Christmas Pagan? Nope — Conventional wisdom has become that the holiday celebrating the birth of Christ is something the early Christians co-opted from a pagan celebration of the Winter Solstice.
William J. Tighe, an associate professor at the college in Allentown, says that Christmas really was thought to be the date of the Lord Jesus’ birth.
The thinking then was that great Jewish prophets died on the date of their birth or conception.
The date of Jesus’ death can be calculated from Gospel accounts.
The faction using the Latin calendar wound up placing the Crucifixion at March 25, according to Tighe. This was the faction that became dominant in the West.
The Latin church determined that was also date that the Archangel Gabriel announced that Mary was with child. Nine months later, on Dec. 25, would be the Lord’s birth.
Tighe notes that Rome didn’t celebrate Dec. 25 as a pagan holiday until the anti-Christian Emperor Aurelian declared it to be the festival of the “Birth of the Unconquered Sun” in 274. By then, Christianity was already making its impact well felt on the Empire.
Tighe is also a faculty advisor to the Catholic Campus Ministry and a member of St. Josaphat Ukrainian Catholic Church in Bethlehem.
Henry Cole, a popular London museum director in the mid-19th century used to send short notes to his friends every Christmas. In 1843, he became extremely busy, so he asked John C. Horsely, an artist friend, to design a card saying “A Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year to You.” And so, Cole invented the Christmas Card.
Christmas tree with electric 12-21-19 William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 12-21-19
OK Miranda, who was Edward Johnson? He was the New York City gentleman who in 1882 was the first person to light his Christmas tree with electric lights.
“Ethan? In the Christmas pageant? He’s already two! He can’t be the Baby Jesus, can he?”
The church’s early grades activities coordinator assured Lauren that wasn’t what she had in mind. Nor the part of a shepherd. She doubted, for good reason, that Ethan could keep a straight face around the children crawling on all fours dressed as sheep.
“And anyway, giving Ethan and his friends shepherd’s crooks might lead to a scene better suited for Bruce Lee’s Revenge,” added Lauren.
“We’d like Ethan and a little girl his age to be the littlest angels,” the director explained. “He’ll walk down the center aisle with little Mandy Carrington. When they reach the manger, they’ll kneel and present silver and gold gift-wrapped boxes to the Baby Jesus. They’ll have one line to say, but if they forget it, nobody will ever know.”
“I’m sure he can manage that,” Lauren told her. “Frank and I look forward to his performance.”
When the big night arrived, Lauren helped Ethan into the long white terry-cloth robe Frank’s mother had made for him. At the school, Frank helped him put on his cardboard and tinfoil halo and wings. Then he stood back and examined Ethan with a critical eye.
“It looks like he’s wearing a nightgown,” he said. “I hope he doesn’t fall asleep!”
While the actors prepared for the pageant, several volunteer parents laid out refreshments for after the program. Several shepherds, angels and even sheep began craning their necks longingly toward the table. The three kings and their camel seemed briefly to be considering a detour, but apparently thought better of it.
The house lights dimmed, and the assembled parents scrambled to their seats. The young actors walked (or in the case of the sheep, crawled) to their appointed places on and around the stage. Then the pageant began.
After the arrival of a cooperative, sound-asleep Baby Jesus who looked at least five months old, the two littlest angels began their walk down the darkened aisle. Lauren beamed at Frank as they heard the complimentary whispers of other parents in the audience.
“Oh, aren’t they sweet!”
“You could almost believe they’re angels, couldn’t you?”
“Looks are deceiving!” snorted Frank.
Just then, something caught the eye of the other littlest angel. She poked Ethan’s shoulder, and then mutely pointed off to the left. Ethan followed Mandy’s finger with his eyes, then turned to regard her quizzically.
They both stopped walking, and made a quick decision. With a whoop of delight, both angels dashed toward the refreshment table as fast as they could run. Mandy tripped on her robe and almost fell, and Ethan lost his halo, but within seconds both of them were stuffing their mouths with candy and Christmas cookies.
