The Christianization of the Holidays by Josh Hunt

    I was recently reminded of a controversy over celebrating Halloween. It happened in a church my family attended when I was around the age of 10. A woman who worked a lot with the children in the church organized a “fall harvest party” where children would come dressed up in costumes to play games and more than likely consume too much sugar. The contention was that it seemed too much like Halloween by a different name and therefore pagan-like. The position my parents ended up settling on was that the harvest party was acceptable but they felt convicted enough about the paganism of Halloween to refrain from allowing their children to participate in the trick-or-treating ritual for a few years.

   This reminder came right around the time I was doing a little research on the history of celebrating Christmas. Although it is a somewhat contested historical fact, Christmas is said to be celebrated on the 25th of December because Pope Julius declared it in the fourth century to bring the heathens into the fold of the Catholic Church. The Christianizing of pagan holy days to sanctify those outside the Church might be as old as Christianity itself. Anyone looking into the history of Christmas is likely to come across many assertions of paganism being at the root of most all modern traditions practiced during and around the holiday. A diligent search may even uncover some Christians admonishing others to consider not celebrating Christmas because of those assertions. It may surprise some, but encouraging Christians to abstain from celebrating Christmas is nothing new. In fact, it is a mild response in comparison to some of the 17th century Puritans that desired legislation against it. “It was not, however, until 1644 that parliament took any positive action against the general observance of Christmas… In Scotland the Presbyterians had secured a ban on Christmas celebrations as long ago as 1583, though they had not found it easy to put down snowballing, football, guising [costume and mask wearing], carol-singing, and other profane pastimes” (History Today Volume 10 issue 12 December 1960, J.A.R. Pimlott).

   The Puritans that came to the new world brought these sentiments towards Christmas with them. On May 11, 1659 the Massachusetts Bay Colony legislature officially banned Christmas celebrations. A public notice in Boston read as follows; “The Observation of Christmas having been deemed a Sacrilege, the exchanging of Gifts and Greetings, dressing in Fine Clothing, Feasting and similar Satanical Practices are hereby FORBIDDEN with the Offender liable to a Fine of Five Shillings”. Reverend Increase Mather of Boston said in 1687 that early Christians did not start celebrating the birth of Christ on December 25th “thinking that Christ was born in that month, but because the Heathens Saturnalia was at that time kept in Rome, and they were willing to have those Pagan holidays metamorphosed into Christian ones”.

   Some critics of Christianity claim that the religion is almost entirely copied from pagan practices, and therefore nonsense and unoriginal. A study of pagan beliefs and practices and their similarity to Christian beliefs and practices is likely the subject of entire books. I cannot go very in depth on those similarities, but a holiday relevant to Christmas is Saturnalia. Wreaths and gift-giving were part of the celebration and Saturn’s temple statue was released from the bonds normally kept around his feet throughout the year. the captive were set “free” for a time during the celebrations. The Roman hierarchy was somewhat turned upside down with slaves being served by their masters. Saturn’s entry into the Roman pantheon is as a dethroned foreigner, the rightful ruler not recognized in his own country.

   I would suggest to those that might look down on the foolishness and wrongfulness of pagan practices that the old traditions were rooted in an inkling of things to come. And when those things came to pass they were realized in Jesus of Nazareth. Christians are not mimicking the worship of Saturn, but rather the worshippers of Saturn had a blurry vision of the Messiah. This view allows for a certain degree of divine revelation being given to pagans through nature. Things in nature connected to pagan beliefs and practices truly do convey some spiritual truth in their qualities. If that is the case, then the iconoclasm of the reformation, and particularly that of the Puritans, was a partial rejection of the general revelation of God that the apostle Paul wrote about. “because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:19-20). The idea of truth being held by pagans is not new and can be found among some of the early Church Fathers for anyone looking to make a study of it.

