Taking the Christ out of Christmas!

        Everyone loves Christmas. It’s celebrated in over 160 countries worldwide. Think about that. Christmas is a National Holiday in something close to 90% of the countries in the world.  It’s a testament to the hard work of centuries of Christian missionaries. Dozens of the “Christmas-countries” are in the southern hemisphere where December is in mid-summer. In my travels I have seen Santas in African malls and on Brazilian beaches. As far as holidays go, Christmas is king.

         So it’s no surprise that many Atheists also love Christmas. How could they not? Atheists have warm-fuzzy feelings too, you know. But is it ok to be Atheists and still love Jesus’ birthday? Or is Christmas reserved for the Christians?

         Despite the name: Christmas- the holiday has little to do with Jesus. I think it’s fair to say that many of the customs are religious in nature, but it turns out that it is an entirely different religion.

         In fact, it’s the Druids who get to claim Christmas as their own.  Before Christmas was called Christmas, Winter Solstice (the shortest day of the year) was a time to honor Pagan gods. The priests would decorate trees with astronomical objects and hang small gifts on the branches. These presents were offerings to the Yule tree.

         For the next twelve days they would burn the Yule log, sing songs, and collect mistletoe. Yes, even our Christmas songs are populated with Pagan imagery. The Santa story may even have Druid roots. Druids called little forest people who lived in nature elves and they also associated reindeer with the Horned God.

        

But even if we take trees, presents, songs, mistletoe and Santa away, the Christians still have Jesus, don’t they? After all, it is his birthday. Actually, not really. The Bible tells us that on the night Christ was born, there were Shepherds watching their flocks by night. This is something that would only occur in summer or early fall (Certainly, no later than September).

So why did early Christians choose to celebrate their lord’s birth on December 25^th? Simple convenience. There was already a celebration for a deity on that day. The Romans celebrated the birth of Sol Invictus, their sun god (who was born of a virgin). The Sol Invictus story predates the Jesus story, historically, but it was a popular holiday at the time, so the Christians incorporated it. Even the virgin birth bit is widely seen as a biblical mistranslation. The Christians simply took the holiday from the Romans and changed the name to… Christ-mass.

But even if the Baby Jesus stuff hadn’t been stolen, it would still be kind of weird. A virgin birth is kind of a heavy topic for young children. For children to understand why it was a miracle, parents would first have to explain the details about how normal babies are conceived. Then parents would have to explain why the “Holy Spirit” was feeling so frisky that night. The Baby Jesus stuff is probably the least interesting thing about Christmas and the least liked.

         The real reason why we celebrate Christmas, or Hanukkah, or Sol Invictus probably has little to do with horny gods or virgin births. It probably has more to do with the fact that the Winter Solstice is the dead middle of winter. Dozens of ancient cultures celebrated the Solstice. It is the shortest day of the year and it marks the start of a New Year. The sun starts to wake up from his winter slumber and mankind can look forward to Spring.

I think Christmas is best summed up by the great television show Doctor Who:

“On every world, wherever people are, in the deepest part of the winter, at the exact mid-point, everybody stops and turns and hugs. As if to say, “Well done. Well done, everyone! We're halfway out of the dark.”

So this Christmas, if you are a skeptic and don't believe in all that Jesus-stuff, remember that Christmas is not just for the Christians. It is something for the generations. It is something for all of us!