Christmas 2011

The Christmas Tree - a pagan ritual or pious belief ?

Towards the end of the calendar year, the Christmas celebration occurs annually on December 25, an event which has variable practices stretching from the exchange of goodwill and a generous spirit of sharing to the rampant purchase of consumer goods, the hanging of an array of gaudy decorations and the profligate display of inflated images of Saint Nicholas (named Santa Claus), a sled with some reindeer. Generally the event is recognised  as a religious and cultural holiday across the globe. Christmas however at its origin remains a feast central to the Christian liturigical year, closing the Advent season and initiating the twelve days of Christmastide. 

The precise day of the birth of Jesus is unknown occuring somewhere between the 7th and 2nd Century BC however in the early-to-mid 4th century AD, the Western Christian Church placed Christmas on December 25, a date which was also adopted later by the Eastern Church. Since then however a number of additional practices has been added including the display of a Christmas tree, considered by some religious scholars as the adoption of a pagan tradition and ritual surrounding the Winter Solstice. This involved the use of evergreen boughs with the adaptation of pagan tree worship. The figure of Santa Claus is also partly pagan as the current form is a combination of Saint Nicholas of Myra (a 4th Century Greek Christian Bishop) and Odin, the Norse God whom was also worshipped in Northern Europe including Germany and Holland. At any rate, the value of Christmas is the annual pause in the transactions of life, the focus on others and the end of year reflection whether this occurs through religious worship or the provision of a civil holiday and recreational rest.