tired of having to answer endlessly when Christmas would come. King Haakon I of Norway rescheduled the date of Yule to coincide with Christian celebrations held at the time. The Christmas Tree In North America the pre-Christmas role of the Christian saint Nicholas was transformed, under the influence of the poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (or “ ’Twas the Night Before Christmas”), into the increasingly central role of Santa Claus as the source of Christmas gifts for the family. The date of 25th December became popular. Please select which sections you would like to print: While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Jólakötturinn, or the Yule Cat is known as a giant, fearsome feline who stalks the snowy countryside on Christmas Eve and devours those who didn't receive new clothing to wear for the holiday. Something else! $22.95. (The Yule candle in Scandinavia, etc.) Yule or Yuletide ("Yule time" or "Yule season") is a festival historically observed by the Germanic peoples.Scholars have connected the original celebrations of Yule to the Wild Hunt, the god Odin, and the pagan Anglo-Saxon Mōdraniht.. Later departing from its pagan roots, Yule underwent Christianised reformulation, resulting in the term Christmastide. This day was adopted by the church as Christmas to counteract the effects of these festivals. None of the contemporary Christmas customs have their origin in theological or liturgical affirmations, and most are of fairly recent date. Author of. Christmas is also celebrated as a secular holiday throughout the world, including countries with small Christian populations like India. Christmas decorations lighting up Donegall Square, Belfast, Northern Ireland. Then, wishing to calculate Jesus' birthday, they followed the ancient idea that Old Testament prophets died either an anniversary of their birth or of their conception. Christmas is a great summer festival in Brazil, including picnics, fireworks, and other festivities as well as a solemn procession of priests to the church to celebrate midnight mass. Various theories of the origin of Christmas exist that give a clear insight into the celebration of Christmas. Christmas did not start in Germany, but many of the holiday’s traditions began there, including decorating trees. The first use of candles on such trees is recorded by a Silesian duchess in 1611. Gifts are exchanged on Christmas Eve in most European countries and on Christmas morning in North America. The Advent wreath—made of fir branches, with four candles denoting the four Sundays of the Advent season—is of even more recent origin, especially in North America. Like other traditions associated with Yule (such as the Yule boar), the custom may ultimately derive from Germanic paganism. The practice of giving gifts, which goes back to the 15th century, contributed to the view that Christmas was a secular holiday focused on family and friends. The date of Christmas is based on the date of Good Friday, the day Jesus died. Since most Eastern Orthodox churches have not accepted either the Gregorian calendar or the Revised Julian Calendar reforms, December 25 will fall on the civil date of January 7 for the years from 1900 to 2099. Vintage Musical Santa Wreath w/Box "Jingle Bells" Holiday Decorations. An analogous custom is the Advent calendar, which provides 24 openings, one to be opened each day beginning December 1. Even though there is some uncertainty about the precise date and origin of the tradition of the Christmas tree, it appears that fir trees decorated with apples were first known in Strasbourg in 1605. The morning of December 25, however, has become the time for the exchange of gifts in North America. Toward the end of the 18th century the practice of giving gifts to family members became well established. The custom, which began in the 19th century but had roots in the 16th, originally involved a fir wreath with 24 candles (the 24 days before Christmas, starting December 1), but the awkwardness of having so many candles on the wreath reduced the number to four. Most of the churches of the Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East celebrate Christmas on December 25; at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, however, the Syriac Orthodox celebrate Christmas on January 6 with the Armenian Apostolic Church. VINTAGE HARD PLASTIC ANGELS SINGING CAROLS CHRISTMAS JAPAN. In this secular Christmas celebration, a mythical figure named Santa Claus plays the pivotal role. Christmas customs in these societies thus often echo Western traditions because the people were exposed to Christianity as a religion and cultural artifact of the West. $14.99 + shipping . Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Omissions? Christmas began to be widely celebrated with a specific liturgy in the 9th century but did not attain the liturgical importance of either Good Friday or Easter, the other two major Christian holidays. When the evening of the 24th became the time for the exchange of gifts, the Christmas mass was set into the late afternoon of that day. Yule/Winter Solstice. Christmas, Christian festival celebrating the birth of Jesus. The German word Weihnachten denotes “hallowed night.” Since the early 20th century, Christmas has also been a secular family holiday, observed by Christians and non-Christians alike, devoid of Christian elements, and marked by an increasingly elaborate exchange of gifts. Christmas, literally meaning the Mass of Christ, is a traditional holiday in the Christian calendar. The first commercial calendars were printed in Germany in 1851. According to one origin theory , wreaths were used in the Scandinavian Yule festival, lit on fire, and rolled down a hill as a means of inciting the sun to return. Holly is the most known Christmas greenery, and there are several legends about it, one is that Jesus' crown was made of holly, and the holly berries represented his blood. In most European countries, gifts are exchanged on Christmas Eve, December 24, in keeping with the notion that the baby Jesus was born on the night of the 24th. Learn about the Christmas traditions of Advent calendars and wreaths. Yule Log - Yule logs were part of ancient winter solstice celebrations, but it was Americans who turned the wood burning into must-see TV. December 25 was first identified as the date of Jesus’ birth by Sextus Julius Africanus in 221 and later became the universally accepted date. The Yule Log was a symbol by which all the men in the family would carry a log large enough to burn for 12 days into the house. In some parts of India the evergreen Christmas tree is replaced by the mango tree or the bamboo tree, and houses are decorated with mango leaves and paper stars. The celebration of Christmas started in Rome about 336, but it did not become a major Christian festival until the 9th century. The corresponding terms in other languages—Navidad in Spanish, Natale in Italian, Noël in French—all probably denote nativity. In some European countries, St. Nicholas appears on his feast day (December 6) bringing modest gifts of candy and other gifts to children. Christmas, Christian festival celebrating the birth of Jesus.The English term Christmas (“mass on Christ’s day”) is of fairly recent origin. The actual observance of the day of Jesus’ birth was long in coming. Numerous Church Fathers offered sarcastic comments about the pagan custom of celebrating birthdays when, in fact, saints and martyrs should be honoured on the days of their martyrdom—their true “birthdays,” from the church’s perspective. Christmas is celebrated by many Christians on December 25 in the Gregorian calendar. For Eastern Orthodox churches that continue to use the Julian calendar for liturgical observances, this date corresponds to January 7 on the Gregorian calendar. Few of them are: Roman festival of Saturnalia In 17th- and 18th-century Europe the modest exchange of gifts took place in the early hours of the 25th when the family returned home from the Christmas mass. December 25th was the birthday of Mithra, the Iranian god of light. In Ethiopia, where Christianity has had a home ever since the 4th century, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church celebrates Christmas on January 7. Wrapping gifts. Roman Catholic churches celebrate the first Christmas mass at midnight, and Protestant churches have increasingly held Christmas candlelight services late on the evening of December 24. Given the importance of Christmas as one of the major Christian feast days, most European countries observe, under Christian influence, December 26 as a second Christmas holiday. The service, inaugurated by E.W. The intense preparation for Christmas that is part of the commercialization of the holiday has blurred the traditional liturgical distinction between Advent and the Christmas season, as can be seen by the placement of Christmas trees in sanctuaries well before December 25. In North America the centrality of the morning of the 25th of December as the time for the family to open presents has led, with the exception of Catholic and some Lutheran and Episcopal churches, to the virtual end of holding church services on that day, a striking illustration of the way societal customs influence liturgical practices. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. While both name and attire—a version of the traditional dress of bishop—of Santa Claus reveal his Christian roots, and his role of querying children about their past behaviour replicates that of St. Nicholas, he is seen as a secular figure. Free shipping . In Mexico, on days leading up to Christmas, the search of Mary and Joseph for a place to stay is reenacted, and children try to break a piñata filled with toys and candy. The festival of Christmas takes place on 25th December, every year to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. The festival of Christmas has absorbed various customs and traditions of world and 25th December has emerged as the most important day for Christians, irrespective of its roots. The Christmas wreath represents everlasting life and God's endless love for us. Corrections? Date of Good Friday Jewish Festival of Lights It is an appropriation by early Christians of a day on which the birth of several pagan gods, Osiris, Jupiter, and Plutus, or the ancient deified leader Nimrod, was celebrated. The church in Rome began celebrating Christmas on December 25 in the 4th century during the reign of Constantine, the first Christian emperor, possibly to weaken pagan traditions. The Encyclopedia Britannica, under “Celastrales,” exposes the origin of the holly wreath: “European pagans brought holly sprays into their homes, offering them to the fairy people of the