On April 16, we linked to another post that dismantled myths about the origins of Easter, which became the seventh most viewed post of the year:
And in honor of this week’s upcoming holiday, which is also the subject of similar myths, I offer this bonus from Christmas Eve, 2012:
The most embarrassing Cranach post. . . .Asking your help in identifying the 5 best posts, whereupon no one could think of ANY! (Well, towards the evening there were a few.) So let’s approach this in another way. Here are the top 20 posts on this blog based on the number of page views. (That comes largely from posts getting linked to at different sites, as well as being the subject of searches.)
So what can we learn from this? Some thoughts after the jump. (more…)
Pastor Joseph Abrahamson has a running project of refuting the notion that Christian holidays derived from pagan festivals. You have got to read what he says about the history of Halloween. (more…)
Pastor Joseph Abrahamson has started a fascinating series on why the church celebrates Christmas on December 25 and when this started. He includes a number of links and references, and he critiques the notion that Christians co-opted a pagan holiday.
I was fascinated by the evidence he offers about the Feast of the Annunciation (when the angel appeared to Mary and she conceived by the Holy Spirit), which was celebrated on March 25, a date established before 200 A.D. The church added nine months from that date, which gives us the Baby so conceived being born on December 25.
I have heard it said that the date of Christ’s birth was once considered to be March 25, but that claim is based on a mistranslation and misunderstanding of “genesis.” Rev. Abrahamson quotes Clement of Alexandria, in his “Stromata,” dated between 193 and 215 A.D.:
And there are those who have determined our Savior’s genesis
not only the year, but even the day, which they say took place
in the twenty-eighth year of Augustus on the 25th of Pachon.
Rev. Abrahamson comments:
The important line is “our Savior’s genesis.” The month of Pachon in the Egyptian calendar at that time corresponded to March in the Julian Calendar.
Christ’s genesis, or conception on the 25th of Pachon was in what our calendar would equate with March 25th. The celebration of Christ’s birth would be nine months later: December 25th, in our calendar. ANF 2:333 translates “birth” rather than “conception”. The translation of “genesis” as conception is consistent with Clement’s usage of this word in other contexts, for example:
“It is not therefore frequent intercourse by the parents, but the reception of it [the seed] in the womb which corresponds with genesis.” (Clement of Alexandria Stromata 3.12.83.2)
via Steadfast Lutherans » Redeeming Holy Days from Pagan Lies — Christmas.
So the early church believed that a person’s “genesis” begins with conception and not with birth. That’s an important point for the pro-life cause today.
What I don’t understand is why the militant secularists are expending so much energy to remove Christmas from the cultural calendar while ignoring Christianity’s more immediate influence on the patterns of everyday life: the weekly calendar.
Government workers, students in public schools, and many other employees get Sunday off. That is a direct influence of the Christian religion. Observance of the “Lord’s Day” used to manifest itself in all kinds of so-called “blue laws” mandating the closing of businesses on Sundays, and though those have mostly faded away, Sunday is still a day off for lots of people, including federal workers! In fact, Saturday has also become a day off for lots of people, including public school children and public employees. That recognizes the Jewish sabbath. You will notice that the Muslim holy day of Thursday is not similarly set apart. Christianity and Judaism have a privileged place in Western civilization, as evidenced by our observance of their two weekly holy days. If it’s bad to establish one religion, it’s surely even worse to establish two.
Or three. The names of the days of the week are also religiously-laden. In addition to days honoring the Sun (Sunday) and the Moon (Monday), we have days specifically named after Teutonic deities (Tiews’ Day, Woden’s Day, Thor’s Day, Freya’s Day), plus the Greco-Roman proto-god Saturn.
If secularists object to Christ’s name being in Christmas, shouldn’t they object to Thor’s name being in Thursday? I suppose the difference is that lots of people still believe in Christ, who has pretty much displaced Thor worship. But still, the secularists believe in one no more than the other. And, I am told, there are certain pagans who are trying to bring back the old deities.
I hope I am not giving the secularist activists–or Christian activists worried about idolatry when they make weekly schedules–any ideas! If we start to see lawsuits trying to keep schoolchildren and federal workers from getting to stay home on the weekends, blame me.
But my point is that religion and culture are intertwined to the point that it is very difficult to unravel them. As has been said, the root of “culture” is “cult.” Not in the sense of a splinter religious group, but in the sense of “worship.”
The post about “Happy New Year,” referring to the beginning of Advent and asking about why the last days of the church year aren’t really noted, made me realize that the church year is not supposed to cover everything. Christians are under two calendars, just as they live their lives in two times. There is the secular calendar, the time of the world, that progresses from season to season, along with its distinct cultural and national holidays, such as in the USA Independence Day and Thanksgiving. And then there is the liturgical calendar, commemorating the life of Christ and of the Church. The church calendar is superimposed on the secular calendar. Christians participate in them both, just as they participate in both of God’s Kingdoms, His hidden rule over all of the created secular order and His revealed spiritual rule in Christ as manifested in the Church.
We shouldn’t follow the church calendar alone, rejecting the secular calendar, with its pagan nomenclature from Roman and Germanic deities (January from the two-faced god Janus; Wodin’s day, Thors’ day, Freya’s day), since we must live out our faith in this world. Nor should we follow the secular calendar alone, since Christ became incarnate in time. Sometimes the two time sequences counter each other, such as one of the most joyous days of the church year–Christmas– comes at the gloomiest point of winter. Sometimes they complement each other, as when the other most joyous day of the church year–Easter–comes at one of the most joyous times of the secular calendar, the season of Spring. And sometimes the church calendar crosses over into the cultural calendar, as Christmas does, just as Christianity has influenced the cultures in which it finds itself, and as Christ did when He became incarnate in human history.
So Christians can celebrate the new church year, beginning with Advent, which–as my pastor explained today–seamlessly follows the end of Pentecost, which also looks forward to Christ’s return. The church year is cyclical. It doesn’t count the number of years from Christ’s life, but rather keeps re-enacting them. Ironically, the secular calendar does count the number of years from the time of Christ, as the years forge linearly ahead. So Christians can also celebrate New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day when the secular calendar turns over. Christians live in two times, just as they live in two kingdoms.