   An historical comparison of Halloween and Christmas can make all the holidays look muddled together, since many things we associate with Halloween were once practiced during the Christmas season. “Wassailing” during the Christmas season was often more like trick-or-treating. Carolers would demand good drink and food from the wealthy in exchange for their unsolicited singing. Rejection might be met with violence. The lyrics in We Wish You a Merry Christmas preserve the sentiment; “Oh, bring us some figgy pudding, And bring it right here” and “We won’t go until we get some, So bring it right here”. Part of the Christmas spirit was the recognition that Christ’s mission upset the hierarchy. The handing out of goods to carolers was a little picture of “If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all”. Alas, drunken revelry and degeneracy were common enough with Christmas celebrations that many Christians considered the whole affair worldly and sinful. Besides that, I am not so sure that there was any awareness that what people were acting out was a picture of Christ’s teaching.

    That unaware acting, playing out the Christ image, is partly what I mean by “practices that were inklings of things to come”. The Druids believed that the veil between the physical and spirit realms was thin during Samhain (the night of October 31st). They dressed in costume to ward off fairies (fairies were not Disney-like at that time, but likely dangerous tricksters). The display of monsters and ghosts during Halloween makes many Christians uncomfortable. However, it may be that someday Christians will come to observe that “thinness” between the realms. But if they were to, then it would likely be on Good Friday or Easter Sunday. Recall the account given in Matthew of the crucifixion; “And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split. The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the holy ones who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they entered the holy city and appeared to many” (Matthew 27:50-53).

   In the event of Christ’s death on the cross there was far more than just a thinning of the veil- it was completely torn. The Holy of Holies was previously separated from the Holy Place by the veil and was left in darkness. In C.S. Lewis’s Till We Have Faces, a priest of Ungit says to the king, “They demand to see such things clearly, as if the gods were no more than letters written in a book. I, King, have dealt with the gods for three generations of men, and I know that they dazzle our eyes and flow in and out of one another like eddies in a river, and nothing that is said clearly can be said truly about them. Holy places are dark places. It is life and strength, not knowledge and words, that we get in them. Holy wisdom is not clear and thin like water, but thick and dark like blood”. I believe Lewis was pointing to the modern western man in particular with the part about people who “demand to see”. Knowledge and words have been a mainstay of the Protestant Reformation for five hundred years. Knowledge and words fueled a desire for certainty that comes to be expressed in a multitude of ways in the western world. For the Christian it often comes to a focus on scripture such as, “if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved”.

   In contrast to the modern mind, ancient peoples were engaged with murky mysteries “thick and dark like blood”; ritual ceremonies for receiving divinely gifted understanding. Is the Christian to abhor dark and murky mysteries? The Greek word “mysterion” appears 27 times in the New Testament in various contexts. The word conveyed the meaning of a hidden or secret thing and often meant divine secrets, only for those initiated, and not fit for the common man. It comes from a derivative of a verb meaning “to shut the mouth”, emphasizing discretion.

   Consider the following verses; Psalm 78:2, “I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old”. The verse from Psalms is quoted in the 13th chapter of the Matthew Gospel as prophecy; “He did not speak to them without a parable. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: ‘I will open My mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden since the foundation of the world’”. Isaiah 45:3, “I will give you the treasures of darkness And hidden wealth of secret places”. Proverbs 25:2, “It is the glory of God to conceal a thing”. And 1 Kings 8:12, “Then Solomon said, ‘The LORD has said that He would dwell in thick darkness’”. My point regarding these scriptures is this; there are still yet mysteries to be revealed to mankind, and perhaps we might learn something from the naiveté of ancient people. Remember Jesus gave thanks that certain mysteries were hidden from the so-called wise and intelligent, but revealed to infants (Matthew 11:25).

   I do not think that Christians should be naively engaging in mystery cults. But I do think it right to recognize the mystery aspects of Christianity. Our desire for certainty might be warranted, but does not give warrant to abolish the mysterious. There has always been a tension in Christianity about what is “outside” of it and what is considered acceptable. When Peter received the vision of unclean foods he was told to eat, he balked at first, but learned that things considered “unclean” might be reconciled to God. Acts 10:45 and 47, “All the circumcised believers who came with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also… ‘Surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we…?’”. I think we can expect the Christianizing of holidays to continue on.