forests as refuge from the harsh winter weather. These customs include decorating evergreen trees—or, in India, mango or bamboo trees; feasting (picnics and fireworks are popular in warm climates); and exchanging gifts on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning. Girls holding candles and singing in front of a Christmas tree in Seoul. For example, in Armenia, the first country to adopt Christianity as its official religion, the church uses its own calendar; the Armenian Apostolic Church honours January 6 as Christmas. Christmas, literally meaning the Mass of Christ, is a traditional holiday in the Christian calendar. Christmas is celebrated on December 25 in all Christian churches including Eastern Rite, Roman & Protestant. Various Theories Of The origin of Christmas. It is taken as a day that reflects the power, glory and salvation of Jesus Christ and his message of hope to the world. One of the difficulties with this view is that it suggests a nonchalant willingness on the part of the Christian church to appropriate a pagan festival when the early church was so intent on distinguishing itself categorically from pagan beliefs and practices. Moreover, in countries such as Austria and Germany, the connection between the Christian festival and the family holiday is made by identifying the Christ Child as the giver of gifts to the family. For a long time the celebration of Jesus’ birth was observed in conjunction with his baptism, celebrated January 6. December 25, nine months later, then became the date of Jesus’ birth. In South and Central America, unique religious and secular traditions mark the Christmas celebration. Christmas was traditionally a Christian festival celebrating the birth of Jesus, but in the early 20th century, it also became a secular family holiday, observed by Christians and non-Christians alike. Rather than the Advent wreath, the Swedes have the Advent candelabrum. Origin of Christmas. One widespread explanation of the origin of this date is that December 25 was the Christianizing of the dies solis invicti nati (“day of the birth of the unconquered sun”), a popular holiday in the Roman Empire that celebrated the winter solstice as a symbol of the resurgence of the sun, the casting away of winter and the heralding of the rebirth of spring and summer. In many of these countries, Christians are not the majority population, and, therefore, the religious holiday has not become a cultural holiday. Indeed, after December 25 had become widely accepted as the date of Jesus’ birth, Christian writers frequently made the connection between the rebirth of the sun and the birth of the Son. In that predominantly Shintō and Buddhist country, the secular aspects of the holiday—Christmas trees and decorations, even the singing of Christmas songs such as “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” or “White Christmas”—are widely observed instead of the religious aspects. Professor Emeritus of History and Religion, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina. In Jerusalem, opposition to Christmas lasted longer as according to them the exact date of birth of Jesus Christ is unknown. The Origin of Christmas Eve. Theologically, the feast day reminded Christians of God’s gift of Jesus to humankind even as the coming of the Wise Men, or Magi, to Bethlehem suggested that Christmas was somehow related to giving gifts. In Australia, where people attend open-air concerts of Christmas carols and have their Christmas dinner on the beach, Santa Claus wears red swimming trunks as well as a white beard. PRICE DROP!! As the origin of Christmas has been a debatable issue, various theories has been suggested, supporting the date of 25th December as the birth of Jesus. Eastern Orthodox churches honour Christmas on December 25. The earlier term Yule may have derived from the Germanic jōl or the Anglo-Saxon geōl, which referred to the feast of the winter solstice. The Yule log, Yule clog, or Christmas block is a specially selected log burnt on a hearth as a Christmas tradition in regions of Europe, particularly the United Kingdom, and subsequently the Americas.The origin of the folk custom is unclear. Congregations of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria follow the date of December 25 on the Julian calendar, which corresponds to Khiak 29 on the ancient Coptic calendar. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. In particular, during the first two centuries of Christianity there was strong opposition to recognizing birthdays of martyrs or, for that matter, of Jesus. In Jesus' case, they reasoned that he died on an anniversary of the Incarnation so the date of his birth would have been nine months after the date of Good Friday-either December 25 or January 6. The origin of Christmas differs as the precise date of the birth and historicity of Jesus are much debated. Lighting of the U.S. National Christmas Tree, Washington, D.C., 2008. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. The English term Christmas (“mass on Christ’s day”) is of fairly recent origin. Learn why Christmas is celebrated on December 25. The churches of the Oriental Orthodox communion celebrate Christmas variously. It derives from the tradition that Jesus was born during the Jewish Festival of Lights that falls on 25th December. 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