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The Traditions of Christmas

© Linda Campbell

It's that time of year again! Most of us are rushing about, buying presents, putting up Christmas trees and hanging decorations. Do you ever stop to wonder where these customs came from? Why do we hang holly or mistletoe? And why does Santa come down the chimney and not use the door like everybody else?

Although the Gospels give a detailed account of the nativity they do not mention the date of the birth. In 354AD Pope Julius I decreed that the Feast of the Nativity, or Christ's Mass, would be held on December 25th. This deliberately coincided the festival with differing pagan rituals held to celebrate the winter solstice. Many of these customs infiltrated, in new guises, the Christian festival. Mistletoe, holly and ivy were all powerful symbols of fertility in pre-Christian religions, probably because they bear their berries in winter.

The mistletoe that grew on oak trees was a sacred plant to the Celts, whose priests, the Druids, would cut it with a golden sickle. It was also associated with the Norse goddess of love, Frigga. Christians incorporated mistletoe into their own celebrations and kissing under mistletoe became a part of secular Christmas.

There is a Christian legend, originating in Germany, that before the Crucifixion, holly had white berries which became blood red after the death of Christ. According to this legend, we hang holly to remind us of the purpose of Christ's life and death.

The evergreen tree was a pagan symbol of fertility which was transformed, through story and legend, into a Christian symbol of rebirth. According to Protestant tradition, the founder of German Protestantism, Martin Luther, was walking through the forest on Christmas Eve, when he saw starlit trees. He cut one down, took it home and decorated it with candles to remind his children of the beauty of God's creation.

Catholic tradition has another legend for the origin of the Christmas tree, In the 8th century, St Boniface of Germany, cut down an oak tree, sacred to the pre-Christian religion of the area, to symbolise the death of those pagan beliefs. A new tree sprang from the remains of the old and St Boniface declared that this evergreen was the sign of endless life and should be called the tree of the Christ Child.

In 1841 the German Prince Albert gave his wife, Queen Victoria of Britain, a Christmas tree and the custom soon spread. German immigrants took the custom to Canada and America.

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