Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan | Page 4

of English folk at the mention of Christmas; how
many other scenes would come before us if we could realize what the
festival means to men of other nations. Yet even these will suggest
what hardly needs saying, that Christmas is something far more
complex than a Church holy-day alone, that the celebration of the Birth
of Jesus, deep and touching as is its appeal to those who hold the faith
of the Incarnation, is but one of many elements that have entered into
the great winter festival.
In the following pages I shall try to present a picture, sketchy and
inadequate though it must be, of what Christmas is and has been to the
peoples of Europe, and to show as far as possible the various elements
that have gone into its make-up. Most people have a vague impression
that these are largely pagan, but comparatively few have any idea of the
process by which the heathen elements have become mingled with that
which is obviously Christian, and equal obscurity prevails as to the
nature and meaning of the non-Christian customs. The subject is vast,
and has not been thoroughly explored as yet, but the labours of
historians and folk-lorists have made certain conclusions probable, and
have produced hypotheses of great interest and fascination.
I have spoken of "Christian"[2] and "pagan" elements. The distinction
is blurred to some extent by the clothing of heathen customs in a
superficial Christianity, but on the whole it is clear enough to justify
the division of this book into two parts, one dealing with the Church's
feast of the Holy Birth, the other with those remains of pagan winter
festivals which extend from November to January, but cluster
especially round Christmas and the Twelve Days.
* * * * *
Before we pass to the various aspects of the Church's Christmas, we

must briefly consider its origins and its relation to certain |20| pagan
festivals, the customs of which will be dealt with in detail in
Part II.
The names given to the feast by different European peoples throw a
certain amount of light on its history. Let us take five of
them--Christmas, Weihnacht, Noël, Calendas, and Yule--and see what
they suggest.
I. The English Christmas and its Dutch equivalent Kerstmisse, plainly
point to the ecclesiastical side of the festival; the German Weihnacht{4}
(sacred night) is vaguer, and might well be either pagan or Christian; in
point of fact it seems to be Christian, since it does not appear till the
year 1000, when the Faith was well established in Germany.{5}
Christmas and Weihnacht, then, may stand for the distinctively
Christian festival, the history of which we may now briefly study.
When and where did the keeping of Christmas begin? Many details of
its early history remain in uncertainty, but it is fairly clear that the
earliest celebration of the Birth of Christ on December 25 took place at
Rome about the middle of the fourth century, and that the observance
of the day spread from the western to the eastern Church, which had
before been wont to keep January 6 as a joint commemoration of the
Nativity and the Baptism of the Redeemer.[3]
The first mention of a Nativity feast on December 25 is found in a
Roman document known as the Philocalian Calendar, dating from the
year 354, but embodying an older document evidently belonging to the
year 336. It is uncertain to which date the Nativity reference belongs;[4]
but further back than 336 at all events the festival cannot be traced.
From Rome, Christmas spread throughout the West, with the |21|
conversion of the barbarians. Whether it came to England through the
Celtic Church is uncertain, but St. Augustine certainly brought it with
him, and Christmas Day, 598, witnessed a great event, the baptism of
more than ten thousand English converts.{9} In 567 the Council of

Tours had declared the Twelve Days, from Christmas to Epiphany, a
festal tide;{10} the laws of Ethelred (991-1016) ordained it to be a time
of peace and concord among Christian men, when all strife must
cease.{11} In Germany Christmas was established by the Synod of
Mainz in 813;{12} in Norway by King Hakon the Good about the
middle of the tenth century.{13}
In the East, as has been seen, the Birth of the Redeemer was at first
celebrated not on December 25, but on January 6, the feast of the
Epiphany or manifestation of Christ's glory. The Epiphany can be
traced as far back as the second century, among the Basilidian heretics,
from whom it may have spread to the Catholic Church. It was with
them certainly a feast of the Baptism, and possibly also of the Nativity,
of Christ. The origins of the Epiphany festival{14} are very obscure,
nor can we say with certainty what