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<\/a><\/p>\nNo, Christmas did not have its origins in a pagan holiday.\u00a0 Scholars now know\u00a0(see this<\/a> and this<\/a>) that the Feast of Sol Invictus,<\/a>\u00a0Juvenalia<\/a>, and similar celebrations were, if anything, influenced by Christmas, rather than the other way around.\u00a0 But lots of religions and cultures do have winter festivals of one kind or another.\u00a0 What is striking, though, is how different<\/em> Christmas is from what we might expect.<\/p>\n Winter is cold<\/em>.\u00a0 Winter is lifeless<\/em>, as the birds have migrated, many of the animals are hibernating, and the plant life to all appearances is dead<\/em>.\u00a0 Winter is a time of starvation<\/em>.\u00a0 Livestock would be slaughtered at the beginning of winter and the fermentation of alcohol would be completed, so there would be feasting for a while, but only as a prelude to the so-called famine time.<\/a>\u00a0Winter is dark,\u00a0<\/em>with the nights being longer than the days.\u00a0 This is especially true in northern latitudes, some of which have nights that last close to the entire 24 hours.\u00a0 The Winter Solstice<\/a>, which is just a few days before Christmas and which has its own religious observances, is the longest night of the year.<\/p>\n You had to keep the Yule log burning, or you would freeze in the dark. The religious observances in winter and the Winter Solstice were desperate pleas for the light to come back, with sacrifices to fend off the spirits of darkness and to implore the sun to return.<\/p>\n Winter was a grim time for most of the world throughout human history.\u00a0 And yet, for Christians, their winter festival, in the words of the song, is \u201cthe most wonderful time of the year.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s all joy, good cheer, and merry-making.\u00a0 To be sure, Christians also suffered\u2013and many still suffer\u2013in the cold of winter.\u00a0 The old Christmas observances included\u2013and still include\u2013 beneficence to the suffering, as seen in the carol \u201cGood King Wenceslas,\u201d Dickens\u2019 \u201cA Christmas Carol,\u201d and today\u2019s Salvation Army kettles.\u00a0 Somehow, Christmas makes us able to sentimentalize winter weather, so that snow, ice, and the cold are no longer mortal threats but constitute a \u201cwinter wonderland\u201d!<\/p>\n Conversely, in the Spring, which one would think would be a season for happiness and abundance, is the saddest and most somber observance in the Christian calendar.\u00a0 \u201cLent<\/a>,\u201d a word that just means \u201cSpring,\u201d is a time to contemplate one\u2019s own sins and the suffering and death of Christ, who paid their penalty.\u00a0 But in other religions and cultures, Spring is a time of fertility and revelry.\u00a0 Once again, Christianity seems out of step with \u201cnatural\u201d religion.<\/p>\n But Lent culminates in Easter, and Christ\u2019s resurrection from the dead is symbolized by the new life that is springing back to life out of the dead ground.\u00a0 And immediately after<\/em> the Winter Solstice (December 21) is when Christmas is celebrated, the days start<\/em> to get longer, whereupon the light begins<\/em> to conquer the darkness.\u00a0 So the Christian holy-days are in line with the symbolism of the seasons after all, sort of.<\/p>\n Still, the Christian holidays are surprising.\u00a0 At the point of our greatest darkness, coldness, and death, that is when Jesus comes.\u00a0 This is the message of Christmas, the theology of the cross, and the proclamation of the Gospel to those stricken by the Law.<\/p>\n Whereas the Gospel of Matthew tells about the Wise Men and the Gospel of Luke tells about the shepherds, the Christmas account in the Gospel of John starts even further back and unpacks what it all means:<\/p>\n In the beginning was\u00a0the Word, and\u00a0the Word was with God, and\u00a0the Word was God.\u00a02\u00a0<\/sup>He was in the beginning with God.<\/span>\u00a03\u00a0<\/sup>All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.<\/span>\u00a04\u00a0<\/sup>In him was life, and\u00a0the life was the light of men.<\/span>\u00a05\u00a0<\/sup>The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. . . .<\/span>9\u00a0<\/sup>The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. . . .<\/span>\u00a014\u00a0<\/sup>And\u00a0the Word\u00a0became flesh and\u00a0dwelt among us,\u00a0and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0from the Father, full of\u00a0grace and\u00a0truth.\u00a0 (John 1)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u201cThe light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it\u201d (John 1:5).\u00a0 Of course we are going to celebrate Christmas in the teeth of winter.\u00a0 Of course we will do so with lights\u2013candles, Yule logs, brightly-colored electric lights\u2013gifts, emblems of God\u2019s grace, and plants that are alive in winter.<\/span><\/p>\n The old Christmas carol \u201cLo, how a Rose E\u2019er Blooming<\/a>\u201d gives us a rose from the stem of Jesse (Isaiah 11:1)\u2013that is, the Son of David, Jesus\u2013that blooms not in the Spring, as other flowers do, but in the depths of winter:<\/p>\n Lo, how a Rose e\u2019er blooming The rose in the snow, like the fir tree in \u201cO, Tannenbaum<\/a>\u201c\u2013and thus our Christmas trees\u2013depicts life in a season of death.\u00a0 This is Jesus and the gift that He brings.<\/p>\n
\nFrom tender stem hath sprung!
\nOf Jesse\u2019s lineage coming
\nAs men of old have sung.
\nIt came, a flower bright,
\nAmid the cold of winter
\nWhen half-gone was the night.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n