The Disconcerting Dating of the Christmas Celebrations

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n There are puritans (with a small ‘P’) who will tellnyou that ‘Xmas’ is all wrong and you shouldn’t use it. Puritans aren’tnalways right. Xmas has a very long and distinguished history. From the earliestntimes, the first letter of Χριςτος – the Greek form of Christos, hasnbeen used as an abbreviation for Christ, with Χmas as an alternative tonChristmas. An Old English chronicle, dated 1021, containes the words, “OnnXpes mæsse uhtan” (‘On Christ’s mass dawning’) and John Wyclif, in ansermon for New Year’s Day dating from about 1380, says of the mystical wordnVIX,

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n“For in þis word VIX ben but þree lettris, V, and I, andnX. And V bitokeneþ fyve; I bitokeneþ Jesus; and X bitokeneþnCrist. (i.e. X betokens Christ)”

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The Chi-Rho

nThe use of the first two letters of the Greek word for Christ were used in the Chi-Rhonsymbol, which stood as a secret sign for the early Christians and convenientlynlooked a little like a cross too. In fact, the name of the festival was DiesnNatalis Domini (The day of the birth of the Lord) or, more fully, FestumnNativitatis Domini Nostri Jesu Christi (The feast of the day of the birthnof Our Lord Jesus Christ), because the early Catholic Church used Latin asntheir official language and it wasn’t until the tenth or eleventh century thatnthe English began to use Christ’s Mass, which was conflated into such words as Christenmass,nkryst-masse, cristmasse, crystmasse, Chrysmas, and Cristmas, and itnwasn’t until the seventeenth century that this was standardised as Christmas,nso, if anything, Xmas is more ‘authentic’ than Christmas.

Another Chi-Rho

nThesenearly Christians did not really celebrate Christmas but in the Constitutionsnof the Holy Apostles, which date from 375 to 380 CE, Book V SectionnIII, On Feast Days and Fast Days, has,

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n“Brethren, observe thenfestival days; and first of all the birthday which you are to celebrate on thentwenty-fifth of the ninth month; after which let the Epiphany be to you thenmost honoured, in which the Lord made to you a display of His own Godhead, andnlet it take place on the sixth of the tenth month.”

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nFrom this, we see thatnthe ‘most honoured’ feast day was that of the Epiphany, celebrated on January 6^th,nand there were advocates for dates other than December 25^th, withnvarious dates put forward for various reasons, but after St Chrysostom (d. 407nCE) the Eastern and Western churches recognised December 25^th as thenFeast of the Nativity (although the Armenian Church still uses January 6^th,nwith those members of the Armenian Orthodox Church in the Holy Land that stillnuse the Julian calendar opting for January 19^th).

Figuring things out

nUsing a slightlynmore convoluted logic, some commentators reasoned that since God startedncreating everything by dividing the light and the dark, it made sense that henmust have done this on the Spring equinox, when the day and the night are ofnequal length. Furthermore, it also made sense that since his son was the Lightnof the World, he would also have been conceived at the Spring equinox, and thenFeast of the Annunciation was March 25^th so it made sense that henwould have been born nine months later, on December 25^th. Obvious,nwhen you think it through.

The Nativity

nIf the date is uncertain, then so too is the year;nonce again, there are any number of theories, with Dionysus Exiguus settling onnthe Anno Domini mode of reckoning in his Cyclus Paschalis, antreatise for computing the correct date for Easter, which placed the year ofnthe birth of Christ, (1 AD) in the Year of Rome 753 (Anno Urbis Conditae).nDue to an oversight, Dionysus got his sums wrong and was out by approximately 4nyears, so that the real date of the Nativity would be at some time between 6nand 4 BCE. It made sense for the early Christians to place their celebration atnaround the same time as the Roman feasts of Saturnalia and the Kalends (theirnNew Year), and the related festival celebrating the birth of the god, Mithras.

Bas-relief of Mithras found at York

nRoman soldiers stationed in Persia during the first century encountered a minornsun god called Mithra or Mitra and they took the new religion first back tonRome and then they spread it throughout the Roman Empire as they were stationednabroad. Mithraism was a mystery religion and only men were initiated into itsnsecrets, so our knowledge is necessarily limited, but there are someninteresting parallels with another emerging religion of the time. The priestsnof Mithras were the Magi, whom we have already met as the Three Kings. Mithrasnwas born in a cave to a Virgin on December 25^th and was the Light ofnthe World, the Sun, whose day, Sunday, was the Sabbath. He performed miracles,nincluding walking on water, and had twelve disciples, who followed him and werenrepresented by the twelve signs of the zodiac. Mithras was killed and rosenagain after three days, during which time he descended into the underworld, andnthen ascended in Heaven, from where he will return at the end of the world. Hisnfollowers celebrated with a special communal meal, where the food was Mithras’snflesh and blood, they progressed through seven sacraments during theirnlifetimes and he was known to them as ‘Saviour’, ‘Son of God’, ‘Redeemer’ andn‘Lamb of God’.

Mithras slays a bull

nThis much we know. Classical authors refer to contemporarynwritings about the Mithras cult that have since been lost, and some of what wendo have is from Christian polemicists, who sought to portray the ritualisticnelements in an unsavoury manner. We know that the Roman Mithras differed fromnthe Indo-European Mitra of the Rig-Veda, and although popular amongst thenmilitary, was revered by no more than about 1% of the population of the RomannEmpire. Religions, cults and sects washed in and out of Rome from all cornersnof the Empire, from Britain, Gaul, Iberia, Africa, Egypt, Greece, Persia, Indianand beyond, and were mixed together, drawing and feeding on each other. It isnno surprise then that there are so many common threads and parallels. It’s anfascinating subject.