Our Christmas traditions date back longer than you may think
The Auglaize County Historical Society hosted a virtual presentation earlier this month from storyteller Sara Showman, when she shared the history behind several aspects of Christmas culture.
Showman said winter festivals date back to Babylonian and ancient Egyptian times, centering around the solstice, where gods and nature would be worshipped.
Ancient Germans worshipped Hertha, the goddess of the home. Stone altars were made, evergreens were exchanged and burned on the stones.
“As the smoke went up, Hertha would descend through the smoke and she would give everyone in the home, the blessing of good fortune and good health,” Showman said. The stones evolved into hearth stones as part of a fireplace.
The Vikings used to burn enormous pieces of wood called yule logs to celebrate their festivals. Showman said burning the log protected against evil spirits and brought good luck, destroyed old quarrels and hatreds and welcomed back the sun.
She said as part of tradition they would use part of the previous years yule log to light the next years log. She said it was a hopeful symbol for spring.
Thousands of years ago the druids in England and France celebrated nature, and the oak tree was holy to them. For the winter solstice, oak trees would be decorated with apples in honor of Odin. She said they would light candles in honor of Baldur, the god of light.
She said they would bring greenery inside and hang it on their doors for the woodland spirits, as many trees and plants were dead by winter and by bringing evergreens inside it would give spirits a place to shelter.
The Romans celebrated Saturnalia, which started a week before solstice and went on for a full month in celebration of Saturn.
“They would drink and they would feast and they would party and they would dance,” Showman said, adding they also would exchange evergreens as part of their tradition, like holiday cards.
The celebration also celebrated demigod Mithra, god of the sun, born to a virgin mother and died and was resurrected. Among followers, eternal life was promised for moral behavior. Mithra’s birthday was Dec. 25.
Although historians believe Christ was born in May, Christianity adopting the December date helped convert pagans.
Holly was powerful in the pagan world and considered holy. For Romans it was a symbol of fertility; they would give wreaths made out of holly during Saturnalia as a circular symbol of everlasting life.
To early Christians, holly represented thorns and the berries represented drops of blood. Quarrels were settled under holly trees.
Ivy was thought to be more feminine symbolically. While a tonic of holly supposedly cured a cough, a tonic of ivy would sober one up.
Christians incorporated both into decorations, which supposedly started with a Christmas carol contest.
Mistletoe, a parasite that grows in apple and oak trees, was considered magic by the druids and seemed to grow right out of thin air. Druids burned mistletoe as a sacrifice to the gods; they believed it held the life of the oak.
“They believed the sun drew its strength from the mistletoe, not the other way around,” Showman said, adding it was also hung to bring good luck and ward off evil spirits.
Mistletoe was also associated with a Norse story about Baldur and Friga, in which Loki caused Baldur’s death using an arrow made from mistletoe. Baldur recovered because of love in the story. That symbolism has carried forward into embracing under the mistletoe.
A plant thought held in high regard by the Aztecs was poinsettias. Spanish conquerers developed a story associated with the plant in line with Christian ideology about a boy named Manuel, who didn’t have anything to take to church to celebrate Christ during a Christmas mass. According to the story, on the spot where his tears had fallen a pointsettia grew, which he was then able to take into the church.
Showman said the Christmas tree tradition started about 770 A. D. with a missionary named Bonifas, who was converting Druids. She said Druids were about to sacrifice a child to Thor when the missionary stepped in and intervened, asking God to take down the oak trees. Every oak tee in that area was destroyed, leaving a lone fir. Bonifas told the Druids it was a symbol of eternal life and to take it into their homes.
Showman said in the Middle Ages evergreen trees were used as part of Bible plays to tell stories and people liked the appearance and would decorate the trees in their homes as well. The winter solstice was celebrated as a feast day of Adam and Eve.
She said Martin Luther was responsible for the light decorations on trees, as putting candles on the trees reminded him of the star of Bethlehem.
In the 1800s with Queen Victoria that practice spread to England.
Showman also told the history behind Christmas carols and gave credit to three authors for contributing to modern Christmas celebrations.
Showman said Washington Irving, an American author, helped to shape the modern cultural celebration in his book, The Sketchbook of Geoffery Crayon, which contained his idea of what Christmas was like in an old English Castle. In 1843 Charles Dickens helped shape Christmas culture with his story, A Christmas Carol, which stressed charity and goodwill.
And Clement Clark Moore, who wrote A visit from St. Nicholas, also helped shape Christmas celebrations by painting a picture of a home on Christmas Eve.