DECEMBER
25 TRADITION
SAMUEL P. PARAN
THE TWENTY FIFTH OF
December is considered by many Catholics and Protestant as Christmas Day – the
birthday of Christ. It is most celebrated holiday of the year throughout the
world. It has inspired men of music to create such nostalgic and soothing tunes
of “Silent Night,” the jolly beat of “Joy to the World” and other familiar
Christmas carols. People could not help but listen to this tunes announcing the
most awaited festival of the year. Young and old, men and women, rich and poor,
all anxiously breathe the Christmas spirit and eagerly participate in one way
or another in the celebration of the alleged birth anniversary of Christ.
Yet amidst all merrymaking activities of the yuletide season, members of the Iglesia
ni Cristo are visibly non-participants in the worldwide commemoration of
the alleged birth of Jesus on December 25.
“Why?” others would surely ask. “Don’t they believe in Jesus as the Christ, our
Savior? Are they not happy about the birth of the Savior? Are they not
Christians? If they do celebrate their own birthdays, why not Christmas?” These
questions readily crop up whenever one comes to know the beliefs of Iglesia
ni Cristo regarding the December 25 date of the Nativity of Jesus.
However, our non-participation on the December 25 festivities does not
mean that we are against fun and merriment; neither are we anti-social nor
against fostering peace and goodwill among men. Neither are we opposed to the
idea that the birth of Christ is a day of rejoicing. On the day Christ was
born, angels from heaven rejoiced, saying glory to God and peace among men.
(Lk.2:13-14). We are one in the belief that the baby boy born in Bethlehem who
was the son of Mary is Christ the Savior.
But for valid reasons, we refrain from participating with the world in
activities alien to the Gospel. Christ has nothing to do with the December 25
celebration though He is supposed to be the center of the festivities. Nowhere
in the New Testament is December 25 specified as the birth date of Christ.
There has never been a single statement from Jesus or from His disciples
commanding the commemoration of His birth. Instead, we find extra-biblical
sources for the celebration traceable to pagan festivities of which the
Catholic Church is fond of adopting as its own. More so, these appeared only
centuries after the establishment of the Church of the New Testament.
THE
FIRST “CHRISTMAS”
“How old is Christmas day?…One would naturally
think that the anniversary of so great an event as the birth of the Son of God
would have been a day of religious Joy from the earliest years of the Church;
but it is clear that this was not the case. There is no mention of it in any of
the oldest lists of the Church festivals….In the part of the Church which
follows the Latin rite the celebration of Christmas on the twenty-fifth of
December was begun probably about the middle of the fourth century. An ancient
tradition assigned that day as the probable date of the great mystery of the
Nativity…
“The first mention of Christmas as a festival of the Church on 25 December,
goes back to AD, 336. It comes in the Philocalian Catalogue (354), a civil and
religious calendar compiled at Rome.”
If these records were accurate, the “first Christmas” would have been held on
December 25, 336 A.D., ie., more than three centuries after the birth of Christ
in Bethlehem. Certainly, however, Christ had nothing to do with the date for He
had ascended to heaven in the first century. Obviously, His Apostles could not
be the source of the selection of the date of the Nativity in the fourth
century since they all had died even before the second century.
THE
BIBLICAL ACCOUNT
“In
those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be
enrolled. This was the first enrollment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria.
And all went to be enrolled, each to his own city. And Joseph also went up from
Galilee, from the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of
the house lineage of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was
with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to be delivered.
And she gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths,
and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
“And in that region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over
their flock by night.” (Lk.2:1-18,9, Revised Standard Version)
Biblical historians know so well this narrative account of the events
surrounding the birth of the Savior. On this, Catholic Bible scholars have this
to say:
“Origin of Date – Concerning the date of
Christ’s birth the Gospel give no help; indeed, upon their data contradictory
arguments are based. The census would have been impossible in
winter….Authorities moreover differ as to whether shepherds could or would keep
flocks exposed during the nights of the rainy seasons.”
Furthermore, a secular historian writing about Christmas note that:
“The most widespread myth in the Christendom is
that of Christmas. Those who take the Bethlehem birth-story as history readily
accept the traditional date of Christ’s birthday. But all branches of the
Church agree that no data exist for determining the day, month, or year of the
event, nor was such festival celebrated in apostolic or early Post-Apostolic
times.”
