The joyous festival of Christmas (December 25th) is celebrated each year by millions of people all over the world. This day is the official commemoration of the birth in Israel some two thousand years ago of Jesus Christ, the source of the Christian faith (the festival is also celebrated by the Eastern Orthodox churches, but on January 6th, an earlier version of this festival). The birth of Jesus, the Divine Child (defined as year "0") marks the beginning of the current Western Gregorian Calendar. Jesus Christ is revered as the true saviour and Son of God, so, in Christian civilisation, his birth marks the beginning of a new world for mankind.

Christmas essentially celebrates the birth of the Divine Spirit in human form, the salvation of souls lost in the material world. Jesus, the Incarnation of Spirit, is said to have been born in a stable, in Bethlehem (now part of the Palestinian Territories), accompanied by angelic proclamations and miraculous portents — not the least being that his mother, Mary, is believed to have been a Virgin (thus is the Divine brought forth from Nature). His birth is also said to have been marked by the appearance of a marvellous star, the Star of Bethlehem, which was followed by three Wise Men (Magi, or Astrologers) from the East, who brought gifts to mark his birth.

This happy celebration has also spread to many non-Christian cultures as well, for the pleasures of gift-giving and feasting are universal. No doubt the commercial pressures of a consumerist society have seen to that! But does this festival really mark the anniversary of the miraculous birth of the baby Jesus, celebrated by angels, shepherds and wise men from the East, or is it fundamentally a celebration of something else?

This happy celebration has also spread to many non-Christian cultures as well, for the pleasures of gift-giving and feasting are universal. No doubt the commercial pressures of a consumerist society have seen to that! But does this festival really mark the anniversary of the miraculous birth of the baby Jesus, celebrated by angels, shepherds and wise men from the East, or is it fundamentally a celebration of something else?

Why then was December 25 chosen as the day for Chistmas? Here we have to look more deeply at the customs, religious practices and celebrations of the time.

The Solstice and the Saturnalia

At the beginning of the Christian Era, the Roman Empire was the dominant force in Europe, the Middle East and the world of the Mediterranean. Rome followed a pagan religion of many gods and goddesses, including Jupiter, Venus, Mercury, Mars, Saturn, the Moon and the Sun. There are many myths and legends that tell the stories of these gods and heroes, really a coded set of narratives that reveal much about the ancient cultures and their approach to life, the universe and everything.

Life in ancient times was far more dependent upon the seasons and the natural cycles than we are in the West today, cocooned as we are in our electronic villages, turning night into an interminable electric day. During times when people could actually see the stars in the night sky, astrology developed as a mode of making sense of these natural cycles and certain times in the year were seen to be especially significant.

Key times for celebration were the cardinal points of the seasons, the solstices in June and December and the equinoxes in March and October. These temporal points were utterly central to the the social mores of the ancients, as they not only measured the seasons, the sowing and reaping of crops, but also symbolised stages in the development of the soul. These calendrical festivities were seen as times when the fabric of the cosmos was loosened and the hand of divine providence could be moved to take a more active part in the lives of those who lived on the body of Mother Earth.

The solstice at Christmas time marks the entry of the Sun into the sign of Capricorn, the sign ruled by Saturn. On this day the Sun appears to halt over the tropic of Capricorn and begins his journey North, marking the return of glorious light to the darkness of Winter in the Northern Hemisphere.

In Ancient Rome, the mythical age of Saturn's reign was a golden age of happiness, without theft or servitude, and without private property. Saturn, dethroned by his son Jupiter, had joined Janus as ruler in Italy, but when his time as earthly king was up, he disappeared. “It is said that to this day He lies in a magic sleep on a secret island near Britain, and at some future time ... He will return to inaugurate another Golden Age.”

Janus is said to have instituted the Saturnalia leading up to the solstice as a yearly tribute to his friend. For mortals, the festival provided a yearly symbolic return to the Golden Age. Thus, it was an offence during this period to punish a criminal or start a war. The meal normally prepared only for the masters was prepared and served first to the slaves by the masters. All people were equal and, because Saturn ruled before the current cosmic order, Misrule with its lord, Saturnalia Princeps was the order of the day.

Gift-Giving and Feasting

Children and adults exchanged gifts, but the adult exchange became so great a problem — the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer — that a law was enacted making it legal only for richer people to give them to poorer. This custom is still in theory celebrated on Boxing Day, the Feast of St Stephen, when gifts are boxed and given to the poor, who are also due to be given food.

The Saturnalia was a festival of feasting and celebration, which was very popular in Roman times. The season began with the Consualia, on December 15, marking the end of the sowing season, then around Dec 17 got into full swing with the Festival of Saturn (agriculture) followed on the 19th with the festival of Opalia (honouring Mother Earth, Saturn's wife). The general festivities continued until December 25 (the solstice in the pre-Julian calendar). This was formalised during the Empire as a full week of festivity.

The solstice was celebrated throughout the ancient world in one form or another. In particular, the Romans honoured the rebirth of the Invincible Sun with the festival Dies Natalis Solis Invictus on December 25th. Quite a few other notable births were honoured at this time, including a selection of Solar Heroes: Attis; Mithras; Osiris; Baal and so on. The winter solstice was honoured in the pagan mysteries as the birth of the Divine Child, Sun of Righteousness, Son of Man, Light of the World etc. Christmas Eve, the night before the solstice, was honoured as the Night of the Mother, matrum noctem.

Formal Celebration

When Christianity was adopted as the official religion of the Roman Empire in the 4th century, the need for a formal celebration of the birth of the redeemer became critical. Because the people were used to celebrating the birth of the Sun on Dec 25, this was adopted by the Church in the West as the official birthday of Jesus. Eastern churches did not accept this until much later.

Northern cultures celebrated Yule at this time, from which many of the trappings of the modern Christmas celebrations have developed. Indeed, most of the symbols and emblems of Christmas have been adopted wholesale from earlier and often competing pagan traditions, including the Virgin Birth, the Christmas Tree, gifts, lights, decorations, mistletoe, holly, carols and so on.

Many church leaders have fulminated against the overtly pagan nature of Christmas over the years (see Alexander Hislop's The Two Babylons). Puritans even tried to ban it, but this ban was shortlived in England (1644-1660) though slightly longer in Massachusetts, where it lasted until 1681. Notwithstanding, Christmas is a seasonal celebration of the rebirth of the Sun at the deepest night of the solstice, so is ingrained into the cultural soul of our civilisation and consequently has proven impossible to erase. Whether or not the contemporary commercialisation of this spiritually significant time is a good thing is entirely another matter and one which thoughtful people must decide for themselves.