A couple of days ago I was at Mom's house going through several old books. One of the books Mom had given to her father, Odell Sessions, as a birthday present. It's Little Known Facts About Well Known People, by Dale Carnegie, (the same man who wrote How to Win Friends and Influence People.)
-
One of the short stories in the book is called "Christ was not born on Christmas Day"
-
"About three hundred years ago, when New England was a far-removed colony of the British Crown, the wife of a village squire in Hadley, Massachusetts, walked across the fields one December Day and visited a German lady who was celebrating Christmas. This German lady had cut down a small pine tree in the forest, dragged it home through the snow, lighted it with candles, and her children were dancing around it, singing Christmas carols. Nothing wrong with that, was there?
-
Yet the grim-faced Puritan fathers, who ruled New England then, hauled this woman before a council of village elders, thundered at her, denounced her, and threw her out of the Church, bag and baggage. And back in those days, that was tantamount to social ostracism.
-
What had she done? She had committed the heathen sin of celebrating Christmas. The old Puritans despised Christmas. With wrathful voices, they denounced it from their pulpits. They branded it as an unholy pagan holiday and declared it was an insult to God. They even passed a law which heaped fines and public disgrace upon anyone who attempted to celebrate Christmas.
Why all this cry and uproar against the celebration of Christmas? For one thing, the old Puritans knew that Christ was not born on Christmas Day.
-
Scholars were wrangling about the date of Christ's birth less than two hundred years after he died. Some claimed that he was born on May 20th - others contended that the correct date was April 19th (yeah, Jeni!). Still others denounced these dates as superstitions, and declared he was born on November 17th (yeah, Tom!) Modern scholars confess that we haven't the remotest idea about the exact time of the birth of Jesus.
-
Even in Bethlehem, where Christ was born, Christmas will be celebrated this year at three different times. One group celebrates it on December 25th, another on January 6th (Yeah, Chelsea!), and still another sect on January 18th (Yeah, Sarah!). In Abyssinia, Christmas is celebrated every month of the year, except March.
-
For thousands of years, the Romans, gorged with food, and drunk with wine, celebrated the feast of Saturnalia in December. Saturn was their god of Agriculture, and after they had gathered their crops for the season, they held high festival in his honor, decorating their houses with evergreen and holly, giving dolls to their children, and showering gifts upon one another.
-
Centuries ago, old bald-headed (Yeah, Glenn!) Constantine rose up in the Roman Senate, straightened his gay-colored wig, and decreed that Christianity was the official religion of the Roman Empire. And when he did that, he ordered the Christians to celebrate the birth of Christ during the feast of Saturn, so he merged the two festivals into one.
-
Many curious and colorfuls superstitions have grown up around Cristmas. Old women, pop-eyed with strange beliefs, declare that when the clock strikes midnight on Christmas Eve, the bees sing the 100th Psalm, and they say that the sheep open their mouths and bleat the word "Bethlehem."
-
One of my secretaries was raised in Louisiana, and she tells me that the negroes taught her that the cows literally get down on their knees and talk to one another on Christmas Eve. Well, maybe they do, down in Louisiana; but I was once a cowboy myself out in South Dakota; and if the cows out west ever talked on Christmas Eve, it must have been in hog Latin or pidgin English, for I couldn't understand them.
-
However, over in Norway, the farmers give their cattle a tub of home-brewed ale on Christmas Eve - and those critters not noly talk - they lean up against the lamp posts and sing "Sweet Adeline!"
-
Christmas may have been a pagan orgy thousands of years ago-but who cares? Today, it is the most happy and universal holiday in all the western world"
-
(You are all invited over to Christmas dinner on January 18th as well as the 25th of every month except for March. Jeni and Tom will already be busy on April 19th and November 17th.)
6 comments:
Just in case, I think you should leave your trees and decorations up all year long. We maybe should celebrate this holiday in March too, however I am busy on the 21st!
so so so so interesting! And hooray for me!
Oh, Jeni, you're just being facetious. By the way, Misty voted and it's unanimous, we are leaving our decorations up all year.
Yippee!!! I love the decorations up!!! I turned on my outside lights last night to welcome people and make our street happy. (Scott had removed Plastic Santa). Erin came in from Institute and said, "Mom! I turned off the Christmas lights! We were the only house on the street with Christmas lights on!" so sad. I need the lights to make it thru blah January.
Oh, yes, the rest of the stuff was interesting. So are you REALLY gonna celebrate every month? I think that is a splendid way to remember the birth! love, jane
two ps's
#1 I LOVED the picture of Grandma and Grandpa Sessions!
#2 Pam Logan said she got a cute Christmas card from you and did you REALLY go to ALL those places? Including the Falkirk? Islands? I said, "I think so."
I was not being facetious! I really meant it! I think it's so interesting--the how's and why's of holidays!
Post a Comment