It is evident that the Bible is silent regarding the exact date of Christ’s
birthday. The Gospel narrates that He was born during the period when the Roman
census was in progress. Contrary to the December 25 tradition, it is argued
that the census would have been impossible in winter. Some authorities pointed
out that shepherds could not or would not keep their flocks exposed, during the
nights of the rainy season. Moreover, it would have been absurd for the
inspired writers of the New Testament to miss recording the date of Christ’s
birthday if it should be commemorated by His disciples. Thus, it is not
surprising for us that we find no explicit pronouncement nor implicit statement
from the Bible effecting the celebration of Christmas more so on December 25,
the birthday of a pagan god.
THE
ORIGIN OF THE DATE
Who
was responsible for the initiation of the December 25 celebration? What were
the reasons of choosing that particular date from among the 365 days of the
year?
“No official reason has been handed down in
ecclesiastical documents for the choice of this date….Some early Fathers and
writers claimed that December 25 was the actual date of Christ’s birth, and
that authorities in Rome established this fact from the official records of the
Roman census that had been taken at the time of the Saviour’s birth. Saint John
Chrysostom held this opinion and used it to argue for the introduction of the
Roman date in the Eastern Church. He was mistaken, however, for nobody in Rome
ever claimed that the records of the census of Cyrinus were extent there in the
fourth century, and much less that Christ’s birthday was registered in the
lists. In fact, it was expressly stated in Rome that the actual date of the
Saviour’s birth was unknown and that different traditions prevailed in
different parts of the world.”
Formerly Christmas was celebrated on January 6, but Pope Julius I, at the
beginning of the fourth century, changed the day to December 25, since date is
unknown.”
Catholic authorities have not given any official statement for choosing
December 25. If any biblical verse would be cited to support their claim, we
should have found it in their writings on Christmas. But again, nowhere could
we find substantial presentation of biblical evidences but rather their
admission of the absence of any evidence at all. The fact is that a Roman Pope
by the name of Julius I was responsible for assigning December 25 in the
absence of a known date.
CHRISTIANIZED
PAGAN FESTIVAL
Readers
might have noticed that Julius I changed the date of Christmas from January 6
to December 25. Why?
“Pentecost and Ephipany were the next feasts
added to the calendar; the latter, on January 6, coincided with the pagan
festival celebrating the birth of the new year. Christmas originated in the
fourth century, when Constantine joined it with a pagan feast celebrating the
birthday of the sun on December 25.”
“After the triumph of Constantine, the Church at Rome assigned December 25 as
the date for the celebration of the feast, possibly about AD 320 or 353. By the
end of the fourth century the whole Christian world was celebrating Christmas
on that day, with the exception of the Eastern churches which celebrated it on
January 6.”
Obviously,
Julius I not only erred in assigning the date of Christ’s birth per se
but was even indecisive in moving the date from January 6 to December 25. Doing
so, he tried to avoid coincidence with one pagan festival just to coincide Christmas
with another but greater pagan festival.
Any diligent student of Church history can easily discern why this is so. The
influence of paganism to the Catholic Church began overtly when Constantine the
Great ascended to the throne as the first “Christian Emperor.” He joined the
pagan festival of celebrating the birthday of the sun and the celebration of
the birth of Christ. Later, Julius I, The Roman Pope, officially declared
December 25 as the birthday of Jesus.
PAGANISM OVER CHRISTIANITY
What
made Julius I, the alleged head of Christendom, subscribe to pagan festivals
and practices?
“The pagan Saturnalia and Brumalia were too
deeply entrenched in popular custom to be set aside by Christian influence. The
recognition of Sunday (the day of Phoebus and Mithras as well as the Lord’s
Day) by the emperor Constantine as a legal holiday, along with the influence of
Manicheism, which identified the Son of God with the physical sun, may have led
Christians of the fourth century to feel the appropriateness of making the
birth day of the Son of God coincide with that of the physical sun. The pagan
festival with its riot and marry making was so popular that Christians were
glad of an excuse to continue its celebration with little change in spirit or
in manner.”
“…the choice of December 25 was influenced by the fact that the Romans, from
the time of Emperor Aurelian (275), had celebrated the feast of the sun god,
(Sol Invictus: the Unconquered Sun) on that day. December 25 was called the
‘Birthday of the Sun,’ and great pagan religious celebrations of the Mithras
cult were held all through the empire. What was more natural than that
Christians celebrate the birth of Him Who was the ‘Light of the World’ and the
true ‘son of Justice’ on this very day?…”
Hence,
the December 25 tradition with its practices is a Christianized pagan festival.
The riot and merrymaking is dedicated no longer to Sol Invictus but now to
Christ Jesus! What were once dedicated to Christ as birthday presents. What
insult can be greater than this?