The audience tittered, and then began to howl with laughter. The director gamely guided the remaining actors through to the end of the pageant. Mandy and Ethan continued eating, oblivious to the sporadic shrieks of uncontrolled mirth from both on stage and off.
When the pageant ended, Lauren and Frank searched out Mandy’s parents in the crowd heading for the refreshments.
“Actually, it was pretty funny,” Mandy’s mother was saying. “We can teach them about the real meaning of Christmas when they’re older.”
“Are you taking Mandy caroling at the church tomorrow night?” asked Lauren.
“Oh, no. We have too much last-minute shopping to do, and I also have to cook part of our Christmas dinner ahead.”
“We can’t make it, either,” said Frank. “Our tree is up but not trimmed yet. And I want to put up a few more outside lights.”
“It’s too bad we didn’t make it to the special Advent service last Saturday, either, but we had to take Mandy to see Santa Claus” said Mandy’s father. “After we fought our way home through the traffic snarl at the mall, it had been over for at least two hours.”
“I guess we’ll all be lucky if we have time for just the morning service on Christmas day,” Frank responded. “Say, we’d better hotfoot it over to that refreshment table right now, if we want to get our share of the goodies!”
“Next year, no doubt they’ll remember not to put the eats too close to the infant Jesus’s cradle,” noted Lauren as they filled their paper plates. “Maybe they’ll put them off in another room or something.”
“You know, we ought to do that at our house, too,” said Frank thoughtfully. “Our outdoor manger scene is swamped by megawatts of reindeer, sleigh bells and light strings. The wise men would be lucky if they could see the guiding star through all that.”
“It’s the same at our place,” Mandy’s father agreed. “You’d never smell the hay in the manger if we had one. It would be overpowered by fruitcake and mistletoe.”
“And our ‘Silent Night’ is shattered by rock-and-roll Christmas music blaring out of the boom box,” his wife added. “You’d be nuts to try to pray or study the Bible over all that racket.”
The four parents looked at one another in silence for a few moments.
“They’ve been feeding their faces long enough, don’t you think?” Frank finally asked.
“They certainly have!” agreed Mandy’s father. “Let’s get them out of here. Will you be going to the caroling tomorrow?”
“You can count on us,” the other three responded. “How about you?”
Holy Myrrh-Bearers Christmas Eve Service2017— Catholics looking for a seat at a Christmas Eve service might consider attending the 4 p.m. Divine Liturgy at Holy Myrrh-Bearers Eastern Catholic Rite Church, 900 Fairview Road, Swarthmore, Pa. 19081.
It’s beautiful, worshipful service in a beautiful building and lasts about an hour.
Dom Giordano USO Holiday Feast 2016 — The 8th Annual Dom Giordano USO Holiday Feast will be 6:30-10 p.m., Dec. 19 at Sonesta Philadelphia Rittenhouse Square, 1800 Market St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19103.
It is a feast with a cocktail reception, exotic hors d oeuvres, salads and antipasti buffets and a dinner with five actions stations with entrees ranging from turkey to steak to roast beef to risotto to salmon wellington.
There will be a variety of desserts including a hot chocolate bar.
And live music.
Honored will be the 2016 Person of the Year, the nominees of whom are State Rep. Martina White (R-170); John McNesby, long-time Philadelphia Police officer and president of FOP Lodge 5; and Media Mayor Bob McMahon. Yes Bob, you got our vote. Click here to register your choice.
Tickets are $90 or $800 for a table of 10. Proceeds benefit Liberty U.S.O, Catholic Charities and the Archbishop’s Christmas Benefit for Children.
Today, Jan. 5, is the 12th Day of Christmas and hence ends Christmastide for the Anglican and Lutheran churches.
For Catholics, the season doesn’t end until Sunday, which is the first Sunday after Epiphany which is Jan. 6.
Before 1955, Catholics ended Christmas as did their closely related Protestants on Jan. 5, and this was followed by the Octave of Epiphany which were the eight days following.
White Christmas Quinhagak — Here’s another one from James Barthelman and Quinhagak, Alaska that is certainly appropriate for this Christmas season in Philadelphia.