Yet Catholic authorities neither mind nor prohibit lay Catholics from
participating in pagan festivals. Why? John F. Sullivan, a noted Catholic
theologian states:
“It is interesting to note how often our Church
has availed herself of practices which were in common use among pagans, and
which owed their origin to their appropriateness for expressing something
spiritual by material means….she has often found that it was well to take what
was praiseworthy in other forms of worship and adapt it to her own purposes,
for the sanctification of her children. Thus it is true, in a certain sense,
that some Catholic rites and ceremonies are a reproduction of those of pagan
creeds; but they are the taking of what was best from paganism, the keeping of
symbolical practices which express the religious instinct that is common to all
races and times.”
Catholic
authorities admit their interest in adopting customs and traditions from pagan
rites and ceremonies in their worship allegedly for the sanctification of her
members.
WHAT’S
WRONG WITH PAGANISM?
But, what’s wrong with paganism? An understanding of the lexical meaning of the
term pagan gives us an idea of our rejection of anything pagans to and
practice. Webster’s New World Dictionary states:
“Pagan - ….the opposite of Christian…a person
who is not a Christian….not a Christian.”
It
is interesting to note that even the etymology of the term pagan would show the
incompatibility of Christianity and paganism. Any good book on church history
would contain the origin of the term.
“Churches were first established in the cities.
The people in the country continued to be heathen when the people in the cities
had already become Christians. The Latin word for country people was pagani.
So the name pagani or pagans became equivalent to heathen, or pagans, in the
country.”
Yet
it would be unwise for true Christians to base their positions on secular
history and not on the Holy Scriptures. How do true Christians view pagans and
their practices? In Ephesians 4:17-18, 21, Apostle Paul states:
“In particular, I want to urge you in the name of the Lord, not to go on
living the aimless kind of life that pagans live. Intellectually they are in
the dark, and they are estranged from the life of God without knowledge they
have shut their hearts to it.
“Now that is hardly the way you have learnt from Christ, unless you failed to
hear him properly when you were taught the truth is in Jesus.” (Jerusalem
Bible)
The
most traveled among the Apostles attested to the fact that pagans live in
aimless life, being estranged from the life of God. Living the way as they do
is hardly the way of Christ and Apostle Paul urged all Christians not to go on
living as the pagans do.
The supposed celebrant of Christmas has this to say:
“And he said to them, ‘How ingeniously you get around the commandments of
God in order to preserve your own tradition!” (Mk. 7:9 Jerusalem Bible)
To the Catholic claim that pagan forms of worship could sanctify her children,
God said:
“ ‘This people honors me with their lips but their heart is far from me; in
vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men’” (Mt.
15:8-9 RSV)
The Christmas celebration is pagan and anything pagan is abhorrent to Christ.
To make this as an activity honoring Him on His birthday is not only erroneous
and unscriptural but a great insult to Him as well. How can one, in his right
mind, offer a person something which the latter abhors?
Related posts: POPE ADMITS DEC. 25 NOT CHRIST BIRTH
N O T E S
1.
JOHN F. SULLIVAN. The Externals of the Catholic Church
(New York: P.J. Kennedy & Sons, 1951), p. 204
2.
TIM DOWLEY, ed The History of Christianity (England: Lion Publishing, 1977),
p.147
3.
CHARLES G. HEBERMANN, Ph.D., Ll.D.,ed. The Catholic Encyclopedia (New York:
The Encyclopedia Press, Inc., 1913), pp.724-728
4.
Walter Moodburn Hyde. Paganism to Christianity in the Roman Empire (London:
Oxford
University
Press, 1946), p.249
5.
FRANCIS X. WEISER. A Handbook of Christian Feast & Customs (New York:
Paulist
Press,
1963), p.59
6.
M. CATHERINE FREDERICK. The Handbook of Catholic Practices (New York:
Hanthorn
Books, Inc., 1964) p.176
7.
THOMAS BOKENKOTTER. A Concise History of the Catholic Church (New York:
Doubleday
& Company, Inc., 1977), p.56
8.
COLLIER’S ENCYCLOPEDIA, Vol.6, p. 403
9.
SAMUEL MACAULEY JACKSON. The New Staff-Heriog Encyclopedia of Religious
Knowledge
(Michigan:Baker Boal: House), p.48
10.
WEISER, op. cit., p.60
11.
SULLIVAN, op. cit., p. 226
12.
B.K. KUIPER. The Church in History (Michigan: W.B. Eerdman’s Publishing
Co.,
1964),
p.19
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